by Don Chapman
Over the past few weeks I've been teaching
my "Blending Hymns With Contemporary
Worship" class at worship conferences
to desperate audiences. It seems to be the
never ending problem: how to use hymns in
contemporary worship.
Just which hymns should you use? I believe
there are popular hymns that everyone should
know - hymns that have stood the test of
time and cross denominational borders.
A few years ago I coined the term "hymn
cranks" which stirred up some nasty
emails. "Hymn cranks" describe
those trouble-making people in your church
who are constantly harping for you to do
hymns, hymns and more hymns. At my last church,
one guy in the congregation was busy tallying
during the praise set how many hymns were
or were not used (he tallied instead of worshipping
- I had to be kept in line and this was his
sacred duty!) You can imagine the trouble
I was in if I dared to NOT do a hymn on an
given Sunday.
Then there was the deacon who was fixated
on obscure, antiquated hymns written by Isaac
Watts. This hymn crank wasn't satisfied that
we did a healthy dose of popular hymns -
he constantly pestered me to use his favorite,
"How Sweet and Awesome is this Place"
in our praise sets. I have sung hymns my
entire life, consider myself to be somewhat
of a hymn expert and had never heard of this
one. Here's the second verse of this lovely
ditty:
Here every bowel of our
God
With soft compassion rolls;
Here peace and pardon bought
with blood
Is food for dying souls.
I'm sorry, but we're simply not going to
sing a hymn about God's bowels in a contemporary
worshiping church. I mean, fire me if you
want, we just ain't gonna do it.
This deacon finally worked himself up into
such a hissy fit that he threatened to leave
the church.
Over a hymn about God's bowels.
And people wonder why the average tenure
of a music director is two years. (He eventually
regained his senses, calmed down, and I never
did do that hymn!)
In no particular order, here are the top
ten hymns that everyone should know, drawn
from years of polling and my personal opinion,
that work best with contemporary worship:
Amazing Grace
Holy Holy Holy
Be Thou My Vision
Come Thou Fount
All Hail the Power (CORONATION)
What a Friend We Have In Jesus
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
I Surrender All
Crown Him With Many Crowns
It Is Well With My Soul
The classical chord structure
of these hymns
is what makes them useable
in contemporary
worship. Interestingly,
the older the hymn,
the easier it is to translate
to a praise
band. Even though songs
like "At Calvary"
are in many hymnals, they're
not actually
hymns but "Gospel
songs." The sing-songy,
lilting quality and chromatic
melodies give
these late 19th and early
20th century tunes
an inherent dated feel,
and it's pretty hard
to create convincing contemporary
arrangements
with them.
At my website, HymnCharts.com, I have a list of the top 100 hymns that
I've arranged, and consider to be the easiest
to blend with contemporary worship.
Bottom Line: Season your praise sets with the most popular
hymns.
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