Voices In My Head Podcast Episode #209: Are Hymnbooks The MySpace of the Church? (made with Podbean)

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Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer-songwriter, an author, a worship leader, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Voices in My Head podcast is your source for discussions on music, literature, movies, pop culture, theology, and more. Now sit back, relax, and listen to the latest episode of the Voices in Head podcast. And don't forget to let the voices in your head be heard by following me on Twitter @RickLeeJames and sharing your thoughts about today's show.

Welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I am your host Rick Lee James, and I am so glad that you are here with us for episode number 209. Man, I have I have had a busy, busy couple of weeks. I really don't feel like I've had time to catch up or really rest that much at all. Last week I was in Centreville, Virginia, about 10 minutes outside of Washington, D.C. It was great. It was wonderful to get to play at the National Worship Leader Conference in Virginia. It was great to get to hang out and share the stage with guys like Paul Balázs, like Rick Lee James, um, to be able to, to really spend some time with Brothers McClurg and talk about the new album that I'm going to be recording with them, uh, God willing. It'll be happening starting in November, so more details of that to come. But man, just had a wonderful, wonderful time and so much good to share with you. And maybe I'll share some more on a different episode, but I just wanted to let you know I'm tired. I am still lining up guests for future shows, but it's just me today, so I hope that's all right. I do have something that I really am excited to talk to you about today, and I've got my notes in front of me ready to go. But I did want to share about just the great time that I had, a wonderful time. And then I ended up in Montpelier, Ohio for the weekend after I finished up in Virginia. I was home between the two gigs, so to speak, about 12 12 hours, so I barely got to see my family in between, barely got a chance to rest. But we had a great time in both locations, and I feel very blessed to be able to continue making music. And to be making it for the kingdom of God is, is just an honor beyond belief. So I wanted to just say thanks to everybody who's been following me on that end. And I do have several engagements coming up in the near future, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about that today, giving out dates and things. But if you go to my website, rickleejames.com, you should find a link on there for my upcoming appearances, and there are quite a few coming up in the coming days. If you're going to be at the Church of the Nazarene General Assembly in Indianapolis, I am booked there to be a part of the Spirit and Truth pre-conference that's going on there as a part of sort of a Wesley Conver— sorry, a Wesley Conference on Worship Conversation. So you can find more about that online, but just check out my website, rickleejames.com. And with no further hesitation, I'm going to go straight into what I want to talk about today. This is actually an article I've been working on for Worship Leader magazine, but I'm not sure if it's going to get published or not. So if it's not, uh, that's no problem because I'll be sharing kind of my ideas today on the show. If it does get published, that's great too because it's going to be different in written form than what I have for you today. This is sort of the, the skeleton, the outline of what I've been thinking about. What place does the hymnal have in the church today? And so my title of today's episode, as I'm talking about this, it's really a question for us to think about: Are hymn books the MySpace of the church? And think about that for just a minute. Are hymn books the MySpace of the church? All right, what do I mean by that? Well, for those of us old enough to remember MySpace, Let's go on a journey back to the period between, say, around 2005 to 2009 is my best estimate. MySpace was the world's largest social network at that time. At one point, it surpassed Google as the United States' most visited website, and that's an amazing thing when you think about it because Google is huge now. It was a hugely popular interactive network of music, photos, blogs, personal profiles, and online friends., and it seemed like absolutely everyone was on MySpace. I remember this so well because my name is Rick James. I had people coming on there by the hundreds of thousands, like in just a matter of days whenever I opened up a MySpace account, just because my name was Rick James. I wasn't going by Rick Lee James or my middle initial or anything at that time. And boy, were they disappointed when they saw that it was, uh, uh, you know, a chunky white guy, uh, from Ohio. They thought it was going to be, you know, Rick James, the, the the other singer that sang Super Freak and that Dave Chappelle made famous again. Uh, nope, wasn't that. So my MySpace page though was a hoppin'. A lot of times it was people cussing me out telling me I was not Rick James, but I am Rick James. I just, you know, I'm Rick Lee James. So anyway, that was kind of my MySpace experience. I got all kinds of hits back in the day. I thought I was the biggest celebrity ever until they realized I wasn't the biggest celebrity ever. But how things can quickly change. In 2006, this is gonna take us back just a little bit now. In 2006, Facebook, available to college students, and open, uh, it opened its registration to anyone over 13. And by 2008, in just 2 years, Facebook had more users than MySpace. And MySpace had more users than Google at that time, so think about that. By 2009, Facebook Facebook grew to over 350 million users. By 2011, there was 550 million users. By 2012, they reached 500— or reached a billion unique users. And in 2017, today, there are 1.72 billion registered Facebook users. And from what I understand, Facebook is not as big as, you know, they thought it once was. So it's, it's kind of amazing that it still has 1.72 billion users. I guess it's not as big as it once was among youth because the youth that were using it have gotten older and most of them are still using it, but younger people are not as much. But in the midst of all that, rest in peace, MySpace. It was fun while it lasted. MySpace just went the way of the dinosaur. So it seemed. But wait, there is a twist in the story. Did you know that MySpace didn't actually go anywhere? I was surprised to find this out. Though it is no longer the most popular social media platform, MySpace still gets over 50 million unique visitors a month. In 2011, MySpace was bought by Justin Timberlake— you know, Can't Stop the Feeling, that Justin Timberlake— and Specific Media Group. And though its user base has changed significantly, MySpace still offers an interactive user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. That sounds like a commercial for it, doesn't it? For 50 million people, MySpace still has a valid purpose. Now think about it, that's nowhere near the billion that Facebook has and Google and different things. But to me, 50 million people is nothing to sneeze at. I mean, there's still a lot of people using MySpace. I was shocked. I thought they closed it down or something, you know. I knew I still had my account there, but I didn't have a ton of people visiting it. But again, for 50 million people, MySpace still has a valid purpose. Huh, who knew? Well, this brings me to hymn books, the hymnal you may call it, something that you have often in your church congregations if you have pews still as many churches still do. Many churches have a pew rack, and in front of, in front of you as you sit in that pew rack, or underneath the seat in the pew rack, you will find these hymn books, these hymnals. Some of them are brown, some of them are blue, some of them are red, some of them are green. There's all kinds of different colors to these things. And even though it may seem like it, because we have everything up on screens, guess what? Hymnals are not extinct either. Many churches are still using hymnals. Now, maybe not as widely or even as often as they once did, but they are still in use. Studies are showing that a number of millennials actually prefer the simplicity of a hymn book over fog machines and song lyrics, you know, being projected on screens with these cool moving backgrounds. And, you know, I like those kinds of things, but I can definitely appreciate and long for the the days when we used hymn books, and apparently it is becoming a popular trend, if we're going to call that a trend. I hate using words like trends when it comes to churches, but they definitely are, unfortunately. So my point being, like MySpace, I don't know if hymnals will ever make a full comeback, but I do have a few reasons why I think they still have a purpose, and that's what I want to talk about today in thinking about if hymnals are the MySpace of the church. So here's the first thing that I think hymnals, uh, the reason that they still have a purpose. Hymnals, they help us protect our theological integrity. Now, while resources like CCLI, SongSelect, Song Discovery from Worship Leader Magazine, and praisecharts.com, and even what, lifewayworship.com— while these things are invaluable The lyrics to songs you find there may in many cases conflict with the theology of the congregation that you serve in. You know, there's no filter for that whenever you go on to a site like that. And I, I love these sites. I use those sites weekly. They are wonderful resources. They're great tools for music pastors, and even pastors, I think, can find a lot of good use there. But if you have a hymnal that's actually made from your denomination, by your denomination, then you're not as likely to come into as much conflict with theology for the context that you serve in. If you're a Baptist and you use a Baptist hymnal, chances are it's going to go pretty good with your theology. If you're in the Church of the Nazarene and you use the Nazarene hymnal, Sing to the Lord, or one of our older ones, chances are you're going to find some harmony with some certain theological things there. Now I find that many times I still have difficulty with some of the theology and a few of the hymns, but that's another story altogether. For the most part, they tend to align. I mean, all hymnals are going to align with Christianity, but there are just these specific things about our identity that each denomination seems to hold dear. It's almost like it's a special recipe theologically that they hold on to. If you think about people in your family or in your church, there's always that one person that has this special dish that they bring into the potluck dinner. And it's not that the other dishes that are there are bad or not part of the potluck, but you know, there's just one that always seems to be the highlighted dish of the day. And it's like, that's the person that, that your church reveres more than the other one because you want their food maybe more than another person's food. And you always try to check to make sure that you you got the good food, you know. Don't eat that pot of green beans, get this lady's pot of green beans, or get this guy's bowl of broccoli casserole because this is the one, you know. So it's sort of what I mean about hymnals. Each of us seem to have in our smorgasbord of theology, we seem to have one thing that we kind of specialize in. For the Church of the Nazarene, it's the theology of holiness. And for us, you're going to find a lot of that in our hymnals. You're going to find more songs dedicated to that. So it's the same thing with other denominations. So many denominations have their own hymn book to protect the integrity of what they believe and what they teach theologically. The faith we sing is the faith we believe and the faith in which we act upon. And theologically sound hymns can help us navigate the deep waters of theology. And, and I, I just do think that's true, that we often will sing, we'll learn our faith, we'll learn our theology by the things we sing. That is that even though we might have some of the greatest preachers in the world at our churches, we remember things that come to us in music much easier because when we sing those lyrics, it's just two ways of reinforcing that thought. You get the lyrics, you get the music together, you get a rhyme, and it helps us burn that into our, our minds, our hearts, and our spirits. So first of all, don't underestimate the power of the music pastor, even though we also don't want overestimate— not power, the, the significance, I guess I should say. The power is the Holy Spirit, it's not the music pastor. But there is a real significance to the duty, to that Levitical duty of leading the congregation in worship through song. Another point I want to make about why hymnals still have a purpose: hymnals are an excellent worship planning resource. I still use my hymnal a lot, even if we don't use it in the church in our worship settings where I ask people to turn to a certain page. A lot of stuff is up on the screen. I still use the hymnal myself in planning. I use them for writing, for arranging. I sometimes will rearrange hymns to make the music a little bit more palatable to modern ears, but I really keep the essence of the hymn the same when I do things like that.. And if you need songs for, let's say, Advent, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, or a number of other holy days, guess what? You can turn to the back of most hymn books, and in most hymnals you will find songs laid out not only by topic, but often you will find them laid out by key, by meter, by scripture reference, and, and by the season even in some cases, which is wonderful when you're planning for that season. The hymnal doesn't have to be the worship pastor's only resource. I've already said there are numerous other resources you can use but it certainly should be on the short list. I really believe that. I think we need to keep our hymnals close by and use them often. The hymnal helps us to pick out songs that have stood the test of time. They are less disposable. The church today is filled with disposable songs. They are almost old from the first time we sing them. It just seems to be the way that it is. Think about a song that you sang all the time 5 years ago. I bet that you don't even hardly pick it up today. To sing it again if it's a new song. Think about that Chris Tomlin hit that years ago everybody was singing, and now I bet we don't do it because it feels old, because we are constantly striving for something new. And we have songs that are good songs, and they're often solid songs, but they're not standing the test of time. And so it will be interesting to see which ones do. And usually those are the songs that wind up in the hymnals. They have been the ones that have proven themselves. They have an appeal that seems to be timeless. So use the hymnal as a worship planning resource. Use it if you want something that's going to last in your congregation beyond the next 6 months. Another point, another use, another purpose for a hymnal: hymnals require congregations to participate. If you do start using the hymnal in your congregation, they will make the congregation participate with you. I used to always hear, and I still do hear this sometimes, when projectors were put into churches, screens, whatever mode we use, whether it was TV screens or projectors or, you know, these ambient projectors now that put images all over the front, the case that was made for them was this helps our people to look up and to be a part of the service together. And sometimes that's the case, but I often find too that it actually gives less participation to the congregation. There is something to the physical act of actually picking up a hymnal, turning it. You're using your hands, you're using your eyes, you're actually interacting with the pages of the book. There is action there. Oftentimes we just stand and our participants are consumers more than participants If you use a hymnal in your worship service, people will have to physically pick up the hymnal. They have to find the right page. They have to engage with something. They have to hold it in their hands until the song is done. It's harder to send text messages when you have a hymnal in your hand. If you don't believe me, grab a book right now. Try to send a text message while you've got a book in one hand and you're trying to find a page. In some ways, I think the hymnal can actually help our congregations to be more active participants in the services. It would be interesting to have sort of a debate about that, but I do think that that is one way that the hymnals could maybe help us sort of recapture our congregation away from their cell phones during the services and be a little less distracted. Another thing, another point, another way that hymnals are useful— I just have this one and one more tonight, and then I'm going to be done. Hymnals are portable. All right, now think about it a second. I know what you're thinking, well, they're heavy and they're hard to move around. Well, yeah, if you're going to move, you know, 600 hymnals or something, they're not very portable. But there are so many places that you can't take your church projector system. I mean, think of all the music ministry opportunities that hymnals allow us to have just by the fact that they're fairly easy to carry. I mean, hymnbooks are perfect for Sunday school classrooms. They're perfect for services in the park, which are usually not, you know, enormous gatherings. Usually there's groups of the church that come there. They're great for mission trips. They're great for maybe even leaving on a mission trip. They're great for nursing homes. They're great for prisons. They're great for hospital rooms. They're great for camps. They're great for a thousand other places that are not your sanctuary. In an age of church planting, even in immobile houses of worship, coffee houses, small group gatherings in homes, hymnals actually are the music leader's very good, if not best friend. You can take a hymnbook in, grab a few, throw them in the car. People actually get to share a hymnal too. You can have a couple people on one hymnal. So let's say you have a small group meeting of 12 people. Grab 6 hymnals before, you know, you head out that night. Go to the church. If your church doesn't have hymnals, I'm sure you can find a church in town that has hymnals around. They— and many of them are not using them, and I'm sure they would say, please borrow these, or even take them in some cases. I think hymnals are more portable than we want to give them credit for. And again, I think it's something that could be new to many people. We live in an age where it's been so long since we used hymnals, they could be special and new and something that engages with participation. So use the portability of hymnals even at Christmas time. I mean, take hymnals to the hospital, turn to the section that they have on Advent and Christmas and Epiphany, and walk around. And if the hospital allows you, I mean, use those for your caroling. There's wonderful hymns in there. There's some great things you can do in nursing homes, and a lot of the older people are going to know those songs when you go in to sing it with them. So keep them close by. I think it's a good idea to use these and their portability. And you can grab it, grab a guitar, and put a hymnal in front of you, and you've got a whole book full of songs you can sing. And the last thing that I'm going to talk about tonight— I'm sure there are many more, but just things that are on my mind and things I've been thinking about— hymnals teach music. Okay, actual music. Hymnals can be used not just to teach the songs and the theology of the church, but they can actually be used to teach music to people. With a little help, even untrained musicians can learn to follow melodic direction. They can start to find harmony parts. They can start to gain an understanding of timing. I don't mean that you're going to maybe become the greatest reader of music in the world, But with a little help, as I said, you can help your congregation see how the notes go up and down and how they move in increments. And you can help many people— maybe not everybody, but a lot of people can be taught to read music this way. They can be a great tool. Some people have never thought to look at a piece of music and think, what do these notes do? What does it mean when they get higher, when they get lower, when they go up the staff, when they go down the staff? If nothing else, it can help them have some direction in how we're singing. If they're a harmony singer, they can know that the notes below just go a little lower in pitch than the ones higher. You could offer maybe a class a couple weekends on just music reading, like 101, and just say, "Hey, here's how we read a hymnal together." There are some pointers that you can give. So hymnals can actually do some good as far as teaching music. And I think they have a lot more use than what we are giving them right now. I think that hymnals can be such a valuable resource and such a valuable tool. So my question to you, the title of this episode today: Are hymn books the MySpace of the church? I don't know. You decide. I don't know what that means. I don't know if they're going to make a comeback. I don't know if MySpace is going to make a comeback. I'm I'm fairly sure there'll be something new or something bigger, but there are still apparently, according to research, a significant number of people who are finding MySpace to be a valid place, especially for music. 50 million people. Think about that. That's not a small amount of people in the world. So those are just my thoughts for today, and I'd love to get your thoughts. So make sure that you send me an email, rick@rickleejames.com, or if you want to, you can leave an iTunes review. That would be excellent. I always love getting iTunes reviews. It's been a long time since we had a review, and, and seriously, if you guys— if 10 of you that listen to this show every week— and lately we've been getting a ton of listeners each week, I've been so grateful, and it's enabled us to have sponsors. And anyway, all that is to say, the more reviews you leave— if 10 of you left one review this week, our visibility on iTunes would go way up. I know it just takes a couple minutes to do. If you could go online to iTunes and leave us a review, that would be awesome. Maybe you could interact about today's episode, or you can interact with me on Twitter. You can find me on Facebook. You can find me at my website. There's many ways to do it. Maybe give me some of your thoughts. Are hymnals the MySpace of the church? Is there still a place for them in your opinion, and what place would that be? All right, that's about all I have for this week. I'm going to do a quick word from one of our sponsors, and then we're going to sign out. Thank you so much for listening to Voice Voices in My Head this week.

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Hey ladies and gentlemen, it's me again. I told you I was done before, but guess what?

I lied.

I do want to tell you real quick about an event that I'm going to be a part of in Indianapolis, Indiana. We are going to be a part of, on June 23rd from 1 o'clock to 5 PM, Spirit and Truth: A Conversation on Worship. It's going to be at the Church of the Nazarene General Assembly downtown in Indianapolis at the big big arena down there, the convention center. Gosh, why can't I think of what it's called right now? Where all the big games are played. Come on, think of it, Rick. Anyway, you can find it on my website, but the conference is being held and sponsored by the NNU Wesley Center and the Nazarene Theological Seminary Center for Pastoral Leadership. And Jonathan Berkey, Dana Prusch, Brandon Hancock, myself, and Brent Peterson, several others. We are planning a time of worship through prayer and music, a short plenary session, two worship workshops, a Q&A panel. And as we are in the planning process, we are still thinking through topics and different things. And if you are a part of the Facebook page Sacramento Nazarene— some of you may be, some of you may not be, but you're welcome to join— we are actually having a link on that page where you can suggest some topics of conversation. We're wanting this not to be so much lecturing as it is a time where we can really converse together. We don't want so much like a talking head at the front of the room as we want real true sharing between other people who are liturgists together and worship leaders and pastors. So there is a limited number of seating, so you want to get in on that as quick as you can. You can go to Bands in Town and find a little bit more about that. I'll try to have all the links up on my web page as soon as possible. But look up Spirit and Truth: A Conversation on Worship, and it's going to be on June 23rd in Indianapolis at the— oh, it's the Indianapolis Convention Center, duh! Indianapolis Convention Center, June 23rd. So hope to see you there. Thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. God bless you.

Thank you for joining me here this week on the Voices in My Head podcast. I hope you'll visit me on my website at rickleejames.com, follow me on Twitter @RickLeeJames, like my artist page on Facebook at facebook.com/rickleejames, and keep up to date on what I'm writing at my author page on amazon.com. Make sure to follow my calendar on the website, and if you would like to have me come to your town to do a concert, a speaking engagement, or a book event, you can book me through my website by clicking on the link for Pare Booking Agency. That's P-A-R-E Booking. And finally, it would mean the world to me if you were to leave me a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive reviews that we receive, the more visible this podcast is on the internet. And now the benediction: May the God of peace, who raised Christ from the dead, strengthen your inner being for every good work work. And may the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and dwell within you this day and forevermore.

Amen.