Finding the Lost Hymns of The United Methodist Hymnal

"Music Musing #104, Lost Hymns of The United Methodist Hymnal,"listed numerous hymns that are being largely ignored and avoided. For a variety of reasons, these hymns are not being selected by musicians and worship planners to be sung in congregational worship. They remain unknown … lost … to us.

How do we reclaim these hymns? They were included in the hymnal because the Hymnal Revision Committee and General Conference found them commendable for the worship, education, training, and formation of our people. Many of these hymns are of uncommonly high quality as poetry and literature. Some have great musical beauty. Others are expressions of the great diversity of culture, race, geography, and language that make up The United Methodist Church. And not the least, they contain the history and theology that inform all that we do. Here are some suggestions:

1. Page through all the hymns of the hymnal. Make your own list in numerical order of the titles that are "lost" to your own congregation — those hymns that are unknown or not sung in your church.
2. Arrange your list according to several criteria to help you see hymns that may share similar characteristics: musical style, language, level of difficulty, contemporary versus traditional, appeal by age group, and so on.
3. Try to assign a specific reason why each title is lost to your church. Carefully play through, read, sing, and analyze the harmony and style of the hymns. Are there hymns on your list that you think may have a place in your congregation's repertoire? Are there hymns that relate to an occasion, a memory, a Scripture, a season? You might even think that some of them have the potential to come to enjoy some popularity among your people.
4. Cull from your list of lost hymns those that may have a place in future worship services. Try to match them to a Sunday, a season, a Sripture, or a particular place in the service. Work to include these in future worship.
5. Share your list of lost hymns with your pastor, staff, choir, worship committee, or other group in the church (also with me at Discipleship Ministries). Discuss the list. Talk about specific hymns. Sing through them. Examine the texts. Consider the musical style. Share your list of reasons why they are lost.
6. Offer a Sunday school class or weeknight study session on the lost hymns. Invite worshipers to come to discuss and try out these hymns. Ask for people's opinions. Find out if the hymns are, indeed, lost. Then try to discern whether or not people think the hymns are worthy of being "found" and used in worship. Include the youth in the process.
7. Write a church newsletter article or website piece about your list and the process of considering and discussing it.
8. Ask yourself (and your congregation) what might be the reason a particular lost hymn was included in the hymnal. Of the hundreds of thousands of hymns available to include in our hymnal, the Hymnal Revision Committee considered more than 3,500. Of those, they selected 507 tunes and approximately 675 texts in the "Hymns, Canticles, & Acts of Worship" section. I have included 81 titles on my list of "lost" hymns, or 12 percent of the total. The committee and General Conference saw something in each of those lost hymns that we are missing. What is it?

After all this, consider introducing, learning, and singing in worship lost hymns that you think have merit, beauty, or a positive contribution to make to your congregational worship. You might even plan and hold a "Lost Hymn Sing." Be sure the choir is rehearsed and ready to lead. Remember to be careful in introducing lost hymns. People may react negatively if you sing too many of them too often. Be sure your people benefit from whatever it was that made the committee include the hymn to begin with. Seek and ye shall find…