The Hymns of the Emerging Church
What does worship look like in the emerging church?
In deconstructing everything ecclesiological, does the emerging church discard, re-embrace, or presume to re-define our historical heritage in Christian worship? I personally tire of the repetitive choruses not because the words are bad, but because good words have been drained of meaning through over-usage. Thus is the worship music of the past few decades. So I wonder what the response of the ever-emerging church is today? Do we amp up the volume even more in an effort to compensate for our mediocrity as John Stackhouse asserts, (in a great article btw), or have we not found that “new song” just yet?
How is your (emerging) church re-inventing, re-defining, or returning to our historical heritage of worship in the church?
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Some things just don’t go away, cause they are GOOD. I love music ministry. But for me, and what I am seeing as I minister in nursing homes or on the street, people are hungry for the Word; whether it comes in music or the spoken word. As we look at most of the hymns from the past they are Biblically based, and as we know, the Word draws. The new song is the old song, not jazzed up, but sang or played with heart felt passion.
The Wesleys and others were talked about badly because of the music they sang, but today their music lives on and continues to pull people further into the Word of God. There are beautiful worship songs today that, I believe, will last for generations to come, but very few.
I think today, in general, our worship services are too confined. Just as the Holy Spirit begins to move, our three songs are over, and it’s time to move to the next program item. The hymns of old, I think usher in the Spirit and prepare our hearts to be ministered to by the Pastor. I don’t think any amount of volumn or re-inventing the old that works can take the place of heritage.
Every move of God has brought with it new music, new sounds from heaven. I would expect this move of God to be the same.