I enjoy Christmas music. It seems that every year, the average radio station will play a variety of Christmas Songs:
- They’ll play Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs performed by their original artists.
- They’ll play Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs performed by newer artists.
- They’ll play Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs redone with a new tune by newer artists.
- They’ll play new Christmas songs performed by newer artists.
Usually, most people are accepting of each of these. There are pros and cons to each of these as well.
- Some Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs are performed better by the original artists, some are actually performed better by the newer artists.
- Some artists have done phenomenal remakes of Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs, while others have not.
- Some new Christmas songs are so-so and others are really good.
Now let’s think about Christian music. It seems you have 2 major camps. There are some who want almost nothing except Traditional Hymns and others who want almost nothing but Contemporary Songs. It is rare to find a Church that has an equal mix of both types.
Could I suggest we consider Church Christian Songs and Hymns as we do Christmas Songs?
- Why not have some Traditional Hymns played in their traditional format?
- Why not have some Traditional Hymns played with newer / contemporary instruments?
- Why not have some Traditional Hymns redone with newer / contemporary tunes?
- Why not have some Contemporary songs?
I see that there is truly a need for this type of balance. If Christmas music is acceptable by most as we described it above, why wouldn’t this approach to Christian Hymns and Contemporary songs also be acceptable?
Oh, and what constitutes the right music? Colossians 3:16 tells us, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
Let me repeat that verse with some commentary:
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another …”
Traditional Hymns do a great job with this.
“…in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…”
Psalms and Hymns are like Traditional Hymns; Spiritual Songs are like Contemporary Songs.
“singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
Contemporary Songs do a great job with this.
So, as I see it, we need a good mix of both.
While such a proposal seems reasonable, I believe the majority of those who object to either a different style or different songs do so out of a stronger sense of nostalgia than any other reason.
ReplyDeleteI heard about an experiment where the minister of music at one church had everyone sing a familiar hymn, then had them sing the same words set to different music and asked which version everyone preferred. Overwhelmingly, the church said they liked the original version and did not want it changed. That's when the minister of music informed the church that the second version they sang was, in fact, the original tune that had later been changed to the tune with which they were most familiar.
I like the fact that we are told to sing a new song - that there is something ever growing and creative in the kingdom of God.
And yes, I am just as suseptable to being stuck in my nostalgia, too - I can just hear myself saying, "I don't care how popular those kids are, Larry Norman did it better!"