are you tired of simple worship songs?

Kim’s parents made the trek to Happy Valley this evening for Levi’s Master Singers Concert.  I know…you think your high school choir was the bomb-diggity.  I thought my musical background was pretty good.  Then I heard Levi’s choir crush songs like this and this.

When I was in high school I sang in a program called The Senior Showcase.  I was in the choir that did a big gospel number based off Galatians 6:9 (that was fun!) and I sang 2 solos: Buddy Holly’s That’ll Be the Day and Ronnie Milsap’s Lost in the 50’s Tonight.  Thankfully there is no video of that night–our video camera ran without a tape in it!

Tonight the Master Singers sang a wonderful mix of ancient and modern songs, some in languages we don’t even speak.  They sang them with emotion.  They sang them with authority.  They sang them with flair. Congratulations to Mr. Drafall and his staff, the students, and all who were involved in tonight’s concert. It was a gift fit for the season.

Interestingly, the choir director (Mr. Drafall) selected several pairs of songs for this program with the same title–same title, same text, different songs altogether.  My favorite was simply titled Alleluia.  No, not the one from Shreck. This one:

One simple word, repeated over and over and over…I’m sure that most of you know that the word is taken to mean “Praise the Lord” and you’ve likely heard songs with that word included in the lyrics. The piece by Ralph Manuel is so very different from any that I’ve heard, but I immediately was aware of the fact that tonight I heard some of the best voices in praise of the Almighty. I don’t know if most of them know that they are singing praise to God, but I am…

One of the knocks on contemporary worship songs is that they’re too simple, too simplistic, too repetitive…I don’t know what your take is on some of the simple, repetitive songs you may have heard in church. I realize that there is a world of difference between classical music and cheesy early 80’s Christian choruses. I’m not likely to pullout the old school chorus books or the overhead projector this week at midtown. But the intent is the same. The goal of the songwriter is to help people encounter God, to sing praise to the Father God who loves us. While I don’t want to go back to singing repetitive choruses in church, I do want to continue to examine and look for ways to help us encounter the God who is worthy of praise.