Church,
I have been leading worship here at Living Hope for nearly 13 years. Hands down, Throwback Sunday will go down as one of my all-time favorite worship-leading moments. You sang so loud that I couldn’t hear myself sing! It was fun to dust off some older praise songs, and many of you expressed your appreciation for the opportunity to relive the worship of a bygone era.
One of the key principles that unites us in worship here at Living Hope is the mingling of historic and contemporary expressions of worship. The following appears in our Worship Team Handbook.
“No church or service can be all things to all people. The worship expressions of God’s people throughout the centuries vary greatly. The generations are not united by their varied expressions but by the truth of the Gospel that runs throughout the whole of redemptive history. Therefore, we will worship in Gospel-infused expressions of our generation and include historic and other cultural expressions as much as is possible and beneficial.”
Well, it was clearly beneficial to sing some of the best praise songs of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Why? Because the truth of the Gospel transcends time, and our affections for particular genres tether that truth to our hearts in a special way. As Bob Kauflin says, “Worship is for God in its ends and us in its means.”
Here at Living Hope, we will continue to worship in the Gospel-infused expressions of our generation and include historic and other cultural expressions because the hymns of old, the praise songs of our youth, and the culturally prevalent music of our day are all valuable when they’re infused with the timeless truth of God’s word.
Keep up the great singing,
Pastor Dan
An Evangelical Free Church