Re Hymns to Feed the Imagination, In Song, Sept. 1
Many growing contemporary churches are tossing out all traditional hymns in their worship. I believe this to be as big a mistake as rejecting all contemporary hymns. As a denomination that prides itself on a balanced approach to theology, we should be able to navigate a third way in worship renewal (as opposed to either traditional or contemporary). Defining a vision that includes the best of a broad spectrum of worship expression is a very do-able objective. These hymns that Andrew mentions are a part of this vision.
Andrew Donaldson replies: It’s taken me awhile to realize that there isn’t a name for this “third way” because it isn’t a genre, a style or even a repertoire. I’m not even sure you can call it “ancient/future” because we don’t know what ancient music sounded like, and we can’t really sing the future. But, like you, I believe balancing musical traditions is possible. If we can’t literally sing the song of the whole church, I think we can sing much more of it than we sometimes (often?) do.
