IDEAS THAT WORK - Christianity Today

Hymn Histories

The call to worship began: “Sometimes we must worship even when we don’t feel like it, even when we aren’t very thankful.

“Martin Rinkard knew that 350 years ago. He was the only pastor in his hometown of Eilersberg, Germany. It was a walled city, and during the merciless Thirty Years’ War, Eilersberg was jammed with hungry and homeless refugees. The war brought famine and disease. On some days Pastor Rinkard performed fifty funerals before sunset. Yet in this setting, he declared his praise to God by writing a hymn: ‘Now Thank We All Our God.’ Let’s sing this hymn of worship . . .”

These days, not everyone knows or appreciates traditional hymns. With praise choruses and Scripture songs increasingly prevalent in church worship services, traditional hymns are becoming an endangered species.

But hymns are alive and well at Crossroads Covenant Church in Concord, California, despite the fact that 80 percent of the adult members are under 45 years old.

Says Pastor Greg Asimakoupoulos, “We must take seriously the style of music that will be most appreciated by the congregation. In our case, that means we spend major portions of Sunday worship singing medleys of choruses.”

Yet Asimakoupoulos feels contemporary choruses can’t replace the solid theology and lyrical beauty of time-tested hymns. “To paraphrase St. Bernard of Clairvaux, ‘what language could we borrow to thank our Dearest Friend,’ without the treasury of hymn texts?”

So at Crossroads, in addition to worship medleys, the congregation sings at least one traditional hymn each Sunday. But they do more than just sing it.

The worship committee selects a hymn that supports the sermon theme. They research the story behind the hymn’s origin and write a three-minute introduction. “The Him (or Her) Behind the Hymn” is then read just prior to the singing of the hymn. The details of the composer’s life often give added meaning to the hymn.

” ‘O Love That Will Not Let Me Go’ can’t be categorized as a tired, old tune once people realize it was written by George Matheson after his diagnosed blindness prompted his fiance to call off the wedding,” says Asimakoupoulos. “Or take the story of Joseph Scriven, who learned, only hours before his wedding, that his beloved fiance had drowned. Out of his grief, he scrawled simple words that demonstrate his undergirding confidence in Christ: ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus.’ “

“It’s more than a kind of time warp,” says Asimakoupoulos. “When we sing with understanding the great hymns, we add depth to our worship-good theology, historical reverence, and musical diversity.”

As one young member said, “I don’t mind singing older, slower songs when I understand when and why they were written.”

(Asimakoupoulos recommends the following resources for hymn stories: Hymns That Live by Frank Colquhoun (InterVarsity, 1981); Sing It Again by J. Irving Erickson (Covenant, 1985); 101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth Osbeck (Kregel, 1982).)

Swapping Sermons

On the preacher’s calendar, Sunday comes every other day. Or so it feels. Where can a minister consistently find fresh illustrations and insights into the text? Is there a reservoir of sermonic material from which he or she can draw refreshment and ideas?

A book of sermons or illustrations occasionally may prove helpful, but too often, selections from these have a canned taste. In search of fresher inspiration, Brian Kelley Bauknight, senior minister of Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, found an approach that in his words “has strengthened my pulpit ministry immensely over the past nine years.”

Each year, Bauknight meets with about 15 clergy from churches of similar size within the denomination “for professional, biblical, and theological refreshment. We began to realize that one joy and burden we shared was coming up with fresh and vital sermon material week after week.” Then came the idea: group members who regularly printed their sermons (about half the group) would share those sermons with the others. “We have a common understanding that we can use each other’s material freely, giving credit in informal ways when appropriate,” Bauknight says.

The sermons are mailed in batches of three or four. (Usually a small annual donation is made to the sending church to cover postage.) Some group members read their colleagues’ sermons for inspiration but use little actual content. Others file the sermons for future reference, without taking time to read them when they arrive. Bauknight’s approach is “to read or scan a half dozen sermons each week, clipping bits and pieces that might be useful at another time. Only occasionally do I find an idea or illustration that fits the particular sermon upon which I am working.”

What have these ministers gained from the swap? For Bauknight, the benefit has been “illustrations that speak to me and suit my style of preaching, models of good uses of humor, particular turns of phrase that grab my attention, and insight on the creative use of a particular text.”

Bauknight points out three elements that have made their group’s sermon exchange a success.

1. Common approach to ministry. “We represent churches of similar size in the same tradition,” Bauknight says, “and we know some of the struggles and joys in each others’ lives.”

2. Appreciation. “We send notes of appreciation for a thoughtful message or inspirational insight. Our styles vary widely, but we call each other friend and colleague with conviction.”

3. Careful use of material. “In nine years, no confidences have been broken, and no one has submitted for publication a sermon that uses original material of another member. I appreciate the occasional manuscript from another’s church that reads, ‘As my friend Brian Bauknight said recently . . .’ or that has a footnote, ‘Thanks to Brian Bauknight for this illustration.’ “

Community Singin’ Seniors

At 11 A.M. every Thursday, the parking lot of Mineral (Virginia) Baptist Church is nearly full. That’s right: Thursday.

It’s rehearsal time for the “Community Singin’ Seniors,” described by Mineral’s pastor, L. Milton Hankins, as “our thoroughly amateur, volunteer, come-as-you-are, sing-for-fun folks over 55.” The group draws 30 to 40 senior citizens, mostly in their seventies or eighties, from across the community. Each week they gather to sing their favorite old-time sacred and secular music.

The idea for the popular outreach came shortly after Hankins became the church’s pastor and joined the sanctuary choir. He enjoyed the choir, “led by an energetic, multi-talented young man who conducts us through some fairly intricate, contemporary pieces.” But he also began to wonder, Why aren’t more people in our congregation in the sanctuary choir?

Hankins discreetly began to inquire of members of the “bit older than average” congregation. Their responses:

“I’m too old!”

“I used to sing in the choir, but I can’t sing that new stuff.”

“I love to sing, but I don’t read notes.”

“I don’t know those songs they sing anymore. I like the good old songs!”

Hankins realized he had discovered not excuses, but a basic need. He put in the local newspaper’s calendar of community events an announcement that The Community Singin’ Seniors would meet each Thursday at 11 in the church’s sanctuary. The group would have no auditions, no appeals for exceptional voices, and no membership requirements. Instead, it would host a simple, weekly gathering of folks who wanted to sing the “good, old songs” from old hymnals and sing-around-the-campfire books.

The first Thursday, 18 singers came, and since then, the group has doubled. As news of the group has spread, it has been asked to appear at the local nursing home and churches around the community. Recently, in fact, the group produced and presented its own “Singin’ Seniors Revue” to a large, enthusiastic audience.

The Ten-Hour Club

Almost every church faces the problem: maintaining and repairing its building and grounds. Professional workers often charge prohibitively high rates. But many congregations suffer a shortage of volunteers. Despite all-church workdays, usually a majority of the maintenance falls on the shoulders of a few.

Is there a way to increase the number of volunteers, to spread the labors of upkeep among a larger group?

Harry Hill wrestled with that question when he became trustee chairman of the First United Methodist Church in Brevard, North Carolina. In response, he invented the Ten-Hour Club.

Hill asked each volunteer to put in only ten hours of work during the year. That’s the equivalent of three Saturday mornings, a manageable sacrifice for almost any church member.

According to writer Robert Barrett, “Hill’s plan was an overwhelming success from the start. In 1986, the first year the idea was used, 1,371 hours of time were donated to First Methodist by 110 persons.” In 1987 the hours donated jumped to 1,718-a figure that represents enormous savings for the church.

At First United, trustees carefully plan each maintenance project, notify and remind volunteers of the date, and both supervise and work with the volunteers. But the genius of the Ten-Hour Club is its setting of a manageable limit for volunteers. People know they won’t get stuck with all the work. “The solution is so elegant,” writes Barrett, “that one wonders why no one thought of it before.”

What’s Worked (and Not Worked) for You?

Most people learn more from their failures than their successes. As Thomas Henry Huxley put it, “There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life.”

In that spirit, LEADERSHIP would like to include, periodically, in “Ideas That Work” an idea that did not work-but that gave lessons (and laughs?) to those who tried it. Each published account of a local church’s “should have worked” idea earns up to $35.

In addition, LEADERSHIP continues to pay up to $35 for each published account of a fresh and effective church ministry.

Send your description of a helpful (or hoped-it-would-be-helpful) ministry, method, or approach to:

Ideas That Work

LEADERSHIP

465 Gundersen Drive

Carol Stream, IL 60188