“Cross of Jesus”

Check out Travis Doig’s web page at Wittenberg Trail (WT)–He has some music there that he recorded. http://wittenbergtrail.ning.com/profile/TravisDoig
Check out “Cross of Jesus.” He took the lyrics to that hymn and “On My Heart Imprint your Image” and created a tune for these which isn’t overly (or in any way) “churchy.” It’s kind of folksy, but it communicates the words, and the melody has value. This is not “entertainment worship”, and most hearers would be able to discern he is singing this for our Lord, not to draw attention to himself.

I am not suggesting this as any definative style or replacement for traditional Lutheran hymnody–simply as a God-pleasing, acceptable style.
-Rik Eischen

http://home.earthlink.net/~rikeischen/

Why Contemporary / Blended Worship?

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I have been thinking about this for the last month.  If the purpose of the divine service is to proclaim the Gospel and God’s Word to the people and if the Lutheran hymns in Lutheran Service Book (LCMS) and Christian Worship (WELS) are very good at proclaiming the Gospel and God’s Word, then why have a contemporary/blended service with contemporary songs?

Some people want more exciting, emotional, and upbeat entertaining music in the church.

This is NOT a good reason for blended worship.

Some people want to imitate the praise bands of the Evangelical charismatic mega churches in order to attract more people and promote church growth.

This is NOT a good reason for blended worship.

Some people find many Lutheran hymns confusing and difficult to understand because of their inverted, mixed up word order.  They want contemporary songs and contemporary language that is easier to understand and that communicates more clearly the Gospel, God’s grace, and a message from God’s Word.

Perhaps this IS a good reason for blended worship.

Here are some examples of the inverted or disjointed word order used in many of the Lutheran hymns to achieve an ending rhyme.

Subject (S)    Verb (V)    Object (O)    prepositional phrase (pp)    (American English)

S    V    O     pp   (American English)

S    O    pp    V    (hymnal English and perhaps German word order)

 

CW90 The People that in Darkness Sat

1a. The people that in darkness sat a glorious light have seen.

(hymnal English: S O V)

1a. The people that sat in darkness have seen a glorious light.

(American English: S V O)

 

CW606 For Me to Live Is Jesus

3b. My sin his merits cover (hymnal English: O S V)

3b. His merits cover my sin (American English: S V O)

 

CW447 Who Trust in God, a Strong Abode

1c. No fear his heart oppresses. (Hymnal English: S O V)

1c. No fear oppresses his heart. (American English: S V O)

 

For those who have difficulty understanding these hymn lyrics, a church could (1) choose only those hymns that use clear English sentences and word order,  (2) paraphrase those difficult hymn lyrics into prose and make a melody to match the new lyrics, or (3) add some good clear CCM songs to the service.

For those churches that choose to add some good CCM songs to the service, the question then is where do we find those good CCM songs that clearly communicate the Gospel, God’s grace, and a message from God’s Word?  If churches choose to have blended worship, perhaps we should make it a priority to find and accumulate a list of excellent CCM songs, (instead of churches settling for mediocre or shallow CCM songs).

I have found many good Christ-centered, gospel-centered CCM songs at GettyMusic.com (Keith Getty), EmuMusic.com, and SovereignGraceMinistries.org/worship/database.   Rob Smith from EmuMusic has written a lot of good CCM music.  Jaroslav Vajda has written 100’s of good hymn lyrics that have a suggested tune or just need a good melody to put to the lyrics.

I was wondering what other resources your readers (or  LCMS or WELS) could recommend that have good CCM songs for Lutheran worship — songs that clearly communicate the Gospel and God’s grace.

John Kehl

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How do you respond to . . . ?

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I appreciate that our Lutheran hymns proclaim the gospel and edify people with God’s Word. How do you respond to people that say that many of our Lutheran hymns are unsingable and turn people off? How do you respond to people that say we need to have more upbeat CCM music to draw more young people and outsiders into the church? Yes, we need sound lyrics, but they might not sink in and they might be ineffective if they aren’t teamed up with comparable engaging music.

John Kehl

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