Interesting article on Keith Getty.
Keith Getty: Modern worship mov't is 'utterly dangerous,' causing 'de-Christianizing of God’s people'
Keith Getty: Modern worship mov't is 'utterly dangerous,' causing 'de-Christianizing of God’s people'
Keith Getty on Modern Worship Movement
- Thread starter Steve Owen
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Helen
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Very interesting read...and I agree 100%
Whenever I have mentioned this very same thing, I am told- "Oh you are behind the times, you are old fashioned."
( Amazing how 'old fashioned' worked for hundreds of years, and still works today!! :) )
The modern worship songs are very often watered down in regards to truth so that people can relate to them better. And I think that they who write have not much to say to people as it is so very formulaic so often. Just put the word Jesus in there ...sort of thing.
So then superficiality has entered into worship....but that should be no surprise really. It is a sign of the times.
When we sing modern worship songs we tend to change the lyrics.
For instance in the song "In Christ alone" where the lyric goes "the wrath of God was satisfied" we have changed it to..."the love of God was satisfied"... etc...
So if we like the song we just compel it to line up with the biblical reality. :)
So then superficiality has entered into worship....but that should be no surprise really. It is a sign of the times.
When we sing modern worship songs we tend to change the lyrics.
For instance in the song "In Christ alone" where the lyric goes "the wrath of God was satisfied" we have changed it to..."the love of God was satisfied"... etc...
So if we like the song we just compel it to line up with the biblical reality. :)
Wow. Like Helen I agree 100%. I've been saying the same for years and it's one of the reasons we don't go to church meetings anymore. I read the book called 'The Power of Praise and Worship' by Terry Law which pointed out that most of what we consider to be worship or praise songs are actually inward looking and all about 'me' instead of God.
The Church needs to wake up to the fact that a lot of the music it uses today is not inspired by the Holy Spirit. Many of the songs may be great on CDs for personal listening but are not at all helpful in a church environment. I glad you started this thread Steve, I think I may have started a similar one some time ago but it's good to keep repeating this message.
I don't suppose for a moment that Townend and Getty are going to slap a lawsuit on your church, but do you realise that you are breaking their copyright?
Some years ago PCUSA approached Townend and Getty asking if they could change the lyrics on In Christ Alone in their new hymn book from '....the wrath of God was satisfied' to '......the love of God was magnified.'. After taking advice from Alastair Begg, whose church they attend(ed?), they refused permission. Quite rightly so, in my view. Not that the love of God is not magnified at the cross, but because if God's wrath (righteous anger) against me for my sins is not satisfied at the cross, I am still under that wrath. Otherwise God cannot be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus (Romans 3:26).
We meet in homes so we are not a religious business like the churches out there that make money. We are not an incorporated church business. We don't have a name or publish a hymnal. In fact I'm humming a hymn right now...does that make me a lawbreaker? :)
If you sing a Christmas carol in your home...are you breaking copyright laws?
So then since Christians today are worldly...and think church and it's ministry is a business...they are under Mammon...not God.
But we are free from Mammon.
And you are wrong here too. God so loved the world....not God was so angry at the world.
Thanks, Pearl. :) You are absolutely right. So many modern worship songs are complete theological rubbish and centre on ME rather than on the Lord. The hymns of Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, John Newton & Co are so much more edifying. Having said that, there are some good ones, not least by Townend and Getty, and I am happy to sing them.
I also like that there are some good new modern settings of older hymns like Before the Throne of God above and How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds which have introduced these hymns to a new, younger audience. At a conference this week, I sang a new setting of There is a fountain filled with Blood, which I hope will give a new lease of life to that hymn also.
I hope you won't mind a small exhortation from me. You really need to be attending a church (Hebrews 10:25). I'm sure there must be an acceptable one within a reasonable distance.
You have entirely the wrong end of the stick. If Townend and Getty were after money, they would have allowed PCUSA to put their hymn in the hymn book. They sacrificed money by refusing to allow it.
And you, by altering their hymn are ascribing beliefs to them which they may not hold. How would you like people altering your posts on this board? You should ask for their permission, or does your sinless righteousness not stretch that far?
Ah! John 3:16. Not many people ever quote that verse ;) How about trying John 3:18?
God is angry at the world, and He is right to be so (Psalms 7:11). God's justice and His love have got to be reconciled in order to save sinners (cf. Psalms 85:10), and that happens at the cross.
It is up to you, if you don't like a song let the preacher and worship leader know and why. If they continue to use that song don't sing it, sit down and read the hymn book or bible and protest to them.
Have valid reasons why that song should not be played.
Pray for your musicians, that they will benefit spiritually from their service in playing, that they will be spiritually alert to what a song says and express their concerns, for grace to deal with the complaints from the congragtion about things they have no control over.
ditto pray for your worship leader(s) they same prayers.
Have valid reasons why that song should not be played.
Pray for your musicians, that they will benefit spiritually from their service in playing, that they will be spiritually alert to what a song says and express their concerns, for grace to deal with the complaints from the congragtion about things they have no control over.
ditto pray for your worship leader(s) they same prayers.
Helen
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Agree...
My old dad would have marched to the front and told the worship leader what he thought..when he was 90 he often made me cringe at a meeting,
he would often go to the preacher after it was over and 'put him straight' about something he had preached which dad felt was 'off'.
He always lamented that songs today were all about .."help ME lord" Change ME lord, etc etc and very little about the mightiness of God Himself.
If he didn't agree with the lyrics he would sing along in tune, but in tongues. ( and I would inwardly groan! lol )
Like you said...God either anoints a song, or He doesn't. He puts HIS seal of approval upon what was 'birthed' our of Himself...so many of todays songs sound just like secular songs and are not 'birthed' by God, but by a "good idea" of the writers.
Helen
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As it's your thread, I guess you can write what you like here :)
If that is what you believe..I fully disagree.
Jesus took the wrath of God upon Him...the full weight...
..Isaiah 53 " He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied"
The Last Lamb was Enough ...anything less and we do the agony and death of Jesus a great insult.
But that is not for this thread about songs.
I'm glad he didn't allow the copy-write to be changed..he got it right the first time. " the wrath of God was satisfied"
If you check out where Jesus stood up, took the scroll and read from Isaiah ...in Luke 4:18 Jesus says..quoting ISAIAH 61...
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. " And did NOT quote -"and the day of vengeance of our God" it says...
And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
I will butt out now...and back to topic :)
Both Ray and I spoke to the leader about the worship songs but were told that we shouldn'y live in the past.
Bless their hearts!!
I quit listening to most "Christian" radio and CCM a few years ago. It's all "I this" and "me that" I couldn't stand it. Now it's only Family Radio for me!
In a commercial music marketplace, what's played is what sells the most, and what sells the most is what panders to the masses. Not what calls us down the narrow road.
Much love!
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I so looked forward to getting a Christian radio station and at first it was on all the time but like you I stopped listening to it as it so bland.
I have this on a local broadcast, though kinda staticy, still better than anything else around here:
Family Radio Network (West)
Family Radio
Reformed in their teaching, but so true to the ministry to the saints I'm willing to overlook that.
Much love!
Brilliant, I thought I wouldn't be able to get it in the UK bit it's online.
I edited my last post to say I found it online. Thanks for the link.
I might add . . . they've begun in the past number of months to add in their own versions of some of the other music out there. It used to be almost all hymns, now they are mixing in other music, including instrumentals.
But they also have good blocks of just straight Bible reading.
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