Middle music

Steve Thorngate has this article at Sojourners. He talks about the middle ground to be found between the poles of exclusively traditional worship music and the pop contemporary music used by some congregations. His contention is that there is plenty of music that melds the two poles right in the middle: refreshing lyrics, contemporary harmonies, awareness of inclusivity and social issues.

I'd like to think we are trodding this middle way in both services. You are as likely to hear a Cameroon worship song as a Vaughan Williams motet at 11AM worship; you're as likely to hear Taize as Chris Tomlin at FirstLight.

Thorngate uses Marty Haugen's Holden Evening Prayer service as a jumping off point. I encountered this at the Worship & Music conference this summer. Apparently Haugen's non-seasonal work has gotten a lot of play during Lent. Haugen has therefore recently released a prayer service specifically for Lent. Thorngate make reference to someone I had not encountered before. Give a listen to what Charless Pettee is doing with the Psalms!

We will be holding four special evening services this fall: a Taize/Iona service, a healing service, our Thanksgiving service, and a "blue" Christmas service. I hope to explore some of these divergent musical resources for these services. Do keep an eye out for them and plan to attend for the worship of course but also to explore the rich diversity of contemporary worship music.