Accepting New Music

Yesterday at coffee time following morning worship, one of our elders was telling me about the Presbytery meeting the previous day. Part of the afternoon was taken up with a presentation of new music for worship and the elder was very enthusiastically telling me about what they had sung together. As the conversation went on, we both agreed that in such a presentation, there are bound to be basically 3 categories of music:

1. immediately appealing songs;
2. immediately unappealing songs;
   
3. songs which fall somewhere between the two extremes and after further examination will go one way or the other.

It also became evident to me as we continued to talk that how new music is presented is, dare I say it, as important as what the new music is. Is background information on the song or writer included? Are some ideas given of how to effectively use that particular piece in worship? Are resources readily available to find the song to add to the congregation's repertoire? As I happen to know the presenter, I know the answer to all of the above would be "Yes". In any case, it never hurts to be reminded (I'm talking to myself here!) that people don't like to be blind-sided with new worship music. A good thought on new music for a new year!