They are the timeless words and melodies that transcend the shifting tastes and styles of sacred music. They alone are the songs we go door to door singing at this time of year. Year after year, decade after decade, century after century.

Christmas carols.

The same words. The same music. “Contemporary worship” is powerless to stop them. Smoke, loud noise, darkness and blinking fluorescent lights cannot drown them out. Or update them or modernize them.