‘Our God Is an Awesome God’

By leeduigon

Yes, I know, I’ve posted this video many times. Well, here’s another time. At Linda’s request, Our God Is an Awesome God, by Michael W. Smith. I love this video. I especially love the way the whole audience breaks into song as soon as they hear the first few chords. Kind of gives one hope, doesn’t it?

You may need to click on YOUTUBE to see it.

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Reckless Love – Live Worship

https://redletters.life/2018/04/08/reckless-love-live-worship/

Southern Gospel Medley – Praise To His Name

4 reasons to use hymns in worship

Definitely geared towards the worship leaders, however, I think it is worth the listen. I agree with most of the leaders. Some gave me some new insight and persepective.

https://churchfront.com/blog-churchfront/2018/4/18/4-reasons-to-use-hymns-in-worship

3 Ways The Psalms Should Shape Worship

~ Adriel Sanchez

We often use the word “worship” to describe the portion of our church services where the congregation is singing. When someone asks about the worship at a church, they’re typically asking about the quality of the church’s music.

Truth be told, the whole Sunday service, from the songs to the sermon to the sacraments, fall under the umbrella of “worship.” Perhaps it’s the importance of music in our culture that has led so many to view this element of the service as the essence of worship. A high view of the church’s music isn’t unwarranted, though! The Bible contains a whole book of praises, the book of Psalms, and it’s filled with insights that can help to shape our musical worship today. Here are three things the Psalms can teach us.

1) Modern worship music should help us cope with the difficulties of life.

The Psalms aren’t just a random anthology of ancient songs, haphazardly thrown together. The book of Psalms was written over a period of about one thousand years, and in its final form it helped to address the difficult circumstances of Jews living in exile without a king. The book begins with the promise that God’s anointed king will reign over the whole world (Ps. 2), but as the Psalter unfolds, bleak circumstances make it seem as though God had forgotten his promise.

At the end of Psalm 89, the Psalmist cried out, “Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David? Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations, with which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.” Far from the vision cast by Psalm 2, God’s anointed is mocked rather than served! The book of Psalms thus aided the Hebrew people by giving a voice to their confusion, and it also provided them with a message of hope.

Immediately after Psalm 89, we’re greeted by Psalms which emphasize that God himself is the refuge of his people and their divine king. For people wandering in exile, there is the hope of God as shelter. “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations” (Ps. 90:1) and “For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.” (Ps. 95:3) As the book of Psalms moves from lament and confusion over what seemed like failure on God’s part, it culminates in confidence and praise, because God reigns and promised to “build up Jerusalem and gather the outcasts of Israel” (Ps 147:2)

This book of praises helped God’s people to cope with the challenges they faced in the world, and the songs we sing in church today should do the same. The Psalms accomplished this by addressing the issues of the day head on, while laying out a clear picture of how God met his people in their difficulty. To the wandering, God said, “I am your shelter.” (Ps. 91:2) To the kingless, “I am your king.” (Ps. 95:3) To those suffering injustice, “I will come to judge the earth.” (Ps. 96:13) Our songs should extol the great attributes of God that give hope to pilgrims wandering on their way to the New Jerusalem.

There is more at: https://corechristianity.com/resource-library/articles/3-ways-the-psalms-should-shape-worship

Nine Reasons People Aren’t Singing in Worship

By Kenny Lamm

Worship leaders around the world are sadly changing their church’s worship (often unintentionally) into a spectator event, and before discussing our present situation, let’s look back into history. Prior to the Reformation, worship was largely done for the people. The music was performed by professional musicians and sung in an unfamiliar language (Latin). The Reformation gave worship back to the people, including congregational singing, which employed simple, attainable tunes with solid, scriptural lyrics in the language of the people. Worship once again became participatory. The evolution of the printed hymnal brought with it an explosion of congregational singing and the church’s love for singing increased. With the advent of new video technologies, churches began to project the lyrics of their songs on a screen, and the number of songs at a church’s disposal increased exponentially. [1] At first, this advance in technology led to more powerful congregational singing, but soon, a shift in worship leadership began to move the congregation back to pre-Reformation pew potatoes (spectators). What has occurred could be summed up as the re-professionalization of church music and the loss of a key goal of worship leading—enabling the people to sing their praises to God. Simply put, we are breeding a culture of spectators in our churches, changing what should be a participative worship environment to a concert event. Worship is moving to its pre-Reformation mess.

I see nine reasons congregations aren’t singing anymore: People are not singing any more.

Continue: https://churchleaders.com/worship/worship-articles/322497-nine-reasons-people-arent-singing-worship-kenny-lamm.html

The Imminent Decline of Contemporary Worship Music: Eight Reasons

Some good thoughts, but over-generalization. Read the wide variety of comments, too.

https://secondnaturejournal.com/the-imminent-decline-of-contemporary-worship-music-eight-reasons/