Thursday, August 02, 2007

Some Thoughts on Worship Styles


There are a number of reasons I have been thinking about worship styles lately. One is bethany and I went to a church this past weekend that is nothing like the church I serve in. First it was not a Presbyterian Church and second it was very "non-traditional." We actually sang songs written previous to the Civil War. There were guitars, drums and an accordian. This was nothing like my church.


Here are some thoughts I have had over the past couple of weeks.


1. We are commanded in the Psalms to "sing a new song" in praise of our God over and over again. This is an explicit command to pen and seek after and sing songs that are new. This does not seem all that complicated to me. Yes, we should sing old hymns but we should also be singing new songs also.


2. Every song and every hymn ever written and sung and played was at one time "contemporary." And every song sung today that lasts will be an "oldie-but-a-goodie" or a "classic" one day.


3. Colossians 3:16 calls us to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. At the very least this teaches us that a variety of different kinds of songs should be sung...not just one kind of song.


4. In the Old Testament, the Jews used all kinds of instruments. Now I believe in some discontinuity between the covenants but are we to then chuck this practice? Can we not use at least the modern day equivalent of the lyre and stringed instrument? Can we not at the very least use more than the organ and pinao...neither of which was in the Temple Worship?

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