Lent Worship Planning With 'Lift Up Your Hearts'

March 6, 2019, is the first day of Lent. You may be well into your Lent worship planning, or maybe not. As you look forward to Lent, Lift Up Your Hearts (LUYH), both the print hymnal and the website, can be your best friend. You’ll find Lenten and Holy Week songs, prayers, and readings found between #130-178. This section begins with Jesus’ transfiguration and lenten journey and moves through Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday.

There are multiple genres and styles of hymns and songs in this section, including old and new hymns, African American spirituals, global songs, contemporary songs, Taize choruses, scripture and short refrains.

In addition to the songs, prayers, services and readings in the hymnal, we find another ‘layer’ of worship planning offerings on the Lift Up Your Hearts website below. To find additional worship planning tools for each hymn or song, simply click on the Songs tab, and then either click on the “Transfiguration and Lenten Journey” in the grey column on the left side of the page or search for the title of any hymn. Here is the section for the lenten journey. Click on a song title and you’ll open up a wealth of additional worship planning materials posted by hymnary.org.

For example, I’ll use the song, We Are People on a Journey, by Gregg DeMey. Check it out! On the first page alone there is hymn information, copyright info, scripture references, reflections on scripture, confessions (Heidelberg catechism) and faith statement (Belgic confession) references. But there’s much more! Click on the Worship Elements tab and you will find Calls to Worship, Confessions, Blessings, Benedictions, and Additional Prayers.

Click on the Music Resources tab to listen to the song. There are recordings for most (but not all) songs in the hymnal, and they are usually 30 second clips of actual congregational singing. There are also musical suggestions on that page.

The Background tab contains hymn stories and interesting information on the author or composer. And finally the Score tab often (not always) contains a score of the hymn. If the hymn/song is in the public domain, the score is available free of charge. If the hymn/song is copyrighted, it may be available for purchase as a Flexscore download. For this hymn we are looking at, We Are People on a Journey, the Flexscore is available. Notice also the pull down tab called “Instrument/Format.” By clicking in that box, you’ll see the many instrumentations and formats available for this hymn.

If you need help locating something, email us at [email protected] or leave a comment below. We’re happy to help.