#tomraabe

I have an article before me titled, “Why Churches Should Ditch the Projector Screens and Bring Back the Hymnals.”  

I find SO MUCH WRONG WITH this article that I barely know where to begin. But before I do share my misgivings, let me put to rest a possible misimpression my negative response could give. I do not hate “traditional worship. In fact. I love it. It has blessed my life. This does not change the fact that this article is wrong to the point of being unhelpful. 

1) “THE SCREENS ARE UGLY.”  I love beautiful sacred spaces, but the church of Jesus Christ has often gathered in unlovely sacred spaces:  store-front churches, village huts, homes in Capernum, Catacombs, and (gasp!) gymnasiums. Even when screens are used they are not left blank during worship, but are illuminated, often in ways that could be said to be digital stained glass.  They can enhance worship, particularly for visual learners. Finally, I thought we weren’t gathered to worship the building, but God’s glory. 

2) “PROJECTOR SCREENS REFLECT OUR TECH OBSESSED CULTURE.” The author never considers that most Christians have never used a hymnal, or that hymnals reflect a technology, or that the earliest hymnals had no notes, or that the rise of hymnals revolutionized church music, creating controversies such as whether people should just sing the psalms or whether they could sing songs of “human invention” in worship.  

3) “HYMNALS PROVIDE DEEP THEOLOGICALLY RICH WORSHIP.” Maybe.  As someone who has sung hymns out of hymnals that contain speculation and sometimes rank heresy, count me unpersuaded that technology, in itself, determines whether a song is deep or theologically rich. 

I do grant that having a community of theologians and musicians curating music has many advantages. That this doesn’t happen with contemporary music speaks to the failure of denominations to support “contemporary music” in a changing society.  If I am honest, this is resistance is raised by people who are heavily invested in the status quo.  And if I am more honest, I observe that too many of these folks dismiss contemporary music’s repetition as boring (except when it is Taizé) and consider the adoption of the cultural vernacular as vulgar (except when 3rd world Christians do it).  Like this article, many objections reflect a certain certain blindness. 4) “TO SAVE WORSHIP WE MUST REDISCOVER HYMNALS.” This is silly. It is as silly as saying that “to save worship we must adopt new technology.”  The future of worship does not depend on either.  It depends on our ability to lead people to praise God’s glory.  Maybe if the author considered the demographic trends he bemoans, he’d have offered a more creative response. “The heavens are declaring the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1) They have no hymnals or screens and their praise extends to the heavens.