If the life cycle of the songs you sing in church mirrors the longevity of your smartphone, please stay on the line (unless you still use that Motorola DynaTAC you bought in the late 80s). Instead of settling for the planned obsolescence of a catalog of exclusively modern songs, humor me with the next few moments of your time as I give you a handful of reasons why you should value (and be singing) old hymns.
*A quick side note: not all hymns are old hymns. Biblically speaking, hymns are simply songs of praise to God. As long as God has called us to sing, believers have been writing and singing hymns. We still are. There are some great new hymns, but that’s not what this post is about. Now, let’s get to it.
Old hymns cover a wide range of biblical topics.
Gordon Fee rightly said, “Show me a church’s songs, and I’ll show you their theology.” Most standard hymnals include anywhere between 300 and 500 songs or more. Peruse that hymnal briefly, and you’ll discover many specific biblical topics. Compare that list with the catalog of songs your church sings in any given year, and the contrast will surprise you.
Old hymns allow us to dig deeper into our faith and add a melody to the life-giving teachings of scripture.
Do you need a song of response for baptisms? There’s an old hymn for that. Are you looking for a new Christmas song about the mystery of God becoming man? There’s an old hymn for that. If your church’s music diet lacks variety, I suggest you pick up an old hymnal and seek fresh ideas.
Old hymns connect us to all generations.
“…Young men and maidens together, old men and children! Let them praise the name of the LORD…” (Psalm 148:12-13)
How will multi-generational worship happen in our churches if we scrap all the songs of the past? If the songs we sing in worship are so crucial to the life of the Body, then why do we make so much of new songs and so little of older hymns?
If you remove old hymns from your fellowship, you send a message to older generations. That message is old things are ‘used up’ and have nothing more of value to give. Try telling that to the saints who have worshipped for decades with those songs of praise. Some of these old hymns were instrumental in leading them to faith. These hymns have sustained their hearts in the darkest and brightest of times.
Likewise, an insistence on only singing the newest songs is teaching the coming generations that worship in song is really a young person’s game, and age creeps up on us all, so make the best of it while you can.
That, my fellow pastors, is not right. Worship, according to the Bible, is for both young and old. You need to be singing old hymns for many reasons, but one very good reason is for the sake of all your church members. They have much to offer, and so do the hymns they have entrusted to us.
Old hymns allow us to worship with the universal church.
All Creatures of Our God and King appears in the hymnals of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, and many other denominations too extensive to list. At last check, it has also been translated into at least 48 languages (including English and Spanish Braille).
Though not every old hymn has that kind of reach and staying power, it illustrates the benefit that old hymns provide when the ecumenical mood strikes us. “A great multitude that no one [can] number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:9) make up the universal church, participating now and destined for eternity to sing the praises of the Lamb. We should not ignore the critical theological convictions of each of our fellowships, but we should at least work toward maintaining unity where we can.
As a worship leader, I’ve found old hymns to be an ‘easy win’ when leading worship outside the church for Christian camps, conferences, and other para-church ministries. Teaching these historic songs of the faith to our congregations enables them to better worship alongside faithful brothers and sisters from others.
Old hymns teach us how to be better songwriters.
Even if the style of songs written before you were born is an immediate turn-off, consider how old hymns were written. Many great hymns of the past were not written with a melody in mind. They were written as poetry, and over time we added music.
Master theologians, life-long pastors, and accomplished poets wrote these texts before they could even be called songs. Without the aid of music, they can stand on their own as rich, beautifully distilled articulations of scriptural truths and the spiritual expressions of Christian faith and devotion. They were written without the need for accompaniment.
Perhaps old hymns are not in line with your church’s musical preferences. Then I challenge you to find a great old hymn text and give it a melody that suits your congregation. I have found this remarkably effective in acquiring a taste for old hymns. It would be a shame to let so many good songs die for want of a simple change of fresh clothes.
Old hymns teach us how to be better singers
In the same vein of making us better songwriters, old hymns have much to teach us about being better singers. Songs are meant to be sung, and a good songwriter knows how to pick a singable melody. Some songs are great because of their simplicity, others because of their creativity. Old hymns teach us both disciplines.
Old hymns, perhaps you’ve noticed, typically have repetitive melodies. That’s intentional. Old hymns keep the melody tight, without many rests in the singing for musical breaks. That’s also intentional. Old hymn melodies tend to stay on the beats rather than using the heavy syncopation typical of modern music. There’s a reason for that, too. All of this adds up to the songwriter’s intent for this song to be learned easily, sung well, and remembered.
Old hymns are time-tested
Not every old hymn is good, but the great ones exist because the writer built them to last. Some of the most famous hymn-writers in church history each penned hundreds of hymns, if not thousands. Today, we might sing only a few of their songs. History has a way of culling the herd.
A closing challenge
If old hymns are not part of your singing repertoire, then I issue you the following challenge if you dare:
Does Your Worship Add or Distract from the Gospel?
Our Call to Worship: Is it Well with Our Singing?
Tune My Heart: Cultivating Godly Affections in Worship
The post The Value of Singing Old Hymns appeared first on Focus on the Family.
Continue reading...
*A quick side note: not all hymns are old hymns. Biblically speaking, hymns are simply songs of praise to God. As long as God has called us to sing, believers have been writing and singing hymns. We still are. There are some great new hymns, but that’s not what this post is about. Now, let’s get to it.
Old hymns cover a wide range of biblical topics.
Gordon Fee rightly said, “Show me a church’s songs, and I’ll show you their theology.” Most standard hymnals include anywhere between 300 and 500 songs or more. Peruse that hymnal briefly, and you’ll discover many specific biblical topics. Compare that list with the catalog of songs your church sings in any given year, and the contrast will surprise you.
Old hymns allow us to dig deeper into our faith and add a melody to the life-giving teachings of scripture.
Do you need a song of response for baptisms? There’s an old hymn for that. Are you looking for a new Christmas song about the mystery of God becoming man? There’s an old hymn for that. If your church’s music diet lacks variety, I suggest you pick up an old hymnal and seek fresh ideas.
Old hymns connect us to all generations.
“…Young men and maidens together, old men and children! Let them praise the name of the LORD…” (Psalm 148:12-13)
How will multi-generational worship happen in our churches if we scrap all the songs of the past? If the songs we sing in worship are so crucial to the life of the Body, then why do we make so much of new songs and so little of older hymns?
If you remove old hymns from your fellowship, you send a message to older generations. That message is old things are ‘used up’ and have nothing more of value to give. Try telling that to the saints who have worshipped for decades with those songs of praise. Some of these old hymns were instrumental in leading them to faith. These hymns have sustained their hearts in the darkest and brightest of times.
Likewise, an insistence on only singing the newest songs is teaching the coming generations that worship in song is really a young person’s game, and age creeps up on us all, so make the best of it while you can.
That, my fellow pastors, is not right. Worship, according to the Bible, is for both young and old. You need to be singing old hymns for many reasons, but one very good reason is for the sake of all your church members. They have much to offer, and so do the hymns they have entrusted to us.
Old hymns allow us to worship with the universal church.
All Creatures of Our God and King appears in the hymnals of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, and many other denominations too extensive to list. At last check, it has also been translated into at least 48 languages (including English and Spanish Braille).
Though not every old hymn has that kind of reach and staying power, it illustrates the benefit that old hymns provide when the ecumenical mood strikes us. “A great multitude that no one [can] number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:9) make up the universal church, participating now and destined for eternity to sing the praises of the Lamb. We should not ignore the critical theological convictions of each of our fellowships, but we should at least work toward maintaining unity where we can.
As a worship leader, I’ve found old hymns to be an ‘easy win’ when leading worship outside the church for Christian camps, conferences, and other para-church ministries. Teaching these historic songs of the faith to our congregations enables them to better worship alongside faithful brothers and sisters from others.
Old hymns teach us how to be better songwriters.
Even if the style of songs written before you were born is an immediate turn-off, consider how old hymns were written. Many great hymns of the past were not written with a melody in mind. They were written as poetry, and over time we added music.
Master theologians, life-long pastors, and accomplished poets wrote these texts before they could even be called songs. Without the aid of music, they can stand on their own as rich, beautifully distilled articulations of scriptural truths and the spiritual expressions of Christian faith and devotion. They were written without the need for accompaniment.
Perhaps old hymns are not in line with your church’s musical preferences. Then I challenge you to find a great old hymn text and give it a melody that suits your congregation. I have found this remarkably effective in acquiring a taste for old hymns. It would be a shame to let so many good songs die for want of a simple change of fresh clothes.
Old hymns teach us how to be better singers
In the same vein of making us better songwriters, old hymns have much to teach us about being better singers. Songs are meant to be sung, and a good songwriter knows how to pick a singable melody. Some songs are great because of their simplicity, others because of their creativity. Old hymns teach us both disciplines.
Old hymns, perhaps you’ve noticed, typically have repetitive melodies. That’s intentional. Old hymns keep the melody tight, without many rests in the singing for musical breaks. That’s also intentional. Old hymn melodies tend to stay on the beats rather than using the heavy syncopation typical of modern music. There’s a reason for that, too. All of this adds up to the songwriter’s intent for this song to be learned easily, sung well, and remembered.
Old hymns are time-tested
Not every old hymn is good, but the great ones exist because the writer built them to last. Some of the most famous hymn-writers in church history each penned hundreds of hymns, if not thousands. Today, we might sing only a few of their songs. History has a way of culling the herd.
A closing challenge
If old hymns are not part of your singing repertoire, then I issue you the following challenge if you dare:
- Pick 10 old hymns to start singing in your church. A quick online search of the “greatest hymns of all time” will simplify your job. You will find a lot of these lists have many hymns in common. Pick the best of the best to make up your list of 10.
- Start teaching your congregation to sing them (or remember them). Do so simply. Don’t use a bunch of instrumentation. Try to be as close to the author’s original intent as possible without being awkward. While at it, discuss why this old hymn is important for your congregation.
- Listen and observe how your congregation picks up the hymn. Do they sing it louder or better than you expected? What does that tell you about the value of this type of song?
- Stick with it. If these songs are the best that Christian hymnody has to offer, then I believe you’ll begin to see the fruit of these seeds you have planted over time. You’ll start to hear people humming the melodies hummed as they leave service, and the lyrics will start working their way out in the way your people talk about their faith.
- Lastly, assess your other songs. Rethink the metric you use to gauge the shelf-life of your songs. You might be surprised that you keep cycling through them because you can’t find any with staying power. In that case, you might be on to something. Maybe you need to go back in time for the songs you’ve been searching for all along.
Related
Does Your Worship Add or Distract from the Gospel?
Our Call to Worship: Is it Well with Our Singing?
Tune My Heart: Cultivating Godly Affections in Worship
The post The Value of Singing Old Hymns appeared first on Focus on the Family.
Continue reading...