Why not hymns?

sarahharrisson said:

hey ive just moved to a new area and was surprised at the amount of praise and worship music that is overshadowing the hymns, which are my favourite. Why is it you guys find it better? I think the music and melody of the hymns are wonderful in my feeling closer to God, i just wondered what it was that you guys like about P + W? im not critisising by the way guys! just curious.
Thanks, sarah

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My personal take is that in terms of musical style I prefer the more modern songs to traditional hymnody. That's not to say I dislike traditional songs - there are many great ones out there (To God be the glory and And can it be to name just two), just that I prefer new material.

btw, can you not find any fellowships where you've moved to that use traditional hymns? I'd be surprised if that were the case. Anyway, I hope you find somewhere that you can feel both comfortable and challenged.

David.

blu3star said:

so that being said... Praise and Worship of today and hymns is no different from one another.

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I agree entirely. The way I see it, at one level whatever we sing in our church meetings are hymns (hopefully. Unless we're singing something totally inappropriate. I was once in a church where we were encouraged to sing Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer. Eurch.). There are hymns in what might be termed "traditional" style (traditional = western European/American tradition from the past three or four centuries). There are hymns in contemporary style. What matters is not the style of music so much as the words, and the attitude of heart of the singers, and the use to which the songs are being put.

Take a keen look at the words of hymns...don't they portray praises to God, and worship to Him.

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To a certain extend I'd disagree with you there. Quite often I've found that traditional hymnody tends to be more "songs about God" whereas contemporary hymnody tends to be "songs to God." Granted, those are generalisations, and there are no doubt lots of exceptions to those generalisations - hence the emphasis on "tends to" - but that's certainly something I've noticed.

David.

talitha said:

IMHO, hymns appeal to the mind and to the nostalgic emotions of many people, but "praise and worship" music seems to appeal more to the spirit. I believe that the closer we can get to pure spirit-worship, the better it is -- sometimes that means loud crashing cymbals, sometimes a love song to Jesus, sometimes that means singing spontaneous words as the Holy Spirit gives utterance (my personal favorite)..... and hymns to me seem like the same thing over and over and over....... no reflection on what the Holy Spirit wants to do in the service..... not so much welcoming to Him but more rehearsal of doctrine to a tune.

like I said, that is my opinion....

blessings
tal

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It seems to me that most "praise & worship" music appeals to the emotions.

I do agree that hymns seem more directed to the mind. For me, that's more important, because I need to contemplate on God's great love, mercy, kindness, power, holiness, justice, etc.

Then again, I probably don't give most "P&W" music much of a chance, since most of the "style" is irrelevant to me.

I'm still waiting for a worship service with full-blown rock-N-roll - like I experience whenever I see Disciple in concert.

BTW - I highly recommend the Cornerstone Festival http://www.cornerstonefestival.com to experience a small preview of worship in heaven.