Last Sunday, I picked “And Can It Be That I Should Gain” as one of our hymns for the 8am service. As we were singing, I came to realize that the majority of our 8am congregation was unfamiliar with this beautiful hymn. “And Can It Be” is part of our Methodist heritage (as are all the hymns of Wesley). Not only that…it has a melody that is a lot of fun to sing! I found myself thinking, “Wow! These faithful members of a United Methodist church are missing out.”
So, I decided that I’m going to take our 8am service on a journey through some of the hymns of Charles Wesley. There are some that will be familiar (“Christ the Lord is Risen Today”; “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing”) and some will be totally unknown. Each week, one of our hymns will come from Charles Wesley. I might even give a little “story behind the song”. The big idea is to walk us through some of the traditional hymns of the Wesleyan movement.
Anyone out there have a favorite Charles Wesley hymn?