What Is A "Praise Chorus? "

What is a praise chorus?

An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church.

He came home and his wife asked him how it was.

“Well,” said the farmer, “It was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns.”

“Praise choruses,“ said his wife, ”What are those?”

“Oh, they're okay. They're sort of like hymns, only different,” said the farmer.

“Well, what's the difference?” asked his wife.

The farmer said, “Well it's like this — If I were to say to you:
’Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well, that would be a hymn.

If, on the other hand, I were to say to you:

'Martha Martha, Martha,
Oh, Martha, MARTHA, MARTHA,
the cows, the big cows, the brown cows,
the black cows, the white cows,
the black and white cows,
the COWS, COWS, COWS are in the corn,
are in the corn, are in the corn,
are in the corn, the CORN, CORN, CORN’ —

Then, if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well that would be a praise chorus.”

Note: I often have seen this in print and heard this repeated orally. I have no idea the original source. I did not write it, but surely enjoyed it.

Next week — “What is a Hymn?” As I mentioned in my sermon Sunday night, I want us to have some fun thinking about song styles!

— Bob Clark

9/2/2003