“Sing more Lutheran chorales!”

I can always get a few likes on my social media accounts with this recommendation. But it’s easier posted than done.

Hymn usage statistics show that a few congregations sing Lutheran chorales regularly. Their children learn the words and tunes in their Lutheran elementary schools, and their adult choirs practice the chorales in harmony and lead the congregation in singing them.

But what about congregations without schools and choirs? A veteran Lutheran church musician, Paul Westermeyer, captures the situation well.

Some congregations do practice the hymns, and some congregations and their musicians handle such practice very well. My experience and observations, however, suggest that practice is rare and not realistic. In some places where it is attempted, people come late to avoid the practice. The assembly of the baptized does not sign up to practice. They sign up to sing, but not to practice. This is a participatory group which has as one of its principal vocations to sing—without practice, or at least in most situations without practice, but to sing nonetheless.¹

So if we want more congregations to sing more Lutheran chorales, the words must be understandable and the tunes must be singable with very little practice.

The people who worked on the new Christian Worship suite want people to sing more Lutheran chorales. Each of the texts preaches an extraordinary sermon with clear law and gospel. Each of the tunes connects us to a long history of Christian worshipers who care about Scripture in its truth and purity.

Here are some fresh Lutheran chorales for you to consider singing in your congregation.

CW21 Hymn 685 – Through Simple Water, Drawn and Poured
WELS President Mark Schroeder leads the way with a new translation of Nicolaus Selnecker’s hymn about baptism, set to the tune WO GOTT ZUM HAUS, which is familiar because it was used five times in The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) and twice in Christian Worship (CW93).

CW21 Hymn 841 – Entrust Your Fear and Doubting
The long-time WELS director of worship, Rev. Bryan Gerlach, brings us a fresh translation of Paul Gerhardt’s hymn that is sometimes called “the most comforting of all Lutheran chorales.” Although the original tune BEFIEHL DU DEINE WEGE is simple, it is also unfamiliar, so WELS composer Jeremy Bakken has written a setting that matches the American ear. Perhaps it will get more use than TLH 520 (Commit Whatever Grieves Thee to the tune HERZLICH TUT MICH) did.

CW21 Hymn 806 – Your Days and Ways to God Surrender
WELS poet and composer Laurie Gauger puts additional stanzas of Georg Neumark’s “I Leave All Things to God’s Direction” (CW21 Hymn 799) into exalted and striking English, using the same tune (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT) for familiarity and singability.

CW21 Hymn 440 – Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands
Former Martin Luther College professor, Kermit Moldenhauer, wrote a popular new tune (NORTHRIDGE) for this Martin Luther Easter hymn that was printed in Christian Worship: Supplement. The familiar original tune, CHRIST LAG IN TODESBANDEN, is retained with the same text as Hymn 439.

CW21 Hymn 650 – From Depths of Woe, Lord God, I Cry
The director of the CW21 hymnal project, Rev. Michael Schultz, keeps the classic tune AUS TIEFER NOT by Martin Luther but retranslates his paraphrase of Psalm 130 into fresh prose. An alternate tune and translation of the same text from LCMS composer Rev. Jaroslav Vajda is printed as Hymn 651 on the facing page. For those who prefer the King James English from TLH, CW: Psalter 130F is almost word-for-word, “From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee.”

CW21 Hymn 334 – I Stand beside Your Manger Here
Michael Schultz also presents this gorgeous Christmas hymn by Paul Gerhardt set not to the original tune, which is admittedly difficult to sing without practice, but instead to a familiar tune that has been used by many other composers for this text, ES IST GEWISSLICH (used three times in both TLH and CW93).

Other fresh Lutheran chorale translations by Michael Schultz in CW21 include:

321:2,3 – God’s Own Son Most Holy
351 – He Whose Praise the Shepherds Sounded
369:4,7 – Now Let Us Come before Him
419:1 – Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle
501:4 – Evening and Morning
611 – Joyously I’ll Praise My Savior
658 – With All My Heart I Praise You, Lord
670:3,5-7 – I Come, O Savior, to Your Table
701 – Order My Life, Lord, as You Will
801 – Dear Jesus, on Your Pilgrim Way
882:1 – What Joy to Join the Chorus
912 – Open, Lovely Doors

Give more of them a try as you do your worship planning. You won’t regret it.

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.

¹ Westermeyer, Paul. Reflections: Collected Essays (MorningStar Music Publishers, 2024), 65.