Andy Naselli

Thoughts on 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 seven 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.

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:

Our Priest in the Pattern of Melchizedek: Eight Conclusions Hebrews 5–7 Draws about Jesus the Messiah from Genesis 14:18–20 and Psalm 110:4

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New article:

Naselli, Andrew David. “Our Priest in the Pattern of Melchizedek: Eight Conclusions Hebrews 5–7 Draws about Jesus the Messiah from Genesis 14:18–20 and Psalm 110:4.” Christ Over All, 5 July 2024.

Summary: Because Jesus the Messiah is our priest in the pattern of Melchizedek …

  1. he is the supreme priest (Heb. 4:14–5:10).
  2. he has entered the Most Holy Place on our behalf (Heb. 6:19–20).
  3. he is both king and priest (Heb. 7:1–2).
  4. his priesthood is eternal (Heb. 7:3).
  5. he is greater than both Abraham and Levitical priests (Heb. 7:4–10).
  6. he is better than Levitical priests, and he fulfills the Mosaic law (Heb. 7:11–17).
  7. he guarantees a covenant that is better than the Mosaic covenant (Heb. 7:18–22).
  8. he can save his people completely (Heb. 7:23–28).

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

How I Got Stronger with Strength Training (with Advice for Beginners)

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Today with God’s help I joined the 1,000-pound club—the total pounds for 1 bench press + 1 squat + 1 deadlift.

250 pounds (bench press)
+ 340 pounds (squat)
+ 440 pounds (deadlift)
______________________
= 1,030 pounds (total)

A lot of men can lift way more than that. (Arnold Schwarzenegger recently shared, “My best bench press was 525, my best deadlift was 710, and my best squat was 610.” That’s 1,845 total pounds.) Lifting 1,000 total pounds isn’t hard for super strong guys, but it’s a milestone for me. I’m 43 years old. I’m about 6 feet tall, and I just bulked up to about 200 pounds. And I didn’t start strength training until I was 37.

Here’s the story of how I got stronger (with advice for beginners along the way). [Read more…] about How I Got Stronger with Strength Training (with Advice for Beginners)