WorshipHelps

First, some words of introduction. This will serve not only to let you know something about me - Andrew Donaldson -- but also to introduce some of the subject areas that I am passionate about.

I am Pastoral Musician and Worship Enlivener (more on that title in a moment) at Trafalgar Presbyterian Church in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. I am currently President of the Hymn Society in the US and Canada.   And along with my wife, I am part of Hilariter, an inter-denominational group of singers and players, based in Toronto, Canada, committed to diversity in worship and to exploring the worship resources available from around the world.

I am a lapsed (and recently re-activated) percussionist with a background in choral music, composition and classical guitar. I'm also a student of the renaissance lute.

An unusual background for a church music director, I'll admit - or at least it was when I began directing church music in the early eighties. At my first congregation, Beaches Presbyterian Church in Toronto, we developed a music program that included "traditional" strophic hymns, world music, and original music written by congregational members, including myself.Continue reading...

Last week I finished writing a piece for Fuller Seminary's 3x-yearly magazine of theology & commentary, Theology News & Notes. This particular issue's theme is the place of music in worship, and I was asked to contribute a piece on the effect of technology on worship music. My thesis, simply put, is a truism borrowed from the computer industry -- hardware drives software:

As the church seeks to make the most of certain hardware technology – amplification, lyric projection, and looping DJ software, for example – we can expect that our worship software, i.e. the style of our worship itself, will also change. It may expand in potentially wonderful and creatively enculturated new ways, following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Or it may be narrowed in ways that are hip, but historically, and even theologically, suspect.

The article then examines the three aforementioned technologies, pointing out the good and the bad, the helpful and the heinous.

The idea for the piece arose arose out of a seed of an observation about hardware and software and the composition of some contemporary worship songs:Continue reading...