Praying Twice Quotes

“On the basis of these definitions, hymns cannot do theology, even when the meaning of “reasoned enquiry” is broadened and qualified. 6 Their brevity and form are ill suited to systematic reasoning, and, though not lacking in rationality, a hymn invites us, not to step back from faith and examine it, but to step into faith and worship God.”
― Brian A. Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song

“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, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song

“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 began to ask for worship music that sounded more like what they heard on their radios, televisions, and stereos. 80 Like it or not, in the United States the megachurch movement has changed the way many people think about church music. Nowadays, “thousands of North American Christians simply assume that music in worship is properly rendered by a guitar-led praise band, not an organ; and that the basic genre of liturgical music is not hymnody, but choruses and ballads.” 81”
― Brian A. Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song

“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 engage younger generations until we recognize this otherness and concede that along with images, sound and especially sound as beat are crucial to that recognition . 64”
― Brian A. Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song

“this is a good rule of thumb: if you can’t hear the congregation, you are probably too loud”
― Brian A. Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song

“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 am less than three feet away, I do sing, because I can hear you.”
― Brian A. Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song

“If you accept my analysis, it follows that a “good congregational song” is one that is excellent and has integrity in terms of its own genre , in its words, music, and interaction between them. It makes no sense to compare hymns, choruses, rounds and refrains and declare that one genre is superior or inferior to another. It also follows that a single genre can include varying musical styles, as with “Taizé” and “evangelical” choruses.”
― Brian A. Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song

“That is why, as Paul Westermeyer observes, “a group who sings together becomes one and remembers its story, and therefore who it is, in a particularly potent way.”
― Brian A. Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song

“To say that church music is a functional art means, on the contrary, that it is composed, played, and sung “ to serve the purposes of God , particularly in the church’s expression of its worship, its fellowship, and its mission.” 86”
― Brian A. Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song

“Not all music should be functional. Any culture, and all cultural levels, need music that challenges conventions and pushes the boundaries. To say that church music is a functional art does not mean that art music and popular music are superior or inferior to it. It means only that church music cannot be free art, an end in itself. “It is art brought to the cross, art which is dedicated to the service of God and the edifying of the church.” 85”
― Brian A. Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song