THE HYMNS MOVEMENT IS ALIVE AND WELL

In attending the Calvin Symposium on Christian Worship my goals were evenly divided between two objectives: (1) to gain wisdom from the conference’s plenary and breakout sessions; (2) to network with many like-minded worship leaders who approach worship from much of the same line of thinking that I do.  On both fronts, mission accomplished.

I have to admit that I didn’t see a large representation of young, “cutting edge” worship leaders at the symposium.  It seemed to me (this is my perception…it may not be reality) that the majority of the participants, though ecumenical in spread, were largely of the 40s and 50s age range, who were part of churches probably characterized by traditional/liturgical and blended worship (I understand that all labels come with faults).  Cutting edgers think that that edge is at places like the National Worship Leader Conference or some other conference hosted and funded by the major Christian labels and magazines.  I respectfully disagree.

At the symposium, there was a small pocket of a new generation of worship leaders spreading across evangelicalism: PCA, Southern Baptist, Methodist/Wesleyan, Lutheran, Reformed Baptist, Non-denominational, Christian Reformed, and the Acts 29 network.  I met Wes Crawford from Redeemer Kansas City, and Chuck Steddom and Marc Heinrich from Bethlehem Baptist (Minneapolis).  I reconnected with the Sojourn folks from Louisville: Mike Cosper, Jamie Barnes, Brooks Ritter, Bobby Gilles, Rebecca Dennison.  I was given nerdy Grand Rapids bookstore tours from one of my heroes, Kevin Twit of Indelible Grace (Nashville).  I had meaningful conversations with Keith and Kristyn Getty.  And I met Calvin associates Greg Scheer and Matthew Westerholm (who actually works with students at neighboring Cornerstone University). 

In my mind, as I survey this smorgasbord of great worship leaders, one thing is clear: the hymns movement is alive and well.  Even more, the hymns movement is growing in appeal and influence in the next generation of evangelicals. 

Aside from making albums of my own to contribute to the movement, the broader visionary goal that God has laid on my heart is to see that this grass roots endeavor become a force of change and influence in mainstream evangelical worship.  I believe that this is going to happen when, in addition to producing our own music, we hymns movement folks band together for the greater good.  We need more networking, more interaction, more resource-sharing, and more cross-promotion.  We’re all barking about the same thing—more substance, more historicity, more theology, more ecclesiological connectivity, more diversity, more depth.  The issue is that we’re all barking from different corners.  We need to move to the center of the room and to start having some meaningful conversations with the mainstream evangelicals whose middle-room chant (mostly sounding to the tunes of CCLI’s top 40) is so loud that they’ve yet to hear us.  I saw glimmers of that future day at this conference.  These people are articulate, winsome, intelligent, gospel-centered, talented, and musical.  They are what modern worship needs in the next generation.

It’s obvious that Kevin Twit and Indelible Grace plan on continuing what they’re doing, resources and funds permitting.  The artists that contribute to those albums are only growing in influence and notoriety.  Sojourn is cooking up the second installment of their Isaac Watts hymns project, this time with a more Americana flavor, headed up by Mike Cosper.  Red Mountain is working on another album right now.  Bruce Benedict continues to plug away at a Psalms of Ascents project.  Sandra McCracken is in the middle of a hymns project.  Jeremy Casella and a few others are diving into the Olney hymns (e.g. Newton, Cowper) for textual fodder.  Sovereign Grace is prepping for albums gazillion-three, -four, and –five this year.  I’ve been writing and preparing for our second album…we’ll hit the studio, Lord-willing, in early 2011. 

The movement is astir and busy…and the fields are ripening unto harvest.  Rock. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF AFFIRMING BAPTISM

Both for personal reasons (I have 4 children that I want to raise in the fear of the Lord) and for professional reasons (I’m in a church that is trying to be extremely intentional on how we bring up our kids in the faith), I took a seminar with Christian Reformed Church pastor and professor, Dr. Howard Vanderwell, entitled, “Affirming and Remembering our Baptisms.”  I sense a deficiency on my part in leading our flock toward adequate prominence of this important sacrament. 

It was a great seminar that both affirmed my hunches (I do need to emphasize baptism more at my church) and gave me practical ideas.  Here are my takeaways:

• In churches where infant baptism is practiced the sinful tendency is to minimize its importance and effectively forget about it
• God actually does something at baptism; it’s not merely a symbolic act: He speaks promises over the child; He ingrafts the child into the body of Christ; He places a “covenant mark” (albeit physically invisible) on the child
• People of all ages should not only perpetually strive to remember their baptism, but affirm their baptism
• Parents, pastors, and children’s ministry leaders should use the language of baptism as often as they can when encouraging children to walk as disciples of Christ (e.g. In answering the question, “Why should we seek to manifest the fruit of the Spirit?” at least one of the important responses is, “Because you were baptized.”)
• The function of baptism speaks into at least three different areas of life: (a) my reception/status in the body of Christ; (b) my core identity as a person; (c) my vocation in life

I’ve come away with a few ideas I’m going to bat around with the other pastors at my church.   These ideas would potentially, with repeated education coupled with fighting mindless repetition, raise the prominence of baptism in our congregation and be a strong source of strengthening and edifying the body of Christ on a regular basis:

• Keep the baptismal font out, open, and filled with water every week, whether or not we’re performing a baptism in that service
• Allow people to walk by and touch the water on their way to receiving the Lord’s Supper, as a way of reminding them of their journey (entry into the church in baptism, confirmation of life in Christ in the Lord’s Supper)
• Actually have the font filled with water pouring from a pitcher at the opening of every service.  This fits nicely into our existing processional, and could be a significant ritual moving forward.