Musical form shapes content in very similar ways to poetic form, yet it is a bit more abstract and thus considerably more difficult to readily recognize. But because music communicates by mimicking natural human expression, anyone can discern the basic meaning of music by simply listening closely and asking a few penetrating questions. Music contains… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: hymns
Poetic Meter in Christian Hymnody
The next level of form is poetic meter and rhyme scheme. A poetic meter is basically how many syllables are in each line of the poem, and where the naturally stresses are. Consider this example: A – MAZ – ing GRACE! How SWEET the SOUND That SAVED a WRETCH like ME! I ONCE was LOST,… Continue Reading
Word and Phrase Choice in Christian Hymnody
Word/Phrase Choice There are several different ways that content can be shaped within a hymn. The first is simply with what words are chosen to communicate the message. Words are important. How we put them together into phrases is important. Words and phrases are important because different words and phrases have different connotations—different “feelings” attached… Continue Reading
The Anatomy of a Hymn
For many people a hymn is nothing more than some truth made pretty. But such an understanding would be like viewing a person as a soul with some pretty skin. Yet just as a human has a whole anatomy working together to make him what he is, so a hymn has many components that help… Continue Reading
The Purpose and Power of Christian Hymnody
Last time we observed the fact that we sing because the Bible commands us to sing. But let’s get a little bit deeper than simply singing because we’re told. Why, exactly, has God told us to sing in worship? We can certainly recognize why he commands things like preaching and praying and reading the Scriptures.… Continue Reading
How do you treat Independence Day in your Church?
A music pastor recently asked me the question, “How do you treat holidays like the 4th of July in your church?” Great question; here are some short thoughts: We can’t ignore that the 4th of July is the day of our country’s birth (especially when it falls on a Lord’s Day), but neither should we… Continue Reading
The Biblical Mandate to Sing
When Christians discuss worship, they often focus on one primary element of worship above others—music. The church’s songs are without question the most controversial aspect of Christian worship. I am convinced, however, that some careful thinking about what Scripture has to say about our hymns, adequate understand of the purpose of power of Christian hymnody,… Continue Reading
Podcast: Q&A – April 20, 2010
In this podcast, Scott answers several questions that have been posted in the suggestion box on www.religiousaffections.org, including: Granted aesthetic values r universals rooted n God’s nature y cant some rock music cant b beautiful? To put it another way, why does God’s nature automatically rule out rock/pop/jazz genre? What do you think of songs/hymns… Continue Reading
How Can We Conserve Biblical Worship? Part 6
How can we conserve biblical worship? We can conserve biblical worship by regulating our worship by God’s Word, by learning to distinguish between ordinate affection and appetite and choosing worship forms that foster those affections for God, by cultivating those worship forms that have been nurtured within the community of faith, and by proactively transmitting… Continue Reading
How Can We Conserve Biblical Worship? Part 5
Conservative Christians will be committed to transmitting these worship forms to future generations. This leads to my final point of discussion. If our goal as conservative Christians is to conserve biblical worship and continue to cultivate worship forms that best foster ordinate affection for God, then we must be committed to transmitting these worship forms… Continue Reading
A Good Friday devotion
My good friend Michael Riley has compiled a book of hymns and poetry that can be used this Friday to commemorate the suffering of our Lord for our atonement. Michael writes, I have put these together in a small booklet that some of you might find useful, either for use individually, with your families, or perhaps… Continue Reading
The Watts Controversy
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 Martin Luther, J.S. Bach, and Isaac Watts. All three men fought their battles in defense of high standards for worship music. All three had their share of controversy. And all… Continue Reading
A potential danger in writing hymns in an age of mass media
There seem to be a lot of hymns being written today, and a lot of them are really pretty good. One of the reasons for that seems to be that pastors are beginning again to write hymn texts instead of just musicians or publishers. There is one relevant potential pitfall into which hymn writers today could easily… Continue Reading
Accessible vs. Immediate
I’ve heard a lot of teaching recently on what makes a good sacred congregational song, and among qualities listed, “accessibility” is inevitably among them. I wholeheartedly agree with this point: for a hymn to be congregational, it has to be, well, congregational! The congregation has to be able to sing it. In other words, there… Continue Reading
A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Conservative churches that want to do a special service around Christmas time often have a hard time finding cialis price quality “pre-packaged” programs. So what are other alternatives? One of the best and most flexible options, in my opinion, is “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.” I used this service all but one of… Continue Reading
"Ebenezer" – biblical literacy and singing hymns
Before pastors discredit lines of hymns because they are “archaic” or “don’t make any sense today,” perhaps they should make sure that what they are complaining about isn’t a direct biblical allusion. I’ve recently heard several pastors — with theology degrees, leading large churches — complain about the word “Ebenezer” in the hymn “Come, Thou… Continue Reading
Choose your own price for tracks from God Himself Is With Us.
God Himself is With Us: the Gospel Proclaimed Through Hymns is now on BandCamp.com. Some of the nice features of BandCamp include the following: You can listen to every full track for free. You can choose your price for individual tracks or the whole album. You can read lyrics from each hymn. You can download… Continue Reading
What music should be used when planting indigenous churches in . . . the United States of America?
It seems as if several themes have been reoccurring on this site, Paleoevangelical, and a few other places over the last few weeks. These themes have to do with musical associations, indigenous church planting, and musical universals. Here are the posts I’m talking about in case you need to get caught up: On Taxonomies of… Continue Reading
Your turn: What have you done to teach children how to worship?
We’ve been discussing the topic of teaching children to worship here for some time, and now I’d like to get your feedback. I’ve offered suggestions and examples of things I’ve done both at home and in our church to encourage God-centered worship among children, particularly with helping them learn and love classic hymns. What are… Continue Reading
More on teaching children hymns
I’ve just finished a week of vacation with family, so I’m getting caught up on e-mails, comments, etc. There were some good questions and comments on my post on teaching children hymns, so I thought I’d follow up here a bit. First, I stumbled across the philosophy paper that I distributed to all of our… Continue Reading