About

Welcome to the “Hymn of the Week” website.  On this site, I hope you reconnect to some of the great hymns of the Christian faith.  Songs that you may have sung since you were a small child, and maybe some hymns that you have never heard before.  I will tell you upfront that I was not a Music History major in college.  Nope, I am an accountant.  I will also disclose to you that I know very little about music.  Yes, I have sung in a choir before and can read the bass line from the hymnal, but I couldn’t pick out a G note in a musical sheet, or find Middle C on a piano.  Thank the Lord one doesn’t have to have a Master’s Degree in music to love and appreciate great hymns.

My love for hymns dates back to my family and my upbringing at Southern Hills Church of God in Oklahoma City.  My Mom and my Granny love these great songs and would regularly sing them around the house.  As I got older, I would call my Granny on every holiday and sing an old hymn to her.  I was her “favorite” before i started doing this tradition, but this practice of calling her and singing her songs sealed my place as “Granny’s favorite” in our family history.

My home church, under the leadership of Dr. Lonnie McCalister, had hymns as a regular part of our worship service.  We sang hymns Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and even sometimes on Weds night service.  We would have Redback hymnal singings too.  I was always fascinated that people remembered the page numbers of their favorite songs in the Redback Hymnal.  Do you know what song is #10 in the Redback?

There are certain things I love about hymns.  First and foremost, a good hymn must contain solid Christan theology.  In many ways, Christians learn about theology from these great hymns of the faith.  When you want to understand the faithfulness of God, what comes to mind?  Great is Thy Faithfulness.  When you want to know what can wash away your sins?  You remember “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.”  Great hymns always have deep spiritual meanings.  I am not saying you will always agree with a theological stance found in a hymn, but if you read the words deeply enough, they will cause you to think and ask yourself “Do I really believe what I am singing?”

Secondly, hymns should point you to the Bible.  Whether it is a word or phrase or concept, hymns should be based on Scriptural truths.  I would guarantee you that the writers of these great hymns never wanted their songs to supersede the Scriptures.  Their songs were inspired by the Scriptures, and that is why so many times you see direct quotes from the Bible in great hymns. 

Finally, they have to be musically beautiful.  I don’t necessarily mean musically complex, but the melody and the words must be beautiful.  Notice that I didn’t say it had to be “old.”  Yes, there are some 100+-year-old hymns in our church hymnals.  There are some 1,000-year-old hymns that the church universal is still singing today.  But there are also some modern hymns today as well.  But to qualify as a hymn in my mind they must contain deep spiritual truth, must point to the Word of God, and must be musically beautiful.