“True worship always questions the dominant paradigms, even those within the church. It asks whether we are bowing before reality or falsehood, before God or idols.”
-Mark Labberton, The Dangerous Act of Worship
My Dear Keystone Community,
One of my friends just released an album of “worship songs” and invited me to listen to it. The first song on the album, “Praise Jesus,” contains the chorus: “Praise Jesus, for all the world to see/ praise Jesus, for what he’s done for me/ praise Jesus, praise Jesus, praise Jesus, amen!” I’ve been to plenty of churches where this catchy tune would fit right into the worship music, and as I listened, I could imagine folks raising their hands, closing their eyes, and being caught up in the emotion of praising Jesus. I enjoyed listening and even singing along with “Praise Jesus” and some of the other songs on the album (the words were easy to pick up), although they are most definitely not the kind of songs that we sing here at Keystone.
Why not? What’s the purpose of singing in church, anyway? Church is one of the only places that we all get to sing together. It’s an amazing experience to use our lungs and our lips to join in solidarity with other people! But we could do this with protest songs, folk songs, or popular songs. Why hymns? And why Gather (donated to us by St. Pat’s and full of “social justice” songs) or the New Century Hymnal (the UCC “official” hymnal, with inclusive language versions of old favorites) or Sing! Prayer and Praise (a newer songbook)?
There are a lot of different kinds of hymns. And everyone has a preference. One person told me they did not like the “marching songs“ of the New Century Hymnal. Another person told me they preferred the New Century Hymnal because they knew the old standard hymns and could sing harmonies. Someone else said they weren’t crazy about the songs from Gather, where we seem to be singing our political manifesto. One jokester said they didn’t like many of the songs in Sing! Prayer and Praise because “I don’t like to sing songs about Jesus touching me.” You can’t please all of the people all of the time.
Most weeks, I am the one who chooses the hymns that we sing for worship. I consult with Elliot, but for the most part, I select them based on a few factors: the sermon themes, the familiarity of the congregation with the music, and the ease of access to the hymnals. As I’ve told you, I have been trying to keep our singing to one hymnal per worship session, so that you all don’t have to fumble with more than one hymnal. And I try to rotate hymnals so that everyone has an equal chance to dislike the music that week.
Another important consideration is the integrity of the composer. Several years ago, the worship team decided not to use any songs by David Haas. Haas was a popular hymn writer for Catholics and Lutherans and wrote some really beautiful songs, but a number of women came forward and said that Haas had sexually assaulted them, so we made the decision not to use his music.
Although we may come from different faith backgrounds, singing in church is a way for us to articulate our shared foundation of faith. It's important that we sing what we believe. While the Gather hymnal does contain some wonderful songs about God's justice — “Canticle of the Turning” is one of my favorites — it also contains quite a bit of sexist language. And while the New Century hymnal uses more inclusive language, some of the hymns contain language about “the sacrifice paid” by Jesus — this is substitutionary atonement theology, which we do our best to deconstruct at Keystone. So it’s a balance: lovely old hymns that everyone knows may contain some outdated theology, and a more contemporary song may sound jarring to folks who haven’t heard it much.
What are your favorite songs to sing at Keystone? What stirs you to action? What comforts you? What keeps you coming back to sing with this community every week? Please let me know and I’ll be sure to include them in the worship plan as often as I can!
With much love
Pastor Adina