Yes, in Christian worship, we must never cast away the old treasures (good old Hymns in traditional music) and enjoy only the new treasures (contemporary and 'pop' Christian songs and choruses). Unfortunately, in many churches, the extreme is adopted... either keeping the 'old treasure' and throwing away the `new treasure', or vice-versa.

The Traditional Worship Service

Most traditional and so-called 'conservative' churches usually sing only the good old hymns of days gone by set to stately and majestic accompaniment or classical tunes. These wonderful hymns are truly great in devotional and spiritual content; especially helpful when one goes through times of sorrow, discouragement, failure, or even death. They include great hymns like 'What a Friend we have in Jesus' ... 'Amazing Grace' ... 'Rock of Ages' ... etc. If Christian worship excludes the singing of such great hymns, it will indeed be a sad case ... missing out the good `old treasures' of these great majestic hymns. On the other hand, to sing just these hymns without singing the lively contemporary Christian songs (new treasures) would also be missing out on something wonderful.

The Contemporary or lively Worship Service usually adopts modern and 'pop' songs and choruses ... made famous by worship leaders like Don Moen, Ron Kenoly, etc.... These songs include great contemporary hits like 'God Will Make a Way' (Don Moen) ... 'Shout to the Lord' (Darlene Zschech) ... 'Our God is an Awesome God' (Rich Mullins) ... and choruses like ... 'Majesty' (Jack Hayford) ... 'God is the strength of my heart' (Eugene Greco) ... etc. In a Contemporary Worship Service, 'hot' and 'loud' or so-called 'victorious' songs are usually sung and led by a powerful worship leader, backed by full-blast band, drums and percussion with electric guitars or organs thrown in. In Singapore, almost all 'Charismatic' churches like City Harvest Church are singing the Contemporary and 'pop' Christian songs, but have completely left out the `good old hymns'. It would also be wrong to classify all contemporary lively singing as belonging to the Charismatic churches. As a matter of fact, any church can adopt the Contemporary Lively Worship style, which is more appealing to the young people of today. To say that such lively worship is 'charismatic' is a misnomer indeed.

Some churches like the Wesley Methodist Church in Singapore conduct 2 types of Worship Services at the same time, i.e., the Traditional Worship Service goes on in the main sanctuary while the Contemporary `charismatic' Worship Service takes place in another hall. This dichotomy of worship services is neither complete nor perfect since it deprives one group of people of either the 'old' or 'new' treasures. To strike a balance between the extremes of these two Worship styles mentioned above, a better or more complete method is what I propose to call the `Contemporary Traditional Service.' I remember once pastoring a small English-speaking church, and we experimented with this style of worship. It was appealing to both the young and old members. In such a worship service, the singing was divided into 2 parts of equal duration. The first part of the singing was devoted to the singing of inspiring, loud and joyful contemporary songs. This was followed by the second part of the singing session, which included devotional and edifying hymns of past and present.

© Copyright James Cheong 1999. Feel free to send your questions and comments; the author may be reached through Worship World.