I have lately been pondering the lack of a certain type of song in what we sing at church. There are plenty of great, truth-filled songs, whether hymns or newer stuff. Most of them deal with the character of God, or with our (personal - more often "I, me" instead of "we, us") relationship with Him; but I have found sometimes - especially as I often choose what music the congregation will sing on Sunday - that there is very little music to be had when it comes to several themes.
For instance, recently the theme for the music was "a holy fear" - and how many songs carry that theme? Most don't deal with fear, but with love, joy, peace, rest, etc. Then there is the fact that a lot of the songs are more relational than practical - they deal in who we are, or who God is, rather than what we ought to do (what God has commanded us to do) in light of our state. The great truths in Scripture were always followed by practical instruction.
So, I don't know what I'm rambling about. Sadly a lot of church songs today constitute nothing more than fluffy Jesus-is-my-friend platitudes. I am thankful for the old hymns and the new music written by men and women devoted to truth and doctrine.
The big disclaimer here is that I have not listened to all the music that is out there; I could just be missing the piles and piles of music that deals with what I consider to be missing.
So, a question for you: do you find that church music is missing something? If so, what would that be? What topics would you find useful/uplifting in congregational music?
I am with you on this. We have moved from the God of Holiness to "He's My buddy." I think that scripture gives us pictures to enable our understanding and one of them is Jesus as our friend. However, I think we read more into that than was intended. He hebrews wondered how can a God of Holiness forgive and were astonished and thankful that he does. Today we have a god of the imagination who only loves and how could a loving God punish anyone. We need to read scripture as intended and keep things in balance. Todays songs reflect what we really think. There are exceptions, but on the whole we are not hitting the mark
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