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Goetz, the children\u2019s minister at First Presbyterian Church in Aurora and spiritual director of Word & Wonder, believes strongly in the importance of multigenerational worship.<\/p>\n
According to Goetz, \u201ca better indicator of whether a high school student will remain a Christian after they graduate is whether they worshiped with their church community, not whether they attend youth group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goetz, who is working toward a master\u2019s degree in educational ministries through Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, spends a lot of time thinking about how childhood experiences in the church shape lifelong faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf our church worship services are not welcoming to children, they need to change. What we see in Scripture is this call for the people of God to worship together.\u201d<\/p>\n
For both Wallbaum and Goetz, hymns have been powerful agents of spiritual formation. Wallbaum\u2019s love of hymnody developed while she was a college student at Wheaton. Some of her professors would begin class by having students sing a hymn together. She was introduced to her favorite hymn \u201cBe Still, My Soul\u201d by her computer science professor, who had the class sing it at the beginning of a course meeting. When she got married, Wallbaum walked down the aisle to the hymn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt speaks to my soul, and it has walked me through so many phases of my life,\u201d Wallbaum said.<\/p>\n
In The Gospel Story Hymnal<\/em>, \u201cBe Still, My Soul\u201d appears with an illustration of Jesus calming a storm.<\/p>\nGoetz has seen the enduring power of hymns in her life and in the lives of family members who walked with God for a lifetime.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone has dementia, you watch them decline for years,\u201d Goetz said, sharing the story of her grandfather\u2019s death and the role singing hymns had in his final days.<\/p>\n
Goetz remembers singing around her grandfather\u2019s bed as he was receiving hospice care. She remembers the late afternoon light and the sound of her family singing hymns together, including \u201cAnd Can It Be.\u201d She remembers the sound of her father\u2019s strong, deep voice and her aunt\u2019s clear, confident harmonies.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandma\u2019s voice was cracking with tears. We couldn\u2019t hear my grandpa, but his mouth was moving with the words we were singing.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Goetz, the memory of her grandfather recalling the words of hymns of the faith in his last hours powerfully illustrates the unique resonance and endurance of hymnody.<\/p>\n
Now that The Gospel Story Hymnal <\/em>is fully funded for a run of 3,000 copies, Wallbaum and Goetz expect books to be printed and shipped by September 2023. Wallbaum is finishing the final illustrations and is working on finalizing copyright licensing for all 150 hymns\u2014no small feat. While many are in the public domain, 64 of them are still under copyright, and many of those have more than one copyright holder.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s close to 100 copyright agreements I\u2019ve ended up getting,\u201d said Wallbaum. \u201cFor some I’ve actually had to get in touch with all the different songwriters, make a copyright license, and meet with them to sign. It’s been \u2026 It’s been a process.\u201d<\/p>\n
The creation of The Gospel Story Hymnal <\/em>has been a rewarding and demanding undertaking for the authors. Goetz said that the prospect of giving this resource to churches looking to be more welcoming to children makes all the labor worthwhile.<\/p>\n\u201cWhat I have seen at my church, in a congregation where children are welcomed and included\u2014and of course we are still growing in this\u2014I see children who can conceive of themselves as meaningful and important parts of the church,\u201d said Goetz.<\/p>\n
Goetz and Wallbaum, both mothers of young children, hope that The Gospel Story Hymnal<\/em> will become a physical indicator in pews and seatbacks that children are welcome in the sanctuary.<\/p>\n\u201cExperiencing belonging is one of the most important parts of how early faith develops. What’s kept me going is the idea of seeing these [hymnals] in the pews and knowing that a child will open a book that’s in the pew and say, \u2018Oh, this is for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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