The Fullest Use of Our Resources

Often the problem with "traditional" worship is not that what is done is bad but that it fails to exploit the full measure of the resources provided by the hymnary, lectionary, and liturgy of the Church.  Those who yearn for creativity are, in some respects, right in their condemnation of of "traditional" worship as being boring or routine.  But the fault lies not with the hymnal or liturgy.  The fault usually lies with the people planning and conducting the Divine Service.  In our busy lives it is easy to fall back upon the book and use it because it is there.  In this respect many congregations using the hymnal are not technically "liturgical."  I write this not to condemn but to encourage a more full use of the inherent resources of the hymnal, liturgy, and pericopes.

I forget where I read it that if you are using these resources fully, only something between 12-15% of the time on Sunday morning carries over from week to week.  Block out the sermon, the readings, the collect, the hymns, and the liturgical options within the Divine Service and you see how the figure is achieved.  When we use all of these resources to their fullest measure, then it is true.  When we fail to use these resources fully, this figure may still be true but you would hardly recognize it while sitting in the pew.

Lets begin with the lectionary.  Lutheran Service Builder allows you to print out all the pericopes on one sheet (Introit, Collect, Psalm, Lessons, Gradual, Verse).  It is great to have these texts together and to spend time looking at them more fully before sermon and liturgical choices are made.  You can do the same thing without Lutheran Service Builder but it takes just a bit more work.  The point is that by immersing yourself in these texts you are better equipped not only to preach them but to use them in the Divine Service.

From the lectionary I always go to the hymnal.  LSB has a marvelous hymn selection guide and you can use Lutheran Service Builder to locate hymns through its digital concordance to the hymnal but nothing replaces you own familiarity with the texts.  I believe that praying the texts of hymns is important devotionally for you and is the greatest tool and gift when planning for the Divine Service.  If you know the pericopes and you know where your sermon is going, then the next step for connecting the dots is to know the hymnal well enough that hymn choices are already flowing through your mind as you make it through the pericopes and sermon preparation.

I might say something here about tracking your use of hymns.  It is easy for the congregation to be reduced to using only 25% of the hymns in the book.  You want to use a combination of many familiar with one or maybe two new or less familiar tunes.  Given the desire to satisfy people and working within the limitations, it is not uncommon for parishes to know only a small percentage of the hymns in the book -- I knew one parish where only about 12 tunes from LW were used!  This is a problem that needs to be addressed.  If you do not know these tunes, set up a plan and program to learn them -- week by week.  Use soloists to sing them as preservice music, as the offering is gathered, or during the distribution.  The choir can do the same thing.  Warm up the folks before the liturgy begins and use these less familiar hymns to stretch their voices.  The only way a new hymn becomes a favorite is through frequent use.  Once you introduce a new hymn, use it again through the coming month so that its text and tune are embedded into the memory of the people.

Finally, the liturgy is addressed.  What season are we in?  What options are inherent to the season (omission of the Gloria in Excelsis and Alleluia during Lent, for example)?  What additional choices are there to be made (offertory, how to use the Psalmody, post-communion canticle, etc.)?  As you flesh out the choices for the Divine Service you also begin to see how the hymn possibilities may fit (entrance hymn, hymn of the day, distribution hymn, sending hymn, etc.).

The goal is to have it all fit together as a seamless garment in which nothing seems out of place or out of character.  In this way the fullest resources of the hymnal, lectionary, and church year flow together toward a common goal and purpose in the Divine Service.  I do this several times a year for 1/3-1/2 of the Sundays of the year so that I am always ahead.  It works for me.  Saturday night is the one thing that hardly ever works.  If you cannot plan months in advance (for the sake of your parish musician), at least plan one month ahead.

The hymnal is a tool.  If it is unfamiliar to you as the Pastor or parish musician, it will most certainly be unfamiliar to your people and an uncomfortable resource.  If you know it and use it as one who knows it inside and out, then it will encourage the people in the pew to use the full resources of the book in their family and individual devotional lives as well as Sunday morning.  Just do it...