All Around the World

This past Sunday we celebrated Mission Festival at Grace. What a fun service to plan and participate in. The music for the day highlighted the fact that God is present with people all over the world! We had hymns from Tanzania, Cameroon, Liberia, Argentina, Sweden, Great Britain, the U.S. (Muskogee Indian, Early American and contemporary American), the Latin Mass, Finland ...

And with these varied hymns came varied ways of singing and accompanying. Piano, percussion, organ, and a capella, even Native American flute. Lots of people said they enjoyed the music for the day, and that's good.

But more importantly, the music emphasized the unity of Christians around the world. We may not look alike, or think alike, or live in the same ways, but we all have been called to follow Christ and to serve others.

A few people have said to me that they don't like global hymnody because it is repetitive and simplistic. Well, sometimes it is. But I find a beauty in the simplicity of this music. Often the music is from a strictly oral tradition, which means that it will be repeptitive, but also means that it is easy to learn. Some of these pieces have been taught to our Sunday School students in a matter of minutes!

One of the best things about global music is its honesty. It was written for people to use in worship, with no intent to make the writer any money or garner any fame. It is simply praise or prayer to God. Most of the church's hymnody, even the more complex hymntunes of Western tradition, were written for the same purpose. Texts written perhaps by a pastor with a tune composed by the organist for a specific worshiping congregation ... that's really different than someone trying to crank out a "top 10" type of Christian praise song these days.

This all begs the question of what's to become of church music in an age of copyright and royalties. Of course we want musicians to be fairly compensated, but how do we do that while respecting the integrity of music in the church? How much does our materialistic, entertainment-oriented culture influence what we do in worship? How much should it influence worship? How does the idea of profit affect church music?

Those are just a couple of questions that church musicians, pastors, worship committees and others wrestle with. There are no easy answers, and the debate isn't going away. In another post (maybe next week!), I'll address some of the basic principles that I follow when choosing music for the choirs and the congregation of GLC!