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Are churches moving away from using hymnals?

T

tinytim

<img src =/tim2.jpg>
We do both. I try to find videos of songs that are already in our hymnals...

You know what i have found out...

Many of our songs in the hymnals have one or two words changed within them...

And when I check the songs against the copyrighted lyrics.. .the hymnal has them wrong!

Was this a practice yrs ago to get around copyrighted material?
I could excuse it if it were a couple songs... but over 60% of our songs in our hymnal "Hymns of Faith" have words changed.

This disturbs me.
 
webdog

webdog

Active Member
Site Supporter
THEOLDMAN said:
Get rid of hymnals ? What's next ....The Bible ?
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The most ignorant statement I have read in my 4 years here if you are not joking :eek:
Equating a man's hymnal to God's Word? Unbelievable! Can you say idolatry?

With the affordability of technology, hymnals are obsolete at this point. You'll probably deem me a heretic (if you were indeed serious) because I read quite a bit of Scripture on...gasp...my laptop!
 
T

thegospelgeek

New Member
Not that it matters much. But what is the cost difference between Hymnals and the license for using a projector. I know the cost of projectors is minimal.
 
T

THEOLDMAN

New Member
webdog said:
The most ignorant statement I have read in my 4 years here if you are not joking :eek:
Equating a man's hymnal to God's Word? Unbelievable! Can you say idolatry?

With the affordability of technology, hymnals are obsolete at this point. You'll probably deem me a heretic (if you were indeed serious) because I read quite a bit of Scripture on...gasp...my laptop!
Click to expand...
Brother, you read a whole lot into my little sarcastic statement. Get that chip off your shoulder. I do love the old hymns, (not much on the new praise music) but I do belive in technology. BTW my Uncle was lead to the Lord by a Chaplin in his hospital room who sang him songs out of a baptist hymnal. All things old are not useless.
 
T

thegospelgeek

New Member
THEOLDMAN said:
Brother, you read a whole lot into my little sarcastic statement. Get that chip off your shoulder. I do love the old hymns, (not much on the new praise music) but I do belive in technology. BTW my Uncle was lead to the Lord by a Chaplin in his hospital room who sang him songs out of a baptist hymnal. All things old are not useless.
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I love the old songs that you rarely hear anymore. Angel band being one. I also love the hymns in church but listen to more contemporary outside.

I do not want to project the scripture. If we did that, most folks wouldn't be able to find their bible in a month or so. As it is now they run around Sunday morning trying to find it.
 
A

Alcott

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
It seems like a decade or longer since we used the hymnals in a worship service, except for a handful of Wednesday night services that were in the chapel instead of the main auditorium (I can very seldom go on Wednesday, but I know that is usually in the big room, too). As for Bibles, we have NIV's in the racks, but verses read or emphasized are also projected onto the screens; leaving the only reasons for bringing your own Bible is if you want something besides the NIV or you want to read more than would be shown... which can make me wonder: is it proper to be reading your Bible instead of listening to the sermon?
 
webdog

webdog

Active Member
Site Supporter
THEOLDMAN said:
Brother, you read a whole lot into my little sarcastic statement. Get that chip off your shoulder. I do love the old hymns, (not much on the new praise music) but I do belive in technology. BTW my Uncle was lead to the Lord by a Chaplin in his hospital room who sang him songs out of a baptist hymnal. All things old are not useless.
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That's why I qualified my statement with "if you are not joking". :rolleyes:
 
A

annsni

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
SBCPreacher said:
You can also project your scripture too, but I guess theoldguy wouldn't like that either.
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Actually this is something that we won't do. The reason? Everyone should have their own Bible because we use them. We write in them. "Underline that word", "Circle that", "write this in the margin" is commonly heard in our church sermons. :) If you do not have a Bible, one will be provided for you for free. So no need to put the Scripture on the screen.
 
Marcia

Marcia

Active Member
I miss using hymnals. This is not a big issue for me, but at church we only use the lyrics on the screen and most songs are not the old hymns. When we do sing an old hymn, it's usually faster than normal or has been set to another tune.

There is something both comforting and majestic to me in singing many of the hymns (I don't like all of them, of course, but many of them).
 
S

SBCPreacher

Active Member
Site Supporter
annsni said:
Actually this is something that we won't do. The reason? Everyone should have their own Bible because we use them. We write in them. "Underline that word", "Circle that", "write this in the margin" is commonly heard in our church sermons. :) If you do not have a Bible, one will be provided for you for free. So no need to put the Scripture on the screen.
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We only use a projector on Sunday PM, but we still don't put the Scripture on it. I want them to have and use their own Bibles. (We don't use pew Bibles either!)
 
F

FriendofSpurgeon

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
SBCPreacher said:
You can also project your scripture too, but I guess theoldguy wouldn't like that either.
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We do that too.

Plus, we put the Scripture readings in the bulletin. But then again, we have lots of Scripture reading throughout the service not just right before the sermon (many times responsive - so the screen thing works).

Plus, we have pew Bibles - which visitors are welcome to take home as their own Bible if they don't have one.

Plus, people can bring their own Bible.
 
R

rbell

Active Member
Glad the statement in question was in jest.

I'm with Ann on our philosophy about Scripture. We want our folks to bring, and use, their bibles. So it's rare for us to project the Scripture. Sometimes we'll put the key word/phrase up there (we tend to do outlines provided in the bulletins, and "filled out" on the screen), but not the entire Scripture.
 
T

tinytim

<img src =/tim2.jpg>
I have a different philosphy about projecting scripture.
In our situation we do it. The Senior Citizens said that it is easier to read along on the screen than the print in their bibles..

Also, by putting the scripture up, it cuts down on the time people are trying to find say, the book of Habakkuk... which means there is more time for the sermon.

But if I were in some other church, I might not use as much scripture.

Some of you have seen my PPT slides.. and I admit.. I put way too much on them for my liking.. but the church responds better. Also, it helps when I publish them on the web.
 
S

SBCPreacher

Active Member
Site Supporter
FriendofSpurgeon said:
Plus, we have pew Bibles - which visitors are welcome to take home as their own Bible if they don't have one.
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Not me3aning to de-rail, but we put in pew Bible is a church I was at years ago, and one of the old "powers" said, "if we put in those Bibles, people would take them home!" What a great idea - they will take them home!!
 
J

Jon-Marc

New Member
Most of the Baptist churches I've been to still use hymnals. I've only been to one any time recently where they use an overhead projector to put the words on the wall. Considering how difficult it is for me to see the tiny print in the hymnals even with glasses (since the lighting in most churches is rather dim), I like that idea. If it wasn't such a big church where my talent as a singer and song leader wouldn't be needed (They have plenty of good talent there), I would consider going there.
 
T

thegospelgeek

New Member
Jon-Marc said:
Most of the Baptist churches I've been to still use hymnals. I've only been to one any time recently where they use an overhead projector to put the words on the wall. Considering how difficult it is for me to see the tiny print in the hymnals even with glasses (since the lighting in most churches is rather dim), I like that idea. If it wasn't such a big church where my talent as a singer and song leader wouldn't be needed (They have plenty of good talent there), I would consider going there.
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If I buy a projector would you come here? We are in desperate need of musical talent :praying:
 
mcdirector

mcdirector

Active Member
FriendofSpurgeon said:
Like it or not, it is very much a trend. In our traditional, liturgical service, we use hymnals. The average of these attendees is probably 60+ or more. In our more contemporary, blended service, we use the screens. The average age in this service is much younger -- families with children.
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Similar situation here. Five services, one uses hymnals.
 
S

swaimj

<img src=/swaimj.gif>
Our church has one Sunday AM service. We open with a hymn from the book (and sing AHHHH---MEN at the end), sing three or four choruses that are projected up front, sing another hymn, and close with a hymn.
 
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