The importance of worship

 John Maxwell once talked about one of his early Sundays in a new church. As he was preparing to deliver his message, the organist was playing a special. He found it especially sad and felt it set the wrong mood for the message he was about to deliver. As best as I remember the story, he invited the organist to lunch that next week and asked about the song he had played. He learned it was an 18th century funeral dirge. He then asked the organist if it would be possible for him to purge the urge to dirge.

Maxwell understood that worship and music sets the stage for everything else that happens in a worship service. I often define worship as that which allows people to encounter God in a way that is meaningful to them. Assuming that definition is correct, it presents a problem. In many churches there are usually four generations represented, sometimes five. Can each of those generations encounter God in a way that is meaningful to them in one worship service? I sometimes ask the question this way: How many people listen to the same music their grandparents listened to? The grandparents may have enjoyed Lawrence Welk; their grandchildren are asking Lawrence Who? Another question I often ask is how many people today are downloading pipe organ music from their Apple account?

Every Baptist church I know of in the area where I live have hymn books in their pew racks. They may not use them and instead project the words on a screen behind the pulpit, but it's the same songs that are found in the hymn books. Songs written in the 18th and 19th century filled with King James English, often with archaic words that have little meaning to postmodern people. For example, how many people know what "here I raise my Ebenezer" means? Yet, we sing it.

I struggle writing these words because I was raised singing the great songs of the faith. These great hymns are filled with sound theological teaching. I enjoy singing some of these great hymns, but I grow weary when they are sung with little to no feeling, when they are sung with no passion, no power. I remember once in a church where I was leading the worship that morning. We were singing "We're Marching to Zion," and the singing was so lackluster that I stopped after the first chorus and told the congregation we would never get to Zion at this pace. I urged the pianist and the congregation to sing with more enthusiasm.

As much as I love the old hymns of the faith, I also recognize that many younger people do not. They do not help that generation encounter God in a meaningful way. Rick Warren was correct when he noted that once we determine our music we will have determined the people our church is going to reach. He is correct. If your church is serious about wanting to reach a younger generation it will not do so by only singing the songs in your hymn book.