Please Proceed Slowly

It was late summer/early fall 2021 when orders for Christian Worship 2021 began to be filled and boxes of hymnals started arriving at various congregations around the country. It was interesting to note at that time how a number of people wrote in, requesting early copies of the keyboard accompaniment, so that they could practice and learn new settings of the liturgical order now simply referred to as The Service. Some wanted to be able to hit the ground running, to use these new settings of the liturgy as soon as possible, ideally when the new church year began with Advent 1 on November 28, 2021.

After nearly a decade of work on the part of twelve committees of over a hundred volunteers, and on the heels of a global pandemic that had brought many adjustments to congregational worship at the local level, it’s safe to say that these requests for early accompaniment editions breathed into us a small sense of relief, as if to jokingly say, “Well, it looks like at least five or six churches might be interested in using the new hymnal.”

While the requested resources had already been printed in Christian Worship: Accompaniment for Services and could have gone out early in completed or partial form, I believe you’ll understand the rationale for waiting to ship them out together with the new hymnals and psalters. Our overall philosophy for adoption of new resources released on this grand of a scale is to encourage all congregations to introduce new material slowly and gradually. At the time, though there was no release of promotional posters, featuring the newly designed Chi-Rho Christian Worship logo and the text, “Please Proceed Slowly,” it was especially the Sunday by Sunday spreadsheet for Year C (available at The Foundation and produced through WELS Congregational Services) that laid out an approach whereby congregations could begin their use of the new hymnal with what was already familiar from CW 93 and Christian Worship: Supplement. As far as The Service is concerned, that meant starting with service settings that were not jarringly new, namely, Setting One and/or Setting Four. There would be time (and it was our desire that congregations take plenty of time) to teach and introduce the new settings of The Service.

As of December 1, 2024, we have moved into the second full cycle of the three-year lectionary and are now again in Year C. The fact that still today it’s not uncommon to hear the question “How many of the ten settings of The Service are we really supposed to use?” would be one indicator (among any number of others) that continuing the “new hymnal introduction” conversation is a valid pursuit.

I have not long been in the habit of using the term repertoire. Even the two spellings of the term meant little or nothing to me (repertory relates more to theater; repertoire refers to a list of what you can do). I have, however, come to understand the significance of repertoire for a congregation’s corporate worship life. In the simplest terms, it’s not going to work very well if it’s something people can’t do. This doesn’t at all mean people can’t learn (and even come to love) what at first they couldn’t do, but carefully and patiently establishing for worshipers a solid and slowly growing list of what they can do takes forethought and evaluation and, yes, plenty of work.

As for service settings…

Doing the math (and including what is available in Christian Worship: Service Builder [CW:SB]), there are ten settings of The Service (plus a total of four Morning/Evening Prayer services of the daily office), 683 hymns, and 470 psalm settings. There are more items than that in the Christian Worship suite, but for the sake of conversation, let’s talk about those 1,167 items. I’m neither selling your congregation short nor inviting debate but am treading the path of realism when I say: 1) your congregation cannot sing all of those 1,167 items; 2) your congregation should not attempt to sing all of them; and 3) those who curated and compiled all of those items never intended every congregation to make use of all of them.

This is where repertoire comes in. While the age of The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) reached 52 years before CW 93 was published, denominational hymnals these days are thought to have a lifespan of a generation to a generation and a half, roughly twenty to thirty years. Who knows how many wonderful works of text and music the Holy Spirit will bring forth before another generation and a half has passed, but the Christian Worship set of liturgical orders, hymns, and psalms is meant to be sufficiently diverse and expansive to allow congregations to select what best fits their circumstances over the next twenty plus years.

Since the five hymn tune canticle settings (Settings Six through Ten in CW:SB) are really just one supersized setting with seventy-seven options for “Gloria,” “Sanctus,” and “Agnus Dei” set to different hymn tunes, the real repertoire question for your congregation’s order of service selections revolves mostly around Settings One through Five of The Service. This is due to the fact that, in the past, most WELS congregations had neither learned nor used Settings Two, Three, and Five. Without getting too far into the weeds musically, each of those three settings has a bit of a different feel. Whether it’s the overall feel of the music, or the reaction your musicians and members might have toward each, or the perceived level of difficulty (singing and playing) of each, understand that no one is expecting you to use all five of Settings One through Five. Over time you might, but you don’t need to and no one’s asking you to.

With the additional hymn tune canticles of Settings Six through Ten in your back pocket, evaluate, select, plan, introduce, and make use of a subset of Settings One through Five that fits and works best in your congregation’s unique circumstances. This is how repertoire is established. If something doesn’t work out well, regroup, reevaluate, add, subtract, etc.

Ditto for hymns.

No apologies if you’ve heard it before, because in the conversation about repertoire, it bears repeating: the average number of hymns a congregation can “handle” (learn, know, enjoy, make good use of) is typically around 250-300. I would be remiss if I did not encourage you to start populating that list with the Hymn of the Day selections. If you choose three or four hymns each Sunday, 33% or 25% of your planning is already done when you make use of the Hymn of the Day. As a pastor, even as one who developed a personal relationship with every syllable and note in all the books (just kidding), I know that my favorites (both old and new) and my preferences should not rule but should rather be only one factor among other considerations for establishing hymnody repertoire locally:

  • What does the congregation already know and appreciate?
  • How strong of a singing group do we have?
  • Do the acoustics of our worship space help or hinder singing?
  • What musical forces (accompanists, instrumentalists, vocalists) do we have to introduce and teach material?
  • How will our congregation’s blessings of organists or liturgical ensemble instrumentalists (pianists, guitarists, etc.) or both steer us toward accompaniment music specifically written for those instruments?
  • How will our necessary use of recorded music (such as Playlist in Christian Worship: Service Builder) affect the repertoire goals we hope to attain?
  • Do we have a choir that can sing not only anthems but also function liturgically and aid with the singing of The Service and all of its components?

Part of establishing a repertoire of hymns is the recognition that you are choosing to not sing several hundred hymns. That is correct. And that is perfectly fine. The unused hymns will not be offended. Suffice it to say that “not liking” certain hymns is not the leading reason for not using them. During the hymnal project, we were reminded that loving our neighbor includes recognizing that hymns we may not appreciate are often favorites of our neighbor.

There are more than a few angles to establishing repertoire, and it takes place over years, not days or weeks. With 683 hymns, and the ability of CW:SB to import and lawfully reproduce even more, there are choices to be made. Think pastorally about what is best for the worshipers you regularly serve in the sanctuary. With your people and your parish’s circumstances in mind, select and use a subset of the available hymns. This is how repertoire is established.

Ditto for psalms.

Comparing CW 93 and CW 21, we’ve moved from 62 options to 470 options for singing from the psalter. We’ve moved from only responsorial psalmody (sung refrain and chanted verses) to roughly ten different genres of psalmody. For each of the 150 psalms, Christian Worship: Psalter provides at least one responsorial setting and one metrical paraphrase setting (psalm verses converted into poetic verse and sung to a hymn tune). As with hymns, CW psalmody also includes an appointed Psalm of the Day, where the default setting (setting “A” in CW: Psalter and CW:SB) is the setting printed in the front pages of the hymnal. When selecting the Psalm of the Day, the appointed psalm will also have one or more additional settings to choose from, as well as several settings of alternate psalms that also fit the theme of the day. Questions related to repertoire continue:

  • What steps can we take to familiarize ourselves with CW: Psalter, in which there are even more settings that are new to us than the new settings of hymns in the hymnal?
    • A recent article mentioned searching on “CW Psalm 46” which generates this result.
    • Since a good share of the psalm settings come from the broader Christian church, many performance videos can also be found via search engine.
  • Does our congregation have a history of chanting the verses of responsorial psalmody?
    • If so, there’s no need to think this fine practice needs to be set aside.
  • What if our congregation is not particularly inclined to chant the psalm?
    • If not, the metrical paraphrase genre is a strong candidate to consider as a way of singing psalmody.
  • Is there a best way to explore the different genres now available?
    • Making use of the “Genres and Musical Styles” index on p. 832 of CW: Psalter may be your best friend, enabling you to look up examples of all the different genres.
      • Anglican (chant and responsorial)
      • Conception Abbey
      • European Classical
      • Folk Tune (15 different geographic points of origin for what might be loosely called “world music”)
      • Gelineau
      • Gregorian
      • Metrical Paraphrase
      • Responsorial (chant and lyrical)
      • Taizé
      • Twelve Point
  • In what ways can we ensure that we are “letting the people participate” in the Psalm of the Day?
    • Singing the refrain
    • Chanting the verses
    • Reading the verses responsively
    • Singing parts of the psalm antiphonally with a cantor, choir, or presiding minister
    • Teaching the congregation the refrain and having cantor, choir, or presiding minister sing lyrical verses

Remember what was said above regarding settings of The Service. Diverse genres and expansive psalmody settings are available as resources for more than a generation. There are meant to be more than you’ll ever need or use, so that congregations can make selections that fit their circumstances. This is how repertoire is established.

There’s plenty here to digest as you keep becoming more and more familiar with all that is included in our hymnal and psalter, and as you carefully plan to make use of some of it from Sunday to Sunday. I encourage you to walk away from this article bearing in mind the simple definition of repertoire as it relates to your congregation’s worship: a list of what you can do. Blessings on your good work of evaluating, generating, and editing that list, for the glory of God and the edification of his people.

This article in Devote Yourself was contributed by the team that previously created and distributed Worship the Lord. View past worship-related articles at worship.welsrc.net/downloads-worship/worship-the-lord.

Devote Yourself
Volume 2, Number 1
January 2025
Tags: Worship

Michael Schultz
Rev. Michael Schultz has served WELS congregations in Flagstaff, Ariz., and Lawrenceville, Ga. He chaired the hymns committee for Christian Worship: Supplement and served as project director for the WELS Hymnal Project. He enjoys working on arrangements that combine piano and guitar. Michael currently serves as a parish pastor in Tallahassee, Fla., and is the chairman of the WELS Commission on Worship.