MUSIC IN CHURCH

    Have you ever wondered how the Pastor chooses hymns for Sunday morning?  No, it isn’t hit or miss, and it isn’t "pastor’s choice."  Although I have favorite hymns like everybody else, I have to be quite honest and say that it would be easier for me to just say which hymns I don’t like.  I enjoy a lot of hymns!  The same is true of Christmas carols.  I like a lot of carols, and most of my favorites are not in our hymn book.  So how do I choose?

    The first step is to match the hymns (whenever possible) with the Bible readings and theme for the service and season of the year.  This can be quite difficult using just our hymnal alone.  

    The next step is to try to include congregational favorites along with the others.  If you remember we took a survey of the congregation three years ago and asked everyone to write down all their favorite hymns.  There was no restriction on number.  You could vote for as many as you wanted.   Around 50 ballots were cast with quite a number representing a family or a couple, so the number of individuals might be closer to 70-75.  A total of 196 hymns and choruses were chosen as favorites of our congregation.  Here were the top 13 in order of number of votes cast:
    Amazing Grace
    Just a Closer Walk with Thee
    In the Garden
    (How Great Thou Art
    Rock of Ages)– tied
    
    (The Old Rugged Cross
    Blessed Assurance
    Sweet Hour of Prayer)– tied
    (Go Tell It On the Mountain
    Because He Lives)– tied
    
    (Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee
    When the Roll is Called Up Yonder
    The Battle Hymn of the Republic)- tied

    The next very important step in choosing the hymns and choruses for Sunday morning is to choose music from four different time periods in order to try to reach people with a variety of musical  tastes.  Please note that only one of the pieces above was written after 1950.   It is recommended by people who study church growth and dynamics that each service have a blend of music from four time periods, and that is what I am striving to do.  It takes a lot of time, but I believe it is worth the time and effort.

     The four time periods are: classic (composed between 1520-1870) example, Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee– 1824; gospel (composed between 1870-1935) example, The Old Rugged Cross– 1913; early contemporary (composed 1960-1980) example, Because He Lives – 1971; recent contemporary (composed since 1980) example, We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise {in our praise book}– 1984.

    What does this mean for you?  It probably means that sometimes you won’t really like the choices on Sunday mornings.  I understand, because the choices might not always be pleasing to me either.  I just ask each of you to do your best to sing all the hymns.  Sing out even if you do make mistakes.  You know I do!  In fact, I’m even on the wrong verse sometimes and one of you has to bring me back to the right place. We aren’t perfect, but God loves to hear his imperfect people sing out their praises. Let us joyfully worship God with song!

In praise of our Lord,
Pastor Lorraine