Which Hymns Work Best For Contemporary Worship?
Don Chapman

At worship conferences I teach a class called “Blending Hymns With Contemporary Worship” to packed, desperate audiences. It seems to be the never ending problem: how to use hymns in contemporary worship.

Just which hymns should you use? I believe there are popular hymns that everyone should know – hymns that have stood the test of time and cross denominational borders. And, some hymns are more conducive to contemporary worship than others.

A few years ago I coined the term “hymn cranks” which stirred up some nasty emails. “Hymn cranks” describe those trouble-making people in your church who are constantly pestering you to use hymns, hymns and more hymns. At one church where I worked a guy in the congregation kept himself busy during the praise set by tallying how many hymns were or were not used. You can imagine the trouble I was in if I dared to NOT do a hymn on an given Sunday.

Then there was the deacon who was fixated on obscure, antiquated hymns written by Isaac Watts. This hymn crank wasn’t satisfied that we did a healthy dose of popular hymns – he constantly pestered me to use his favorite, How Sweet and Awesome is this Place in our praise sets. I have sung hymns my entire life, consider myself to be somewhat of a hymn expert and had never heard this one. Here’s the second verse of this lovely ditty:

Here every bowel of our God
With soft compassion rolls;
Here peace and pardon bought with blood
Is food for dying souls.

I’m sorry, but we’re simply not going to sing a hymn about God’s bowels in a contemporary worshiping church with electric guitars. (And if I had attempted to rewrite the lyrics he would, of course, have been infuriated.)

This deacon finally worked himself up into such a hissy fit that he threatened to leave the church. Over a hymn about God’s bowels.

And people wonder why the average tenure of a music director is two years. (He eventually regained his senses, calmed down, and I never did do that hymn!)

In no particular order, here are the top ten hymns everyone should know, drawn from years of polling here at HymnCharts.com and my personal opinion, that work best with contemporary worship:

All Hail the Power (CORONATION)
Amazing Grace
Be Thou My Vision
Crown Him With Many Crowns
Holy Holy Holy
It Is Well With My Soul
Just As I Am
O For A Thousand Tongues
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

The classical chord structure of these hymns is what makes them usable in contemporary worship as well as lyrics that are, for the most part, singable and modern enough for the average person in your congregation.

Interestingly, the older the hymn, the easier it is to translate to a praise band. Even though songs like At Calvary are in many hymnals, they’re not actually hymns but “Gospel songs.” The sing-songy, lilting quality and chromatic melodies give these late 19th and early 20th century tunes an inherent dated feel, and it’s pretty hard to create convincing contemporary arrangements with them.

Bottom Line: Season your praise sets with the most popular hymns.

The above article, “Which Hymns Work Best For Contemporary Worship?” was written by Don Chapman. The article was excerpted from www.hymncharts.com.

The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”