"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,"...

...he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had. - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

As I think about the internship I’ll be doing this summer at my home church, I’m often concerned that my view of church music will clash with the existing views. It makes me wonder, how do we hymnologists help the uninformed church see the beauty of hymns and historic Christian singing?

It seems the first step is to point to the demands of the venue. Church music must be easy to sing, as its primary “performers” (I use that term simply because one who takes an existing piece of music and reproduces it either instrumentally or vocal is known as the performer) will be accountants, doctors, mechanics, gym teachers, mothers, operations analysts, and many other utterly unmusical things. Thus it must be simple in form, clear in content, and easy to sing. Many hymns, early “contemporary” songs (how ironically oxymoronic), and modern hymns certainly fit this criteria.

The second would seem to be theological accuracy. This is considerably more daunting. Most church goers probably accept the lyrics of their songs unquestioningly – and why would they not? How do we help people see that pet horse and girlfriend songs are not healthy?

It seems like the best remedy for this dilemma is Scripture. It's a shame, I don’t remember ever hearing Colossians 3:16 before my time at BBC. I don’t think our churches (perhaps I should say “my church back home”) realize that they’re singing to each other! At least half of the authors in the book don’t know it. Perhaps this is the best way to open the door to conversation and analysis without, as our dear Brother McGrew says, “clubbing the baby seal to death”.