Service Feedback Forms: Sing Hymns

Our church has a traditional-singing first service and a blended/contemporary-singing second service. Each month 10 people/couples are chosen from each service and asked to fill out a feedback form for every Sunday of that month. This feedback form asks for their opinion on every aspect of the service and leaves room for them to share areas of concern. For the most part, I am glad we do this. Dave is responsible for planning and leading worship in our second service, and sometimes when people are critical of him, it ruffles my wifely feathers a little bit. (Constructive criticism is good and Dave takes it well, but sometimes people think something is his fault when it’s not. Anyway...)

Let me make a few things clear from the start:
1) We sing hymns in our service. Both hymns that were written a long time ago and are found in hymnals, and new hymns that are in the musical style of a hymn but were written within the last few years. We also sing both older (written 15-20 yrs ago) and current praise choruses. We mix it up. If it’s theologically sound and congregationally friendly (ie: not arranged for a soloist) then we’ll sing it.
2) I think it is good to sing hymns.
3) I am not advocating we stop singing hymns.

Each week the feedback forms are given to our Music Ministry Director (not Dave, he’s the intern) and she compiles them and sends them out to the church staff in an email. The following is a quote from one such email:

General comments:
From an evaluator who was not present for this week’s service, but was appreciative of the opportunity to share some thoughts regarding the service in general:
Music – There is a real need for more hymns in the 2nd service. This would be according to Scripture – Ephesians 5:19 – “Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.”


Ok. This does not ruffle my wifely feathers (because although Dave picks the songs a majority of the time, he picks a good variety and you cannot make everyone happy every week) this ruffles my ... um ... theology feathers? I don’t even know what you call this state of “really, are you serious?” that I feel right now. And since I don’t know who said this, and I can’t go and talk to them directly, I decided to blog my thoughts.

I understand that whether to sing hymns or not, or how many are sung in a service is very controversial – especially in conservative churches – especially in places like Lancaster, PA. And I am happy for you to express your preference for hymns, but do not bust out Ephesians 5:19 (or Colossians 3:16) and tell me we NEED to sing them. The hymns in our hymnal (written within the last three hundred years or so) were not around when Paul was writing his letter to the believers in Ephesus. It’s just not possible for Paul to be referring to our hymnal (and only our hymnal) when he said whatever Greek word is translated as “hymn”.

Our hymns are not scripture (yes, some of them do contain scripture, but they aren’t part of the cannon). It isn’t sinful not to sing them. Our hymns are not international – churches in rural Africa are not singing all stanzas and the refrain of Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Do they “have a real need for more hymns” too?

If you want to sing more hymns, tell me it’s your personal preference. Tell me why you like them. Do you like the words? All the harmonies? Using a hymnal? The tradition of singing them? The familiarity? Tell me which ones are your favorites. Let’s sing them. I appreciate a good hymn with some great theology and a nice melody line. But don’t tell me we NEED more hymns because the Bible says so.

I'd like to note Revelation 4:8:
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

Did you catch that? A glimpse of heaven and the creatures are repeating one sentence over and over and over. They never cease. One sentence. No four stanzas of theologically profound words in KJV English. We get tired and distracted if we repeat the chorus of Chris Tomlin's "How Great is Our God" too much. I was at an urban church service last month and after the speaker was done and we had been dismissed some folks went up to the front to encourage the speaker and give testimony of what God was doing in their life. And then to praise God for all He had been doing, they began to sing. And they sang the same song – the same few lines – over and over. After 20-30 minutes of this repeat praise we left because it was getting late, we wanted to get home, and there was no sign of them stopping. I wonder if this isn’t a bit more like what heaven will be like. Of course, I don’t know...maybe the angels pass out hymnals at the pearly gates? I’m just sayin’...

I think there is a place for hymns and praise choruses and for making up songs on the spot and really, for anything that praises our God for his incomprehensible awesomeness, anything that helps us to “sing and make melody with our heart to the Lord”. Isn’t that the point of Ephesians 5:19? So today, do that. Worship Him. On your own, or with a friend, or with your spouse. In your heart, or out loud. Don’t wait for church on Sunday. Sing to Him today.

jj