This is the ninth in a series of Friday posts on congregational song.

Wherever you are in your current use of hymns, look beyond. Hymns can do more in our spiritual lives than we are allowing them to do. Expand your expectations. Consider new possibilities.

Are you primarily using short, repetitive hymns? Hymns can effectively express more complex ideas. Give them a chance to do so. Gradually expand to include hymns with more substantial texts.

Are you using lots of “heavy” hymns, with many words? Don’t forget to occasionally mix in shorter hymns. When the context is right, give yourself and your people the chance to reflect on fewer words and fewer thoughts. You’ll find such hymns in a wide variety of styles to suit your situation.

Look at the themes of the hymns you use in worship. Do most of them tell God how great He is? That is so important. All true worship is God-focused, and looking to Him should always be central. But remember, worship encompasses every response to God in faith. Prayer, holy living, loving others, Christian responsibility, perseverance in trial, resisting temptation–all are worship. All are responses of faith, and all are vital to our ongoing relationship with God.

These responses involve many different moods–sometimes joyful praise, sometimes reflective worship, sometimes thoughtful challenge or deep consecration, sometimes brokenness, repentance, and humble prayer. We need all these in our worship, and hymns can help provide them.

God’s beautiful truth for us comes in many different emphases, styles, forms, and flavors. Sing His truth, and sing a full range of responses to His truth.  Remember God’s promise:

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11, NIV)

God’s Word is powerful and always accomplishes His purpose. Embrace the fullness of His Word in your life and ministry. Embrace that fullness in your hymns.