Recently I came across a link, from a friend of mine on Facebook about churches throwing hymnals in boxes, or getting rid of them all together.
Before I'm crucified for stating my opinion, let me say that I've always been a fan of hymns. As a matter of fact one of my friends and favorite worship leaders has always said, "Why have we chosen to throw away 2000 years of church music?" I might also add that we just attended a David Crowder concert and they led us in some old hymns and they were great. I digress... the point of the post as I can gather is that we should not do away with hymnals in a church. Below are my thoughts from this well written post.
As for this linked article, I do agree with some of the points but also believe that some of Jonathan Aigner points are somewhat of a stretch. I guess I should say that I don't believe that Jonathan is disregarding Contemporary worship music, he’s just arguing the point of the validity of the hymnal. I've used many a good hymnal like this oldie but goodie Baptist Hymnal.
Here are my thoughts:
1 Hymnals actually teach music. They may do just that... but I grew up in church, with a hymnal, and honestly I did not learn to read music until I was in 8th grade band, on a tuba! There may have been some who learned from hymnals... I certainly did not.
2 Hymnals set a performance standard. "Contemporary worship music is based on recording instead of notation." While I agree... a Contemporary Worship song can be learned by hearing. Once you know the song... you don't sing it a different way
3 Hymnals integrate the music and text. Again... this assumes a person can read music.
4 Hymnals allow you to sing anywhere. But... I can worship on Saturday mornings while making waffles or pancakes because I know the songs?
5 Hymnals allow people to take possession of the music. I can see how this would benefit... but I'm just not sure that people actually do this... do they?
6 Hymnals don’t screw things up. Agreed... nothing is worse than a person following along with the projected songs and the person running the computer falls behind! It happened yesterday in worship and people were turning around looking at the sound booth!
7 Hymnals are as helpful as the singer needs them to be. I would argue that the same applies to Contemporary worship music.
8 Hymnals are a theological textbook. There is no perfect hymnal, but well-crafted hymnals are reliable sources of theological information. I would argue that Contemporary worship music can be full of theological information as well.
9 Hymnals involve tactile action. I can't disagree with this one, however you have a tendency to look down at the pages whereas with projected music you are always looking up.
10 Hymnals are not particularly distracting. I can agree with this... There are some churches that get way to carried away with moving background. I have actually has some good discussion with some fellow youth pastors about this. I prefer static slides as a backdrop.
11 Hymnals preserve the aesthetics of the Sanctuary. Point well taken! There is nothing better than entering a traditional high church, no slam intended and see that it has been "retrofitted!" Sanctuaries like this in my opinion draw us to the majesty of God and should remain that way. If the screens can be electrically lowered fine... but let's not throw out all the aesthetics of a fine looking sanctuary! Nothing better than stained glass to draw us into a worshipful attitude! Second Baptist Houston does not look horrendous... but it was pretty magnificent before!
12 Hymnals confront us with “new” songs. Again... Point well taken.
13 Hymnals make songs less disposable. I don't think you can go either way on this. I can have Blessed be the tie that Binds as well as O How He loves Me come to mind within the same day. I believe all songs are stored in our memories and thoughts and God can use them to remind or communicate to certain things. I'm not saying that they are scripture, but many of them are based on scripture.
14 Hymnals give congregational singing back to the people. I believe this is a bit of a stretch but... ok.
I will state again that Jonathan is just laying the claim that Hymnals have their place. I'll argue that we can have both if needed, but for the most part they are expensive and it's much cheaper to read the words on a screen. Ok... back to listening to some music on my iPhone! Man this hymn We Gather Together, sure sounds like the tune they sing in the stands at a Netherlands soccer game?
