Saturday, October 18, 1997

Remembering the seemingly simple task of picking hymns

By MICHAEL O'CONNOR

Abilene Reporter-News

A recent Reporter-News article on the difficulties of introducing contemporary music into the church brought back a flood of memories.

I remembered a time when I was growing up that the church we attended purchased the latest version of the denominational hymnal. To introduce us to the new hymns contained in the book, our preacher declared we would have a "hymn of the month."

We would sing the hymn at every worship service during the month to familiarize us with it. As best as I can recall this instructional venture lasted only a few months. I wondered why until I became a pastor myself.

I was often given the responsibility of choosing the music for the worship services. Inevitably I would pick a song the congregation didn't know, and they would gamely struggle through it. Sometimes the church musician would refuse to play the song because she didn't know it and her skill level at music required extensive practice to learn new material.

On occasion I would manage to put together a service in which all the music was unfamiliar to the congregation, and then I would have to have a meeting with some group.

"Preacher, we don't know these songs," they would lament. "Why don't you pick the songs everyone knows?"

The problem was that the songs I picked were the songs everyone in my home church knew, or that everyone in my last church knew, or that everyone at Annual Conference knew.

Hymn knowledge, I discovered - and the same thing holds true for contemporary music - varies by region, by denomination and by theological orientation. What one group holds as the good, old hymns is not necessarily the same for a church or gathering in another town - sometimes just across town.

The end result was that I wound up learning a multitude of new songs. My protest that I didn't know a song was once greeted with the response that I wouldn't be around forever and so I was the one who should change and learn, not the church.

In the end my worship experience and my spiritual life were enhanced because I was exposed to a wide variety of traditions in church music. My soul thrills to the sounds of a pipe organ and a large congregation performing a lively version of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." I have been moved to tears by a cappella singing of the chorus "Open Our Eyes, Lord."

I used to sing in a gospel quartet and watched the four-part, Stamps-Baxter harmonies bring life to nursing home residents lost in dementia - temporarily returning to our world to sing with us the songs that enriched their lives long ago. I have a couple of albums of Gregorian chant - I was Gregorian before Gregorian was cool - that I listen to when I am despondent and need to hear the Latin plea "Kyrie Eleison," Lord, have mercy.

Church members who refuse to learn new hymns and choruses are cheating themselves. Sure, we are comfortable with what we know, but ours is a God of new wine who can surely touch our souls with a chorus as well as with "Amazing Grace."

And in the end we should remember that we sing to please not ourselves but God. Isn't this what worship is?