Durable Hymns Donald Williams Analysis

Music is an inseparable element of Black life and therefore Black worship. The Black Church understands worship to be a communal act of adoration towards God that may involve praise or petition via song, dance, music (use of instruments), recitation, meditation, chanting, and or prayer (Mason, 2016). According to James Cone, Black music is unity music because it unites…the hope and despair;…and it moves the people towards the direction of total liberation; and confronts the individual with the truth of black existence and affirms that black being is possible only in the communal context (p. 5). It is with this understanding that black people worship through music and without this understanding worship and music are diluted. J. Wendell Mapson articulated this idea in his book, The Ministry of Music in the Black Church, when he noted that purpose of worship is forfeited when singing music that has no relationship to everyday life, and the worshipper becomes disconnected from the way music and worship have historically served blacks (41). In this same vain, James Cone asserted that Black music is theological because it reveals how God moves people towards unity and self-determination.

Sometimes there is a situation that one is dragged in to, such as some type of accident. For example, Mitchell Stephens is one of the narrators in “The Sweet Hereafter” by Russell Banks. In his side of the story, he is a lawyer from New York who heard about a bus accident in Sam Dent where ten children died in a bus crash. Mitchell is also the one lawyer representing Risa Walker and her husband in a negligence suit that financially compensated them for the loss of their son Sean. Mitchell is not only just a lawyer like many others but also had more experience. He sympathizes with the parents who lost their children in the accident because like these parents who lost their children he also has a daughter Zoe, who is he can consider dead due to her drug problem. To this reason, Mitchell Stephen has the most to gain by telling his tale to the reader because he seeks to relieve himself from his grief and to help future children riding to school who do not have to come to the same fate as others in the accident.

Gospel music has always been a good outlet for me. It has also spoken to me and gave me answers nothing nor anyone else could. It helps me connect to my roots and remember who to turn to in a desperate time of need. The most important songs have helped through the darkest times in life. One song that stands out to me and lifts me up is Greater is Coming by Jekalyn Carr. This is a song that supports me while going through obstacles, staying optimistic, and overcoming obstacles.

When I was reading the book Jesus Made in America by Stephen J. Nicholas, I came across a very interesting chapter titled “Jesus on Vinyl”. This chapter discussed in detail the state of the use of Jesus in contemporary music from the 1950s up to the current times. Back 3in the 1950s there were contemporary artists who putting out albums of hymns, like Johnny Cash’s Hymns of Johnny Cash. Not surprisingly, the most significant time for Christian gospel music was during the hippie era in the 1960s. During that time, gospel, youth, and music had merged together into songs that preached about Christ and love. Many people became Christians during that time to protest the ongoing war in Vietnam so it would make sense that they would start to make that a main topic in the music of that time.

In chapter 5, it was about how to get students to learn and to help them be better decision makers. They also wanted you to understand how to understand changes in a way to solve messy problems. It was a way to solve ill-structured problems. In the book, when people tried to handle ill-structured problems the most common things happened was that they were surrounded with diverse people, they like disagreements, they developed a fascination with the world, and they had a mentor. At the start of the chapter, people were then fixated on the crime and the people believed that Dennis Williams did it. Everyone was claiming that Dennis and his 3 friends kidnapped a young woman to a hotel then raping and killing her. They left her body on the

Gospel songs combined religious lyrics with melodies and rhythms inspired by early blues and jazz. Many churches rejected this new integration of religious conviction and popular song as devil's music that had no place in a house of worship.

From this point of view we have essentially four classes, the almost ritualistic prayer songs or pure Spirituals, the freer and more unrestrained evangelical "shouts" or camp-meeting songs, the folk ballads so overlaid with the tradition of the Spirituals proper that their distinctive type quality has almost been unnoticed until lately, and the work and labor songs of strictly significant character. Indeed, in the pure Spirituals one can trace the broken fragments of an evangelical folk liturgy, with confession, exhortation, "mourning," conversion and "love-feast" rejoicing as the general stages of a Protestant folk-mass. It is not a question of religious content or allusion, for the great majority of the Negro songs have this more delicate question of caliber of feeling and type of folk use. The distinctiveness of the Spirituals after all and their finest meaning resides in their musical elements. The characteristic beauty of the folk song is harmonic, in distinction to the more purely rhythmic stress in the secular music of the Negro, which is the basis of "ragtime" and "jazz"; while regarding the one as the African component in them, and the other as the modifying influence of the religious hymn.

They are a prime example of how life might look when something is missing, but the induvial cannot figure out what it is that is missing. A Christian can easily point out that Christ is the missing element. Again, it largely depends on the individual how the details of the conversation might unfold. Examining their heart and their life can be helpful. Furthermore, it is easy to find at least one idol tucked away. An idol is anything which takes center stage in God’s place. Personally, I find that music can be helpful because it can allow a pause in the conversation. The lyrics can convict an individual and can allow them the time they need to think without silence feeling awkward. Jimmy Needham phrased idolatry perfectly, “Anything I want with all my heart, can't stop thinking of is an idol, or give all my love is an idol” (Clear The Stage, 2012). Clear the Stage, by Jimmy Needham can be used with “The Lottery” to examine idolatry and sin.

All these songs are to praise Jesus, the individual that is known to be the savior of the people. The early spirituals still are sung today and people still think of these songs, as hope to live the better lives.

Worship comes in different forms depending on how the church wants the service to proceed. For the Amazing Grace Church, the service began with the congregation singing a number of worship songs to the Lord that lasted for about an hour. Christian praise and worship by music, and in fact, music is a great tool for helping them feel closer to God. Music is an emotional language because it effectively affects their emotions and the lyrics can swell their hearts. There is nothing bigger and greater than the grace of God that is delivered to them from condemnation through the sacrifice of his own Son. Thus, Christian chooses to praise and worship Him by singing. While singing, the congregation stands on their feet and they seem to be affected by the songs in some way as they raise their hands as a sign of accepting the Lord into their hearts. The emotion that was thrown from the congregation was very distinctive to us as we could see that the songs are an important tool of expression. According to the pastor of the Amazing Grace Church, singing let the people focus on the worship, helps them respond to God’s grace and also guide them to reflect on God’s glory. In his opinion, singing mean nothing if people do not respond to what they have sang and related it to God and reflect it to make them better believers.

The Bible informs us that as they sung and praised God the Moabite armies became disoriented and began to fight one another. Perhaps this is why we schedule the choirs and praise teams to minister before the preached Word. Singing spiritual hymns to God will soften the hearts and prepare our minds for what God has to say to us. Once our hearts are “plowed” or softened we can receive with joy the assignments or correction God will give to us.

Music is the only medium that blesses both man and God at the same time and as such to see it as an entertainment factor within our worship services is a gross misunderstanding of its purpose. Music is made up of three elements: melody, harmony, and rhythm. Mankind is also made up of three parts: spirit, soul and body (1 Thess 5:23). It can be argued that music and the triune, or trichotomy, of mankind are intrinsically linked i.e. melody is likened to the spirit, harmony to the soul and rhythm to the body.

The sing-song praises of the Lord be it in any religions of the world seem to enchant the listener. The goodness of Gods as sung by the apostles. The hymns and verses keep us in a jostle.

“Worship is… our response, both personal and corporate, to God – for who He is! And what He has done! Expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.” There are many definitions of worship out there. I have found that this one seems to best fit my heart when praying through the topic of worship. Worship is something that begins in the heart, privately, and then flows out during times of public and corporate gathering. Worship however, is something far deeper than music, dance, art, or drama. Worship is more than fine arts. Worship is more than Sunday morning gatherings or Wednesday night small groups. Worship is life. Worship is something you do. “Worship isn’t something you attend like a movie or a concert. Worship is something you enter into with all of your might. Worship is a participation sport in a spectator culture.” “True worship is a whole-life response to God’s greatness and glory. A response that taps our mind, our soul, out heart of passion and all our strength.”

Praise, Worship, Singing to God... Christian music is a way to talk to our God. It can be rap, pop, country Or just about any genre. Christian music can get you in your feels or get you pumped up. Like I believe that Christian music is the best music because it is clean, it is real, and because it brings us closer to God.