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Pastor Lane speaking….
Matthew 26:30
When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the
Mount of Olives.
Singing hymns has been done since the beginning of
the church. Each Christian denomination has its own
unique style. There are some hymns such as Amazing
Grace and Beautiful Savior which are appropriate for
all denominations. Lutherans are known for their
hymn singing. Traditionally they are four part
harmony but that is beginning to change. Our hymnal
contains many new hymns as well as many old familiar
hymns. In order to get in our Lutheran hymnal they
go through a theological and corporate vetting
process. The hymns in our hymnal not only fit with
Lutheran theology but were requested by members of
Lutheran congregations throughout our nation.
There were many hymns that were left out of our
hymnal for various reasons. Onward Christian
Soldiers was left out because many people complained
that it was too military. The Old Rugged Cross was
left out because it doesn’t fit into pure Lutheran
theology. Breath on Me Breathe of God was left out
for the same reason (but it is one of my favorite
hymns) the list goes on. We probably wouldn’t be
able to lift a hymnal that had all the hymns that
people would like to sing or hear.
Our hymnal has hymns for all different occasions and
events throughout the church year. Some, while being
difficult to sing have wonderful lyrics that have
deep spiritual meaning. We have hymns for opening
and closing of worship, Christmas, Easter, Lent,
Pentecost and other church holidays.
It is my job to pick hymns for worship. I pick hymns
the month before we worship. For instance, I pick
June hymns in May. I read the lessons for the Sunday
first. Then read notes about the lessons and do some
scripture research. I check to see if the words of
the hymn are found in the scriptures for that
particular Sunday. I sing it myself to find out if
it familiar to me and if it would be familiar to the
congregation. For new hymns I may ask the choir to
have the mikes on for the hymn upstairs and they may
practice it before church. I want the Hymn of the
Day (Hymn after the Sermon) to match what will be
said during the sermon especially. I usually try to
have the first and last hymn be upbeat for coming in
and going out of worship. The musicians of the
church get the list each month. They may ask me to
change a hymn or give a different suggestion and I
value that input. We try to put the more
contemporary hymns in the contemporary worship
Sunday. In the summer I try to pick the older
familiar hymns to fit with the Stone Church Worship.
When we start worship at the Stone church we begin
with singing hymns that people pick out.
In the end, despite efforts sometimes a hymn is just
yucky. If that happens please swallow hard and wade
through it. Recently, someone complained about a
hymn. Most of the time I try to explain the process
and say we are trying our best. But this particular
hymn happened to be a favorite of mine; I loved the
words and the melody, so I wasn’t very patient. The
thing is; we all have some hymns that are special to
us. We all have hymns that we could sing every
Sunday and never tire of them. We average 180 people
who worship at Cross of Christ every Sunday. One
hymn you may not particularly like but it may be
special to someone else. Sooner or later we sing a
favorite hymn of yours from our hymnal.
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