I received this letter from Isaac Watts a couple years ago, and published it on my blog. Watts gave me permission to publish it so… Read More »Isaac Watts was kind enough to write me a letter (with a postscript)
“It’s like reaching the rich young ruler by throwing money at him,” is the apt comparison of T. David Gordon in response to whether or not… Read More »T. David Gordon: “It’s like reaching the rich young ruler by throwing money at him.”
Last week I argued that, if we are committed to conservative worship, it only follows that we should be committed to perpetuating conservative worship in… Read More »Teaching children hymns: recommendations
The singing of psalms has all but disappeared from many congregations, unless you count the “As the Deer” chorus as a singing of a psalm.… Read More »Some Things to Consider Including in Your Worship – Singing the Psalms
The hymn “Come Down, O Love Divine” is a worthy one if you do not yet know it. I was first introduced to it several… Read More »Come Down, O Love Divine
The concept often referred to as the humiliation of God the Son—the notion that the second person of the Trinity emptied himself of the full… Read More »See Amid the Winter's Snow
I am always thrilled when someone introduces me to a hymn that is well-written and theologically rich, and for some reason or another has been… Read More »Hymn Highlights: "Jesus Lives, and So Shall I"
Changing the lyrics of hymns we sing has a long, established precedent, and for good reason. If hymns are meant to be genuine expressions of… Read More »Changing hymn lyrics
This month, our pastor used Sunday evenings to preach a series covering the broad, overarching metanarrative of Scripture. Titled “The Epic Story,” he moved in… Read More »Notes on "It Is Well"
Here are PDFs and audio from the entire Christian hymnody series: Hymnody of the Church Part 1 | Audio Hymnody of the Church Part 2… Read More »The Hymnody of the Christian Church
So where does this leave us today? I will conclude with several brief suggestions of we should be striving toward in our choices of hymns… Read More »Hymnody Today: What Do We Do?
The dethroning of the Church by Reason and the creation of pop culture left the Church in an awkward position. Its cultural influence was non-existent.… Read More »Two Roads Diverged
Benjamin Keach, a Baptist pastor in the late 17th century, is often credited as the first Englishman to provide a well-developed defense of the recovery1… Read More »Hymn advocates aren't always good hymn writers
This far in our journey we have witnessed an almost unbroken stream of Judeo-Christian tradition. From King David to Lutheran composer Johann Crüger (1598-1662) we… Read More »The Enlightenment and Christian Hymnody
When Martin Luther (1483—1546) sparked a Reformation of the Church by nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the Church door at Wittenberg in 1517, he challenged… Read More »Reformation Hymns
When Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 with the Edict of Milan, and Christianity soon became the religion of the entire empire, the cultural conditions… Read More »Medieval Hymns
The hymnody of the early church was naturally an extension of Hebrew hymnody.1 Therefore, we can expect the hymnody of the early church to have the… Read More »Early Church Hymns
The Beginning The first mention of music in the Bible is in Genesis 4. Verses 17—22 list Cain’s descendants, and specifically those who began the… Read More »Hymnody in the Judeo-Christian Tradition
On the wall in my study I have three portraits. All three are portraits of theologians who were also heavily involved with music. They are… Read More »The Cultivation of Form
I don’t have time to do a full-fledged review of this new book by T. David Gordon (author of Why Johnny Can’t Preach), but I… Read More »Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns