“One reason for the popularity of music with a beat is that, once public schools began to drop music from their curriculum, people found it more and more difficult to access styles of music removed from everyday experience. So they… — Brian A. Wren Copy Share Image
“On the basis of these definitions, hymns cannot do theology, even when the meaning of “reasoned enquiry” is broadened and qualified. 6 Their brevity… — Brian A. Wren Copy Share Image
“Tex Sample puts it thus: Our senses, our feelings, our bodies, and our ways of engaging life are culturally and historically structured. . . . I really am “wired differently” from my children and grandchildren. What speaks to me does not speak to them. What moves me, entertains me, touches me is not what does so to them. People of my age will not… — Brian A. Wren Copy Share
“Congregational singing requires proximity. “If I am more than three feet away from you, I don’t sing, because you might hear me. If I… — Brian A. Wren Copy Share Image
“this is a good rule of thumb: if you can’t hear the congregation, you are probably too loud” — Brian A. Wren Copy Share Image
“That is why, as Paul Westermeyer observes, “a group who sings together becomes one and remembers its story, and therefore who it is, in… — Brian A. Wren Copy Share Image
“To say that church music is a functional art means, on the contrary, that it is composed, played, and sung “ to serve the… — Brian A. Wren Copy Share Image
“Not all music should be functional. Any culture, and all cultural levels, need music that challenges conventions and pushes the boundaries. To say that… — Brian A. Wren Copy Share Image
“One reason for the popularity of music with a beat is that, once public schools began to drop music from their curriculum, people found… — Brian A. Wren Copy Share Image
“Informality—prepared and practiced informality, not ramshackle casualness—is a keynote of contemporary worship, and worship blossoms when worship space matches worship style.” — Brian A. Wren Copy Share Image
“If you accept my analysis, it follows that a “good congregational song” is one that is excellent and has integrity in terms of its… — Brian A. Wren Copy Share Image
