Wednesday after the Epiphany
Who picks the hymns?
Back in the 50's, 60's, and '70's it was the first power struggle a new pastor would face. Many a pastor would meet the choir director, whose first comment would be, "I'm the choir director and I pick the hymns." Many a pastor would retort, "No, I'm the pastor, and I pick the hymns." (Organists were never included in this power struggle). When such power struggles were at their worst often was when the pastor was high church and the choir director was low church (or the other way around). I should also note that back in those days there was little of no effort to pick hymns that went with the sermon and often not even with the season.
Over the intervening decades hymn selection, along with many other things in church life, has become more democratic. Nowadays we're more likely to find hymns picked by committees that include pastor and pastoral staff, choir director and music staff, and a couple of people from the Worship Committee.
The first disagreement a pastor's hymn suggestion usually encounters is, "We don't know that one." The pastor's usual rejoinder is "We can learn it." When the congregation does finally sing it, they don't sing very loud and have confused expressions on their faces.
So here's my advice to new pastors. Nothing new in your first few months. Acquiesce to the suggestions of the choir director and others. When you do get around to singing something new, stick with it. Sing it again once every two months or so, up to four times a year. It will soon become a part of the congregation's repertoire.
The hymns should go with the seasons, the lectionary, and the sermons. Cokesbury publishes helpful books that give a number of suggestions for hymns to go with the lectionary texts of the week. There is one book for each of the three years of the lectionary. Having hymns that go with the sermons requires good sermon planning habits on the part of the preacher. You may recall the term "Saturday Night Special" for certain types of handguns. Every pastor knows a different meaning for that term. If the worship planning group meets on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, the pastor needs to have at least a very good idea of what his or her sermon is going to be that coming Sunday.
Maximum number of times a hymn should be sung in one year: Four.
Minimum number of times a hymn the pastor dislikes but the congregation loves should be sung in one year: One. When a congregation member whines, for example, "We never sing, 'Nothing but the blood of Jesus,' " the pastor should be prepared find out from his or her records or from the choir director's records exactly when that hymn was last sung.
A pastor and a choir director need to be flexible, to bend to each others wishes and to congregations' wishes. If you are trying out a hymn that's new to the congregation, get the choir on board with it first. You need for the choir to sing it loud and well that first Sunday.
There is one composer whose hymns you want to sing plenty of. That's Charles Wesley. He has more hymns in our hymnal than any other hymn writer (I think it's 22). His tunes are superb and his words are often brilliant. His theology is quintessentially Methodist theology.
Faithfully,
Christian
2 comments:
Charles Wesley hymns are great. His hymns speak to me.
That is great advice. Are you on the "Things They Didn't Teach You in Seminary" Facebook group? Mom is, and this article would be perfect.
Our dear friend Jean, when she started at the last church she would serve before she passed away, became great friends with the music director immediately. At her memorial at that church, the music director cried talking about how they would look at each other before the service and say, "We got this." She was a new pastor at 65. I bet she's up there making friends with all the music directors in heaven.
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