I am married to the worship leader of our church....we rock the place every Sunday morning.
I grew up with the Hymnal.....boring. And not always relevant...who knows what a sheave is anyway?
To each is own.
Our minister loves the new music but admits that he needs to talk to the music director about adding some traditional music to the singing.
I choose to wait outside until the drums and electronic noise portion of the program is concluded.
While there are some excellent praise and worship songs, we have to be aware that even praise music can become an idol. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, if the ‘medium’ (praise music) BECOMES the ‘message’ (Jesus), rather than the means to communicate the message, it becomes idol worship, as the music becomes the focus, rather than Jesus; a very subtle difference and one easily crossed over.
AFA hymns? Personally, I find that they have such power and are Scripture based and convey the words of Scripture. With many praise songs, not so much.
I will add that our whole congregation sings and do so very well. They also stand early in the music and rock God’s house.
One of the things I have noticed over the years is that people will sing with a choir but not so much with a praise team. The bigger the choir the better.
We lead the congregation in Worship rather than just presenting the Gospel. It is very different.
I don't know of any hymns or gospel songs that contain the word "sheave," which is a grooved wheel used in various types of machinery. However, the word "sheaves," the plural of "sheaf"--as in the gospel song "Bringing in the Sheaves--certainly has relevance:
But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
Micah 4:12
Ummm... Everybody?
A ‘sheave’ is a bundle of wheat stalks that have not had the grain removed. It is from the old days before combines, when the wheat was cut with a sythe, then bundled into armloads using a wheat stalk to tie the bundle and then taken to the threshing floor.
And the kids think that the shepards were dogs that came in from the hills, not know they were the folks who herded the sheep.
Personally, I don’t think the world has anything to compare to the ‘worship’ genre of music. ‘CCM’ was an OK landing place for me for a while, but today I turn on ‘christian radio’ and I don’t like the music. Maybe some consider Hillsong, Bethel, or many of the KC-IHOP musicians too much like CCM or ‘pop’ish, but I try to listen to worship music a lot. Driving to work, home from work, and while I am at work...