I go to a nursing home during the Sunday School hour at our church and lead the folks in singing. Today there were eighteen. Some Sundays quite a few more. We only sing familiar gospel songs and hymns. Some do not sing at all. One wonders if they understand anything happening at this gathering. Others participate in everything. One little lady, I think she is 90 plus, has very little to say. She comes early and gets her favorite spot. She has beautiful white hair and a kindly face, but almost nothing to say......but when we start singing I watch her lips and she sings almost every song by memory. Not sure any sound is coming out, but I am certain the right words are being mouthed. She isn't the only one who does this. Then we have some who obviously were never exposed to the gospel songs and hymns of a church. They have no song.
I wondered this morning about all those folks who worship in settings with no hymnals. They look at words on a big screen. There is a similarity in most songs sung. Will they have something to sing in later years in a setting like where I was this morning? Maybe so, but I don't know. The reason I know so many hymns and songs is that we sang them over and over through childhood and youth and adult years. They became implanted in mind and heart. Some of them are associated with special events and services. Many of them come from experiences an author has shared. I don't even have a chance to know who wrote the contemporary praise songs so many use.
I am not "opposing". No, not at all. I am simply calling for some balance. Some old with the new. A full spiritual music education should have some great hymns and gospel songs involved.
What will you be singing fifty years from now...if you are?
