Looking for interaction here

This response recently came to a posted setlist:

anonymous said...
A Reformed Baptist who once attended HBC asks,

"What happened to your church? You used to sing from the Trinity Hymnal and now it looks like you sing mostly contemporary stuff?

Dear Anonymous,
We grew.
David

I really didn't mean to sound snarky...



... but I thought a brief response better. I mean no ill will toward "anonymous," but I have no sympathy for anonymous responders. Plus, I've tried to explain our fundamental principles (still quite intact), and have said quite a bit, actually, on this blog (e.g., look here). He/she could have interacted with any of it, but has not. I encourage you, Mr./Ms. Anonymous, btw, to respond to anything I've written. Have the courtesy, however, to use your name!

I'm posting something here just a bit longer b/c I want to interact with reformed baptists who are actually serious about thinking through our worship.

Being a "reformed baptist" does not equate to an "only blue Trinity hymnal" position. It reminds me of the old "KJV only" debates. We confused faithfulness to Christ and his Word with holding to a venerable, but outdated, translation. "If the KJV was good enough for the apostle Paul..." You get the idea. Thankfully we've outgrown that mindset.

Some of us, at least, became RBs out of a fundamentalist, dispensational church background. It would be a mistake to call our services "worship." They were public (and sincere) gatherings, sermons were preached and songs were sung, but never did we have the sense of "God is here. Right now." Not much engagement with the living God. It was sometimes little more than sanctified entertainment. (Ouch!) Well, it was.

When I came to embrace the 1689 LBC, I found in RB churches an awe-struck vision of the glory of God. When we came to worship, we came expecting to meet with Almighty God, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit. "Worship services" became intense encounters with the living God.

I also embraced the blue Trinity hymnal. It is no mistake to say that RB worship, the Regulative Principle, a Sabbatarian view of the Lord's Day, the 1689 LBC, serious preaching, and the blue Trinity Hymnal all came in one package. But long before I began using what my anonymous correspondent calls "contemporary stuff," I would add hymns to our public worship. (That was back in Warminster, PA.) We also used a psalter. So even then we were never exclusively "blue Trinity," though our music style certainly flowed in the same current.

For the record:

-- I still think highly of the Trinity hymnal, though I prefer the red one (now you know I've strayed!)

-- Almost 40% of our singing comes from hymns in the Trinity hymnal (though I'll add stanzas back in that were left out, I'll update the language when possible, and use new tunes when available).

-- We also incorporate other older hymns not found in the blue Trinity. I post some of them on this blog. And we also now sing at least one psalm setting each Lord's Day. So when you add up our "hymn singing" (excluding all that "contemporary stuff"), it's about 50%.

-- The music chosen for each service reflects the preaching and themes for that service. So the mix is different each time. Judge us, then, by the hymns and songs over several Sundays.

-- We embrace a contemporary music style as much as I am able to. That is, when we sing "How firm a foundation," it's gonna groove.

I've explained this elsewhere and will, again gladly, if need be.

-- I want my grandchildren (if ever I have any!) to love Newton and Watts, Toplady and Cowper, Kent and Bonar. It is, however, a grave mistake, in my judgment, to think we can continue to sing venerable hymns without updating the tunes and language whenever possible. Those who refuse will find themselves increasingly marginalized and ineffective in our culture.

-- Let's think like missionaries in our own town. What kind of music do people listen to? Now take a look at your own setlist for tomorrow and ask this question: Will anything in the music touch people emotionally? Will people connect?

I should say more. But I'm done for now. Feel free to interact.

Because of Mercy,

David