Why We Need Hymns Back in Our Worship Services

My wife will tell you as will most people who know me that I have never been a big fan of choruses in worship services.  In fact, many of you who read these posts already know that I am a proponent of using hymns instead of choruses  in public worship services. But please don't misunderstand, I have never said there was no place for choruses in our public  worship services. It's true, I have not been a big fan of their use but I do believe they can contribute to the overall worship experience when used sparingly and strategically. Seeing to it that they are used in that kind of way is the responsibility of the worship leader.

I am pretty sure that my exposure to the exclusive use of choruses in public worship services predates that of most people who are reading this. For most of us above the age of 50 choruses were pretty much reserved for use with youth groups, retreats, and occasionally in a revival meeting. Prior to the mid 1980's it was the exception rather than the rule that a chorus would be used in a regular church worship service. My how the times have changed. Now you rarely hear a hymn.

My first exposure to worship services that were devoid of hymns was during a Partnership Mission back in 1985 when Susan and I went to Australia to work with the Chester Hill Baptist Church in New South Wales. Australia. We arrived at our first worship service only to learn, (1) there were no hymn books in the sanctuary, (2) all the singing was by way of choruses, (3) there was no special music and no formal "praise teams," and (4) only about half the people present were participating in the singing. Those who were singing were for the most part under 25 years of age.

It was also that same year that we were exposed to the Hillsong Church in Sydney. Many will recognize this as the mega church in Sydney from which many of the earliest choruses used in worship services were born. That church itself was either born out of or inspired by what was known then as the Toronto Movement - a modern charismatic movement.

As I suggested previously, what I remember most was that I didn't know any of the songs and couldn't participate in the "praise" portion of the praise and worship. Having grown up in a Baptist church I knew virtually every hymn in the old Broadman Hymnal and its successor the old Baptist Hymnal.  As for these choruses, they were alien to me. I must confess that I liked some of the choruses of that time period but because they were outside of my here-to-fore worship style and music experience they did not enhance my worship.

Being musically trained and inclined it wasn't too hard to pick up the choruses and I admit I enjoyed the fun feelings I experienced when singing most of them. But over the years as I have watched the development of the Praise and Worship movement I have come to feel that what started as a spontaneous expression of worship has become so institutionalized so that it no longer meets the needs of the many in worship. As I will mention later it has wedded to the commercial recording industry to the point that most choruses are now written and pitched for the voices of performers (worship leader & praise team) and not congregants.

What started out as an effort to put the spiritual "feeling" back into worship has evolved  into an ego, albeit unrecognized ego, on the part of those "on stage." Somehow, this noble effort to put emotional expression into worship we have pretty much put doctrinal expression of Biblical truth on a back burner when it should be on the front burner of our worship experience.

Was it not the apostle Paul when addressing this same issue in another context (speaking in tongues or as is known theologically Γλωσσολαλιά) who said, "But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue" (I Cor. 14:19).  He did not forbid it but he prioritized and contextualized it.  That is precisely what I am suggesting we do with the use of choruses versus the use of hymns.

It is the failure to  prioritize and contextualize our use of choruses that has caused the same kinds of divisions in the modern church as did that same failure with regard to understandable proclamation of the gospel and "Glossolalia."  This division runs deep and our efforts to accommodate both groups has resulted not in less division but more. We now are not only divided in our music preference groups but physically in our actual worship services. Today we have in many churches separate worship times for the various music preferences . . . .We have a "Traditional" sefvice and a separate "Contemporary" service. Some churches have added a third services that it identifies as a "Blended" service. 

The tragedy is, what was originally intended as an enhancement to the worship experience for the congregant has become an impediment to most. Our worship now is less about how the experience of worship has facilitated the development of my spiritual maturity as it about how it made me feel. I began to realize that while I was singing unto the Lord and extolling His wonder I was really gratifying my own desires. I fear it has become just another tool of the "feel good gospel" movement.

At that meeting in 1985 at the Chester Hill Baptist Church my wife and I were sitting in the church hall with a couple of the Elders in the church when I asked her to play something on a piano while we waited on folks to gather for an after service gathering. Because she cannot play "by ear" and needs music she sat down and began to play from an old hymnal that was in the piano bench. After a few bars these Elders got from where they were seated and joined her at the piano and began to sing along. I soon joined them. After we had sang a few old gospel hymns I turned to look around because I recognized additional voices had joined us and discovered 30 or 40 people had joined our little band of hymn singers.

Actually this was a trick I learned from a singer named Ronnie Simmons. For almost an hour we sang the great hymns of the faith. What did that tell me at the dawn of the age of choruses?  Well, for one thing among many others it told me that great hymns will never die because they speak to the whole man . . .  body, soul and spirit while at the same time feeding the mind and motivating a way of life consistent with the Gospel.

My thinking on this has been and continues in many ways to be a work in progress. Over time, I began to sense a certain sameness about the choruses we were singing in our services and gatherings. But I suppose what caused me the most consternation was the endless and hypnotic rhythm and repetition of phrases. I remembered, from my Psychology in Search of a Soul class with John Drakeford how this use of repetitious rhythm and phrases can be and often are hypnotic.  Besides, contemporary worship with its plethora of badly written and composed choruses is inauthentic and has a rather flippant attitude. It rarely confronts the horrific realities of the times in which we live.

Another problem is that choruses and contemporary praise and worship music are not written for a congregational singing. I mentioned this briefly above. They are written for individuals and small groups (praise teams) to perform. Those of us in the congregation are forced to try to follow them in all aspects of melody, rhythm, and tempo. Add to this the fact that they are singing in a range that might fit the performers but are not optimal for congregational participation. Worse yet, because it is performance oriented the congregation must deal with the impromptu altering of the chorus by the worship leader and praise team. We never are quiet sure where they are going with the song.

But, what really convinced me that this was probably not the right direction for praise and worship was how incensed and vehement practitioners (worship leaders and praise teams) became at the slightest criticism.

Lately, however, I've noticed a true blending of hymns and choruses and not just a sharing or worship time.  There is a real move back to the hymn in our worship while attempting to preserve the best part of the Choruses. The following are the reasons why I think this return to the hymn is important.

I want to share with you why I believe it is important that we begin to reincorporate hymnody and hymn singing in our worship. Hymns, past and present, provide an honest, more natural response to the world in which we as Christians are called upon to live. In short, they are a more human response in our worship to the world wherein we live out our faith. Hymns not only give the opportunity to sing praises unto the Lord they deal with the realities of our daily living.  They acknowledge our struggle in much the way as the old negro spirituals of the 19th century recognized the struggle of the slaves.

Hymns recognize the might, power, and wonder of our God; they acknowledge the all sufficiency of Christ's life, death, and resurrection (shed blood) for our eternal salvation; and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for our source of strength; they reinforces the truth that we are one body (the bride of Christ - the church) and as such need each other as we face the challenges of becoming Christ like.

Since my first exposure in 1985 until now I have learned many choruses and yet in my darkest hours of need it is the great hymns of faith that filled my thoughts, flooded my heart and were articulated by my lips that helped me grasp the height and the depth of God's love for me. It was those same hymns that in my times of joy and happiness allow me to express in an authentic way the source of my joy . . .  Jesus.

The first reason for this is that hymns not only "speak to my spirit" but they address my mind as well. Hymns teach me theological and doctrinal truth. It’s been said that we are what we sing. Hymn-singing is part of the didactic function of corporate worship. It adds new dimensions to the truth of the Christian story. I agree with the guy who said, "If the songs we sing don’t inform, enrich, or edify our faith, they simply aren’t worth singing." If  it is true, and it is, we are what we sing, we better choose well!

Hymns remind us that as followers of Jesus we have are to have a social consciousness.  As I have earlier said, today's choruses have a certain penchant for self-aggrandizement. You know that "its all about me" quality. Hymns make me aware of others and their needs. Hymns  the way we relate to the world. Hymns carry the Great Commission and all its attendant commands to my mind and heart in ways the spoken work can never do. Hymns help us become doers of the Word and not hearers only.

Additionally hymns were written for congregational singing. Hymns are self-contained pieces. They begin and end with the poetry that is coupled with a the four-part vocal harmony that makes them ideal for hearty and robust large-group participation. Add the added benefit of  the music being notated, the melody and rhythm is standardized for unified singing free from the self-indulgence of the vocal performers. In short it not only enables but encourages robust participation be everyone present. It is a true group worship experience.

Hymns remind us that we don’t worship to attract unbelievers. Hymns don’t mimic popular style in word or music. They are not written to display the talents and gifts of the performers but rather are written to allow a particular group of people (Christians) to express their faith in a distinctively Christian style. There is no mimicking of the recording industry, they are nor written and produced to sell for a profit. They are the distinctive music of God's people. Or as Will Willimon once said as he explained the difference, "They are distinctively different songs for a distinctively different covenant people." I love the way former United Methodist Bishop and Duke Professor Will Willimon describes this peculiar sound to a questioning student when he said, “Well you’ll notice that you won’t hear any of this kind of music on MTV.

I find it ironic and sad that we live in a society in which we are horribly disconnected from one another. When we sing hymns in our churches, we are uniting with those around us in a fantastically corporate, sensory experience. When we sing hymns of the past, we are sharing in faith with those who have gone before us.  We forget that the crucifixion did not happen in this century and that there has been a long history of faith from then to now. We are a part of an unfolding drama that began a long time ago and will continue until Jesus returns.

However, until Jesus comes we will continue to come together as God’s people, singing,  speaking, preaching, and praying the old, old story as a part of our being remade into Christ’s likeness. The singing of hymns serves as a kind of auto-correct for the blind spots in our modern understandings of faith.

When we allow the witness of prior generations into our worship, we are presented with a more complete picture of what it means to be a person of faith in our own time. Through the old hymns of faith along with new hymns of our own creation, we are able to pass on the faith of the saints who’ve gone before to our children and  to their children.

For too long now, hymn-singing has been seen as being for those of “a certain age.” Somehow we developed the mistaken notion that hymns are only for those who “desire more tradition in their worship experience.” While tradition in our worship is a not a bad thing it is not the only thing and it is time those days were over. It’s time to teach our churches how to sing hymns once again. Before it’s too late, and the rich tradition is gone for good.

If I might I'd like to offer a brief addendum that may become the subject of a future blog. I offer it in the form of a question. Has the contemporary church become so seeker friendly that it has forfeited everything that distinguished it from the world is was sent out into to effect a change?