Our Favorite Hymns

At the beginning of summer, I asked the congregation of Good Shepherd to give me a list of their top 10 favorite hymns. Fifty-three people responded, resulting in a list of 190 different songs. Notice I said “songs” and not “hymns,” because not all of the selections were in praise of God. One vote went to “Jingle Bells,” and while it is a fun and festive holiday tune, is not a hymn. “Michael, row the boat ashore” was twice nominated (from the same family, I might add), though the only thing religious about it is the word “Alleluia!” Another favorite was “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” the 1968 rock song by Iron Butterfly. The only time I have heard this sung in church was in “The Simpsons” episode, "Bart Sells His Soul", when Bart passes this song out in church as a hymn entitled "In the Garden of Eden," with composer credit given to "I. Ron Butterfly." The organist, as I remember, really rocked it out.
Another 60’s pop hit, “Turn, Turn, Turn”, does, however, have solid scriptural basis as its lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the Book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version of the Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Three people voted for it. There were also single votes for some old songs from the early 20th century (“In the Garden”, “His Eye Is on the Sparrow”, “Whispering Hope”, and “The Church in the Wildwood”).

What surprised me most were the hymns straight from the 1982 Hymnal that, to the best of my memory, have not been sung at Good Shepherd in my 18 year tenure. “Come, Labor On” (no. 541) received three votes.

There were no huge surprises in our list of the top 15 (which was expanded to 17 due to ties). Here is the rankings, along with the dates they will be sung.

ranking	Hymn	percentage	Date to be sung
1	Lift High the cross	30	8/30
2	Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound	24	8/23
4	Morning has broken, like the first morning	20	8/2
4	Onward, Christian soldiers	20	8/23
5	I, the Lord of Sea and Sky	17	8/30
7	A Mighty Fortress Is our God	15	8/16
7	How great thou art	15	8/23
10	Crown him with many crowns	13	8/9
10	O God, our help in ages past	13	8/16
10	Rock of ages, cleft for me	13	8/9
17	Abide with me, fast falls the eventide	9	8/16
17	Alleluia, Alleluia, give thanks to the risen Lord	9	8/9
17	I am the bread of life	9	8/2
17	I want to walk as a child of the light	9	8/30
17	Shine, Jesus, shine	9	8/2
17	We are marching in the light of God	9	8/30
17	The church’s one foundation	9	7/19

One thing that is clear from the survey is that no certain type of hymn is going to make everyone happy. For instance, you might thing that singing “Amazing Grace” would make everyone in the congregation feel warm and fuzzy and want to hug puppies and children, but I am here to tell you, there is a significant vocal body of people in the congregation who surprise me with their disdain for this hymn which they feel is overused. (Note: in 2014 it was only sung twice in worship at 10:15). In the same manner, the 20% that love singing “Onward, Christian soldiers” may not be the same 20% that get a happy feeling singing “Morning has broken.”

I want to give a great big “Thanks” to Bruce Bailey for collecting and tabulating the votes for this survey.