Ministry

why don’t we sing more hymns?

kevinhaglund Leave a comment

This is an open letter to anyone who has ever written this question on your church’s Communication Card or comment card. Typically, these questions are left anonymously leaving a worship pastor unable to respond to the asker. While I can’t speak for your worship pastor, I can speak for myself!

First, at Immanuel, we do sing hymns, but they probably don’t count because they don’t sound like they used to (more on that later). At the risk of getting too musically technical, hymns have a chord change on nearly every beat of each measure which make playing them on a guitar extremely difficult!

hymn

Notice all the chords (notated with capital letters) above almost every syllable in this example from “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” from the Baptist Hymnal, instrument edition. A guitar player would have serious hand cramps playing this traditional version out of the hymnal! And most hymns have a similar number of chord changes. Now, let’s look at the popular worship chorus “How Great Is Our God.”

chorus

Notice how sparse the chords are which makes it much easier for guitar players. Our church utilizes a band made up of various guitars, keyboards and drums. In fact, in Immanuel’s 14 year history, it has always had some sort of band and has never had just piano and/or organ accompaniment. Simply put, most hymns in their original form were written for piano and/or organ accompaniment. Worship choruses in their original form are written for guitar/keyboard accompaniment. Quick and numerous chord changes were characteristic of a musical style that was popular when many hymns were written. Slower chord changes are the popular style now. So, the reason hymns sound different with a band is that they have to be rearranged to eliminate some (most) of the chords which has a tendency to change the harmonic structure and sound of the song, but makes guitar players very happy!

Second, you couldn’t swing a dead cat around by the tail (no offense to cats or cat lovers!) without hitting a church in our area that sings hymns almost exclusively–not that there’s anything wrong with that! The music we do is part of what makes our church unique. Not that numbers are everything, but our church is growing. We’re growing for a number of reasons–one of them is that we are doing things different–like dropping Sunday night worship services in order to offer focused discipleship electives, sending people out on mission in our community and world, small groups instead of traditional Sunday school, and, yes, updated music.

Third, our language has changed significantly since many of the hymns were written. Sadly, because of our outdated methods, church, and therefore the things of God are often perceived by the unchurched as irrelevant to their daily lives and this can be reinforced by the music we use. Before you write that nasty comment, let me say that I do not believe that we have to change the Gospel to make it relevant. I just hate to see us put up artificial barriers that can keep people from experiencing the grace of God. As scripture says, the Gospel is already an offense or reproach to overcome. Anyway, the “thees,” “thous,” and other terms like “Ebenezer” in some hymns are what I’m referring to. Not only that, but there are wonderfully deep word pictures that hold deep significance to us as believers that could be misconstrued by an unchurched person who ventures into our services. For instance, if I were an unchurched person and I heard “there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins,” I’m running for the door! To be fair, there are some worship choruses with terminology that could freak out an unchurched person–”holy fire fall on us,” for example!

I grew up in a King James only, hymns only, “Southern Baptists are going to hell,” Independent Baptist environment. Put me up against anyone in “Name That Hymn” and I’ll probably win. I have a deep appreciation for the hymns. However, what moves my spirit in worship is newer worship choruses by Chris Tomlin and the like–including some of their rearranged hymns. In general, I select music for our services that moves me. Admittedly, my bias will be to use modern worship choruses or rearranged hymns. Besides, I’ve only been playing guitar for 2 years so I couldn’t play a hymn in its original form on my guitar to save my life!

Hope that explains why we might not sing as many hymns as some might like. Someone once said: “I don’t know the formula for success, but I do know what the formula for failure is–trying to please everyone all the time.” I realize we can’t please everyone all the time. Some will like what we do one week better than the last. More important is that we do everything to the glory of God, not just the praise of men.

one year later

kevinhaglund Leave a comment

This past Sunday, Suzanne and I celebrated our one year anniversary at Immanuel here in Corbin, KY. It is hard to believe that one year has already flown by! We drove onto the campus Sunday morning and found the church adorned with signs saying “Happy 1st Anniversary, Haglunds!” and balloons. My office and the choir room were also adorned with rolls upon rolls of toilet paper! I’ve learned that the way this church shows that they love you is with toilet paper. I don’t want to see what they do to people who they don’t like!

As we reached this one year milestone, it has been fun to reflect on the past year. Here are some of my thoughts at the one year mark…

Suzanne and I were driving home after our discipleship electives on Sunday night and I made the comment, “This is a different church than we came to a year ago.” It is quite amazing what God has done in one year in the life of our church and we are excited to be a part of what God is doing! There is a fervor and a hunger that is spreading like a wildfire. The people at Immanuel have willingly followed its leadership to give up some things that were good to pursue what is better! This has brought some significant changes–a departure from long established norms–especially for this area of the country!

One of the most exciting changes to me is the move from a traditional “Sunday School” model to a small group model. Even though most of our groups will still continue to meet on Sunday mornings, the move toward a small group philosophy is key–multiplication of groups and the apprenticing of new group leaders along with more group discussion instead of a master teacher format. I recently walked through the education wing of an area church. It was like a maze! There was hallway after hallway of classrooms and I thought to myself, “What a waste! All of this floor space that has to be heated, cooled, cleaned and maintained, let alone the expense of building it–all this to be used for one hour a week!” We’ll never be able to afford to build enough classroom space for everyone in this area who needs to connect to a small group–and if we could afford it, it would be a waste of money! My men’s small group meets on Monday nights in a home and the level of authentic community and sharing is awesome! Now, I’m not saying you can’t have that kind of authentic community in a Sunday School class, but it is much harder to do and much less likely to happen than when we meet in homes. What is so exciting to me is that the groups we have meeting in homes didn’t start because the staff decided it needed to happen. God moved in the hearts of the men and women involved and they took the initiative to get it started!

As the worship pastor, I’m thrilled to be able to work with the talented and dedicated bunch of musicians we have at Immanuel. I have been blown away by what they’ve been able to accomplish! Now we just need to get out and play in the community more often and add some “fun” music to the mix–not just the music we do on Sunday morning.

Another interesting thing is that I’ve had some amazing opportunities here in Corbin that I never had in Atlanta. First, I got to lead worship for Johnny Hunt when he came to do a men’s conference we co-sponsored with another church. At the time, he was president of the SBC. He is from Atlanta, but I never had that opportunity during the nearly 9 years I lived in Atlanta. Then, Casting Crowns came to Corbin and I got to hang out backstage and provide transportation for them around town, and backstage passes to the concert! On October 1st, Max Lucado is coming to town with the Make a Difference Tour along with Third Day, Michael W. Smith and Toby Mac. As a pastor, I’ve been invited to a backstage dinner with Max Lucado and special VIP seating for the concert!

As exciting as all these things have been, the transition from a major metro area like Atlanta to small town, rural Kentucky has not always been easy. We no longer have our favorite restaurants, stores, comforts and conveniences close by. Instead of walking into my neighborhood Starbucks, I’ve had to perfect brewing Starbucks coffee at home (or drive 9 miles up I-75 to the nearest Starbucks!). It has also meant moving further away from our family. On birthdays, anniversaries and holidays, it is especially difficult to be away from our family. I’ve learned that people who have grown up in a small town like Corbin typically have all their family nearby as well. Because of this, they don’t need places to hang out and meet other people. They spend their time with their family and extended family.

I believe God has us in Corbin to learn at least one important lesson. As David Platt says in his book “Radical,” to be a disciple of Jesus Christ means to give up everything you have, lay down your life and love Him in such a way that it makes your closest relationships look like hate. It has been a great journey so far!