Hymn of the Month at FBC Farmersville
/I am very excited to announce that we are going to start singing a “Hymn of the Month” at FBC Farmersville. Blogs like this insightful blog by Trevin Wax (which by the way, uses an accordion analogy, haha! Check it out https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/defy-decay-rate-worship/ ) have spurred Pastor Bart and I to want to adopt a hymn of the month in an effort to continually foster great congregational singing. We are doing this, hopefully, to help in our church’s spiritual life in these ways:
I want us to be familiar with most of the material we sing in worship so that everyone can sing it loud and sing it well! Repeating a song all month long will help everyone learn the song super well, so that everyone, young and old, can sing in church together. Psalm 145:4 says, “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” In order to do that in song, young and old alike need to know the songs!
I want to resource families to worship at home. I am making packets for you to take home so that you can sing the selected hymns or songs all month long in the car or at home for family worship!
It is an immense blessing to carry a song with you through your whole lifetime. I am going to mainly focus on hymns that have stood the test of time and can be sung throughout the entirety of your Christian life. Great hymns will continue to have layers of meaning for you. This doesn’t mean we will only sing old hymns in church or for hymn of the month. We are going to sing “Ancient of Days” by CityAlight, which is a modern hymn, in November. However, I will try to focus on songs and hymns you can sing 50 years from now which will still nourish you spiritually.
We need songs we can sing in times of suffering, illness, and death. What will you sing when your parent, spouse, or child is about to go into surgery? What can you do in the wake of losing a loved one? Although we don’t face intense persecution right now, what if one our church members was called to go to a difficult mission field and was put in prison? How could you be like Paul and Silas and sing in prison if you don’t have any good songs to sing? I want you to know the melody and words to songs like “Amazing Grace” and “It Is Well With My Soul,” which, by God’s grace, can carry you through difficult times.
So our fall 2024 Hymns of the Month include:
September: “Amazing Grace! How Sweet the Sound”
October: “Great is Thy Faithfulness”
November: “Ancient of Days”
December: “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”
Any child or adult who sends a video of themselves singing all the stanzas (verses) by memory or can sing the stanzas all by memory to me in person will receive a personally name-stamped hymnal! Also, for an easily memorized hymn like “Amazing Grace,” I have an extra challenge for us. On the last Sunday of the month, which in September will be September 29th, we will attempt to sing “Amazing Grace” a cappella and by memory, with no words on the screen and no music from any hymnals. I hope you’ll endeavor to sing these hymns at home as well as at church and be prepared to sing them by memory! I believe it will enrich your weekly and daily worship and spiritual life.