I suppose I grew up as a person, and a follower of Jesus, during some rather unsettling musical times in the church. That period from the 1970's into the current millennium - to many in christendom known as the time of "the worship wars" - could be seen as 'very bad', or 'very good,' depending on how you look at it.
I actually thought it was a pretty good time. Personally, I love the great old hymns. I was also discipled through countless home-group praise chorus sing-a-longs. And, I am not so crotchety as to be resistant to the wonderful new music being written nowadays.
While I will agree that there are many "contemporary" hymns and choruses that are really just bad theologically, I would have to think there were just as many OLD hymns and choruses that were bad too - they just didn't last. I doubt too many of the bad ones now will last either.
I guess what I was thinking about today (the day I wrote this)... As I was driving to work I started singing some old chorus that we used to sing in our home bible studies. I don't even recall the name of it now, but there were a whole slew of them that were short, simple, and really nothing more than Bible verses put to music. We had gads of Maranatha and Hosanna songbooks full of them. I used to love when we would gather in the living room and sit in a circle and sing those songs accompanied by guitar, or without. I wonder just how much Scripture I learned from singing those simple choruses??? They certainly stuck in my head. Way more than any sermons did!!
So, while I do like some of the current popular church music, and I do miss some of the great old hymns, I really miss those simple "scripture choruses" (if that's even what they're called). I think a lot of people are missing out on a lot of good stuff by not knowing them. Of course, I also miss the home group thing...
"Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts." -Colossians 3:16