Not bad for a dime

Dad: I am never going back to that church, it was hot, the seats were uncomfortable, the sermon was boring and the singing was off key.

Son: Gee Dad; I didn’t think it was bad for a dime!

How do we walk that fine line between entertainment and being contextually relevant? I hear the term “worship war” used which often means bringing music into the service that is a bit more contemporary than what is in the current hymnal promoted by Augsburg Fortress. Keeping in mind the track record (Jimi Hendrix died in September of 1970 and the “Green Book” LBW came out in September of 1978) I am not impressed with what Augsburg Fortress deems as contextual. Liturgy is the work of the people, but it is also the voice of the people and all too often it is the voice of the classically trained church musicians foisted upon them.

I remember going to a conference on Worship and music at St. Olaf where the opening speaker was the head of the music department (can’t remember his name). He stated very emphatically that the only proper form of music for worship is Classical and once in a rare, rare while, folk, as long as the music people could have it for at least six months ahead of time to work it into a proper musical style. During a later comment period I suggested the best thing they could do for the church, in light of the numbers of young people who were leaving in droves, was to throw the damn pipe organ out the window and hire a rock band. The suggestion did not fly well with the presenters but did gain resonance with those attending.

On the other hand, I have found it very difficult to come up with good contemporary worship hymnody. I believe it was Lisa that referred to a lot of the contemporary stuff (which comes from non-Lutheran traditions) as “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs, and I would agree.

How can Lutheran worship remain true to its contemporary and contextual musical roots? I believe AF did a great disservice in the publishing of yet another closed source book, known as the cranberry hymnal. It does have some nice stuff, but compared to the musical language spoken by those attending, and the musical voice of those we are trying to reach (as exemplified by what is on their ipod playlist) we are no closer the mark than we were with the Green Book/Hendirix divide.

How can the church create, and encourage the growth of, an open source of Church hymnody? One that speaks to the musical language of the Seward Peninsula as well as the growing Hispanic and other ethnic voices in addition to contemporary and traditional traditions? Any published hymnal is, but the time it is sold, out of date. And the budgetary restraint of ownership perpetuates the church’s continued lack of contextual voice.

Liturgy is the work of the people, but it is a work that need not be difficult and foreign to our traditions.

In college a friend and I had a laugh over recalled conversations in his home church some years before. The church was considering adding an English service to the regular Norwegian language worship. The main argument against such was that God did not understand English. We laughed at the time, but is it humorous or tragic, that in the language of music, we perpetuate a similar argument today?

I wish I had a solution, I do not. All I have is frustration as I see the eyes glaze over at yet another hymn from the 1800’s, the boom, boom, boom on the car sound system as they drive out of the church parking lot, and the conversations with those who are leaving the church for the one down the street where worship is more “fun,” and the lack of the ability to offer both “fun” and “meaning” in the work of the people as they experience a message of Grace. How long do we continue to shoot ourselves in our evangelical foot for the sake of traditional musical purity?