"...let’s commit together to make an enduring impact on the history of church music by continually developing ourselves. Steward the gift. God, the giver of good gifts, has given us time and opportunity. Let’s not waste it." - P&D
"The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada announced the winner on Thursday (July 18), the last day of its annual conference in Dallas." - RNS
"Andy Crouch, in his excellent book, Culture Making, ties the Western classical tradition to the creation blessing/mandate of Genesis 1. I think he is right: the tradition we have been handed is the result of God’s blessing humanity with the impulse to take the raw elements of creation and make them into something refined, something that makes life better for humanity." - Mark Ward
"[S]inging is not just a vertical act, but also a horizontal one. Of course we sing to God, but we also sing for one another. God is the object of our worship, but our singing is also a means of mutual encouragement." - Challies
Review of The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock ’n’ Roll - Christianity Today
Read Part 1.
At this point someone will certainly raise the objection that judging music is terribly subjective. For example, some musicians have taken traditional hymn texts and reset them in a contemporary style. Who is qualified to say whether the older or the newer style better accords with the truths in these texts? If serious and devout people cannot agree on these issues, is that not an indication that these are merely matters of opinion? There are several answers here.
Sustained disagreement, even among sincere believers, is far from an adequate reason to declare a matter to be mere preference.
Surely we realize that in matters of doctrine and practice, Christians of tremendous intelligence and piety have unresolved differences. The fact that such disagreements have not been settled—and show little prospect of ever being settled before the return of our Lord—does not justify our concluding that there is no truth of the matter. While reasons may exist for thinking that music is a matter of preference, a lack of consensus alone is not one of those reasons.
Scripture itself calls us to make exactly these kinds of judgments, and our progress in them is a decisive mark of spiritual maturity.
"Father Ogalo says he was simply trying to 'bring the youth closer to the church,' in an interview with local media." CNN
