September 2018 Newsletter Message

By now, many of you have probably noticed that I write quite a few new hymns. I have been a hymn nerd since was five or six years old, and have been writing my own hymns for about ten years now; however, it is just within the last three years or so that I have begun to be consistently pleased with their quality. I truly appreciate the support you express for my acting upon this particular piece of my spirituality, and so, I thought I would use this article to give you a “view from inside the hymn writer’s workshop!”

Developing Subject Matter
I tend to prefer structured source material on which to base my hymn texts, as structured material helps me to make sure my hymns are really saying something rather than simply being heaps of empty phrases with no context. Like Martin Luther, I believe that singing hymns is even more effective for teaching tenets of the faith than reading or other strategies--essentially, I see it as preaching with music added. Some “structured” examples:

• “I Trust In God” - This hymn paraphrased Luther’s Small Catechism, Creed section.
• “Trinity Mission Hymn” - This hymn, written to sing for Mission Sundays each year, used the structure of our “Welcome, Nurture, Serve” mission statement.

In other cases, I am simply captivated by a particular verse or phrase in scripture or another written source:

• “Risen to Serve” - Inspired by the story of Jesus healing Peter’s mother (Mark 1:29-31).
• “Called, Gathered, and Enlightened” - This phrase from Luther’s Small Catechism, Creed section (3rd Article) became the refrain of this simple hymn.
• “Crumbs of Grace” - New for Sep. 9, based on Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman (Mark 7:24-30). 

Still other hymns arise out of necessity as I discover gaps in the church’s hymnody:

• “For All Mothers” and “A Thanksgiving for Fathers” - Mother’s Day and Father’s Day hymns, already few in number, often sugarcoat these holidays that can be emotionally complex for many people.
• I will be offering at least one more “gap-filler hymn” in October or November, as I am working with some other pastors to create hymns with an updated vision of stewardship that communicates better than our centuries-old  stewardship hymns that were written for agrarian societies.

Choosing Tunes
This piece of the process can be quite interesting. Sometimes, the tune choice provides an opportunity for me to connect to some detail that underlies the hymn’s origin or purpose, almost like an “in-joke” between friends that you can only understand if you know the story. Some examples:

• “Trinity Mission Hymn” - The choice of a Swedish tune recalls Trinity’s heritage in the Augustana Synod (the Swedish Lutheran church body in the United States)
• “Reforming God” - Because former Trinity pastor Maureen Stein suggested I write this hymn for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the tune is the Irish LONDONDERRY AIR, or “Danny Boy”--I selected this (in jest at first, but then loved it) because Pastor Maureen is of Irish descent.
• “For All Mothers” - I wrote this to sing with DIVINUM MYSTERIUM, the tune of the beautiful Christmas hymn “Of the Father’s Love Begotten”, as a pun suggested by my wife, Andrea.

Other hymns go through several different tune possibilities before landing where the Holy Spirit wants them to be, as I sketch out stubs of possible verses to see which tune gets the words flowing more easily. I make worksheets for each hymn with lines labeled to help me remember how many syllables each block has and which blocks are supposed to rhyme--in the example of the Trinity Mission Hymn, the lines were labeled “7A, 6B, 7C, 6B, 7D, 6E, 7F, 6E.” Once I get this worksheet done, I put the music into the Finale music notation program on the computer, type in the lyrics, then fuss with the sheet music layout a bit to make it as readable as possible. That's it!

I hope this little trip to the workshop was interesting for you! Thanks again for the freedom you give me to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ using all the tools that God has given me!