Nov. 9, 2009 issue
Panel looks toward future of worship
Binational council holds first meeting
By Mennonite Church USA staffST. JACOBS, Ont. — What songs should be included in a new hymnal?
What new resources could be provided for worship leaders? How will the Internet and other technological changes affect the way people get and use music in the future?
Those were some of the questions raised at the first meeting of the Mennonite Binational Worship Council, which met Oct. 4-6 at St. Jacobs Mennonite Church.
The new council serves Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada. Sponsored by Mennonite Publishing Network, the council was created after a denominational hymnal consultation organized by MPN in April 2008.
The meeting began with an overview of worship and music resources available across North America. Examples include Leader magazine, worship materials used at national conventions and assemblies, courses taught at Mennonite seminaries and schools, materials provided by resource centers, regional worship events and the role of the 1992 Hymnal: A Worship Book and its supplements.
Council members then dreamed about new resources that could be offered to song and worship leaders. The list included suggestions such as:
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Holding more song- and worship-leading events in area conferences;
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Having conversations with Anabaptist musicians and composers who work primarily in the contemporary praise-and-worship genre; and
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Finding ways to include input about worship from racial and ethnic churches.
The council also discussed how electronic and technological changes will affect the transmission of worship and music resources and talked about ways to unleash the creativity of Mennonite composers, poets, visual artists and musicians.
Members of the council are Irma Fast Dueck of Manitoba, Mark Diller Harder of Ontario, Janet Trevino-Elizarraraz of Texas, Sara Wenger Shenk of Virginia and Randall Spaulding of Florida. Also on the council are Marlene Kropf of MC USA, David Bergen of MC Canada and Eleanor Snyder of MPN.
Comments
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Nice. Thanks. The 3rd paragraph says who sponsors the council but not who formed it.
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Good to hear some new music resources are coming our way. MY encouragement would be to make this resources vary in musical styles. We need to think of our worship resources through a missional grid. What types of music are people listening to in their everyday day lives, how can our church music engage them on a heart level. If our mennonite music resources continue to be narrow in style - no modern rock worship at all, we will become more cultural defined as mennonites and close ourselves off to many who connect with anabaptist theology but can't make the switch to Mennonite culture.
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For centuries the Church has been at the forefront of the music of the church and much of culture. It has produced some of the finest works of musical art and has inspired people in many walks of life. Today, we find that the church is trying to follow the World, sanitize the words, have voices accompany the heavy instrumentation, and say, "God, this is what we want and like, so BLESS IT!" What has made all this change?
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Is there a need to protect the "mennonite culture" so much as there is a need to promote the doctrine of Christ to a hurting world. The songbook should contain themes to help with leading congregations in worship. It should contain as broad a collection of much loved hymns and faster scripture choruses that have stood the test of time. It should contain some new songs - perhaps song solicited for the project expressly and show good congregational singing potential. Songs should not be so difficult that a piano or guitar player throws their hands up in despair. There is such a richness of resources available on the market that those churches wishing to incorporate more contemporary praise & worship into their services will be able to find those with no difficulty and use power point or overheads to bring them to their congregations. AS we know, hymnals do stay around churches for a long time, and it is best if not all the songs in it are known, as musicians and congregations like to find the new gems in them.
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