Triumphant 80's praise

"Praise brings the victory". Our younger readers might have never heard such a statement. Back in the day - the 80's - that almost summed up charismatic doctrine on praise and worship.

Along with it was a triumphant - some would say triumphalist - outlook on the world.

Consider these lines from some of our songs of praise:

"We'll take the nations for Jesus as Satan's kingdom falls
Righteousness and truth will prevail through our God"

or

"There's a great and mighty army
In the earth today,
Dressed in splendid armour,
They're in full array.
The hosts of darkness tremble
As they walk their way,
There's a great and mighty army in the earth today.

"So I'll shout, I'll shout the victory,
The enemy is under my feet.
So I'll shout I'll shout the victory,
For great is our King, great is our King, great is the King of Kings!"

Then the next verse went "I am in that mighty army in the earth today..." etc.

There were loads of "victory" songs like this.

And we had teaching on praise. Remember all those Hebrew word studies? And how Paul and Silas got the victory in jail because they were praising?

Is this still the outlook in the charismatic world? Have we forgotten this dimension of praise? Or is it so embedded in the charismatic psyche and liturgy that we just don't notice it any more?

Have we lost the note of triumph? Or have we just got over our triumphalism? I'd love to know what you think.

And for our younger readers. Please feel free to try this at home. You don't need your parents' permission.

Above is a tame version of one of the above songs.

Worship like children hear it

Here are a few things I've heard children sing:

"Henry's bible! Henry's bible!" (Send revival! Send revival!)

"Faith, I can move a mountain, I have got a big surprise" (Faith I can move a mountain, I can do all things through Christ)

"You are a bubble king" (You are above all kings)

Any of your own to add?

Afterthought: do we make songs too complicated for kids or is it a case of the words just not fitting particularly well with the music?

When Benedict met Darlene

I was channel hopping through the religious channels yesterday and in truth, it all seemed a bit dull. A bit predictable. Until I got to EWTN - the catholic channel.

I could never have predicted what I was going to see and hear. There was Benedict preparing to celebrate mass in the Czech republic with "This is my desire, to honour you..."(in Czech) belting out in the background.

What's happening? Is the catholic church becoming more open to the Spirit? Is it an attempt to hold on to their young people? Or is it all a Roman ruse to lure away weak evangelicals?

I don't know, but it certainly wasn't what I expected!

Running

Back in the 80's a Bible College in Dallas produced a whole series of praise and worship tapes which at the time would have been considered "cutting edge". The name of the college is Christ for the Nations Institute.

I wondered if they were still around and producing praise and worship material, so I did a search on YouTube. I found some excellent clips there of what they have been doing.

It's good stuff. This song is called Running. For me the clip above exemplifies charismatic / pentecostal praise and worship at its best. Led rather than driven / performed. Focused outwardly - on Jesus, rather than inwardly - on me and my hang ups. Structured yet spontaneous - the spontaneous bit lasts for over five minutes. And best of all everyone is entering in.