My older daughter had mentioned last week that the minister at our church had been wanting us to help in picking music for the church service. I have been doing a little SingSong before church on Sunday and have been trying to pick songs that fit with the Sunday theme.

This used to be quite easy: the minister would follow the Revised Common Lectionary and it would be fairly easy to find songs. The United Church of Canada hymnal, Voices United, has a section in the back that has suggested hymns for each Sunday. I was also able to use the United Methodist Church web site which also has suggested hymns. I went to that site mainly to get suggestion for their new hymnal supplement "The Faith We Sing". This changed however when our new minister did not follow the Lectionary. It did make my job harder since I only had a Bible reading to go by, but I have been able to find songs even though it involved more work.

Anyway, this week was the first week that I tried giving our minister suggested hymns. Mostly because the reading used is the same as the Lectionary for this next Sunday I was able to list quite a few hymns. There are even some left over for the SingSong. It was very heartening to find out that the little bit I did helped in choosing the hymns for this Sunday and I am looking forward to continue to try to help with service music.

This does not make picking songs for the SingSong any harder; if anything it will make it much easier as I have a better idea of where the minister is going with the service. As a matter of fact, I think I have a very good idea as to which songs I will be using for this Sunday's SingSong. I will list them here later in the week.

God bless you!