What is Traditional Worship

[brianlove84]

How is ti different from Modern Worship? What specific factor classify a traditional worship? I'm very interested to know. I've heard inklings of such things, but never witnessed them.

Sam
Fontana

[Steve Hotra]

Traditional worship could be defined by:
1) song selection, usually hymns.
2) instruments used: organ, piano
3) instruments not used: electric rock guitars, synths, drums

I feel that there are some great traditional songs that are being used today:
Come Thou Fount, Be Thou My Vision, and of course How great Thou Art.

I like introducing new chords and beats to traditional worship, just to keep the lyrics in from of my church. Some of these songs are awesome!

[jonallen]

I noticed that all the songs mentioned had the word "Thou" in them

Traditional styles are pretty much how Steve said, organs, pianos, choirs, and occasionally brass and woodwind instruments. Concepts of classical music are used often, including melody, harmony, rhythm, counter-rhythm, etc. Contemporary follows styles similar to alternative rock and 50's era rock-n-roll: lead singer, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drum kit, keyboard, back-up singers, and the infamous Verse-Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus(ad-nauseum) song structure.

Lyrically, traditional hymns typically kept God as the subject. In newer/contemporary songs the subject is commonly the singer.

Examples:
"As the deer panteth for the water, So my soul longeth after thee..."

"Here I am to worship, Here I am to bow down, Here I am to say that You're my God"

"Come, now is the time to worship, Come, now is the time to give your heart"

"This is the air I breathe, This is the air I breathe, Your holy presence living in me"

There is a fallacy in identifying songs as "contemporary" however, because what is contemporary is always changing. So I would be tempted to classify M.W. Smith and Brian Doerksen as "modern". Of course there is post-modern worship, which I would guess would include Leeland and Hillsong United music. The trend lately is to tell stories and revisit folk-styles as well as simplify lyric content further than modern music ever did.

Being into progressive styles I find this trend very disturbing because I find the quality of modern musicianship lacking. The advent of MP3s and internet delivery has only aided this regression towards lower-quality recordings/mastering and (apparently) songwriting.

[MPaisley]

I agree with johnallen. I have commented with several ministry patrners that most songs today are not written with the same dedication to biblical doctrine and truth as in the days of Fannie Crosby and others like her. This does not mean that I crucify all "contemporary" or "modern" music and songwriters. If a song is lined up with scripture, I can listen to and incorporate into the song service the music of MWS, Stephen C. Chapman, etc. But I refuse to use songs strictly due to the fact that they are popular.
_________________
Romans 6:4 "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

[NuYearsEve]

The examples the above poster gave of "traditional" and "modern" songs seems a bit contrived to help make their point, however, I hope you will look at it like this....

1.) Both traditional and modern worship can have benefits and drawbacks. It MOSTLY depends on the heart of the worshiper. The traditional method vs the modern method is simply a vehicle. I wouldn't place a lot of concern on it. Choose one or both that helps you worship and go for it (so long as its biblical)

2.) Think of "most" traditional music as singing about God and "most" contemporary as singing to God.

Just my thought.

[Gimble]

> ...most songs today are not written with the same
> dedication to biblical doctrine and truth as in the days
> of Fannie Crosby and others like her.

I don't entirely agree. Sorry for the long delay before this post, but I've been thinking about this thread for several weeks.

There are three factors I can think of that affect today's music and the musical complexity and doctrine which tend to have a more "unfavorable" light than the tried-and-true:

* The test of time has not been applied. Name the top ten worship songs of the 1520s! Off the top of my head, I can name only one ("A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"). It's not that bad music/theology wasn't being written during that time, it's that the songs have been forgotten, as likely they should have been.

* It's my guess that more music is being written now than ever before in history. That has something to do with having billions of people on the planet, instead of millions. More music means more bad music (and possibly more good music) is being written.

* Music has a much wider audience now than it ever has before. In the '50s, until you were able to get your new-fangled song in a music book, the audience for your song was decidedly local. Now, with the Internet and mass media, it's fairly easy to find lots of new music, with huge variations in quality of musicianship and doctrine.

> If a song is lined up with scripture, I can listen to
> and incorporate into the song service the music of MWS,
> Stephen C. Chapman, etc. But I refuse to use songs strictly
> due to the fact that they are popular.

No argument here. I'm finding something I'm now trying to do is to take some new music and adjust -- hopefully improve -- it. Usually, it's a second-tier song (changing a well known song from any millenia causes complaints), and I try to rewrite and expande lyrics.

I have no gift with creating new melodies from scratch, but I can pitch in by taking a good song with lousy lyrics and trying to fix it to be honoring to God and not mind-numbingly repetitive.

We have the biggest repertoire of music to choose from in history, with tried-and-true selections as well as lots of new choices. Filtering out the bad from the good, and finding music that is honoring to God, may be more challenging now than ever before.

[Chrish_Tiyan]

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