Why Johnny can't sing hymns

Why Johnny can't preach rather passed me by but now T David Gordon has another book out on the problem of modern singing in church. Called Why Johnny can't sing hymns, it is subtitled "How Pop Culture Re-Wrote the Hymnal".

The book is quite personalised and chiefly descriptive but there is a clear agenda - to decry the modern trend for using exclusively contemporary praise. (I was staggered, by the way, that at the Extra Time meeting we sang Before the throne of God to the modern tune - a song that has been done to death even for me with my sheltered existence. There was also a Townend/Getty and one by the Cooks).

I would be broadly in agreement with Dr Gordon's outlook although because the book is written from a sociological point of view and has little by way of exegesis few would want to line up with every statement he makes. The book's strength is in the alarm call it gives to those immersed in the contemporary praise movement, to consider again just what they are doing. If Dr Gordon is right that the modern idiom is ill equipped to convey serious and soul-searching messages then the sooner we back away from this the better. I particularly liked the way he argued not against pop music as such but against its use (or certainly its over-use) in worship. As he suggests, I think that the folk idiom is the one best suited to Christian worship with some limited room for classical and pop.

Do get hold of a copy if you can and read it. It is an easy read and a good contribution to the current debate (or lack of it as is too often the case).