Hymns Are Old Burned Up Plastic Bottles
But before you unsubscribe, let me tell you a little story.
The other night, I was tucking my son into bed and noticed some trash on his bunk bed shelf. It was the remains of an old, burned-up plastic Coke bottle.
“Um, Aspen, what’s this trash doing here?”
“Dad, it’s not trash, it’s a treasure!”
And then it dawned on me what it was. This past summer, Aspen celebrated his 10th birthday by having a campout. We invited several friends and their Dads to join us for hotdogs by the campfire, crazy games running around in the dark with flashlights, sleeping together in one giant tent, and breakfast the following morning. It was an unforgettable experience! He was laughing, playing with friends, spending time with Dad, coming of age, testing his limits, enjoying s’mores, sleeping outside, and drinking soda – a rare treat!
And he had rescued this bottle from the fire embers as a keepsake. That’s why he keeps it on his shelf. He looks at it and is able to relive a remarkable moment in his life.
But the original purpose for that bottle wasn’t to be memorialized. It was to carry the content. The content had a purpose: refreshing. That was the intended function of the bottle. And now that its original purpose has passed, it has taken on another purpose.
The songs we use in worship are a lot like that bottle. Their purpose is twofold: carrying content (the Gospel, scripture, words expressing our worship and delight in God) that results in our worship. The song itself doesn’t mean much without the content and the result.
That’s why I said that hymns are old, burned-up plastic bottles. But don’t get uppity. So are 60’s Gaither songs, 70’s Maranatha songs, 80’s Integrity’s Hosanna! songs, 90’s Vineyard songs, 2000’s Hillsong songs, and the latest Elevation or Bethel songs. I could’ve called this Fertilizer “Modern Worship Songs Are Burned Up Plastic Bottles” and been just as accurate. Just less provocative.
It’s the content and the result that matters.
It’s easy to get all huffy about how “holy, rich, and deep” our cherished hymns are, or how “the current move of God in the earth,” or “real worship” our modern songs are. Oh, please, let’s be grownups here. Of course, we each have preferences regarding what music resonates with us. It’s MUSIC, after all! But don’t call one spiritual and the other not – no matter the style. It’s the content and result that matters.
But let’s talk about the result for a moment. There’s no denying that certain songs enable that desired result of worship more easily than others. Sometimes, it’s because, like my son, we have treasured memories attached to them. Maybe it was when you first came alive in your faith, so it’s either personally meaningful or you associate that style with “true spirituality.” Maybe you were going through a hard season, and the song itself was what God used to carry you through. Maybe it’s written in the musical and lyrical style most popular when you were in your formative twenties, so it’s in your native language. But it is deeply personal. Just like it is to the person standing next to you in worship, that may have no association or a negative association with the very same song.
In my church context, we use a wide range of song styles because we’re an intergenerational congregation. (acapella four-part hymn to the occasional Hillsong Y&F with tracks) So, we pick songs with good content that we think will produce the desired result (worship) in most of our congregation. And honestly, if I didn’t think that my congregation would be drawn into worship with hymns, I’d hardly do any of them. They’re just not my native language. But I make it a point to use hymns for 2-3 of our 6-7 songs each week.
Which is where it gets interesting. It’s much easier to say, “As a church, this is where we’re heading – we do modern music. If you don’t like it, just go to the old church down the street…they still have a choir.” Or “We have a traditional and a contemporary service so our people can choose.” (read: we have two congregations that happen to meet in the same building) But what if we would do all styles as an opportunity for the necessary discipleship to “sharpen our iron?”
Because if we can take the “spirituality” of our music preference off the table and call it our preference, then we can get to the heart of the issue: Discipleship and Maturity.
Can we be mature and loving enough to walk as disciples together and not do everything that’s our first preference all the time? Oh, how un-American.
And do you mean to tell me that you “can’t worship” with the hymns or the rock and roll worship? To reframe this Craig Groeschel’s way, if you feel this way, I think nobody has led you to worship with hymns or rock and roll worship. If your worship leader hasn’t done this for you yet, it may be up to you to lead yourself.
But by all means, let’s not worship the shelves full of old, burned-up plastic bottles and miss the whole point.
-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)
Hymns Are Old Burned Up Plastic Bottles (Nº 102)
