Engraving a Supplemental Hymnal
I am working on compiling a supplemental hymnal of sorts for our church pews. It involves me re-engraving older hymns and chants that are out of print in some cases. It has been a great exercise for me personally. I find that some of the great hymns and psalms are on my lips and the tunes are in my head in new ways that weren’t there before. Something that we deal with is trying to incorporate songs in our local church’s worship that has appropriate words and music. That means that we want to sing songs that are pleasing to the Lord. So, we try to sing the words that we have–the Bible, the Psalms mainly. Whether that be in a hymn form or in straight Psalm singing, we are constantly trying to find a good medium of that.
The rub comes in when you try to figure out what to sing. We want to sing vigorously and with energy. Where appropriate, we want to sing in four-parts. We want the music to not be sappy or trendy. We don’t want the music that we sing in worship to just be a knockoff of a pop music song. We aren’t try to cause people to have a “romantic encounter” with Jesus. We want to worship the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) the best way we can according to what we can understand that he wants. We look to the Bible for that. So, we won’t be singing songs that are designed to save people. We sing songs that proclaim to greatness of our Lord. We sing songs that remind us of who we are and what we are to be doing. We are the Lord’s army and we gather in worship each, not to be a part of a circus show or performance in surround sound and high definition. We come to worship and commune with the God of Abraham, the God of our Parents, and the God of our Children to come after us. So, our music has to fall in line with this vision. Music is truly a wonderful thing and we are trying to use it in wholesome ways. We don’t for one minute shy away from it because it is being done badly or poorly. We want to use it as best we can.
So, my task is to work with the leadership of our church to come up with a supplemental hymnal that includes some of the great songs that have been written long ago and some more modern songs and chants. We are doing this with our congregation in mind. We want to be able to sing the best songs that we can, even if they aren’t in the hymnals we have in our pews currently.