Church Revitalization Committee wants me to only use music written in my life time. Dammit.

[Critters2]

Our new church revitalization committee met Sunday. They came up with a list of things they want done differently. One of them is that we should use "no music older than the pastor". No Beethoven, no Haydn, no Sacred Harp, no spirituals, no Fanny Crosby, no Christmas carols.

There must be a factory somewhere that's hiring.

[Kat45]

1. Huh?! That makes no sense at all.

Does that mean the repertoire of eligible songs would vary every time there's a new pastor? And I thought our church had stupid problems involving the music!

[Critters2]

4. Yes it would. But I'm gonna give 'em what they want.

Until they beg me to stop. I give it a month. :evilgrin:

[kwassa]

2. They are musically illiterate.

Ignorant. Uneducated. Much of church music represents some of the finest artistic achievements in Western culture, bar none. It also kills the continuity of the church and church tradition.

Once you start cutting off traditional Christmas carols, there should be some screaming from the congregation.

How old is your congregation? If you don't do the older hymns they love, more flack.

I think there has to be some way of informing the congregation what is being taken away from them.

[Critters2]

3. Yes, they are. But I'm going to try to give 'em what they want

until they come to their senses. I figure it'll hit around Thanksgiving. Congregationalists who don't get to sing "We Gather Together", or "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" the Sunday before Thanksgiving. That should make 'em stop to think.


I hope.

[Adsos Letter]

5. Odd...seems like it's usually the other way round....

at least in our church...

Do all churches go through the music wars? Some of the bloodiest turf battles I've ever seen have been over the use of the area around our pulpit before sermon time....

[Critters2]

6. This week's hymns, err, I mean songs:

"Let Us Hope When Hope Seems Hopeless"

"Christ is the Mountain of Horeb"

I'm not sure how the rule applies to music arranged since I was born, so I'm considering going with a 1993 arrangement of "I Woke up This Morning with My Mind (Stayed on Jesus)", which is a spiritual.

None of these relate in any way to what I'm preaching, but that doesn't seem to be the point. So, what I did was go to the lectionary index at the back of the hymnal, and choose anything from this week's list that was written since my birth. When the reviews come in, I'll be sure to give the Revitalization Committee the credit it deserves! :)

[kwassa]

7. Find some really bad Christian pop music ....

Then do the megachurch thing with the projected lyrics on a screen with a bouncing ball!

[Critters2]

8. A bouncing ball!!

:rofl:

I have ordered two books of "praise choruses". I have some really fine classically trained musicians (Oberlin, Yale, that sort of thing) who will be driven out of their minds by this.

But, hey, it's what I was asked to do. :evilgrin:

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. I like "Let Us Hope" - beautiful melody on that one.

[RevCheesehead]

11. Good resource for hymns:

Hymns for the Revised Common Lectionary, by Dean McIntyre. This year is 2008, and contains mostly hymns for Cycle A. I used this book last year (and this year), and it's wonderful! I just found out that there is, indeed, a 2009 just printed.

http://www.amazon.com/Hymns-Revised-Common-Lectionary-2009/dp/0881775460/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224720202&sr=8-1

Go with Amazon - it's tons cheaper than Discipleship Resources. :)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. aAAAAAARRRRRGH

That would send me running screaming out of the church.

I'm in a cathedral choir that sings plenty of contemporary music (NOT "contemporary Christian" as it is usually understood, thank God) but also the whole range of the English and continental European tradition, and that's the way I like it. New members have been polled on what brought them to our church, and "the music" always ranks either first or second.

If you want some music that will make the "contemporary music only" crowd reconsider, I suggest having the choir sing "Illuminare Jerusalam" by Judith Weir and "Attende Domine" by Pierre Villette. The choir may balk, since both pieces are really hard, but hey, the first was written in 1985 and the second some time in the early 1990s. :evilgrin:

[Adsos Letter]

12. Give 'em the Michael W. Smith...

one of those where he ends up descending into a cacophany of "WE WANT TO SEE YOUR GLORRRY"...and make sure the sound crew has it set nice 'n loud...

That should do the trick...I know it always sets my teeth on edge...

[Critters2]

15. Homletics suggests praise music for each Sunday. For this week,

they recommend something called "Shout to the North", which didn't seem too bad until I got to the refrain:

"We've been through fire we've been
through rain
We've been refined by the power of his name
We've fallen deeper in love with you
You've burned the truth on our lips"

There's something about the phrase "fallen in love", in reference to Jesus, that makes me :puke:

Maybe I have issues, but it just does.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. No, I understand completely

Back when I was a college professor, the voice teacher told of going to see one of her best students, the daughter of a staff member, sing at the evangelical church the family belonged to. She described the program as "torch songs for Jesus," and said there was something disturbing about seeing an 18-year-old heavy breathing into the microphone like Marilyn Monroe singing for JFK.

[hvn_nbr_2]

13. Support "revitalization" whole hog.

Don't preach from any books older than the pastor either.:evilgrin:

[Critters2]

14. That leaves me, what, Grisham, and Obama's books.

And some of that "death of God" stuff from the late 60's. Yeah, that'd teach 'em! :)

[kwassa]

17. How about some Deepak Chopra?

You could get all New Age on 'em!

[Critters2]

16. Screw 'em. We're singing "A Mighty Fortress" this week, regardless.

Consider this my 95 Theses!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. How about "For All the Saints," too?

It's All Souls' Day on Sunday.

[Critters2]

19. I'm saving that for the 23rd, which is "Pilgrim Sunday" here, a kind of combo

All Saints/Totenfest/Thanksgiving. I'm focusing on Reformation Sunday this week.

[Kajsa]

20. One of my favorites, Critters!

You go, lady!

:applause:

[KitchenWitch]

22. Can you at least do the Doxology?

Good grief.