Puritan Prayers and the Valley of Vision

I just received a copy of this in the mail; Valley of Vision: Songs for worship inspired by the classic book of Puritan prayers. It was a birthday gift from my mom that I had opened early. I've been geeking out over this cd since I had read portions of the prayer book "Valley of Vision" and found out some people had gotten together to write music inspired by the prayers. I had to have it. Its a good mix of understated electric-guitar and full band type tunes, to piano-driven ballad type songs heavy with strings such as violin and cello. I'm a sucker for string sections in any kind of music. Some of my favorites musically are "Let Your Kingdon Come", "Only Jesus", and lyrically one of the best is "Thy Precious Blood"

Before the cross I kneel and see
The measure of my sin
How You became a curse for me
Though You were innocent
The magnitude of Your great love
Was shown in full degree
When righteous blood, the crimson spill
Rained down from Calvary

Seriously, if there were ever an era or group of Christians to admire, it was the Puritans, the Calvanist Separatists from England who settled here in America and strived to create their "'city on a hill', a productive, morally exemplary colony far from the corruption of the Church of England."(wikipedia's word, not mine) . All Amish-like stereotypes aside, they were a people that truly did everything, from the great to the most mundane task; unto the Glory of God and applied the Bible to every aspect of life sincerely. They spawned some of the greatest religious thinkers this side of the Atlantic including John Owen, reknowned Bible commentator Matthew Henry, Jeremiah Burroughs, and Great Awakening preacher Jonathon Edwards as a later heir.
If you want to know more about the cd project, check out:

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Resources/Music/ValleyOfVision.aspx

Matthew Smith

There was an interesting article this month in ByFaith magazine. Read it here:
http://byfaithonline.com/page/arts-culture/old-hymns-for-a-new-generation

I can definitely identify with Matt's experiences, because I grew up Southern Baptist in churches that often seemed to sing hymns out of obligation and avoided most of the most classic hymns. I later visited Pentacostal churches that focused on performance and approached worship with great emotionalism, seeking to "stir something up" within the audience. It was there where I saw the downfall of worship being largely focused on "I" and "me", and neglecting the character of God and the intimate person of Christ the Lord. If we spend more time in worship singing songs about our Christian experience, and how "I" feel, then we are neglecting the most important aspect of what worship really is; which is affirming what God is and His character, what He's done, praising Him for it, and meditating on how he has reconciled ourselves to Him through Christ the Son.

If we allow our worship services to be purely subjective and personal, we are neglecting the fact that while salvation is always deeply personal, it is never individualistic. The same faith and hope we have; is the same faith and hope thats been given by God to other believers. We need to share it, commune with each other in it, and not seclude ourselves in our own little world within corporate worship while singing songs about "me" and "I".

If unbelievers walked into your church on any given Sunday, are they going to take notice of the faith and love that worshippers claim to possess through the words of the songs, or are they going to marvel at the incredible God your worship music seeks to reflect, describe, praise, and lift up, and possibly want to know more about Him?

worship, feminism, and evangelicism

The TV was on in the background today while I was working on the computer, when a broadcast of a particular megachurch's church service came on and I begun half-watching it at first and then it took my attention completely when......

their worship leader SANG THE LORD'S PRAYER as a SOLO, and did it like he was Whitney Houston singing at the Super Bowl at halftime or like most singers do when they butcher the National Anthem before sporting events trying to hit every note within their range. And I guess it would not have been complete without the breathy, molest-the-microphone vocal technique, some super effeminate hand gestures and operatic body language to boot as well!
Is this what church leadership wants out of music leaders these days? It kinda gave me the creeps watching it, to be honest. Somehow, I imagine even David "dancing in the spirit" (Psalm 30) probably appeared much more manly than this did. When did worship in the evangelical church become so ...FEMININE?
To contrast with this image I like to imagine Martin Luther over 400 years ago, as he paraphrased the 46th Psalm and wrote "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" probably furiously scrawling the words by hand which would become what has been called the "Battle Hymn of The Protestant Reformation".

And though this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, for God hath willed, His truth to triumph through us! A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing!

I imagine people singing that song hundreds of years ago in Whittenburg, set to an even older common German tune, singing with passion and strength; renewing their faith in the power of God. Well, fast forward 400 years and travel across the pond, and in American Evangelicism we have taken worship and turned it into sentimental music for the sake of entertaining the masses, music thats more about giving us a cathartic experience or garnering an emotional response than truly illuminating God's Word and submitting our hearts to a humble attitude of worship and singing of the character of God.

We've traded classic hymnody for feel-good contemporary worship

We've traded "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" for "Shout to the Lord" and other songs that scarcely even mention the person of Christ or our sin and need of grace and supplication

We've traded "Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace" for "He has made me Glad, I will rejoice for he has made me glad"

and along the way I fear we have also......

Traded powerful expository preaching for visually appealling power point presentations because out attention span has dimished, psuedo-Christian psycological mumbo jumbo and sentimental slogans to bolster confidence among worshipers.

We've traded applying the Bible to real life issues for underminding the scripture in the name of tolerance and diversity, as in the Emergent Church Movement and those who look to postmodernism for their worldview rather than scripture.

We've traded engaging and defining the culture for running from it and its "evils", or merely replicating it and slapping a Christian logo on it for our own censored consumption, as in much of Fundamentalism and much of the American "Youth Group" culture.

Worst of all we've traded the often offensive Truth of Christ's message for the illusive goal of not turning anyone away from the Gospel, in those who creep further and further down the slippery slope of Liberalism toward Universalism.

I only hope that the ecclesiastical slump that we are in now brings about a turn towards a thirst and hunger for something more substantial.

Hymnody

This past year I've been overjoyed to discover Reformed University Fellowship's hymn project called Indelible Grace where they re-work old hymns, some by writing completely new tunes or just by giving it a fresh sound with contemporary instruments. Their third cd "For All The Saints" contained a song by hymnwriter Thomas Pollock that I liked so much that I looked him up and found the only other hymn he ever had published., and sadly these days about the only place to find it is the old Presbyterian Trinity Hymnal.
I'm currently working on a new tune for it. Here's the words:

"We Have Not Known Thee as We Ought" Thomas Pollock 1889
We have not known Thee as we ought,
Nor learned Thy wisdom, grace and power;
The things of earth have filled our thought,
And trifles of the passing hour.
Lord, give us light Thy truth to see,
And make us wise in knowing Thee.

We have not feared Thee as we ought,
Nor bowed beneath Thine awful eye,
Nor guarded deed and word and thought,
Remembering that God was nigh.
Lord, give us faith to know Thee near,
And grant the grace of holy fear.

We have not loved Thee as we ought,
Nor cared that we are loved by Thee;
Thy presence we have coldly sought,
And feebly longed Thy face to see.
Lord, give a pure and loving heart
To feel and know the love Thou art.

We have not served Thee as we ought,
Alas, the duties left undone,
The work with little fervor wrought,
The battles lost or scarcely won!
Lord, give the zeal, and give the might,
For Thee to toil, for Thee to fight.

When shall we know Thee as we ought,
And fear and love and serve aright?
When shall we, out of trial brought,
Be perfect in the land of light?
Lord, may we day by day prepare
To see Thy face and serve Thee there.