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Sunday a cappella worship at The Hills Church of Christ. (Photo by Mac McCann, via blogs.dallasobserver.com)
What is The Hills Church of Christ in North Richland Hills, Texas, doing in the Dallas Observer’s trendy DC9 at Night music blog — alongside stories about the Goo Goo Dolls, Neutral Milk Hotel and Brad Paisley?
Actually, it’s the a cappella worship service at The Hills that has the Observer’s attention:
With the lyrics on the big screen over the stage, the church sings classic hymns like “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Blessed Assurance.” It’s one of the few a cappella services in the area. “We do the a cappella services well,” Lead Worship Minister Ryan Christian noted. “It’s vibrant, so they still love coming to attend that.”
The Hills only offered a cappella services until six years ago. They began offering instrumental services hoping to attract new members, to the disappointment and disapproval of some of the more traditional members of the Churches of Christ. But their risk seems to have paid off: the instrumental services are more popular, especially among new members, and attract a more diverse congregation. The 11 a.m. service at the North Richland Hills campus even has a Spanish translator.
The a cappella services are led by one of the church’s three twelve-member praise teams, which rotate each week. During every third week, when one’s group is scheduled to perform, the members meet for about two hours on Wednesday night and then on Sunday morning for about two and a half hours, including the service time.
Read the full story.
Can you please clarify your last post? Which words for Christian worship are you talking about? It seems that you are backing up what I am saying. By using the same word that referred to OT worship, Paul is saying that things have changed and our worship is no longer defined by a worship “service” and we thus should not be judging or condemning for worship styles unless of course they are sinful in the case of sexual immorality and other sins mentioned in the NT.
Your comment encouraged me to go back and look more closely at the word. The resources I’ve looked at say the Greek word in Romans 12 technically means “the service of worship”.
Can you explain to me why Paul used the Greek word for Psalms that means with or without instruments when talking about singing? Is this interpretation wrong? What resources can I go to to confirm it?
Saying this with respect, it seems that your interpretation is inconsistent. I am still in a church that only sings acapella. But I’ve worshiped with instruments before at other places and could not see what sin was being committed when everyone was sold out in praise and the NT gives more support for it than it ever does against it. It
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