The Worship Quote of the Week for (11/18/2003):

Popular Hymns Today’s WORSHIP QUOTE takes a look at hymns. Many people think of hymns as "classical" music for traditional worship, but author Hughes Old suggest that we should think of hymns more like folk music for Christian worship. POPULAR HYMNS Hymnody needs to be popular. It is more closely related to folk song than to art song . . . It is because hymnody is, in its very essence, a kind of folk song that we must never close the door to new hymns written in the idiom of our day . . . Time has a way of selecting the classics. We do not have to worry about that. What is important is that we give each generation its turn at expressing its devotion in the idiom of its day. Christian hymnody is like a great art museum. It has treasures from a great variety of ages and cultures, but it always seems to have room to show the best of contemporary works as well. — Hughes Oliphant Old, from LEADING IN PRAYER: A WORKBOOK FOR WORSHIP, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. p. 339. ISBN: 0802808212. [Actually, the above title is what is printed on the cover of the book, but on the inside, the subtitle is A WORKBOOK FOR MINISTERS. Either way, this volume is a tutorial in public prayer for anyone who is responsible for leading God’s people to the throne of grace. Highly recommended! Some of the various sections of the book are The Invocation, Psalms as Prayer, Prayers of Confession and Supplication, The Prayer of Illumination, Prayers of Intercession, Communion Prayers, Prayers of Thanksgiving, Hymnody, and Benedictions and Doxologies.] Have a great week, Chip Stam Director, Institute for Christian Worship School of Church Music and Worship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky www.carlstam.org www.sbts.edu WORSHIP QUOTE OF THE WEEK: To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view a complete index of WORSHIP QUOTES, please visit http://www.wqotw.org/.