Many Christians aren’t familiar with what Hermeneutics is. Well, its the art and science of rightly observing, interpreting and applying the Word of God. The whole aim of hermeneutics is to give the reader of the Bible, the history, skills, and tools for arriving at a more certain interpretation of any given passage or verse. Its not an abstract idea, its very biblical – its something the more erudite people from Scripture have long practiced (eg. Daniel & the Apostle Paul) and many down the history of the church have done.

Imagine reading a passage from Leviticus and wondering, “Why does it say that? Why isn’t God’s name mentioned in the Book of Ester? What does Phil 2:6-8 have to teach us about Christ Jesus? How do you interpret one of Jesus’ parable?” Then you might want to brush up on 2 Tim 2:15:

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

I’ve been fortunate to do a course in Hermeneutics with Prairie Bible College’s distance education program run in Australia. There were many assignments, two books, one syllabus workbook and 2 exams designed to drive you to the Bible text, learn biblically how to “divide it right” and interact with what God our Creator has had to say. Thankfully its over now and hope I’ve done well.

Sounds good? Then hit them to do the course. Or buy this totally un-affiliated primer DVD from Way of the Master called “Hermen Who?” which would be a great help to anyone not familiar with how to study the Bible correctly.

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Had enough with the same old, same old? Fed up with the usual emotional, its all about me, “i’m so needy”, theological-dogs-breakfast music we hear on many Christian radio stations?  My wife, Lyndell, reckons that once you’ve heard one you’ve heard em all. Well, here to rescue your playlist are a pile of free Christian downloads that are legitimate giveaways by the artists, ministry or church. This should keep you singing for a while:

Kleinwood Church

If you like traditional hymns, song well by a large congregation then you will really enjoy this. Go check out the hymns song at Kleinwood Church. There’s 8 years of their annual singing available to everyone to enjoy. I’ve paid for the Dallas Christian Adult Concert Choir from iTunes and their performance is matched by Kleinwood, albeit the production level is slightly inferior — but only slightly.

Downhere

Canadian band, from the “Ending Is Beginning” album comes “My Last Amen” MP3 song which can be downloaded for free at the moment from Downhere’s promo page.

Mars Hill Church

A bunch of music recorded at Mars Hill Church, Seattle by various performers and bands, all quite different. Download free mp3’s by band:

• Mint
• E-Pop
• The Brothers Of The Empty Tomb – Songs and Psalms in jazz & soul style.
• The Northern Conspiracy
• Sons of Thunder
• Red Letter
• Ex Nihilo
• Team Strike Force
• Other bands who no longer play.

Sovereign Grace Music

A bit more mainstream Christian contemporary music and arrangement of old hymns. All up, they do a tremendous job in making very serious Christian music.

• What a Savior by Na Band – Arrangement of Philip Bliss’s classic hymn.
• All I Have Is Christ
• I Have a Shelter
• Let Your Kingdom Come
• Glory be to God
• Praise the Lord
• You Are Good

Stephen Simpson

My cousin who goes by the name “Homespun” has 3 very fine offerings on his myspace page. Go Stavros!

iGrace Music

“Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) is proud to be able to share with the church at large, some of the rich music that has developed within our various chapters over the last 25 years.” Go to iGrace Music homepage and browse through the mostly hymns, which they have arranged with sheet music and chords etc. Many free MP3 to be scored here.

Sojourn Music

Haven’t really vetted all of these songs nor even listened to all of these yet. Sojourn Music describe themselves as “New songs for modern missional worship, rich in Christian teaching and contextualized in modern culture. Contemporary hymns, psalms, songs of lament and praise written by members of the Louisville, KY-based Sojourn Community.” Take a scobe around the site and enjoy their numerous free mp3 downloads.

• The whole “Songs For The Advent” album can be downloaded as a giveaway.
• 3 x songs by Brooks Ritter on this blog post. Ritter’s song “Hymn of a Changed Heart” [direct link to the mp3] sounds really good.
• 4 x Mp3’s free to download from the “Before the Throne” album.
• “Let Justice Roll Like A River” mp3 from Sojourn’s Worship Music Set List For Sunday Morning, July 27, 2008.
• 4 x MP3’s free to download from the “These Things I Remember” album

Free Church of Scotland

And to finish, a selection of Psalms as song by the Free Church of Scotland, voices only.

Messianic music

Okay so the style is a bit kooky on some of these songs but Jews for Jesus are giving away 4 albums for free — they’ve zipped them up for easy download on the music page.

• Behold Your God
• David’s Hope
• Messianic Joy
• This is Jerusalem
• Times and Seasons

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I love this hymn, its words and this arrangement. Very very good. It can be a really struggle in some churches – the music that is. What do we sing and in what style do we sing it? To what I know of, of course, its really only a problem that churches in Western countries or Western-looking countries seem to struggle with. However, for the most part (and at times only just) I’m glad to still be sing hymns in a fairly traditional, organ n’ piano style although I do wish we’d give the style a lift. I want to take a moment to think about this.

Take for example this problem: artistic abilities. What are the chances (or should I say providence) that each church here in Australia or in the UK or America will have in their gathering, a decent 6 piece contemporary band? Usually to be soft-rock and contemporary you’ll need a keyboard, drummer, bass, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, lead singer, 1 or 2 backing vocals and maybe someone shaking a tambourine. Pretty slim I think from my experience. I suppose I’m working from the premise of, ‘a job worth doing is a job worth doing well.‘  BTW: The same goes for the organ-n-piano-only brigade – if you’re gonna play in that style, then it’d better be good. If you’re going to sing unaccompanied shouldn’t it also be done well as onto the Lord?

So if singing praise to the Lord isn’t all tightly wound up in the quality of the performance then it only matters how? The response of our hearts? Yes but not entirely perhaps.

Here some of my thoughts and principles which I hold to be true:

• The Lord Jesus himself said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24
• Traditional does not automatically equal biblical; neither does contemporary automatically equal true, vibrant worship.
• Musical style and doctrinal emphasis are bound to be expressed differently from one culture to another and from church to another – and there should be Christian liberty enough to allow for that.
• Musical style and doctrinal content of songs is an issue worth examining in order to see how we can do better.
• We need to be aware that different people have varying taste and there are real and actual distinctions between the tastes of generations.
• When believers gather together to break bread or hear teaching from God’s word it is for believers, not unbelievers.
• The leadership of the church should be making the decisions on music.
• In matters of style music should be convey key doctrinal truth.
• Some songs should be about God objectively i.e what God says about Himself.
• Some songs should be about our corporate response to God.
• Some songs should be about our individual response to God.
• Music style and words should sometimes be lofty and grand.
• Musical style should take backseat to the words!
• Musical style should avoid being glib, frivolous, trite or hackneyed.
• Musical style should avoid being overly repetitious. Whilst it is true that there is an acceptable level of repetition found in Scripture (Psalm 136) we should mantra-like repeating of vacuous lines in our own songs.
• Some musical styles should be avoided altogether (such as trance, really heavy rock) because could they convey to us about God?
• We’ve all got favorites but particular songs should not be endlessly over-sung.
• The musical performers must be believers if they are leading the congregation in worship to God.
• The musical performance should be as good as possible.
• In regards to the singing, believers should invest time and energy in getting better at singing.
• The musical performers must not be unnecessarily distracting.
• The local assembly should strive to make strike a good balance between time/importance put on music practice and teaching/preaching.
• The doctrinal level of the songs should follow along with the level of maturity that the teaching is at.
• Should avoid being exclusive in choice of songs. So hymns and Psalms should not be neglected in favor of “Hillsong“/soft rock songs only. All hymns and “contemporary” songs should be evaluated on the basis of their doctrinal merit and musical style. Bear in mind, some hymns are rather poor in the doctrinal front but are popular among older generations.
• Surely the Holy Spirit of God still inspires (in a non-revelatory way) wonderful, doctrinally rich and powerful songs & hymns in the midst of our time.
• Surely a church that is writing its own doctrinally rich and true songs written in response to the teaching from the word of God is healthy.

What do you think? Have you say in the comments.

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