- Oct 2, 2011
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It's fairly common for those of us in liturgical or otherwise hymn-oriented churches to complain about bad worship music in the modern Praise and Worship genre. But let's be fair, it's not exactly like every hymn we sing is a gem.
On Sunday one of the hymns we sang was Will You Come and Follow Me
Will you come and follow Me, The Summons. a Christian song of following a calling from God - YouTube
My opinion? Blech!
Firstly, I'm just not a fan of singing "in the voice of God/Jesus". Don't get me wrong, I'm not against the basic sentiment of this song--Christ's call for His Church to go out into the world. But it seems like a really strange thing for us to be singing on Sunday morning. It'd work better as a folk tune around a campfire.
What exactly is going on when we sing something like this? Are we reminding God that He called us to do good in the world, why?
So I'm officially putting this on my "hymns I can do without" list.
What are some of your least favorite hymns? And why?
Note: A hymn is distinct from a praise chorus. Hymns are a set of lyrical stanzas all set to the same meter. If between verses there's a repeated chorus, it's a praise chorus rather than a hymn. Hymns don't have to be old, this one I've mentioned from what I looked up was written in 1987, and a hymn I really do love, In Christ Alone, was written in 2001.
And just to rile up some feathers, I have a theological bone to pick with How Great Thou Art (and is it really a hymn if it has that repeated refrain?), it's that final stanza:
"When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then *I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, My God, how great thou art!"
You might think, "Well, what's wrong with that?" The issue here, I think, is perhaps subtle. It's not the joy of Christ's coming, it's "And take me home". Here this song has laid out the glory of God in His creation, the beauty of the stars in the heavens, the terrible thunder, the fields and woods and birds. And then, at the end it's, "God take me from this world!"
It's that escapist theology that managed to trickle down into Western Christianity within the last couple hundred years, away from God's condescension to rescue and restore the world, to God is taking us out from the world to live away from the world in the sweet by-and-by.
-CryptoLutheran
On Sunday one of the hymns we sang was Will You Come and Follow Me
Will you come and follow Me, The Summons. a Christian song of following a calling from God - YouTube
My opinion? Blech!
Firstly, I'm just not a fan of singing "in the voice of God/Jesus". Don't get me wrong, I'm not against the basic sentiment of this song--Christ's call for His Church to go out into the world. But it seems like a really strange thing for us to be singing on Sunday morning. It'd work better as a folk tune around a campfire.
What exactly is going on when we sing something like this? Are we reminding God that He called us to do good in the world, why?
So I'm officially putting this on my "hymns I can do without" list.
What are some of your least favorite hymns? And why?
Note: A hymn is distinct from a praise chorus. Hymns are a set of lyrical stanzas all set to the same meter. If between verses there's a repeated chorus, it's a praise chorus rather than a hymn. Hymns don't have to be old, this one I've mentioned from what I looked up was written in 1987, and a hymn I really do love, In Christ Alone, was written in 2001.
And just to rile up some feathers, I have a theological bone to pick with How Great Thou Art (and is it really a hymn if it has that repeated refrain?), it's that final stanza:
"When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then *I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, My God, how great thou art!"
You might think, "Well, what's wrong with that?" The issue here, I think, is perhaps subtle. It's not the joy of Christ's coming, it's "And take me home". Here this song has laid out the glory of God in His creation, the beauty of the stars in the heavens, the terrible thunder, the fields and woods and birds. And then, at the end it's, "God take me from this world!"
It's that escapist theology that managed to trickle down into Western Christianity within the last couple hundred years, away from God's condescension to rescue and restore the world, to God is taking us out from the world to live away from the world in the sweet by-and-by.
-CryptoLutheran