WELS Hymnal Project

Project Blog

Insights, analysis, techniques, opinions, and experiences from the team behind the WELS Hymnal Project.

Thinking about Psalms

Oct 19, 2013 by Paul Prange

Psalms. They are the hymns of the Bible. We should be able to make good use of them in worship in 2013. But sometimes we struggle. Do we read them? Responsively? Do we sing them? To what tune?

The members of the Christian Worship (CW) hymnal committee wondered if it would be OK to use only select verses of a given psalm. They wondered if it would be OK to add refrains that were not necessarily texts from a given psalm. They wondered whether the psalms fit well between the first two readings on a given Sunday. The decisions they made about these issues have been widely accepted. The psalms in CW have been widely used.

A generation later, we might be able to do even more. All of the psalms in CW are the same style. What else can we do? What about congregations that struggle to sing the verses? Can we make more resources in many more styles available to all of our congregations?

An initial goal of the Psalmody Committee is to provide many more options for congregations who want to use the psalms in worship. With advances in technology, we will be able to make available much more than what we can fit in a single book.

Among many other things, we will be talking about what translation(s) to use, what the refrain for each psalm will be, and what musical styles are available. We will do the same for the appointed verses of the day.

Talk to us about how you want to use the psalms!

Let's Review

Oct 10, 2013 by Jonathan Bauer

“Let’s review.” Those two words are often heard in the classroom as a day or an hour draws to a close. Those two words also serve as a fitting description of the reason God’s people gather together in worship. From the time the infant church began assembling to “devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42), Christians have been gathering together to review what Christ has done to save us from sin. Weekly, the central truths of our salvation are repeated in spoken word and song. Annually, the life of Christ and the teachings of Christ are reviewed through the use of the Christian calendar.

Along with much of the Christian Church, many congregations in our synod make use of a three-year lectionary (schedule of Scripture readings, psalms, and verses of the day). That three-year lectionary is set to start over in just a few weeks on December 1, the first Sunday in Advent, Year A.

And so, as we begin the work of developing our next hymnal, we would like to say, “Let’s review.” Starting on December 1, 2013, a three-year collaborative review process will take place. Any congregation in the synod is welcome to participate. The goal is to give the members of the hymnal committee an opportunity to see what the congregations of our synod are doing in worship and to hear the comments they have regarding existing resources.

Here’s how the process will work. On Monday of each week, the pastor and/or other contact person from each participating congregation will receive an email. That email will contain the following items:

  1. A link to an online form for reviewing the congregation’s worship from the previous Sunday. Basic information about the use of hymns, orders of service, and Scripture readings will be gathered. There will also be an opportunity to offer comments along the way (Example: “The appointed hymn of the day for this week didn’t fit with the scheduled readings as well as hymn ______ would. Please consider changing it.”). Depending on how many comments a person wishes to offer, filling out this form shouldn’t take more than five minutes.
  2. A link to a summary of the information gathered from the previous week. Each congregation will have the opportunity to benefit from seeing what other congregations are doing. Even if this benefit isn’t realized until the next time that season or Sunday occurs, we hope that this visibility will have an overall, positive impact on congregations’ worship life.
  3. A brief insight related to one or more of the assigned readings for the coming week. We certainly appreciate the time that this process will take for participating congregations. We would like to express that appreciation by offering something that will hopefully help pastors as they begin to prepare for the following week’s sermon.

Congregations can register for this collaborative, three-year review by submitting some basic information on the hymnal project website. The deadline for registering is November 15, 2013.

How Different Will We Be?

Oct 2, 2013 by Jonathan Schroeder

I was still a child when I noticed it for the first time, and it struck me. As the son of a pastor, I had grown up in the WELS bubble: I never attended a school or a service that wasn't WELS. The first time I went to a non-Lutheran church, it was right after I got out of early service at my home congregation. When worship started at this other church, I couldn't believe it. They used the same scripture lessons we had that morning. They called the Sunday by the same name. One of the prayers even sounded really close to what I had heard. What, did they get a hold of my dad's service folder? Blatant plagiarism! Or — a wilder thought to my young mind — are we actually doing the same things on purpose? I thought we were different!

Well, we are different from other church bodies, but I found out that morning that we aren't completely different. Our doctrine might differ radically in some areas, but in the Christian calendar (Advent, Lent, etc.) and the lectionary (the assigned readings), we were part of something bigger. It was an eye-opening experience for me. I realized that the Holy Christian Church was bigger than the WELS. It reminded me that, while real scriptural differences mean we can't fellowship with those church bodies right now, one day the whole Holy Christian Church will worship together in heaven.

We use a Christian calendar and a Christian lectionary because they enable us to share the whole counsel of God with the congregation in a pattern that emphasizes the life of Christ and the teachings of Christ. As an added blessing that pattern ties our worship to the historic Church and gives echoes of the unity we will enjoy with all Christians in heaven.

Establishing the Christian calendar and the lectionary will comprise a large part of the work of the Scripture Committee. We need to answer the question: how different will we be?

Key areas under consideration would include items like a review of Christian Worship's season of End Time. Should we continue to celebrate a season that is unique to the WELS? Another will be a review of the supplemental lessons that were published in Christian Worship: Supplement. Many have appreciated the increased use of Old Testament stories for the First Lesson. Others have appreciated that the supplemental lessons closely follow the theme of the Gospel, resulting in a tightly unified service. Should we continue to provide up to five lessons for each Sunday, or should we provide only three? Which three would those be?

Our committee will also wrestle with issues like the texts of the Lord's Prayer, the Creeds, and the songs of the liturgy. We will focus on translation and language to ensure that Scripture is used in a consistent, Christ-centered, confessional Lutheran way. And finally we will explore the daily lectionary and a possible commentary on the lectionary.

Thanks for your interest in the project. Your prayers for our work would be appreciated. So also would be your ideas and comments. Please make use of the contact form to share your thoughts.

Routes and Rites

Sep 21, 2013 by Jonathan Micheel

Do you have a certain route you take to work every morning? A particular path for dropping off your kids at school? At the beginning of a new school year or start of a new job, you need to do some exploring to find out which route works best. After a while, this path becomes familiar. Of course, you have alternate routes, too. You can take these in special situations (for instance, a traffic jam on your regular route) or just for variety’s sake.

One of the tasks for the hymnal project is to find rites to use in our worship. Rites are those patterns of words and songs that guide us when we gather in God’s name. (Just a few examples: the Service of Word and Sacrament, the service of Holy Baptism, the service of Christian Marriage, the confirmation rite, the rite for a palm procession on Palm Sunday.)

Maybe we can think of rites as routes, as paths to guide us where we want to go. Every time we gather in God’s name, we want to move together toward some common goals: we want to proclaim God’s love, to praise his name, to encourage fellow Christians, and to communicate clearly to those who don’t yet know our Savior. We look for routes to guide us toward those goals, rites that will help us listen, speak, and sing. And each time we worship we’re mindful of the fact that we’re moving a few steps closer to our heavenly home. The rites we use bring us the fuel we need for the journey: the promises of our God, delivered to us through his Word and Sacraments.

We realize when we gather for worship that we’re not the first to have travelled down this path, but only the latest in a long line of Christians. Therefore, we respect the routes laid out for us by sisters and brothers who are now in glory. These old rites that have faithfully pointed Christians to God’s Word and Sacraments can benefit us in the 21st Century, too. Some time-tested routes may be well served by some minor construction and repaving. And God gives us freedom to craft new rites, too, thinking of his Scriptures and the good of our fellow travelers.

Our God is also adding new faces to our band of travelers. He brings people to our church services who haven’t heard the good news about Jesus. Will our rites communicate the Word clearly to them? We want our rites to proclaim God’s grace to those who have yet to hear it, so that the Spirit can add them to our number.

My name is Pastor Jon Micheel, and I’ll have the privilege of working on rites for the hymnal project. Over my years in the public ministry, I’ve grown in my appreciation for the legacy of Lutheran worship, and I’ve also seen firsthand how our services have the opportunity to preach the gospel to people who have never heard it before. The rites committee will be looking at the orders of service for Sunday mornings, weekday evenings, and many other occasions. As we do our work, we’ll aim to respect the vibrant heritage handed down to us as confessional Lutherans. We will also strive to share that gospel-rich heritage with people new to our churches in ways they can understand. And we’ll endeavor to do these things with beauty and elegance. It’s an enormous task! But it’s also one we’re honored and excited to be a part of.

Looking forward to traveling with you!

Introducing Your People to New Hymns

Sep 7, 2013 by Aaron Christie

A dear brother in my congregation (a retired pastor) heard the news that I was going to be chairing the Hymnody Committee for the new hymnal. “Well that should keep you busy!” he replied. He then took the opportunity to give me my first feedback on the new hymnal’s contents: “Get rid of ‘Isaiah, Mighty Seer in Days of Old’ (CW 267). We sang it twenty-five years ago at my previous parish and it was a disaster!” (He has since made that request official to Pastor Michael Schultz, our new hymnal’s project director.)

There is no doubt that “Isaiah, Mighty Seer” is a difficult hymn. There is also no doubt in my mind what happened twenty-five years ago when “Isaiah, Mighty Seer” flopped. I’m willing to wager that there was no choir to help, no soloist to lead, and no instruments to introduce. I’m also willing to guess that the organist played the hymn at a glacial pace. If that wasn’t the case twenty-five years ago, it certainly is the case in much of our synod’s current musical practice. Poor “Isaiah, Mighty Seer.” He often sounds mousy instead of mighty!

Fast forward twenty-four years. Last year we celebrated our parish’s 125th anniversary. The Reformation celebration was designed to introduce modern Americans to our German roots. Parts of the service were done auf Deutsch. We offered up a mostly English rendition of Luther’s German Mass. We sang “Isaiah, Mighty Seer in Days of Old” for the Sanctus in the communion service. After a brief organ introduction (during which the people could read a paragraph about the hymn’s rich history and biblical basis), we had the choir chant the first two-thirds of the hymn. Then when it was time for the angels around the throne to sing, we pulled out all the organ stops, added the congregation, and threw in a brass quartet for good measure. “Holy is God the Lord of heavenly hosts!” thundered three times in the sanctuary. It still wasn’t “A Mighty Fortress,” but it was a good sing.

What was the difference? Something that is equally important whether you are a large congregation with more resources or a smaller congregation with fewer resources: we took care to introduce people to a new hymn.

At first glance, you might assume this blog’s title suffers from dyslexia. Hmmm…. Pastor Christie probably meant to write “Introducing New Hymns to Your People.” After all, the new hymnal will have hundreds of new hymns that will need introducing.

But think about it for a moment: does a hymn need to be introduced to people or do people need to be introduced to a hymn? A hymn is only a collection of syllables and sounds notated on paper or an iPad. A hymn has no life in and of itself. The work on the hymn’s side of things is done once it reaches the point of publication. It is the people who need our attention. They need to learn how to hum a hymn’s melody. They have the hearts that will be warmed by a hymn’s theology. Their fingers and vocal chords will transform quarter notes and letters into the worship of our Redeemer! Introducing people to hymns is a pastoral task. Whether we are pastors, teachers, directors, or instrumentalists, we must keep in mind that we are dealing with real people, with their worship of the Holy Trinity, with the Holy Gospel. In sum: Lutherans don’t do music for music’s sake. We do music because it carries the good news of Christ to people’s hearts.

I promise that the Hymnody Committee will work long and hard to make certain that only the best hymns “make the cut” for our new hymnal. I ask for your prayers to that end. In the meantime, I ask you to keep on working to introduce your people to good hymnody both old and new. To that end, you will be in my prayers! Finding 600+ hymns among tens of thousands will be hard work. Teaching your people the meaning and melodies of a few hundred hymns? That’s the real work! May the Lord of the Church help you do it.


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