“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” – Colossians 3:16
“Every song is a teaching tool. Our songs either anchor us in truth, or they lead us astray.” – Matt Merker, author of Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God’s People.
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
A few of you have asked, (and that probably means that even more of you have wondered), “Who picks the hymns that we sing on Sunday?”
For the most part, that’s me.
Our Music Minister, Mark, picks the Special Music and always has the option to suggest/request something different than the hymns that I have selected; but most of the time the hymns we sing are ones that I have chosen.
Which then might lead to common second questions, “Why can’t we sing more songs we all know and love?” “Why do we sing so many hymns that I’ve never seen before?”
(Fair questions, and ones I’ve heard before!)
Our Chalice Hymnal has over 700 different hymns in it. They are organized by seasons, by themes, by worship elements like “Invitation to Discipleship”, “Baptism”, “Lord’s Supper”, “Going Forth”, etc. Additionally, there are indexes by topic, by category, first lines and titles, and by scriptural references used in the lyrics. The hymnals are well-designed to help those of us who are planning worship to find a specific hymn that fits well with the particular theme of the Sunday and/or the particular point in the worship service where it will be used.
I try, as best I can, to use as many of those 700-plus hymns as possible. (We paid for the whole hymnal, after all.) Especially if I can find one or more that work in conjunction with the scripture and sermon message for that Sunday. Of course, there is not a specific hymn for every scripture or topic that we might look at each week; and whenever that is the case, you can be sure that I try to pick some of the more familiar and well-loved songs.
Currently, we are only singing two hymns each week; one comes between the Sermon and our Communion Meal, and the other comes at our Invitation. We have a great many hymns specifically written for Communion and for Invitation to Discipleship; and so, I likely am choosing those a bit more often if I haven’t found something that fits otherwise.
I will admit that not all the hymns I pick have melodies that are my favorites; and there are some in the hymnal that are so hard to sing that I would never select them no atter how much I might like the lyrics! Our smaller, purple Chalice Praise books have some very nice Praise Hymns, but they are really designed for use with a Praise Band. I do thumb through it now and again; and if there is something in there that you would particularly like to sing, please let me know.
If you find yourself struggling a bit with an unfamiliar melody, may I ask that you try to really focus on the lyrics and see if you don’t at least see a connection with the scripture, message, or theme of the day or how it functions at that particular point in the service. Hopefully that will help as you ask yourself, “Why did he pick THIS one?”
(BTW, I generally pick more Goldie-Oldies in the summer months, so hang in there; Rock of Ages and In the Garden are coming around again!)
Peace,
Pastor Layne