Great is thy faithfulness

Why, oh why, do some churches feel that they have to modernise everything in order to appeal to people? I am not a die-hard traditionalist however I also do not believe that the decline in church attendance has been caused purely by the use of old-fashioned English and can be reversed simply by replacing all instances of 'thee' and 'thou' in our prayers, worship and bible readings by 'you'. Such language was already out of date when I was a child but that didn't stop me from understanding what was meant, at least most of the time. It also didn't stop me from becoming a Christian.

The English of the King James Version, although beautiful, can be impenetrable and so I personally use the NIV for Bible study. Being of a certain age (ie over 50) I do, however, prefer to keep the old language of 'Our Father' which I learnt as a child and I really, really object when people try and modernise the words of favourite old hymns. Do we modernise Shakespeare? Do we update John Donne? Or Chaucer? Hymns are poetry set to music. When you alter the words you spoil them. Churches which do this also run the risk of alienating older people who know many old hymns off by heart and who become confused when the words are changed. Such relentless modernisation makes me feel that old people are being forgotten when it comes to evangelisation. Everything is aimed at the younger generation and yet pensioners have an even more urgent need to hear the gospel because their time is short.

The vast majority of the over-50s in this country grew up with the King James Version and the Church of Scotland Hymnary 2nd Edition with the Scottish Psalter. That is what they are familiar with. It therefore makes sense that that is what churches should use if they want to reach the over-50s. You have only to look at the faces of the residents in an old-folks' home when old hymns are being sung to see how much they enjoy them. I'm not saying that we can't have modern songs. I'm just saying that we should have a mixture of both old and new and that we shouldn't try and update the old favourites. "Great is your faithfulness" just doesn't sound right any more than "wherefore are you Romeo".