Does your church still use hymnals?
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Lambano
Well-Known Member
Almost always. Occasionally (Christmas Eve?), we project a Power Point on a screen.
For whatever reason Churches seem to be getting away from using hymnals and relying upon AV for music.
All good until the power goes out or the main board has a meltdown.
The choir director/music leader also has his own screen at the back that they use....I had one such person who had his eyes always glued to his screen...as his head turned his eyes never left the screen and you would have thought that his eyes were gonna fly out his head when he turned.
But a church I used to attend is listed in the Baptist hymnal under Judson....as in Judson Baptist Church. They wrote one of the songs within it.
Hymnal music was developed because Congregations used to sing Psalms...which were not very music minded when translated into English. In Hebrew they are great. English? Not so much. So a particular gentleman began rewriting the psalms into songs we could sing and set them to music. People loved them. The list was added to with varying themes over the years until we have what we have today.
However, music directors like to stick with contemporary music.
All good until the power goes out or the main board has a meltdown.
The choir director/music leader also has his own screen at the back that they use....I had one such person who had his eyes always glued to his screen...as his head turned his eyes never left the screen and you would have thought that his eyes were gonna fly out his head when he turned.
But a church I used to attend is listed in the Baptist hymnal under Judson....as in Judson Baptist Church. They wrote one of the songs within it.
Hymnal music was developed because Congregations used to sing Psalms...which were not very music minded when translated into English. In Hebrew they are great. English? Not so much. So a particular gentleman began rewriting the psalms into songs we could sing and set them to music. People loved them. The list was added to with varying themes over the years until we have what we have today.
However, music directors like to stick with contemporary music.
Debp
Well-Known Member
I'm not either. I absolutely love the old hymns....very meaningful words and people can learn from them.
I own two very old hymnals. Found one at a thrift store. The other a church was getting new hymnals and you could donate and receive an old hymnal.
A third hymnal was even older...I gave that to a young man who studied for the ministry.
The church I pastored before retiring sometimes sings my favorite hymn (Be Still My Soul) by introducing it with a phrase I used when requesting it -> “432, that’s the one.”
* Page 432 in the hymnal *
* Page 432 in the hymnal *
Debp
Well-Known Member
I love that hymn, too. Also, it's a favorite of my 94 year old mother.
She doesn't hear well now. But amazingly, I played some of The Living Stones (Indian Gospel group) for her and she could hear them. They harmonize beautifully.
The Living Stones Quartet, Indian Gospel singers
This group has such a soothing quality in their voices.... @My Dreams You might enjoy them.
www.christianityboard.com
Debp
Well-Known Member
Can I ask what type of church you pastored? Just curious. If you would rather not say, that's ok.
Abrahamic Faith. Loosely affiliated with the Church of God General Conference, which is headquartered in McDonough, Georgia.
“If you can’t advance the slides fast enough to keep up with the singing, I want my hymnal back.”
(Dr. Michael J. Svigel)
(Dr. Michael J. Svigel)
Lambano
Well-Known Member
Also not helpful when AV guy (me) has to page back several slides to get to the refrain, and then page forward to verse (n+1). Is it too much work to just duplicate the refrain slide each time?
Tech Guy Has Perfect Service (Babylon Bee)
Lambano
Well-Known Member
Does your church still use hymnals?
We actually have 2 hymnals. The Methodist Hymnal has few songs more recent than Charles Wesley tunes. and Fanny Crosby is considered daring. (A female composer? What is this world coming to?) The Faith We Sing has some slightly more contemporary worship songs.
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Lambano
Well-Known Member
Is there a Protestant hymnal in the English-speaking world that doesn't have "Joy to the World" in the Christmas hymns section?
(I was pleasantly surprised that the Catholic hymnal in the church where my granddaughter was baptized had Chuck Wesley's Christ the Lord is Risen Today in the Easter section in a remarkable show of ecumenicalism. I suppose if it's good, it's good, and it doesn't matter who wrote it.)
I don’t know.
I agree. The hymnal my church uses contains some hymns written by trinitarians (Luther, for example); hymns which don’t contradict the doctrine of the church. (I imagine Luther would have a few choice words to say if he knew some of his hymns were contained in a non-trinitarian hymnal.)
Watts is a controversial figure. Our hymnal contains many that were written by him.
I don’t want to get into a discussion in this thread about his controversial beliefs but rather a generic discussion about hymns which all Christian denominations are able to sing with a clear conscience.
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The Puritans didn’t celebrate Christmas and passed laws against it. I haven’t looked at a Puritan hymnal in a long time but it wouldn’t have contained a Christmas hymns section.
Lambano
Well-Known Member
I didn't realize Watts was controversial, though I'm sure our previous choir director (who was quite traditional and well-versed in Methodist hymnody) would have known. Our hymnal has 19 of his hymns.
Lambano
Well-Known Member
I've had one or two that I had to think, "Why are we singing this? Why am I singing it?"
No kidding right?
But that's what Wednesday nights and practice early before services are for. Someone is supposed to be duplicating slides and getting them all in order and set for flawless execution. Because the AV booth should never detract and cause a point of focus away from the services themselves.
The people being able to focus on singing and etc are the object of the exercise...even if the music director calls an audible change.
I used to have a pastor that never got us sermon notes...then call out scriptures for the congregation to read with him. We in the AV booth would post them up on screen.
But when he calls out the wrong book, chapter and verse but we in the booth STILL get it CORRECT....because we knew scriptures well enough.....that's doing some things. Magical things.
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