"Older believers like hymns and younger ones like contemporary praise and worship songs." Give me a dollar for every time something like that has been said and I'll finally have enough money to buy my very own Stineway nine foot concert grand piano; a classic theater organ; and a complete symphony orchestra for back up. But it is an inaccurate statement -- for more than one reason. It reveals a basic misunderstanding of what a hymn actually is. I don't know if the Apostle Paul could 'carry a tune in a bucket' or not but he gave us the defining statement on Christian songs. " . . . as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." (Col 3:16 -- Note that every "3:16" in the New Testament is significant, not just John's!)
Please be aware of what those terms mean. A "psalm" is Scripture (any Scripture, not just the Psalms) set to music. Examples: A paraphrase of Psalm 90 like "O God, Our Help in Ages Past", often sung on the first Sunday of the new year; the very beautiful "As The Deer", a musical setting of Psalm 42:1; the magnificent "Hallelujah Chorus" from "Messiah"; and many, many others old and new. The first wave of contemporary praise and worship music in the 70's and 80's produced many excellent Scripture songs.
A "hymn" is, by definition, a song addressed to God; descriptive of God in His Being and all He does; and calls people to worship and praise Him. This includes those songs addressed to and about God the Son - the Lord Jesus, and those addressed to the Holy Spirit. You can immediately see that the word "hymn" is misused if it is used to mean something "older" as opposed to "contemporary". If a song is addressed to God it is a "hymn" no matter if it was written yesterday or five hundred years ago. It does not matter if the music for it is some form of rock, jazz, blues, country western, bluegrass, oratorio, motet, or a simple four part harmony. If it centers on God Himself it is a hymn even though the music itself may not "fit" the majesty and glory of God. Instead of saying "the over fifty crowd in our churches prefers hymns we should be saying "they prefer songs with familiar patterns of harmonics and instrumentation". When an older, familiar song is introduced with something like the sound of brushes on snare drums it can easily be equivalent to poking these folks in the eye.
Many, if not most, of the songs that are familiar and loved by the "over fifty crowd" are not hymns at all. They are what Paul called (in the Scripture quoted above) "spiritual songs". These are often referred to by Christian musicians as "Gospel songs". Just as a hymn is defined as being addressed to God, a spiritual (or Gospel) song is addressed to people, usually in the form of a testimony. Look for the pronouns "I", "me", "you" or "we" in these songs of experience and testimony. At the top of the list is the famous "Amazing Grace" ("that saved a wretch like me") Another more recent example would be "He Touched Me". Believers who came of age in the middle years of the twentieth century learned to love "Victory in Jesus" and "He Lives" and scores of similar songs. Being "old" does not make these songs hymns. Most Gospel songs differ from hymns in that the Gospel song usually has a chorus that is sung after each verse. I just went through a song/hymn book published thirty years ago, used in many churches. It has about six hundred songs of which at least two hundred fifty are spiritual or Gospel songs of testimony, exhorting and encouraging one another. The rest were either psalms (Scripture set to music) or hymns. This was a much higher percentage of hymns than a song book published for churches in the 1960's would have had.
Admittedly, in a few instances it was 'splitting hairs' to decide what to call a particular song. If it is addressed to God - Father or Son or Holy Spirit - I (and many others) call it a hymn. This includes all songs that were in the form of prayer to God. I counted a song as a psalm (in the broad sense) if most of the words were either direct quotes or a paraphrase of Scripture.
The Gospel song (what Paul probably meant by 'spiritual songs') came into wide spread use in the late 1800's in the great evangelistic crusades of men like D.L. Moody. These songs were often alarmingly "contemporary" for their day. This came at the same time that liberal theology was taking over the "mainline" churches. Since the Gospel was heard less and less in these churches, other more biblical and evangelical churches embraced the Gospel songs as witnesses to salvation in Christ. Unfortunately, this often meant less and less use of hymns (like "Holy, Holy, Holy") What developed was a form of 'Christian humanism' that centered on the believer's individual experience rather than on God Himself. A reaction against this imbalance set in during the 1970's. A new wave of 'praise and worship' music, set to contemporary sounds, reached its zenith in the 1990's but continues unabated to this day. While many of these contemporary songs are profoundly worshipful there is a danger in that few seem to dwell on the Cross, the Blood of the Lamb and repentance from sin, themes that were strong in the older Gospel songs. It is, however, almost hilarious to realize that most contemporary praise and worship songs are actually hymns while most of the favorite songs of the "over fifty crowd" are often songs other than hymns.
It is often the sound of the newer songs (with excessive and monotonous use of drums and unfamiliar rhythms) and not so much the words that has brought about a division in Evangelical Christianity almost as deep as the old liberal theology produced. I believe the "over fifty crowd" is more than willing to learn contemporary praise and worship songs if they are introduced and employed gradually in sensitive ways. "I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind." (I Cor. 14:15)
Wisdom would also tell us that truly blended worship does not simply include the words of songs written years ago but also the familiar harmonics and chord progressions that are integral to those songs. Taking Scripture (like Psalm 150) seriously means employing a variety of instruments, instruments actually played by live human beings. Anything less is not truly blended and biblical worship. For the glory of God, more and more churches are seeing this happen.
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