“Jesus, Send Your Church as Stewards”
This month we continue our Hymn of the Month series in which one or more hymns drawn from collections published by Leupold Editions will be posted on the opening page of the website for consideration by pastors and musicians who may wish to introduce the hymn to their congregations the following month. The Hymn of the Month will often be thematically appropriate for a particular season of the church year or it may be related to a more general theme about the church’s mission in contemporary society. Thus, pastors and/or musicians may wish to have the choir introduce the hymn on the first Sunday of the month or season and then invite the congregation to join with the choir in singing the hymn on each of the remaining Sundays. Additional hymns will occasionally be suggested for a particular Sunday in the church year or for annual commemorations, such as the liturgies of Holy Week; such hymns may only be appropriate on the designated day, or they might be used as a Hymn of the Month in anticipation of or in response to the particular day observed on the church calendar.
With all of the outdoor activities that come with summer, it would seem appropriate during the final month of summer for congregations to consider our calling as Christians to be stewards of creation. Thus, the Hymn of the Month for August 2023, provides a hymnic resource for doing so with the John A. Dalles (b. 1954) text, “Jesus, Send Your Church as Stewards”. The declamatory first stanza, repeated as the final stanza, includes the prayerful plea, “Grant your church new dedication; . . . . for creation may we care!, while the inner stanzas pose some hard questions deserving our attention, including, “For your creatures gone, or dwindling, Jesus, would we breathe a sigh?” Paired with a familiar tune such as BEACH SPRING or JEFFERSON, the text will be readily accessible to most every congregation during a month when many choirs are continuing their summer break.
John A. Dalles is a retired Presbyterian pastor who served most recently as Interim Senior Minister for Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. A graduate of Penn State University (BS), Lancaster Theological Seminary (MDiv), and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (MDiv), Dalles was previously pastor for churches in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Florida. As a hymnwriter, his texts have appeared in hymnals in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Two volumes of his collected hymns, We Turn to God (2010) and God Is the Singer’s Friend (2013) appear in the catalog of the Leupold Foundation.
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