Top 10 Tuesday: Hymns I Would Prefer Never To Sing Again
February 13th, 2007 | by Scott |First off, this is all intended to be good fun. I understand that some of these may be near and dear to you. Please don’t get upset if I name a song you like. I’m sure I like some you can’t stand.
However, these are hymns that just don’t do it for me. Maybe I have a theological problem with them. Or the style betrays the lyrics. Or I’m not living in the Great Depression.
And understand, I’ll probably continue to sing them because it’s not about me.
These are hymns that are in our hymnbook. I limited it to older songs. I’ll take on the contemporary ones I could skip next.
Anyway, here goes:
10. It Is Well With My Soul–Got your attention? I really like this song. I do. It’s just sooooooooo stinking loooooooong. If you sing the chorus after every verse you are going to be going for about 23 minutes. And that cuts into my sermon time :D. I understand the story behind the song. It’s beautiful. Yada, yada. It could still be trimmed down a tad.
9. 728B–Yeah, yeah. It’s the COC anthem. And I know I can get kicked out of the brotherhood for even suggesting this. If we are going to keep singing it can we at least skip the third verse because I have no idea what it’s talking about. Or how is this for an idea: let’s pick a new anthem.
8. Precious Memories–Great funeral song. Strong on nostalgia and reminiscing. But where is the spiritual meaning in this song? Seriously, where is it? Oh, THERE’S NOT ANY. So, why is it in our hymn book?
7. He Bore It All–Yes, He died a cruel, brutal and lonely death. I am deeply thankful for His sacrifice. But can’t we tone down the jubilation over Jesus suffering pain and agony? It’s a mournful thought not a hootenanny.
6. The Love of God/The Great Redeemer/The New Song/Jesus, Hold My Hand/He Gave Me a Song/Paradise Valley–I can lump all of these two-pagers together because they all sound the same anyway. I know many of you love the style and that’s great. Really it is. But if I see a Stamp or a Baxter by the song title, it’s not for me.
5. God’s Wonderful People/God’s Family–We used to sing these two at another congregation I worked at. The first one is just so cheesy. The other one is way too funereal to be a celebration of fellowship.
4. Sing and Be Happy–What if I don’t want to? Seriously, what if I’m not happy? Isn’t there a time to mourn? A time to grieve? A time to ask, wrestle and doubt? The Christian life is not just slapping some sheeny smile to our day. This is pop psychology at it’s finest..
3. Mansion Over the Hilltop/This World Is Not My Home–First of all, this world is my home and I better stop spending my time looking over yonder and be the inbreaking of the Kingdom in the here and now. Secondly, if I’m honest I want more than a little silver and gold. I want a lot. And that’s not laudable.
2. Jesus Is Coming Soon–The whole part of singing “many will meet their doom” with a smile on my face during such an upbeat tune is horrendous.
1. The Battle Hymn of the Republic–It’s a civil war song, for crying out loud. I don’t like singing any of the patriotic tunes during worship. This is the worst offender to me.
Let me have it or give me your hymns you’d prefer to skip in the future.