Sinclair B. Ferguson

And part of my reason for asking the question is because I've come to suspect that many Christians today don't actually possess a hymn book.

That's a huge contrast with the church culture of fifty years or so ago.

When I became a Christian, many Bibles were actually published with a built-in hymn book at the back.

You not only took your own Bible to church, but your own hymn book too.

Now, I realize there's something very convenient about the church supplying everything you need for the worship service, but I actually think it's been at a cost.

For example, it's no longer clear to your neighbors when you leave for church that that's where you're going with the book in your hand.

But there's something else.

Part of the loss in some churches is that you end up at the mercy of seeing the words you're singing only on a screen.

And I think you can become a victim of the law of unintended consequences.

If your church uses a screen, let me urge you today to buy a hymn book.

You owe it to your Christian growth to own one.

Now, why do I make that radical and rather counter-cultural old-fashioned suggestion?

Because I'm an old man?

Well, it's simple really.

Because in all likelihood, if you don't have a hymn book, you don't know the vast majority of the great hymns of the Christian church.

And you don't know the hymns that never go up on the screen.

In fact, you don't know if you're being fully nurtured by what you're singing, or starved by whoever chooses what goes on the screen.

But there's another reason for having a good hymn book.

It's this.

If your church uses a screen, you probably only see one verse of a hymn at a time, never the whole hymn.