Give Us Songs Men Can Sing

Here is another interesting quote from Gaines Dobbins’ The Churchbook from 1951. The call for music which allows congregational participation, and particularly allows men to participate was timely then. From appearances it was not largely heeded. It is timely now as well.

“Our church songbooks contain some splendid hymns, and also some which kill a congregation’s enthusiasm. From the psychological angle, a good song is one which has harmony and a stirring rhythm which lends itself to untrained male voices, as well as to graduates of conservatories of music.

Recently, I have been visiting various churches for the purpose of observing their music. Just from my listening to the half-hearted singing in many of them, I have felt sorry for the congregation, since many of the men were really trying to participate in the music but couldn’t because it was so difficult or so lacking in a strong, essential rhythm. It would be a great boon if our churches limited themselves to a few dozen of the good old hymns in which people can really participate. For church music should be sung with delight and gusto, so that the very walls almost burst outward with the hearty music. Churches need more men’s music. …

Effeminate hymns, too often employed today, handicap the clergyman, kill the interest of the congregation ….” (163-64)

Latest Issue of JBMW

The latest issue of JBMW has just been released. You can view a number of articles online, though I have decided this is a journal for me to subscribe to for the hard copy.

I have a couple of little pieces in the new “Odds & Ends” section. In one of them I interact with Harvey Mansfield’s book, Manliness, which has a lot of good to it. However, I critique the way in which he juxtaposes the man of action and the poet, arguing that our culture is the aberration in history in separating these two aspects of manliness. In older tales and history, the hero is both warrior and poet. We need to reconnect our ideas of manliness and poetry, between action and thinking.

Pursuing Manhood

Several months ago I mentioned an address I had given to young men here at Union on manhood. That address has now appeared in essay form in the latest issue of the Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood under the title, “Pursuing Manhood.” The essay is available on their website as well.

This issue of JBMW is the first issue under their new editor, Denny Burk. Denny’s editorial is available online and he explains the new format of the journal.

"Month of Man"

This past Monday night I spoke to a group of guys here at Union on the topic of manhood. Some students had organized “The Month of Man” (‘official’ website) for some humorous celebration of manhood and also to call on themselves and others seriously to pursue maturity in manhood. I applaud their efforts and was honored to speak at the event.

You can see the rough notes of my address here as well as a link to the audio. This is not a sermon, but more of a ‘sit down chat’. Somewhere I came across an author saying every young man needs an older man who regularly gets in his face about growing up and becoming a man. That is basically what I have tried to do here.

One of the real needs in the church is for us to encourage, help and challenge our young men to resist the culture’s call to perpetual immaturity and encourage them instead to pursue maturity.