When I begin a new church post, I like to ask my new colleagues what their favorite hymns are. I’ve been serving churches professionally in one way or another since I was 17, I grew up in the church, and I’m something of an amateur hymnologist, so I’m not often stumped by their answers. But the most recent time I asked this question, my senior pastor threw me a curveball. “They Cast Their Nets in Galilee” was his answer. I... Read more

Songs of Thankfulness and Praise Songs of thankfulness and praise, Jesus, Lord, to thee we raise, Manifested by the star To the sages from afar; Branch of royal David’s stem In thy birth at Bethlehem; Anthems be to thee addrest, God in man made manifest. Manifest at Jordan’s stream, Prophet, Priest, and King supreme; And at Cana, wedding guest, In thy Godhead manifest; Manifest in power divine, Changing water into wine; Anthems be to thee addrest, God in man made... Read more

Here is a follow-up to my last post about the hymns I want my children to learn. There are some hymns that I try to avoid as much as possible. Personal Testimony Hymns There are some hymns, like “There Is a Fountain” that essentially use this format as a vehicle for proclaiming the gospel. But there are many, many others, mostly in the gospel hymns category that use flowery language to cook up some sort of ultra-dramatic, sappy account of... Read more

In response to my recent series of posts on hymns I’d like to ban for all etenity, someone asked me to talk more about what hymns I would never want to block. Rather than a list of what I think are the best, which would be difficult and unnecessarily subjective, I thought I would list some general criteria for the kind of hymns I find most valuable. First and foremost, I believe that music should serve the liturgy of the... Read more

I rewatched the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II the other day. Another thing hit me. There were no eulogies, by the grace of God. At my funeral, I want someone with good aim sitting in the front pew holding a barrel full of overripe tomatoes. Anyone who dares to say, “We’re here to celebrate his life,” shall be pelted with tomatoes. The same goes for anyone who tries to give a eulogy. Eulogies are a recent phenomenon, particularly in liturgical... Read more

This post started out as an installment in my “Hymns I Would Block For All Eternity” series, maybe it still is, but I wanted to broaden it just a little bit. Someone in one of the fun, snarky church music Facebook groups of which I am a card-carrying member mentioned Catholic boomer hymn-writer Marty Haugen’s ditty, “All Are Welcome,” sometimes known as “Let us build a house.” Haugen is not actually Catholic, a mainline Lutheran, I believe, but he spent... Read more

Apparently 4.1 billion people watched funeral of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday, making it the most-watched broadcast of all-time. That’s pretty interesting. As one Facebook poster said, “That…63% of the world’s population were glued not to a runway or an awards show or a lip-syncing boy band being obliterated by light effects, but to Anglican chant, the strains of Howells, Weir, Parry, and Harris; not to words like “you hoes be trippin’,” but to “My soul, there is a country” and... Read more

One of the things one must understand about the gospel is that it is not primarily concerned with ethics. That might seem like a scandelous statement. I’m not saying that Christian ethics do not exist, only that they are an outworking of the gospel in the life of believers, not the gospel itself. The gospel is this: Christ crucified to save sinners. It is God’s work through Jesus to reconcile fallen humanity to him. We the fallen are quick to... Read more

Here’s another hymn that, were I given the chance, I would pay good money to ban forever. This one is different than “Woman of the Night,” or whatever it’s called. It’s from a sub-genre of hymnody that I like to call Catholic Boomer Hymns,” and I should mention first off that the text of this hymn is superb, because it is largely taken from the wonderful John 6, with the final stanza based on John 11. But that’s also a... Read more