Mental Musings

Every minister of music must deal with the battle of personal preferences when it comes to worship styles. But the worship style war is nothing new to the church. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote that he could not stand the music his children enjoyed. Bach wrote music mainly for churches in his time, and almost none of it is performed in modern churches except as part of a classical concert. He was not using the old traditional music, but his own, newly composed music. George Frederic Handel never saw any of his music performed in a church because it was too contemporary and used opera-like techniques which were forbidden in church music. But today his “Hallelujah Chorus” is performed in churches around the world every Christmas. Martin Luther believed that music should be written in a language that people could understand and that it should include new texts at a time when only scripture and Latin were used for church music. He was also an advocate for new forms of music. Hymns such as the...

I have been contemplating "worth" lately. Not in any specific context, just the concept and meaning of the word. For instance, this blog has on average of 100 readers per week plus those who might read the posts on facebook...so do I ever post anything that is really worth the effort of those who take the time to check out the blog? Honestly posting worthwhile comments was not my original intent when I started a blog. I just planned on share some random thoughts of things that interested me. That is why I labeled it Mental Musing. But lately I have wondered why should I bother posting anything if it is not worthy of being shared? But worth is something that actually creeps into our minds quite often. What are my possessions worth? What is my time worth? Is this worth my effort? Am I doing anything worthwhile with my life? Sometimes we substitute other words such as value, success, or gain. I guess the one that concerns me most is when I hear somebody say that they feel worthl...

Everywhere I look it seems that death is a popular subject. When people die in war or in a natural disaster it becomes big news. When people die in a murder or industrial accident it is the leading story of the local news. Video games and authors make millions on war and murder. When a celebrity dies, the world spends days mourning them. We even seem to celebrate the death of a business. Have you ever witnessed the crowds at a going-out-of-business sale? It seems that we love to see people hurt and even killed. We have become a morbid society. America's Funniest Home Videos thrived for more than 10 years on the pain and suffering of others. YouTube is the new place to post videos of somebody being beat up or injuring themselves in some stupid dare. Television, movies and video games have moved beyond reality in the area of gore. And is there anyone who believes that people watch racing while hoping that nobody has an accident? Perhaps this explains why people seem to be content wit...