1. Our first background, especially my wife’s, was rooted in the more “free style worship” one finds today in most evangelical and SB churches. That means bands and mostly pop “Christian tunes”. The old argument basically is we don’t want to get into that old school tired repetitive nothing new stuff of churches in ages past. As we sang through various hymns out of the Lutheran service book over the Advent season it practically leaped off of the page. My wife has more musical background than I do and I’m more of a person who appreciates music with no talent, she also has a life long background of being in the church, I don’t. All that to say is she grew up learning a LOT more hymns than I ever did. All that to say this, she noticed this too, we were singing hymns and psalms we never ever heard before. In our old SB churches it was basically the “big three” (like Amazing Grace) and then a handful of pop “Christian” tunes done over and over and over again. In the Lutheran worship the waters are deep, hymns and lyrics I’ve never ever heard before. In other words it’s the “free worship” style that is utterly repetitive and stogy!
2. We noticed that not only hymns we’d never heard of, but EVEN within the Christmas songs we knew well (e.g. O’ Come Emanuel, Hark The Herald Angels Sing), we were actually singing the other 4 or 5 verses we NEVER sang in other churches. So the not only hymns never heard before, but verses we’d never heard or sang before.
3. The verses most often removed from the traditional hymns still heard on rare occasion at heterodox churches are the strong verses concerning the incarnation or resurrection of Christ. What was painfully obvious was that most of the strong incarnational verses are removed and retained are usually the opening verse and one select one. I found even myself, who has not purged all my own evangelical “gut reaction”, at first singing these “new” “strong incarnational/resurrection versus” thinking, “Whooaaa, that’s a bit strong is it not”. Then oddly encouraged by what they said. The “earthyness” of the incarnation and resurrection is both offensive to the old man, and greatly faith strengthening to the new man!
4. This next issue is more seen against our prior SB background. The Trinitarian nature of the music (and worship in general). It’s almost if not entirely vanquished from Baptist music. Even the worship. I told my wife, “Can you imagine outside of the rare moment of “believers baptism” being done the mention of the Trinity. How do you suppose it would be received in our former SB churches if the Pastor stated frequently in the worship, “in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit”? It would be so out of sorts it would IMMEDIATELY be identified as a problem. It would not last one Sunday without immediate address. Other than in the rite of believers baptism and the rare outside apologetic SS class against say the Mormons, and the EXTREMELY rare occasion of the singing of the 100th Psalm, one could live their entire life in a SB church and never here otherwise of the Trinity.

I could go further but that’s enough for now.

Larry