If we teach our children only by choruses and do not give equal weight to the strong, meaty hymns of the Faith, we may be spiritually damaging their generation. To intimidate these hymns of the Faith by saying “they are too deep and way over the heads of our young people” is to say we have a better way of producing a Christian than our forefathers had. Children of earlier days had their spiritual teeth cut on those hymns, and such music became the bedrock for building mature, godly lives. . . .we never want chorus singing to take the place of hymn singing, for the child will unconsciously think the hymns are more for the adults. This may be a growing problem with the concept of “Children’s Church” on Sunday morning: it splits up the family in worship before God, and tends to imply to the child that they are too young for the worship in the sanctuary.
Dr. H.T. Spence, Confronting Contemporary Christian Music, pg.144. Cited by David W. Cloud, Contemporary Christian Music Under the Spotlight, pg.35
Yes.
ReplyDelete-Carolyn
i wholeheartedly agree. I'm so thankful I was never sent off to a worship service away from my mother. As a child I drew inspiration from hearing my mother's beautiful voice sing ALL the verses of those hymns. I learned many by heart at an early age. My own children sat in adult services as well. Now the church where I attend has someone assigned each Sunday to lead in children's church. It is up to the parents to be wise in this area. My thoughts are families should be together, hear the pastor's sermon (for discussion later), learn to sing, sit still, and be well behaved in a church setting. I do not necessarily like the Sunday morning segregation!
ReplyDeleteKathryn
Kathryn,
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly. Our children sat with us from the beginning.
Glenn, as you know, I have been posting commentaries about hymns for about two years. One fascinating thing that I have discovered, in my research, is that Children's Hymns in the past were so much deeper, more substantive and doctrinally sound than the musical junk produced for children today. I have labeled them, on my blog, as "Children's Songs."
ReplyDeleteSo far, I have found these six: Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us, I Sing the Mighty Power Of God, Now Thank We All Our God, May the Mind of Christ, My Savior, Alleluia, Alleluia! Give Thanks to the Risen Lord, and, Holy Bible, Book Divine.
Those were children's song!?!? WOW!!!!
ReplyDelete