The stewards at one of my churches have suggested I compile a list of contemporary hymns and worship songs that are worth learning (we’ve had some hiccups so far in broadening the musical palette of worship). While I have certain ideas, I thought I’d post a note on the blog about this. Which songs would you include or exclude from such a list, and why? I’d be fascinated to know.
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Big Circumstance 
Stuart Townend has written a number of good new hymns. In Christ Alone is one that hits me each time we sing it. There is real scriptural meat in the words. (Rather than it being a JIMB song – Jesus is my Boyfriend.)
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It’s hard to know what any given congregation thinks is ‘new’, but:
‘For the healing of the nations’ (HP 402)
‘Lord God your love has called us here’ (HP 500)
‘Beauty for brokenness’
‘Song for a Journey’ by Jan Berry
‘Onward Christian Pilgrims’ by Michael Forster
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Pam,
Thanks; they’ll know the HP hymns. I recently came across the Forster hymn via an Anglican priest who didn’t like the ‘correcting’ of ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. However, it isn’t just a correction, is it? It effectively becomes a completely new hymn, only sharing metre and tune.
I know ‘Beauty For Brokenness’, a very balanced song lyrically, I think. In fact it might fit this Sunday’s Lectionary!
I don’t know the Jan Berry piece at all – I tried Googling it to no avail. The title intrigues me, for starters. Do you have any further details?
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Bill,
Yes, a number of Stuart Townend’s hymns/songs do have depth. I have found in a previous appointment that his version of the 23rd Psalm is much appreciated. ‘In Christ Alone’ has a lot to it; some, of course, will blanch at the lines ‘For on that Cross when Jesus died/The wrath of God was satisfied’. It partly depends how you feel about penal substitution, but it also seems to confuse that theory with its near neighbour of Anselm’s satisfaction theory. I’d also like it to be thoroughly Trinitarian in its interpretation of atonement: just leaving it as these bare words risks pitting the Father against the Son. But mostly I like the hymn! I’m just pedantic and not easy to please!
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I really like “In Christ Alone”, also, but do cringe at the line you mention (I heard “the love of God was glorified” as an alternative and I think that suits me better as a substitute).
In thinking about what we used for my daughter’s baptism, we used “Down the Mountain the River Flows” by Andy Park (great baptismal imagery), “Over All the Earth” by Benton Brown, and “Light of the World” by Tim Hughes. I also love “Blessèd Be Your Name” by Matt Redman.
You mentioned your desire for Trinitarian worship. I picked up a book a few years ago by Robin Parry called Worshipping Trinity. He wrote the book after listening to a worship CD that was very Jesus-oriented (none of the songs were bad in themselves, but they were all about one person of the Trinity). He talks in there about what makes good theology in worship.
I am trying to get my churches to look at expanding the music. I will read this post with interest.
[I love the Jesus is my boyfriend reference. As one of my professors used to describe it, “three words, two chords, five hours”.]
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Will,
Great comment – thanks. We had ‘Over all the earth’ at our wedding blessing, played by a great band. ‘Blessèd be your name’ is good to introduce when placed in the context in which the Redmans wrote it – miscarriages, and I think serious ill-health of a small child. That helps stop people singing the lyrics in a soppy way. I took a time to like ‘Light of the world’ but think it fits especially well at Christmas. My one reservation (here’s the pedantic INTP type – see my post on Personality Types!) is the ‘You’re altogether lovely’ line, which crosses over into ‘Jesus is my boyfriend’ language. BTW, Michael Frost has a good chapter on ‘JIMB’ in his book ‘Exiles’.
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I too like the music for ‘In Christ Alone’ but worry about the wrath lyrics. I’ve used ‘the love of God is magnified’ for personal devotion which is similar to Will’s alternative. I didn’t know what the deal was with changing copyright lyrics, though, so I’ve never used the song for congregational worship.
Dave, I’ve Googled for Jan Berry’s hymn and can’t find it either. I’ll email you the lyrics which are sung to ‘Cross of Jesus’ – the tune for ‘There’s a wideness in God’s mercy’.
Part of the problem I have with ‘modern worship songs’ in the context of most Methodist churches I’ve ever been part of is the fact that I don’t think we have the musicians and the bands to carry off the songs. ‘Pop’ songs are often quite simplistic musically and really need good instrumentalists and vocalists. My main problem with ‘Blessed be your name’ is that it’s unsingable when rendered by an ancient organist. ‘In Christ Alone’ is musically more approriate but has that Calvinist bent to it – another problem with a lot of the modern worship stuff, in my view.
Don’t get me wrong. Give me a good band and vocalists and keep the theology good and I’ll be raising my hands in the air with the best of them. (But I also do that to ‘And Can it Be’!)
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Pam,
Yea and verily yea! Of course Townend is located in a Calvinist-led tradition, with New Frontiers, so it’s not surprising, I guess.
Thanks for saying you’ll email me details of the Jan Berry song. (It’s arrived just after I typed the last sentence!)
I think your comment about having the right musicians is spot-on. It seems to be a number of questions: a rigid classical training, for all its virtues, doesn’t cope with contemporary styles. Even among those who have formal training and who can play recent styles, it helps if they can also improvise and not stay glued to the score with Araldite.
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Pam,
I just read the words to ‘Song For A Journey’ that you emailed me. They’re a knockout – the hymn deserves to be widely known and used.
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