Favorite Hymns

This past weekend in worship, we concluded our series on the Psalms with a Hymn Sing. The original hymns were Psalms, after all.

Below are a series of videos featuring members of SOTV speaking about their favorite hymns, all of which were featured in worship as part of Pastor Duane's sermon. You can also listen to Pastor Duane's sermon.
The hymns we sang in worship last weekend were chosen by you! There were 385 total votes, and here were the top vote-getters (# of votes):

1. Beautiful Savior (42)
2. Amazing grace (37)
3. How Great Thou Art (35)
4. Borning Cry (18)
5. On Eagles Wings (17)
6. A Mighty Fortress (13)
7. Lift High the Cross (12)
8. Children of the Heavenly father (11)
9. Holy, Holy, Holy (11)
10. Here I Am, Lord (10)
11. What a Friend We Have in Jesus (9)
12. Praise to the Lord the Almighty (7)
13. Just As I Am (7)
14. This is My Father’s World (6)
15. Battle Hymn of the Republic (5)
16. Earth & All Stars (4)
17. Shine Jesus Shine (4)
18. I Know That My Redeemer Lives (4)
19. I Love to Tell the Story (4)
20. Love Divine (4)
21. Abide With Me (3)
22. Day by Day (3)
23. You Are Mine (3)
24. We Are Called (3)
25. We Are Marching in the Light (3)
26. Jesus Christ is Risen Today (3)
27. For All the Saints (3)
28. This Little Light of Mine (3)
29. Jesus Loves Me (3)
30. When Peace Like a River (3)
31. Canticle of the Turning (3)
32. Silent Night (3)

15 songs had 2 votes. 62 songs had one vote. The top three songs had over 25% of the vote. The top ten songs had over half the votes. Thank you to all those featured in our hymn videos, to everyone who voted for their favorite hymns, and special thanks to Arlen Wilson for suggesting the idea for the Hymn Sing.

Psalms in Real Life

This week we're taking a break from hot breakfasts and transformations in and around the building to focus on worship itself. After all, worship is the center of our ministry and vision to Experience Jesus.

Thank you to Pastor Diane Sponheim for writing this week's blog, and for her work in putting together the summer Psalm worship series!

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I challenged myself and all of you to try praying the Psalms with me this summer as we go through the 6-week series “Drinking Deeply From the Psalms” I hope you're trying it – it's never too late to start! The Psalms will teach us to pray, and they will stretch us and work on us.

Here's what a couple of families had to say about their experience of praying the Psalms.

“Our family decided to take the challenge! After dinner, we look up a Psalm, and read it one verse at a time, passing the Bible around the table, so everyone gets a turn. As we read, we stop and ask what they mean – what is God teaching us? When we read Psalm 3, first we had to look up why the heading of the Psalm told us that David (the writer of the Psalm) was running away from his son Absalom, so we learned something! Then, we thought about people who need deliverance, and each person named someone to pray for God to deliver them from their situation. The boys came up with “The Okies” (recovering from the tornado) and hungry people. It was cool to see our kids connecting the words of the Psalm with situations that are happening today.”

“My wife and I are both going through very difficult times at our jobs. We decided to pray not just one Psalm a day, but a few. It's helped us both get through some really hard days. We feel like the Psalms articulate some of the really “unacceptable” emotions we feel (anger and the desire for revenge) while also giving us hope. We've noticed that God has answered our prayers and helped these situations resolve quickly. Thank you for encouraging us to pray the Psalms!” 

I encourage you to read and pray the Psalms with us. I'd love to hear how God is working on you through them!

If you didn't pick them up in church, you can download the instructions for my Praying the Psalms challenge right now.

- Pastor Diane Sponheim