Some of you know that at our church we’ve started a year-long project of memorising 10 hymns of the faith. I spent a few weeks getting the music and the hymn books together in preparation. We started our first one (In Christ Alone) at the beginning of March, and on Sunday (while I was worship leading), we sang the entire hymn without the projected words. At the back of my mind I wondered what proportion of the church had been actively trying to memorise each hymn, or if it would be of much benefit.
So I was really encouraged to get this feedback from someone at church (the person has asked to remain anonymous):
“I have to admit – I used to not like In Christ Alone that much. It had become monotonous for me. Well, I would like to let you know that memorising the whole song has brought about a remarkable change. For the first time, I no longer heard the tune, but visually saw the whole song. I can’t quite articulate what I mean, but it was as if I saw the song only in its various parts with the first and last verse being the most obvious. But by memorising the song, I finally saw the whole song and would visualise the song in my mind when singing it.
It made a big difference to the way I sang the song too, whereby I no longer heard the tune, but saw the whole gospel story.
Look forward to memorising the next song.”
That comment made my day – praise be to God!
That is a brilliant idea! I once was at a conference with 1000 people where the power went off and we were just about to sing WHEN I SURVEY. Similar thing happened! AMazingly beneficial. Ros
That would be a great choice to memorise!