On-line Supplement Ch1:
Culture, Choruses, Hymns

Since I teach at Biola University, a large, conservative, evangelical college in the LA area, I'm in a unique position to get a "fix" on student opinion regarding worship. The comments below were gleaned from an assignment requiring first year students to respond to chapter one of The New Worship. They offer worship leaders and teachers of worship insight into the level of awareness and the thinking of college students today. At the end, you will find an amazing response of one student to a hymn meditation assignment, and a thumbnail sketch of English Protestant congregational song.

Basic Concepts in Chapter One of The New Worship were New

Before reading this chapter I had no idea as to the controversy between hymns and choruses

I had never thought in depth about the difference between hymns and choruses before reading this chapter.

I had never thought of combining hymns and choruses. I had always seen churches pick one or the other, as if the two styles were as unmixable as oil and water. The idea of overcoming polarization by matching the ratios of choruses to hymns is phenomenal.

I never thought that revising hymns was an option.

I have never considered the content of hymns to be something thought of as doctrine or theology, but it is true.

I now see that hymns can serve as a wonderful way to memorize Scripture.

I will no longer think of hymns and choruses with the same casual approach.

Student Comments on the Stars/Fireworks analogy

Like stars, hymns are not simple or easily replaced. Hymns are more than a quick thought jotted down on paper.

You can really see in hymns a constant glow of "deep theological truth." Choruses tend to be more fireworks that explode before you and send a rush of excitement through your heart and soul. Stars are constant and reliable. They put me in a reverent mood. They will always be there for us to gaze on throughout the generations to come.

Choruses begin strong and soon thereafter fizzle out. They are enchanting for the moment. They rarely have any lasting quality to them. I used to sing some songs all the time in high school and I could not even begin to tell you the names of them because I have not heard them in so long.

We go to see fireworks for our entertainment. Many of the choruses we sing complement this mentality.

Choruses, Repetition of Choruses were Defended

I don't see choruses as something that fizzles away quickly. Perhaps choruses may be shorter and have less history, but who is to say that God could not work just as powerfully in a person's life through them. My person experience has been that I can stretch out my arms before God and pour my everything into His hands during some of these "fireworks" [choruses] and still be impacted by it today--and probably even will be for the rest of my life.

Choruses have the unique ability to bring an incredible amount of emotion out of the most reserved people. The music makes the singer feel like he/she is really close to God.

With choruses it is easy for me to connect with God. I may break down and cry when singing a chorus because it is so applicable and applies to my life.

If an individual only sings something once, the full meaning becomes hard to understand. But by the repetition I am able to focus and really comprehend. Repetition allows the meaning to really permeate into my heart and mind.

When I am in church it is easy to lose attention, but when we are singing a chorus it becomes quite difficult for my mind to wander.

I can easily recollect a chorus but it's harder to remember a hymn.

Retention is really important. It is far better to go into worship and experience God and leave worship with a new worship chorus and with applicability brought to one's life. Choruses bring me to the core and foundation of my belief in Christianity and everything I face on a daily basis.

When I worship I feel like nothing can touch me and all I have left is the knowledge and comfort of Jesus. I have really come to love the simplicity and truth of choruses. I really believe the heart of worship is simply to return to what the basic truths of Christianity are.

Choruses send a rush of emotions that many times I cannot control myself...choruses send me on an emotional roller coaster and tend to be more convicting of sin....

Why should the church be stuck in the 19th century while the rest of the world progresses into the 21st just because we prefer to hang onto our preferred style of worship? We will reach many more people through our church services if we are giving them styles of music they enjoy and that are similar to those they listen to on the radio, as opposed to the ancient tunes that help give church the stereotype of being "out-dated."

Lack of Exposure to Hymns, Separate Services, Short Attention Spans

Hymns are almost a forgotten form of worship. At my church, which I have been going to since I was 19 years old, we have sung strictly contemporary style worship. I do not think that there was ever a time as far as I know that we sang a hymn other than Amazing Grace (every once in a while).

I was amazed to learn that many of my friends do not sing hymns at all.

Youth often have their own service. The youth service I go to has almost no hymns. We do one every couple of months.

Many young people see the elderly as a nuisance.

Most often people my age do not want to even give hymns a chance. Too often I have been the lone champion.

The church I grew up in as a child has always sung more choruses than hymns (about 90% to 10%) for as long as I can remember. For 11 years growing up there I don't remember a time I sang out of a hymnal. We came to an agreement, long ago, that we would have a service dedicated to a more traditional style of worship. Eventually we did away with that, and I am not sure why.

I am going to be very blunt. I believe the reason we cannot appreciate hymns today is because our attention spans are so blown out of proportion. We listen to something for about ten seconds and if it does not entertain us, then we tune it out or just plain don't like it.

Trouble Understanding and Appreciating Hymns

Usually I'm distracted by the slow pace of hymns. I'm paying too much attention to the music to notice the wonderful theological value in the lyrics.

I would always sing the hymns [as a teenager] but never really thought of the words. I also never saw the church people enjoying worship.

I remember when I was in Jr. High. I really did not know what I was singing. I would look up at the screen and sing as loudly as I could, but rarely would understand the meaning of the words that would come out of my mouth. And those songs were just simple choruses. Can you imagine how hard it would have been for me to understand hymns

The lyrics of the hymns confuse me and seem to distract me. I like to close my eyes in worship in order to remove as many distractions as possible. However, whenever a hymn is sung, not only do I have to open my eyes to read the lyrics, but I am constantly fumbling to find my place in the song. Then, when I do find my place, I'm so busy trying to figure out what the words mean, I barely worship.

With hymns, so much emphasis is placed on the words that much of my worship dwindles. I do like the fact that hymns have a deep meaning in the lyrics. However, I would have to study them. Worship is obviously not the appropriate time to study something.

I do not like most hymns because of two reasons. One, I have not heard them sung in a way that seemed it was a true expression of worship. Two, the music is too droning, which causes the person's mind to wander. But these two factors should not keep the Church from singing hymns.

Ideas for Overcoming Polarization

[Leaders can appeal to the college student's sense of family]

Hymns are often a reminder of what God has brought my family through. My grandmother can teach me a song which I have never heard, and relate an event or time in her walk when it was particularly meaningful. It would hurt me deeply if my grandmother could not participate in a worship service as fully as she is capable because of songs [choruses] she is unfamiliar with. Many of the hymns she knows are written on her heart and she does not need the hymnal to express what she sings from within her soul. If we disregarded hymns, it would be as if I disregarded and disconnected myself from the faith of my mother and grandmother.

In my church, when elders pray and lay hands on a high school team going on a mission's trip, it helps break down polarization.

Since being in college I have benefited greatly from singing a combination of hymns and choruses. I wish more churches could recognize that there could be a compromise. I find myself wanting to sing hymns more because I realize the only reason I didn't enjoy them was because of the music issue. Now I see it is deeper than that. It has caused me to take a step back at my worship patterns and understand worship in a fuller light.

Criticisms of Choruses

Choruses are very good at making us feel happy or excited or even grateful, but sometimes they manipulate us to believe that the Holy Spirit is working within us, when many times we are just fooling ourselves. For example, if we sing "Thank-you Lord" over and over again, of course we will eventually start to feel thankful, but for what? Many emotions without any biblical truth is dangerous.

Choruses give people a feeling of happiness and elation. However, the feelings they feel quickly subside and they are left with nothing to contemplate when the song ends.

I like it when I go into the church service and sing songs that don't sound just like the songs we listen to on the radio. It gives the songs a feel of something different--something special-- set apart from the music that the rest of the world listens to. And I think that in this day and age, the church can use all the help it can get to be set apart from the world. I'm not discounting the style in which choruses are sung, I just dislike it when the style in which hymns are sung is dismissed as "out-dated." I believe just the opposite--hymns have an enduring quality that includes both the words and the form. I realize that this is merely my own opinion, but so is saying that singing hymns automatically makes the church "stuck in the 19th century."

I would disagree with the statement that there is no "sacred" style of worship. Christians today have made worship such a subjective thing. Examine the Old Testament and see the rigid step by step requirements God lays out in Leviticus for the Israelites in worshiping Him. God in essence said, "This is how I want you to worship Me, whether or not you feel as if this will connect you intimately to Me." While He does not still hold us to these same rigid requirements, God is the same God the Israelites worshiped then as we worship now. Obviously, God sets standards and we need to conform to the Biblical requirements.

Where do we start drawing the line between the outdated and in vogue? Are we saying that we can't look at some hymn or chorus that is ten years old, twenty years old, and thirty years old? Hymns have value because of what they are saying. They deal with theological issues that the church has confronted over the years and answered, if we ignore them then we could lose one of the most priceless treasures our Christian forefathers have given us--the wisdom of their experience.

Growth & Worship

I look forward to every chance I get to worship during the week. After having my devotions, I love to end on a good note with a hymn or chorus.

I never saw the people at my church enjoying worship. I remember starting high school and going into the youth group standing in worship with my hands in my pockets and being "cool" and not singing. As I matured in Christ, though, I began to sing. Some of those first songs are now very dear to my heart. I also remember raising my hands, standing, bowing down in prayer while the worship leader and others sang. These were the times I could genuinely see spiritual growth in my life. More recently I have found a new love for hymns. I think I always disliked hymns because I couldn't understand them. Now reading or singing them brings a new feeling of worship.

Most Students felt the Chapter was Fair--But not All!

It was refreshing to hear a well-thought-out, non-attacking view on this topic. I heard a professor from another Christian university say that choruses were Satan's way of infiltrating the church. And I've heard younger students mock hymns and make fun of them.

The chapter was very one-sided that hymns are better than choruses. Dr. Liesch said, "Choruses often shortchange the full reality of sin and weakness and fail to capture adequately the agony and suffering of Christ on the cross." I do not feel this is an accurate statement. And I do not feel it is appropriate to make such a generalization and speak for the entire population of choruses.

The Results of a Hymn Meditation Assignment

Here is the amazing, unedited response I received from a first year student who did a hymn meditation assignment. I instructed the students to arrive at church 20 minutes early for two Sundays and meditate on a Watts, Wesley, or Crosby hymn/gospel song and then submit a one page report of their experience for credit.

"When I first heard of this project, I thought that the impact of reading a few hymns would be rather pointless. I never realized what treasures hymns actually were and how they are truly rich in theology and spirituality.
I generally look at hymns as ancient songs that my grandmother likes to sing off key. They tend to sound dry and boring, and therefore when I hear them my mind turns off because I'm not stimulated in any way.
However, when I decided to do this assignment, my eyes were literally opened! First of all, I had to bring a hymn book to church because my church does not have any. So, when I came to church two weeks ago a half an hour early, I came with my own hymn book (from home) and began to read. Immediately I began to see how my heart was set on my preconceived idea of what hymns were = boring. Then I realized what it was that I was actually singing. I was amazed at how rich, doctrinally some of the hymns truly were. For example, Blessed Assurance completely discusses our atonement, justification and rapture. That = amazing.
I also had a prejudgment that hymns were rather impersonal and lacking in spiritual intimacy. Then last week, as I read through "Close to Thee" and "Draw Me Nearer" by Fanny Crosby, my soul was deeply moved to the point of tears. These were beautiful lyrics, full of emotion and tender passion for our Lord. I was completely enamored by these hymns and how personal and glorifying they were unto the Lord. I honestly have to admit that each time I meditated upon these hymns, my heart was quieted and focused for the actual service. I truly had never been so prepared for a service nor so blessed by a service because of my heart of meditation. This was quite a touching experience, thank you! :)"

A Thumbnail History of English, Protestant Congregational Song

In chapter one, I refer to the fact that Protestants are a people of two books, the Bible and the hymnbook. However, it's a little more complicated than that historically. Soon after Luther posted his 95 theses on the Wittenberg door in 1517, signaling the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, he began to promote arduously the creation of original hymns lyrics in the German language. This gradually led to a rich hymnody of songs in the German language and eventually, the widespread use of full-time, church music directors like J. S. Bach in the 1700's in the Lutheran Church.

The Reformed wing of the Protestant church in Switzerland developed quite differently. Calvin did not allow the use of instruments or the creation of original song lyrics in public worship, and limited music to the a cappella, congregational singing of the 150 psalms in the Old Testament. By about 1550, the Geneva Psalter (all the Psalms set to western tunes and meters) was created and in use. British and North American Protestant churches largely followed Calvin's example and, from 1550 to 1700, sang metrical psalms.

Around the year 1700 Issac Watts began to write excellent, original hymn lyrics in the English language. It took about 75 years for original hymns to receive widespread acceptance in Britain and North America. Gradually hymns supplanted metrical psalms. Around 1850 the Gospel song, an evangelistic or witness song with a basic salvation message and a catchy refrain, came into being. Used in Evangelistic Crusades, they gradually became popular in evangelical church services (generally not mainline churches) around 1875. Their popularity grew until they were given virtually equal status with traditional hymns in Evangelical churches in North American.

Around 1970 the worship chorus came into being through the "Jesus People" of the 1960's. Today the use of worship choruses has supplanted the use of hymns or gospel songs in a growing number of churches. Our English Protestant heritage, to review, then, begins with metrical psalms (1550), and proceeds to hymns (1700), gospel songs (1850), and continues today with the advent of worship choruses (1970). All four of these forms can perform valuable functions in our services, but each church will need to decide how much weight to give each of them.