16 The old rugged hymnbook

Our congregation offers on Sunday morning eight services at three locations; five informal, two traditional and one blended. The hymns at two locations are projected on screens in front of the congregation. That leaves our arms free to be lifted in praise, discreetly of course as we are Lutherans descended in thought, word and deed, and often ethnically, from uptight Germans and Scandinavians. When the former governor of Minnesota was here he said it is hard for Lutherans to get their hands above their wallets.

When we attended two services with visitors in August 2002, one traditional (the solo transported us to heaven for a preview) and one informal (sway and swing, clap and tap), our guest noticed something I've never paid attention to. All the hymns for the traditional service were "public domain" and all for the informal were CCLI (Church Copyright License International). I'm certainly no expert, but there is a web site that explains it:

If on the screen you see the final verse followed by CCLI #nnnnnn, then your church is being legal and the musicians are getting their fair share. If not, you could be violating copyright law and sinning while you're singing. For a fee, a church receives a license to use a certain group of popular hymns. Every 2 years or so they vote on what to include based on usage by the paying participants. The sliding scale fee is based on attendance. If we drop the count for our two traditional services, our fee would be reduced, I think, because we're not using our CCLI license number privileges.

Isn't that good stewardship? Boring for the traditional folks, but maybe we deserve it for not being "with it." Of course, we could always use the pew hymnal if we really want innovation and good singing. I for one miss the opportunity to read music and sing harmony.