Another Baptist pastor in England, Benjamin Keach, had a very different understanding of singing in worship and the use of hymns, and he helped English Baptists to see the value of congregational singing.
In 1673, he persuaded his church to sing a hymn at the close of the Lord's Supper, allowing those who opposed this to leave before the singing began. Six years later, his church agreed to sing a hymn on public days of thanksgiving, and fourteen years after that, his church agreed to sing a hymn as part of worship every Sunday.
In all, it took 20 years for him to convince his congregation that singing hymns was a worthwhile addition to worship services. Even so, 22 of his members left when the hymn singing was instituted, and they joined a non-singing church.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
On the Long History of Baptist Worship Wars
Pam Durso, Associate Executive Director of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, has written a brief essay on the long history of Baptist worship wars. Posted on Ethics Daily, it provides a valuable resource for putting controversies over changing styles of worship and music in perspective. Here's a quote:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I wonder what the first century Christians would think about our worship today? We really have a way of taking something pure and beautiful and making it into something for us to fight about. They worshipped in private homes, took up money to give to the poor, treated all in their group as family, broke bread together in communion with each other and in remembrance of Him, etc.. It seems as soon as man became involved, the problems started. I take heart in the fact that God knew it was coming, and sent His Son anyway.
Post a Comment