reviving this blog

Dear, dear, dear. It turns out I’m very bad at blogging. Look at this – has it actually been a year since I’ve said anything about the progress on the hymnal? I shall endeavor to do better.

The fact of the matter is that we have seen the Lord’s hand over and over in paving the way for progress on this hymnal, and we fully expect the project to be completed in less than a year. The details are many, and worth recounting for the sake of the history of the ELCK and its first hymnal, for the testimony it is to God’s gracious and abundance, and for the joy of thinking on good and worthwhile things. There is still much work to do, and the need for donations continues, as I’ll explain in future posts, and that is yet another reason to publicize this work.

My last posts were from a year ago, at the time of a Pastors’ Conference at Matongo Lutheran Theological College. Over the past year much of my work has been in the corpus of hymns – exactly which hymns will be included in this hymnal, how and where we can get translations into Swahili, the possibility of including some in English, and the continuing search for solid, indigenous hymnody.

Because hymns are so central to Lutherans, because all creation sings to praise God, because music carries God’s Word into our hearts and souls in a deep, profound way, to be called to immerse oneself in hymnody has been, and continues to be, a blessing beyond words.

We sing the praise of Him who died,

Of Him who died upon the cross.

The sinner’s hope let all deride;

For this we count the world but loss.