A Proper Army Meeting

[velvetpage]

After going to this particular Salvation Army church for five years, this is one of the first really good Army meeting I've ever attended there.

It started with one of the great old hymns, "Crown Him with Many Crowns", which I've loved since before I could read all the words. It had a praise and worship time, which normally I don't like, but today they did an updated version of another old favourite, "Send the Fire" (which is not really the pyromaniac song that the title would indicate.) Then they did a few prayer choruses, leading into a hymn that I missed because I was out with the baby, but it was another old standard. The sermon was well done, and used one specific text rather than jumping around the way the usual pastor does. The final hymn was one that made me regret not having my timbrel present; upbeat, lots of clapping, sending people off on a good note. I haven't sung that one in at least ten years. Of course, the reason I never bring my timbrel is that we so rarely sing songs where I could play it, that it isn't worth carting it around. In fact, I'm not even sure where it is. No one else had one either, which was a shame. We even had a sung benediction, which nobody sang because they weren't told to by the CSM who led the last song; it was in the order of service, however, so when the band played it, I sang. My dad used to use that benediction all the time.

There's a problem when people look forward to the regular officer taking a vacation in order to get a proper service. On the plus side, our regular officer was there, out of uniform, sitting in the congregation, so he saw how it was done.

Our usual officer takes all but one hymn out of the new praise and worship songs. Now, I have nothing against these in a certain context, but they should not be replacing the great hymns of the church. Most of these praise and worship songs don't actually say that much, and what they do say is often poorly written. Among other things, I miss the poetry of the old hymns.

In any case, I enjoyed the service today, and I hope the usual officer does start taking some hints from the people who enjoyed today's service, and bring back some of the old ways.

Comments

[anidada.livejournal.com]

I hope your regular pastor was taking notes! :D It sounds like a wonderful time. The old songs have resonance -- I suppose any that didn't never made it this far, come to think of it...

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

When I look back at my life, I realize that one of the main motivations for learning to read was so that I could sing along in church. And the huge vocabulary I used, even as a child, was in large part a result of those wonderful old hymns. It makes me very sad to think that today's kids are growing up with that much less literary heritage, because either they don't go to church or their church is using silly, insipid, repetitive and theologically questionable "praise and worship" songs instead of real hymns. Even the name is wrong - praise is a form of worship, they can't be separated like that.

This, by the way, is my standard rant about my church. :)

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Heh. I can understand that.

My favourite is still Amazing Grace -- it makes a great lullaby, too. :)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Ever tried Blessed Assurance? My mom sings a lullaby about a pony to that melody, and I distinctly remember telling her, at the top of my lungs of course, that we were singing the wrong words to it in church! Now, of course, I sing whichever lyrics come into my head first.