D.S. al Coda: Go to the Sign of the Cross, Then proceed to the End

The following is an article I just read by Don Chapman who is the arranger of all the "Hymncharts" that I love to use in worship sometimes.  I agree with his explanation of how pop music has affected the music of the church, but please read my comment at the bottom that I submitted to his article. How Church Choirs Are Changing by Don Chapman For literally hundreds of years, back to Bach, choirs led and performed church music in SATB four part harmony: Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. This SATB format can be seen in your hymnal. If you’ve ever read my “HymnCharts manifesto” you know this was one of the first problems I discovered when I became a music director for the first time – praise bands (specifically guitars) can’t play SATB music because the chords usually change on just about every beat. Pop music has drastically changed the musical landscape of the Church in the past twenty years. Chord progressions propelled music in the past, rhythm propels today’s music. And

The worship of our God, the only true God, YHVH, the Great “I Am,” has almost 6,000 years of history which from its beginning God let us know how He desires to be worshipped.   One of the primary ways that God instigated for worship was the sacrifice.   There are a number of Hebrew words for “sacrifice”, but one word used to designate something that is to be sacrificed is the word “Korban” which literally means “to draw near”.   This gives us a clue as to the purpose of the sacrifice which is to be able to draw near to God and Him to draw near to us.   The altar of sacrifice is a meeting place, so to speak, between God and His people. Of course, the ultimate sacrifice became God’s very own Son, Jesus, through whom we truly can be near our God by the indwelling of His Spirit. But even though the animal sacrifice system and the Temple is not there now, there remains the principle of sacrifice in worship which will please God.   So what kind of sacrifice do you bring to worship?