Old and New Music

I just completed an Interim Pastorate in a church that sang all their congregation hymns from a hymnbook.  I knew all of them and sang along freely.  Then I returned to my home church where the congregation sang five songs, none of which I knew, or had ever heard before.  I couldn’t even sing along with the music since the words were only available on the screen. Don’t get me wrong.  I’m all for new songs.  I vividly remember my younger years when we would return from Youth Camp, having learned a few new songs but were not allowed to sing them in the church worship services because they were not the old beloved hymns. I don’t really care if the songs are old or new.  If they honor God, I’ll try to learn them and sing them.  I want to be able to say with the Psalmist, “He has put a new song in my mouth”  (Psalm 40:3),   It just seems to me, if the congregation consists of multiple age groups, a blend of old and new music would be more appropriate, than one extreme or the other, eliminating the possibility for some to sing.  I don’t want to be like the person of whom Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote, “Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them!”