Monthly column on hymns and songs

Once upon a time an international mission (they used to be Missionary Societies) asked me for a list of 'missionary hymns' to use at its meetings and services. I drew up a core selection of 120 drawn from over 30 books

We wondered whether to classify them or simply list them A-Z. I offered two basic sections; God's initiative (Jesus shall reign; Thou whose almighty word) and our response (Facing a task unfinished; O Master, when thou callest)- and so on. But many classics (Ye servants of God; We have a Gospel to proclaim) include both, matching the perspective of the Great Commission in Matthew 28.

I added a note: 'Every hymn is a missionary hymn, because they all praise the missionary God'. That raised another question: Is it healthy to make such a list anyway?

Case for

It rings a bell and waves a flag to say Mission matters! Our missionary library at college carried the same message; everything from stirring tales of William Carey and Hudson Taylor to bulky new volumes on church growth, the science of missiology and the latest thinking on inculturation. Plus, how to build your igloo or care for your sick horse. The books were set apart because they were important; wherever our future ministry lay, world mission was vital to our training.

Case against

The practical effect was to isolate this whole field from church history, New Testament study, or the work of the Holy Spirit. Here was a specialised resource for keen students to use and the rest to ignore - along with missionary prayer meetings, weekends, speakers, and hymns! Isn't it better for tutors on other topics to realise that they and their lectures and books are part of God's global mission? Every discipline has a Gospel dimension.

Whatever happens to our libraries, every 'real' hymn book still needs a mission section. Not only heart-rending appeals for others to come and be saved, but hymns about God sending us to evangelise all nations including our own, with generous cross-references to the rest of the repertoire. This raises a further point: my list of 120 already needs pruning.

Many older books drew a clear line between 'home' and 'foreign' work. Few ever envisaged Indonesian evangelists in Guildford, Kenyans at Barrow-in-Furness, Koreans in Bombay or Chileans in Paris. Nor Muslims in Middlesbrough or Buddhists in Bolton. No hymn book should now be printing 'O'er heathen lands afar, thick darkness broodeth yet', let alone the romantically Eurocentric original of Hi11s of the north, rejoice.

This does not mean any sacrifice of essentials: the call of God, the plight of the world, Christ the only way, the response of obedience, the awfulness of judgement. But it will include humility in service, the role of the church, mission partners learning as well as teaching, serving the host congregation rather than running it. It will notice those hidden but vital workers whose names and locations remain secret lest they draw down terrible retribution on local Christians. Who will write hymns to capture our imagination and devotion on such themes?

Already we are asking not only who will follow hymn writers Montgomery, Heber and Bickersteth; but who will succeed those 20th century pioneers Frank Houghton, Margaret Clarkson and Jim Seddon. God's mission and our world never stand still. Some readers may hardly recognise my headline, never having sung From Greenland's icy mountains. It will be sad only if nothing replaces it.

PS: Apology. I said in December that News of Hymnody had a new editor. It had; now it hasn't! I commended that small Quarterly before knowing I would still be writing it. You could still give it a try.

Christopher Idle

© Evangelicals Now - February 2001
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