Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

Why and How Our Church Plans to Use the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns

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Christ the King Church (the church we are in the process of planting in Stillwater, Minnesota) is planning to sing selections mostly from the hymnal Treasury of Psalms and Hymns. Here’s why and how.

Why Our Church Plans to Use the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns

A good hymnal collects high-quality songs that span centuries and continents and cultures. It is a rich devotional resource for churches and families and individuals, and it fosters beautiful harmonious singing that stirs our hearts. Hymnals also make it easier to trace the argument of a hymn from line to line and stanza to stanza (which is harder to do with slides).

We plan to use the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns for at least eight reasons:

  1. It helps us obey Ephesians 5:18b–19: “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (cf. Col 3:16). The three terms translated “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” appear in psalm titles in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, so God clearly wants Christians to sing the psalms. Our church plans to sing all 150 psalms. Selections 1–481 in the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns are various settings for the 150 psalms—usually at least three selections for each psalm. Selections 482–1135 are other hymns, including most classic hymns that Reformed churches sing.
  2. It has more songs than most hymnals (1,135!).
  3. It includes songs that Christians have been singing for hundreds of years as well as ones that are more recent.
  4. It sets the music to a very singable pitch, especially for men.
  5. It is more affordable than most hymnals.
  6. It includes excellent indexes and online resources, including free recordings available for each song.
  7. It arranges hymns 482–854 under the five headings that our church plans to follow as the gospel-shaped structure for our worship service: (1) Call to Worship, (2) Confession, (3) Consecration, (4) Communion, and (5) Commission (cf. Jeffrey Meyers, The Lord’s Service). That does not mean that we may sing those selections only if we are in that particular part of the worship service, but that organization is helpful for us.
  8. It includes guitar chords. This makes it easier to sing from the hymnal while playing the guitar at home or in other settings.

How Our Church Plans to Use the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns

We plan to use the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns for most of what we sing together, and if you meet with us, we encourage you to prepare for the upcoming Sunday worship service by listening to and practicing what we plan to sing together:

  1. We encourage you to practice singing the selections that we plan to sing together during the upcoming worship service. When our church begins in early 2025, God willing, we aim to upload a draft online of the Worship Service Guide for the upcoming Sunday worship service by 5:00pm each Monday so that families may start practicing those psalms and hymns together on Monday evenings.
  2. We encourage you to own copies of the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns so that you can use it to sing at home. Once you own a copy of the hymnal, you may have access to an online folder that includes a PDF of the hymnal as well as free recordings for each selection. (You may request access using the contact form here.)
  3. We encourage you to listen to selections from the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns on Youtube. If you listen to the selections once or twice a day the week prior to singing them together with the church, your joy while singing them may increase.
  4. We encourage you to see and listen to our upcoming selections in the Sing Your Part app. It works as a web app on a computer and as an iOS app on an iPhone and iPad, and it recently became available on the Google Play Store for Android. If you select “Christ the King Church (Stillwater, MN)” in the app, then you can see and hear what we plan to sing in our upcoming worship service. In the app you can adjust a song’s tempo, and you can adjust the volume of each of the four parts (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) so that you can hear your part better. When our church begins in early 2025, God willing, we plan to purchase a family subscription for members. A subscription gives you access to all of the resources in the app—not just the songs that we plan to sing in the upcoming worship service. Between now and then, the good folks who operate the Sing Your Part app are giving us complimentary access to the app.

Note to leaders of other churches: If you would like to consider setting your church up with the Sing Your Part app, you may schedule a 30-minute call with Isaiah Holt, CEO of Crescendo Software.

Politics, Conscience, and the Church: The Why, What, and How of Political Disagreement (And a Test Case)

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New article:

Naselli, Andrew David. “Politics, Conscience, and the Church: The Why, What, and How of Political Disagreement.” Christ Over All, 9 September 2024.

It updates an article I coauthored with Jonathan Leeman four years ago by tweaking it throughout and by adding a new section at the end: “Test Case: May Christians in America Vote for a Pro-choice Candidate?”

Updates:

  1. Kevin McClure reads the article aloud for the Christ Over All podcast—with an introduction by David Schrock (52 minutes).
  2. On 9/23/2024, Christ Over All released a 61-minute podcast episode in which I discuss this article with David Schrock and Steve Wellum.

Three Reflections on Being a Pastor and a Professor

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My school just published this short article:

Naselli, Andrew David. “Three Reflections on Being a Pastor and a Professor.” Bethlehem College and Seminary, 16 August 2024.

I expand on these three reflections:

  1. It is helpful to lay out a spectrum of six options for being a pastor or professor.
  2. It is good for seminary professors to be pastors as they train pastors.
  3. Pastor-professors labor to build up Christ’s church.

Related:

Announcing a New Church Plant

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Big news for the Naselli family: We’re planning to plant Christ the King Church with some dear friends.

More info at www.ChristTheKing.build.

(I plan to continue teaching full-time at Bethlehem College and Seminary. And our family hopes to move closer to the Stillwater area in due course.)

Would you please pray for us?

Update in mid-October 2024: Our family has moved to the Stillwater area. Please pray for us as we settle and labor. We plan to covenant together as a church on January 5, 2025.

Related:

  1. Three Reflections on Being a Pastor and a Professor
  2. Why and How Our Church Plans to Use the Treasury of Psalms and Hymns

Four Views on Hierarchy and Complementarity

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This new article is insightful:

Laughlin, Bryan, and Doug Ponder. “Complementarians and the Rise of Second-Wave Evangelical Feminism.” Sola Ecclesia, 26 February 2024.

Here is one of my takeaways from the article (the below table is my own synthesis but in line with the article by Laughlin and Ponder):

Four Views on Hierarchy and Complementarity

Hierarchy

 Complementarity

1. Biblical patriarchy / broad, thick, or natural complementarianism

 ✅ ✅

2. Narrow, thin, or ideological complementarianism

 ✅*

❌**
3. Egalitarianism / evangelical feminism (initially) ❌

✅**
4. Egalitarianism / evangelical feminism (increasingly now) ❌

❌

*barely (see below)

**in a sense (see below)

Some explanations: [Read more…] about Four Views on Hierarchy and Complementarity

My Publications in 2023

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Here are my publications that released in 2023—plus some books I endorsed. (I prepared this list so that I can conveniently link to one post.) As I explain in the article “Three Reflections on Evangelical Academic Publishing,” I aim to be academically responsible more than academically respectable. The ultimate reason I research, write, teach, and shepherd is to glorify God by serving Christ’s church.

Books

Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament

Predestination: An Introduction

  1. Tracing the Argument of 1 Corinthians: A Phrase Diagram. Bellingham, WA: Logos, 2023.
  2. Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Edited by G. K. Beale, D. A. Carson, Benjamin L. Gladd, and Andrew David Naselli. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023.
  3. Predestination: An Introduction. Short Studies in Systematic Theology. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, January 2024. (The official publication date is January 2024, but it is available early because Crossway was able to print it ahead of schedule.)

Articles

[Read more…] about My Publications in 2023

Twelve Reflections on Twelve Interviews on Christian Nationalism

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David Schrock—along with either Trent Hunter, Brad Green, or Steve Wellum—recently conducted twelve interviews about Christian nationalism for Christ Over All. I copied the transcripts of those twelve interviews into a Word document, and that document is 200 pages single-spaced. That’s a lot to sort through. After listening to the twelve interviews and reading the transcripts, I offer the following twelve reflections or observations in this article:

Naselli, Andrew David. “Twelve Reflections on Twelve Interviews on Christian Nationalism.” Christ Over All, 27 November 2023.

Here are the twelve headings:

  • Reflection 1. The interviewees are basically within views 4 and 5 in my taxonomy of political theology.
  • Reflection 2. The interviewees disagree on whether it would be good to have a Christian government.
  • Reflection 3. The interviewees agree that America had a Christian founding.
  • Reflection 4. The interviewees know what time it is.
  • Reflection 5. The interviewees agree that a Christian culture in a society is good.
  • Reflection 6. The interviewees basically agree on the strategy of what faithful Christians should do right now.
  • Reflection 7. The interviewees disagree on how to talk about the Ten Commandments with reference to political theology.
  • Reflection 8. The interviewees disagree on how to define “good” and “bad” in Romans 13:3.
  • Reflection 9. The interviewees disagree on whether the label “Christian nationalism” is helpful.
  • Reflection 10. The interviewees who fit within view 5 do not put most of the load-bearing weight for their view on postmillennialism or theonomy.
  • Reflection 11. The interviewees disagree on whether some nations (other than Israel under the Mosaic covenant) may be in a covenant with God.
  • Reflection 12. The interviewees all interacted as Christian gentlemen and modeled how to discuss political theology.

You may listen to Kevin McClure read my article on the Christ Over All podcast here. (For block quotes, the podcast features audio clips from the original interviews.)

Update on 12/4/2023: Christ Over All released a 68-minute podcast episode in which I discuss this article with David Schrock and Steve Wellum.

Related: Andrew David Naselli, “What Is the Spectrum of Major Views on Political Theology? A Proposed Taxonomy of Seven Views on Religion and Government,” Christ Over All, 10 November 2023.