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The Case of the Vanishing Hymnals

July 1, 2008

Greetings in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ,

Hymnals seem to be disappearing from the sanctuaries of our beloved Fellowship. Even in sanctuaries where one can still find a hymnal on the back of the pew in front of them, they are used less and less.

Now I could say that I’m against this if only for the fact that Rick Warren is for it. And even though faithful readers would know that I am against nearly everything that Rick Warren is for—since he is against God and His Son Jesus Christ—this issue isn’t that simple.

I am asking for A/G preachers everywhere to direct their music ministers to turn off the overhead projector and open their hymnals to sing. Here’s why: First, most (not all) of the choruses that have invaded American worship today are trite, shallow, doctrine-less, feel good tunes. (Please see my earlier article entitled You Songs.) I ask what the process is for allowing these songs into the sanctuary of each church? The answer is that there is no process. All that is necessary is for the music “minister”, no matter how mature or otherwise, to go online, listen to a few tunes advertised by those interested in selling music, pick the ones he likes, and then download. Ta da! New worship choruses. Just like good TV commercials, we stay fresh by running out new ones every day. Keeps the customers interested. New and different are the bywords, not unchanging, timeless, classic, filtered and sound-of-doctrine. Here the decision on a worship song can be made by one person for one church without consultation.

Second, by contrast, what was the process for introducing new songs to a hymnal? I doubt that many of our newest generations even realize that good believers from John Bunyon’s day (do they even know who John Bunyon was?), and Wycliffe’s day, could be trotted into jail for singing the wrong songs. No, the process for creating a hymnal has almost always been a long, passionately held labor of love. By definition, publishers aren’t willing to invest in the costs of running a bound, hard copy document through the printing and binding process unless they know they have an audience that is willing to by the thousands of hymnals that the publisher’s presses are designed to crank out. So, the first step in the process is establishing a committee whose job it is to decide what doctrine forms the boundaries for songs to be selected, which song writers conformed to those boundaries, then which songs will make the cut, and what publisher is willing to publish a hymnal with those songs. In summary, there is a huge filtering process that takes place when one decides to publish a hymnal. My own father-in-law was a key member of at least one such committee and I’ve heard many tales about why a certain song made the cut and another song did not. Usually, the deciding factor was whether the song’s lyrics were biblically accurate and Christ-centered. For hymnals then, the decision is made by a hand-picked group of usually senior, experienced men. Consensus is required and the decision is for an entire denomination.

This discussion does not even include the idea that our children don’t even see the musical scoring or musical notations, or authors of words and notes, to the songs they sing anymore. One more case of dumbing down the young people in America. Right in our own churches, no less!

Which process sounds more biblically appropriate to you? King Solomon said in Proverbs, “A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” His son, Rehoboam, rejected the wisdom of his old advisors and went with his peers. He lost ten of the twelve tribes as a result. The wisdom of the Bible should be applied in all church settings, especially the music with which we say we are worshipping God. The Bible records many instances where God said He was not pleased with His peoples’ worship. Usually it was because “this people worships me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me.” [Mike’s paraphrase] And I would suggest shallow worship songs follow shallow life styles. It has been so long since I have been asked to sing “When I survey the wondrous Cross” or “Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” or “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” There are so many more. I can only sing them from my old hymnal at home. My children know these hymns but their peers do not. Hundreds of years of Christian worship, often fought over and died for, down the drain along with the Cross at the front of our sanctuaries.

May God Have Mercy on our Music-less Souls,

Brother Mike

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