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FW: [WORSHIP] Hymns
>Rick Edwards mentioned...
>Webster's definition of a hymn is: "poem or song of praise, as to God".
>
>So, it seems that there are old hymns, new or modern hymns, and all those in
>between. Our new contemporary praise songs are simply hymn's of our present
>time. It's funny how we refer to the old hymns as "Hymns".
Right you are! And as a few of our distinguished fellow listers have
mentioned, many of the old hymns aren't really hymns at all, because
they are not songs of praise to God. They may be about our response to
God, for example. Which isn't *wrong*, it's just not a "hymn".
Different people also promote different definitions of "psalms, hymns,
and spiritual songs."
Wouldn't it be convenient if we could hit some kind of "reset" button
and invent an entirely new set of labels & categories for music? I
think it would help to disarm some of the "worship wars." Better yet,
how about no labels or categories, just "songs" in general??? Nah, that
would never work, because there's always a need for "technical jargon"
at least among those of us who work with this stuff all the time!
Excuse me, I have to go now and practice a hymn...or is it a song?...or
maybe it's a psalm...no, wait, I think it's an anthem...or at least it's
a doxology that *could* work as an anthem...I'm getting a headache...
- Paul