Memorizing Hymns Together
In 2012, Wornall Road Baptist Church will spent 10 months memorizing hymns together. The hymns that we will learned together are rooted in the gospel and are a reflection of the truths found in the Word of God. The apostle Paul writes to the Colossians ‘let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God’ (3:16). Memorizing hymns is a wonderful way we can ‘let the word of Christ dwell in (us) richly’.
Why?
The leadership at Wornall Road is committed to equipping and encouraging the saints. Memorizing hymns that are full of grace and truth not only grounds us in our time-tested faith, but it encourages and supports us in every season of life. What songs of praise can we sing to our glorious God at the moment of the birth of our children or grandchildren? What songs of hope can we sing to encourage our soul when we have lost sight of our victorious Savior? What songs of rock-solid truth can we sing in our times of deepest suffering? It is our prayer that the hymns we memorize together—the truths of the gospel set to music—will dwell deep within, tuning our hearts that in every season of our lives we might sing of the amazing the grace of Jesus Christ.
How?
Each month, from January to October, we highlighted a different hymn, striving to memorize the lyrics in our times of gathered worship. We sang that month's hymn each Sunday throughout the month and on the last Sunday we would sing the hymn together from memory. We encouraged those who took part to incorporate the ‘hymn of the month’ in times of personal and family worship at home.
If you don’t attend Wornall Road Baptist Church, we invite you to freely use the resources to the fullest and participate on your own, with your family, or with your local church family.
The hymn texts and related information can be found at the links below:
January: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
February: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
March: In Christ Alone
April: Amazing Grace
May: The Solid Rock
June: Be Still My Soul
July: How Firm a Foundation
August: It is Well with My Soul
September: Before the Throne of God Above
October: Be Thou My Vision
Many thanks to Bob Kauflin and Covenant Life Church for the inspiration for this project.
Epilogue
While I only recorded the first 5 songs, our church completed all 10 hymns in 10 months. However, upon reflection 10 hymns was quite ambitious. The freshness of the idea wore off in about 5 months. If I were to do this again (and I would if given the opportunity!) I would shorten the list and maybe stretch it to every other month or so. I enjoyed being able to teach the congregation about the songs and then trying to memorize the songs at the end of the month.
If you would like to know more about the nuts and bolts of what we did, what worked, what didn't, etc. Just drop me a line! sounddoxology@gmail.com
