I have added a link in the left sidebar that our readers might appreciate. There is a growing trend of musicians reaching back into the old hymns, much like the recent Christmas song I posted. There are also efforts at writing new hymns that can be sung authentically accross generations. That is, rather than writing music that divides congregations, these new hymn writers are seeking to write music that can establish a common ground for all generations. This is exiting to me, as I believe we need to be producing new music while appreciating and continuing the heratige of Christian music that has been passed down to us over many hundreds of years.
Here is a quote from Indelible Grace that gives a window into their goals:
We want to be a voice calling our generation back to something rich and solid and beyond the fluff and the trendy. We want to remind God's people that thinking and worship are not mutually exclusive, and that not everything worth knowing happened in the last three years. We want to invite the Church to appreciate her heritage without idolizing it. We want to open up a world of passion and truth and make it more that just an archaic curiosity for the religiously sentimental. We believe worship is formative, and that it does matter what we think. So, we hope this site will prove helpful in encouraging and nurturing a growing movement. We want to provide resources such as chord charts, CDs, and useful links. But we also want to share with you the stories behind the authors of the hymns, and in many cases the stories behind the writing of the hymns themselves, as well as theological reflections upon the hymns. We believe that this theological poetry is supremely suited for expressing the seeming paradoxes of the faith that drive us to worship.
They have a wealth of resources, even for those of us on the conservative end of the church music spectrum. For example, they have an online hymn book that includes chords for many great hymns, some of which many churches have often neglected and forgotten.
