Hymn Sections For A New Anabaptist Hymnal?

Our most recent official hymnal has
served us well since 1992,

The first Anabaptist hymnal, the Ausbund, was created by and for the revolutionary sixteenth century church movement dedicated to 1) being simple, self-governed communities of faith, teaching and practicing Jesus' way of radical discipleship, 2) pledging allegiance to Jesus' worldwide kingdom rather than to any nation state, 3) denouncing violence in all its forms, taking up Jesus' cross rather than taking up arms, and 4) sacrificially serving and loving neighbors in need both near and far.

I've been reflecting a lot on how this early Mennonite theology may have forever changed when we gave up the use of our Ausbund-themed songs in favor of borrowing popular hymns from Pietist and other Christian traditions.

Maybe a new hymnal could help correct that, one that might include some of the following new sections:

Hymns Celebrating Jesus's Teachings
Our current Hymnal, A Worship Book, is undoubtedly the best post-Ausbund hymnal the Mennonite church has ever published. Nevertheless it has only one hymn based on the words of the Beatitudes, in the form of a chant seldom sung in our congregations. And very few others quote directly from the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, an exception being "Seek ye first the kingdom of God".

Here are a few other wished for hymn titles that might be included in a 'Jesus's teachings' category:

"Blessed Are You Poor"
"We Are God's City of Light"
"Pray For Those Who Persecute"
"First Go and be Reconciled"
"Lay up Treasures That Will Last"
"Whoever Hears These Words of Mine"

Hymns of our Anabaptist Ancestors
Gerald Mast, professor at Bluffton College, recently translated a hymn from the very first edition of the Ausbund, a hymnal that is steeped in the faith of our martyr ancestors. It is to be sung to the tune of "A Mighty Fortress is Our God". Ironically, our HWB has two versions of Luther's famous hymn, but none similar to it written from an Anabaptist perspective.

We need many more good translations of some of the better Ausbund selections, such as "Who now would follow Christ" in HWB by David Augsburger, and "Our Father God, thy name we praise, "translated by Earnest Payne.

Hymns on Creation Care
Surely one of the major crises of our time, prayer hymns expressing concern for the future of the planet deserve a section of their own in any new hymnal.

Hymns of Prayer for Christian Unity
Given our terrible tendency to divide over all kinds of disputable matters, we need to regularly use hymns that remind us of the importance Christ gives to our being one, as in his extended prayer in John 17.

Hymns of Christian Calling
Many of the numbers in the current 'Calling' section in our hymnal have to do with God's invitation to individual sinners to be saved and prepared for heaven (a good thing!) rather than also calling us to  Jesus's mission of "proclaiming good news to the poor,  bringing release to captives, and announcing the year of God's Jubilee."

Having said all that, there are many great resources on these and other topics scattered throughout our current hymnal, as well as in the supplements that have been published since, like Sing the Story and Sing the Journey. But my impression is that the more uniquely Anabaptist-themed selections are still used less frequently in most congregations than the more familiar generic Protestant hymns and gospel songs we're far more used to singing.

So let's rediscover and sing the Anabaptist ones more frequently, and keep writing some new ones for future hymnals. What we sing becomes what we most deeply believe.

Here's a link to another post on this theme: https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2018/08/from-anabaptist-ausbund-to.html