Singing and Songbooks

Most of you don’t know this but I bring my own personal song book to church every Sunday. It is a leather-bound “Praise for the Lord”.

As a song leader I like to write the date by every song I have led. That’s one of the ways I know if I am leading a given song too many times. When other song leaders lead and they lead a song that I have never led… I mark that song too. That way I have a record of all the songs that the congregation “knows”.

Sometimes a member tells me something about a particular song. For instance I led the song “Beautiful” on May 2, 2010 and David Smitherman told me that was his grandmother’s favorite song. I mark things like that down.

I’ve gone through my whole songbook and marked all the songs I think I know and also have marked the songs I think look interesting so I can learn them later.

I also mark all the songs that were led at member’s funerals. For instance, the songs…”Seek Ye First”, “Does Jesus Care”, “He Leadeth Me”, How Great Thou Art”, “Victory in Jesus”, “Amazing Grace”, “Alleluia”, and “Blest Be the Tie” were all sung at my Dad’s funeral. I can’t lead those songs without getting a little emotional.

Likewise if I want to make various members cry… I know which ones to lead. You see… it’s all right there marked in my songbook.

My songbook is an old friend and I take a lot of comfort in it. It is in a lot of ways my own personal record and I think that one day when I have passed my children or grandchildren would love to have it as a memorial to me.

I guess that’s why I’m not a big fan of paperless hymnal… I could never leave my old friend on a shelf and sing without him and also neglect one day to pass my old friend to a loved one.