Hymn Project

For the past few months I have been working on a hymn project which I am really excited about. The idea was put forth by one of the elders at Christ's Church as part of my work as the minister of worship.  The objective is to introduce 24 new hymns into the church's regular repertoire  over the course of the next three years.  There are many great reasons for doing this.  One is that many hymns can serve to fill theological gaps that are found in a lot of today's contemporary Christian music.  So I will specifically be looking to use hymns that address such themes as the Trinity, Holy Spirit, God's Story from the beginning till now and in the world to come, Missions, Mystery.  A lot of hymns inform us about the details and truth of our faith, and sadly I don't think that the same can be said for a lot of the other worship music that is out there, at least not as a whole.  In fact some are down right wrong.

Also, a lot of today's worship music is very "me" or "I" centered as I have mentioned before in some of my posts.  There are plenty of hymns that fall into that self-centered category too, but thankfully there also lots of great ones that are very God-centered, and the church needs more God-centered worship.

So, I have gone through the hymnal we have at Christ's Church, over 600 songs and prayers!  I chose somewhere between 120 and 150 to take a more serious look at.  I was primarily focused on lyrical content, but music was taken into consideration in assessing these hymns.  The great thing about music though, is that it can be re-written while still using the original lyrics.  I've found many hymns that I loved the words to, but was not crazy about the music.  So many hymns have that same generic progression I, IV, V, I with a II to V somewhere in there (sorry more technical musical terminology).   Some people from older generations might have a hard time with some musical changes because they have known  a particular hymn a certain way for decades.  However, I think that in order to pass down these treasured songs to the next generations, it is important that we sing a new song to the Lord and connect the great theology and poetry of these pieces with the sound of today's music.  I think people like David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, and Watermark have done a great job of bringing new life into some of the classic hymns and making them relevant to younger generations. However, I also recognize that there are certain classics that just shouldn't be altered and will be sung the same way a hundred years from now, like O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, All Creatures of Our God and King, and Holy, Holy, Holy, etc.

The other great thing about this project has been that I've had a chance to get some of the people at CCA involved in it, and they've been very enthusiastic about what I'm doing. These people have some great insight into the world of hymns and are much more familiar with the library of hymns that I am.  One thing I was reminded of when meeting with one brother on the subject was that the hymns have been a link between many denominations, generations, nations, etc.  This is why its important that the hymn thread continue.  The more we share in common with other bodies of Christ, the more unified we can hopefully become.  

If you are not a hymn person I encourage you to check out Passion's Hymns: Ancient and Modern.  Perhaps the modern take on the hymns will help you to appreciate the content and truth that they contain.

Hopefully as I do some new arrangements I will be able to post them here in the blog.  So look forward to that.  Here's some hymns I've started re-arranging already, or am seriously considering. 

This is My Father's World

We've a Story to Tell to the Nations

Eternal Father, When to Thee

I Cannot Tell

The Solid Rock

Let me know if you have any suggestions for great hymns that I should take into consideration with this project.