About This Project
A great shift has taken place in Christian worship, and I played my part in contributing to it.
About 30 years ago I was new on staff at First Alliance Church in Lexington, KY. It was the beginning of the 'worship team' era, and I knew that our church would respond to what was emerging in contemporary Christian music if given the chance.
They did and the church grew. Our worship team also took off and grew into three rotating teams. There was some marvelous worship band-style music emerging in the Body of Christ and we were eager to use it all. Since then the production of 'worship music' has become rather overwhelming, and not necessarily in a good way.
A lot of years have passed, and it is coming home to me that the flood of contemporary Christian music has washed the grand heritage of great Christian hymns to the weedy banks. There is a vast store of traditional music which has been tested by time and is very rich in its content. The music is often glorious as well, preserving a stately majesty that we really need to help balance out the feel-good beat of Christian 'rock'.
Although a big proponent of the Christian worship band for many years, I grew up playing the old hymns in church. When you play through hymns regularly you read them and feel them in a very deep way. I have found myself returning to this great treasure of older 'psalms, hymns and spiritual songs', and wanting to find a way to say that this is something that we not only should not lose; Ii is a great source of spiritual wealth bequeathed to us from our Christian heritage and identity that we should continue to drink from deeply.
Not every hymn seems to have the same lasting value. Thousands upon thousands have been written. Between just Fanny Crosby and Charles Wesley alone were composed nearly 15,000 hymns! The same goes for the ceaseless output of 'contemporary' Christian music. But the Body of Christ tends to recognize the ones that capture a vibrant and substantial biblical message in word and tune. Those, we should draw into our minds and hearts and know well. There is a spiritual power in the lasting hymns and songs of both of these strands of worship music styles. I believe we need to not be forced to choose one or the other, but draw from both in regular worship. Let's be careful to preserve our heritage while at the same time judiciously adding to it what represents well the Truth and Beauty of our Lord.Jesus
About 30 years ago I was new on staff at First Alliance Church in Lexington, KY. It was the beginning of the 'worship team' era, and I knew that our church would respond to what was emerging in contemporary Christian music if given the chance.
They did and the church grew. Our worship team also took off and grew into three rotating teams. There was some marvelous worship band-style music emerging in the Body of Christ and we were eager to use it all. Since then the production of 'worship music' has become rather overwhelming, and not necessarily in a good way.
A lot of years have passed, and it is coming home to me that the flood of contemporary Christian music has washed the grand heritage of great Christian hymns to the weedy banks. There is a vast store of traditional music which has been tested by time and is very rich in its content. The music is often glorious as well, preserving a stately majesty that we really need to help balance out the feel-good beat of Christian 'rock'.
Although a big proponent of the Christian worship band for many years, I grew up playing the old hymns in church. When you play through hymns regularly you read them and feel them in a very deep way. I have found myself returning to this great treasure of older 'psalms, hymns and spiritual songs', and wanting to find a way to say that this is something that we not only should not lose; Ii is a great source of spiritual wealth bequeathed to us from our Christian heritage and identity that we should continue to drink from deeply.
Not every hymn seems to have the same lasting value. Thousands upon thousands have been written. Between just Fanny Crosby and Charles Wesley alone were composed nearly 15,000 hymns! The same goes for the ceaseless output of 'contemporary' Christian music. But the Body of Christ tends to recognize the ones that capture a vibrant and substantial biblical message in word and tune. Those, we should draw into our minds and hearts and know well. There is a spiritual power in the lasting hymns and songs of both of these strands of worship music styles. I believe we need to not be forced to choose one or the other, but draw from both in regular worship. Let's be careful to preserve our heritage while at the same time judiciously adding to it what represents well the Truth and Beauty of our Lord.Jesus
Who I Am |
My name is Grant Fox, and I am a retired pastor. I also own and operate ArrowWood Media. The church organ was my first musical love and since retiring from pastoring I find myself returning to it. I am currently serving as volunteer organist at Forest Park Baptist Church in Bowling Green, KY.
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My History |
Having somehow developed an interest in piano at an early age, I was plinking around on pianos every chance I got in my home church, Ashland Avenue Baptist in Lexington, KY. I was also drawn toward the organ -- can't explain why, but my mother told me I had to first master the piano, then we would talk about organ lessons.
By the time I was thirteen I was experimenting with the old Hammond organ at our church. After a few years of enduring my playing my mom decided I really needed to get some lessons. In spite of having a total lack of musical sense she somehow got me connected with a graduate student in organ at the University of Kentucky when I was in the tenth grade. John Alexander was my teacher for two years. He was organist at Calvary Baptist in Lexington where they had a magnificent Mohler pipe organ. I don't think at that point I had any idea what a pipe organ was. All I knew was that when I heard him play it I thought the heavens had parted and the glory of God was about to descend. I was hooked, to say the least. John went on to much greater things, having become Artistic Director of the internationally acclaimed Pacific Chorale, a position which he held for 45 years. When he left at the end of my junior year in high school, he connected me with Arnold Blackburn, Chairman of the Organ Department at UK, and choirmaster of Christ Church Episcopal in Lexington from 1949 to 1964. Dr. Blackburn became my organ teacher for the next three years, studying on the Holtkamp organ in Memorial Hall. While born and bred in the Baptist fold (that was Baptist with a capital 'B', by the way), both of my organ teachers were Episcopalians who had no earthly idea there was any other organ style than what was used in the Episcopal/Anglican tradition. It is quite magnificent, I have to say, and a good bit of it rubbed off on me even as I brought what I was learning back to the organ at Ashland Avenue. I became kind of a peculiar blend of Anglican and Baptist musical styles in my seven-year tenure as organist in my home church. Upon feeling called into full-time ministry, I went on from there to Liberty University (then Lynchburg Baptist College) and ultimately Dallas Theological Seminary where I earned a ThM in systematic theology. Most of my ministry life was spent in word ministry, but I always had my fingers in music one way or another and am delighted to be back these days on the organ at Forest Park Baptist. |