Church musicians have thousands of reasons to shine

Jonathan Aigner asked which praise song readers would like to ban. I put it to a vote of experienced church musicians, and the clear “winner” was “Shine, Jesus, Shine.”

A week ago, Aigner (a Methodist church music director) offered a thought experiment: if there were a charitable auction to ban (at least temporarily) one contemporary worship song, what would you pick. Here's a brief summary of his impassioned argument:

I wish I could ban the whole money-grubbing, golden calf-creating, pop star-copying, Spirit-impersonating, consumer audience-targeting worship industry, but I can’t. Not by myself, at least. I can’t even ban one whole song. But it might make for a fun blog post and some decent discussion.

After an hour or so of thinking, I came up with a mile-long list of dumb “worship” songs. But then it hit me. While there are a ton of crappy contemporary worship songs, there is one that I hate on a deeply visceral level, more than any other crappy worship song that has been inflicted on the church during the recent commercial worship hijacking.

The year was 1993. It was a simpler time. A 21-year-old, soprano-singing Thris Comlin had yet to ruin his first hymn. And most of us were blissfully unaware of the derivative musical empire that was being erected in the land down under. Darlene “Too Many Consonants, Not Enough Vowels” Zschzschzschech penned a cute little ditty for her “worship team” to sing at Hillsong Church in Sydney.

It was called “Shout to the Lord.”

This sort of concern is a major thread on a closed Facebook group of traditional church musicians. I put it to a vote, nominating four songs. Three are perennially popular — Shout to the Lord, Ten Thousand Reasons, In Christ Alone — while King of My Heart is a more recent CCM hit. Providentially, I left the poll open for others to add options.

The Votes Are In

I got 238 votes — 228 for specific songs and 10 that said “all of the above”. One song clearly won going away: “Shine, Jesus, Shine.” Below are the 21 nominees and the number of hymnals that include each hymn (according to Hymnary.org).

Votes	Song	Author	Date	Hymnals
42.1%	Shine, Jesus, Shine	Graham Kendrick	1987	31
12.7%	Gather Us In	Marty Haugen	1982	32
8.3%	Ten Thousand Reasons (Bless the Lord, O my Soul)	Matt Redman	2011	3
6.1%	All are Welcome	Marty Haugen	1995	17
5.7%	Lord of the Dance	Sydney Carter	1963	41
4.4%	Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)	(Hillsong)	2013
3.9%	Here I Am, Lord	Dan Shutte	1981	47
3.1%	Good, Good Father	Chris Tomlin	2015
2.2%	On Beagle's Wings (aka On Eagle’s Wings, aka the “You Who” song)	Michael Joncas	1977	4
1.8%	Amazing Grace	John Newton	1779	1,230
1.8%	I Am The Bread of Life	Suzanne Toolan	1966	23
1.8%	In Christ Alone	Keith Getty, Stuart Townend	2002	14
1.3%	Come, Now Is the Time to Worship	Brian Doerksen	1977
0.9%	Shout to the Lord	(Hillsong)	1993
0.9%	One Bread, One Body	John Foley	1978	26
0.9%	All Praise and Worship
0.4%	Strong and Constant	Frank Andersen	1973
0.4%	Companions On the Journey	Carey Landry	1985
0.4%	I Sing a Song of the Saints of God	Lesbia Scott	1929	22
0.4%	I'm Trading My Sorrows	Darrell Evans	1998	1
0.4%	King of My Heart	Bethel Music	2016

Even with this strong showing, there was disagreement among the musicians. Clearly many if not most of the musicians knew only a handful of these nominees, and so voted for the worst of the ones they know. For example, with the California ACNA parishes and diocesan activities where I have sometimes worshipped, the musical lingua franca are “In Christ Alone” and “Ten Thousand Reasons”; the latter was a communion hymn for a 2015 consecration. I voted for this one not because it’s the worst, but because I’ve seen it (and the catchy ear worm chorus) turn a worship service into a chance for people to rock out.

Some of the CCM big names are there: Hillsong (as nominated by Aigner), Marty Haugen (two nominations), Graham Kendrick and Matt Redman (for some very good Reasons). Interestingly, almost 10% went to six post-Vatican II Catholic hymns from 1966-1985. One is a former Jesuit with a controversial lifestyle while the other is a current member of the S.J. A third is by a (then) nun, while I believe the other three authors are priests

As Sesame Street would say, one of these things is not like the other; one of these things just doesn’t belong. With 1000+ hymnals, the 240-year-old “Amazing Grace” is a legitimate Christian hymn, even if a highly emotive one that some find trite or cliché.

While I thought I’d never say this, I’d like to add a word of defense for Mr. Kendrick. Like others, I find it objectionable for a worship service, but a music scholar I respect (who may not want to be associated with this blog) said that it was never intended for this purpose. She said it was originally used for evangelization at Christian street festival in England (although that’s not what the semi-official history says). If that’s the case, then I can’t fault the author or composer for bringing it into worship, but instead (as with any other song taken off the radio) would point to the music director or even the pastor.

It's a Free Country

In reading over the visceral objections to Aigner’s posting, I want to argue my own point of view (if not necessarily his or the voters in the poll). All of us are voting for things we don’t like and (I believe in most cases) are inappropriate for a worship service. However, in the consumer-driven American church marketplace, in a big enough city just about everyone can find a church that suits their worship preferences. So all the people who love these songs — including some of my closer friends — are free to rock out to them this Sunday or any other Sunday, no matter what Aigner or 238 Facebook subscribers say.

It also appeared that some of the readers didn’t realize that blogs — particularly like other humorous commentaries — are often exaggerated for effect. I hope that no one actually reading what was written would conclude that Aigner (or the gang of 238) thinking that demon worship is preferable (or equivalent) to singing one of these songs. 

21st century hymnals come to Waco

For the past three years, as part of the Forward in Faith church planting task force, I’ve been working with Fr. Lee Nelson, SSC, the founding vicar (now rector) of Christ Church Waco in the ACNA Diocese of Ft. Worth.

The church has been growing by leaps and bounds, from two dozen to more than 200 today. On March 25 (Palm Sunday), CCW transitioned from a series of rented spaces to its own building, a 100-year-old downtown church that it purchased from a dwindling ELCA parish.

Today’s services will mark another milestone — CCW’s first ever with printed hymnals. The parishioners will be singing with the Book of Common Praise 2017. Last week, it took delivery of the hymnals, purchased from the publisher’s second print run. The Reformed Episcopal Church had reserved the first two print runs for REC parishes, but with the decision to go to a third printing, it released the remainder of the second print run for purchase by other churches.

CCW evaluated both Hymnal 1940 and Hymnal 1982, but instead chose the newer 2017 hymnal. It offered hymns missing from the 1940 hymnal, a few hymns newer than the 1982, but without the inclusive language of the 1982 hymnal.

Update: for this first service, the hymns from the hymnal included "Live divine" (Hyfrydol), "Take my life and let it be", "Rock of ages", and "It is well with my soul."

Below is the rector’s explanation of the importance of hymns and hymnals to the worship of an Anglo-Catholic parish. It seem very relevant to both this blog and the issues that readers are facing today.

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Why Sing Hymns?

NB: This Sunday, new hymnals will make their debut at Christ Church. Although we will still sing a good many songs not featured in this hymnal, we will use it every Sunday. Christ Church has been a parish which has upheld a wonderful culture of congregational hymn singing. Here, I explain why.

“From the spiritual hymns, however, proceeds much of value, much utility and sanctity, for the words purify the mind and the Holy Spirit descends swiftly upon the mind of the singer. For those who sing with understanding invoke the grace of the Spirit.”
John Chrysostom

Shortly after his conversion, C.S. Lewis refused to go to church on Sundays. Later, he realized that it was the “only way of flying your flag,” but still grumbled a bit, because to his literary mind, Christian hymnody was nothing more than “fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music.” As he continued on, he was broken of his conceit. It began to “peel away,” as he came to know ordinary people who would sing the hymns with devotion, people whose boots he wasn’t worthy to clean. It’s funny today to think that hymn-singing could ever be viewed as the activity of ordinary Christians, because the norm has become something of a performance - worship music performed by experts. Surely, something has been lost in this. Something which we should try to recover.

Hymnody as a Cure to Spiritual Pride

Lewis was quite right to say that Christian singing was a cure to his own conceit. In the initial phases of conversion, so much hinges on our objective experience of things. But, if we are to grow in Christian discipleship, we must take on a new vocabulary, one not our own. We must relocate that subjective experience within the living witness of the Church. To do so requires lending our voices to others, both in supporting their voices, but also in singing their words. When we sing the words of John Wesley, or Isaac Watts, or even the Getty’s, we say for a moment, we submit our own understanding to the wisdom of the whole communion of Saints.

We have to consciously work to blend our voices, keeping our own at bay. This requires a degree of humility and attention to the whole body of gathered believers.

Hymnody as Theological Exercise

Some people have mentioned to me through the years that singing hymns takes work - the engagement of the mind, the voice, and the body in worship. Modern worship choruses tend to be rather easy-going. They’re easy to sing. They don’t require much thought. And musically, they’re designed to be led by people with only a basic musical ability. Hymn singing done well, with four-part harmony and strong accompaniment, requires the ability to read music while simultaneously contemplating challenging theological themes. It takes practice!

If you can’t read music, perhaps follow the melody line - make note of the shapes of the notes and their intervals. Most hymn tunes are familiar, and singing hymns is a great way to learn to read music. If you have trouble staying on pitch, practice matching pitch with the radio or a keyboard (even a simple keyboard app will do). Maybe even take some monthly voice lessons! When I was in seminary, every student had to take church music and learn to sight read hymns. The professor of church music took great delight in finding the inner musician in people who thought they couldn’t carry a tune. And they, in turn, took great delight in finding that they could join in the Church’s worship in a way the didn’t think possible. It takes exercise and practice, but it shows us something even greater - that practice, habits, and exercise are the very things that are necessary to the spiritual life, in which we meet God, and in which we come to know His constant love.

Hymnody as a Sign of the Visible Church

It’s a sad fact, but it’s true, that Sunday mornings are just about the only time when ordinary people come together and sing. We know that Jesus sang with His disciples after breaking bread with them on the night before He was crucified. (Matt. 26:30) We know that Paul and Silas sang hymns while in prison and that Paul commended hymn singing to the churches (Ephesians 5:19). Hymns are a sign of a people who are at peace with each other, a people in whom the word of Christ dwells richly, overflowing with thanksgiving and praise. When people of various backgrounds, incomes, and educations sing together, it is an eschatological sign, not only of what will be, but of what God has done now, what has been realized among believers today.