About

The Big Picture

Institutionalized Christianity has been going through a massive shaking these past few years. Escapism has been put to the challenge by realism. Sacred vs Secular dualism by a more integrated approach to life. Status quo by social activism. Judgmentalism by compassion. Exclusion by inclusion. Patriarchy by gender equality. Hierarchy by egalitarianism. Racism by the flourishing of BIPOC leadership. Colonization by the rise of former colonies, both geographic and spiritual. The building and the leveraging of ‘spiritual brands’ for mass-influence by a call to return to the way of Jesus, the way of servanthood. On the opposite end of the spectrum we are witnessing the brash doubling down of White Christian Nationalism, its misrepresentation of the teachings of Jesus, its rabid pursuit of political power, and the dissonance and polarity that it is creating in our world. In all of this, an emerging generation of forward-thinking artists and thought leaders have been experiencing an increasing disconnect from the religious industrial complex, the ‘overground’, and been finding respite in what we call the ‘spiritual underground’. They have come to the conclusion that it is not going to be possible to rewrite the narrative using the existing operating system, and have been digging deep in search of a theological imagination that could prevent Empire from being replaced with yet another version of Empire. Notwithstanding, their voices are exceedingly important, with the potential to help us grab a hold of the future and drag it into the present.

Virtual Library

With all of this in mind, Common Hymnal was created as a virtual library to help people navigate these uncertain times and find safe passage into the future by loading them up with insightful content from the spiritual underground.

History teaches us that the future is innovated at the margins. Therefore, our efforts to treasure-hunt the periphery of the Christian world to find these displaced artists and thought leaders, and to stock this library with their songs, stories and ideas, exposing the broader community to the important conversations and philosophical shifts that are happening on the fringe. In providing an outlet for these influencers, Common Hymnal has been able to curate a catalog that is, for the most part, free of colonial residue - with content that centers life, justice and spirituality; that embraces both praise and protest; that treasures healing, restitution and reparation; and that has the potential to both comfort the disheartened and embolden the courageous.

As a word of clarification, we do not believe that attacking people on social media qualifies as protest. The most successful efforts at dismantling unjust systems have come about when prophetic leaders from the marginalized, the disenfranchised and the oppressed have spoken up and led the charge for change. A further reason for searching out their content for this hymnal.

Our contributors are rooted in their faith and alive in the work of justice, restoration and reparation. They are committed to thinking through the issues and making content that resists the harmful systems in which we live.

We started out with a blank slate. To get the ball rolling we invited a bunch of artists and thought leaders to a series of songwriting camps. This seemed like a good way to get a feel for what was happening out there and to start building connectivity between some of the players. We amassed a couple hundred songs before we were ready to record our first album. After spending a good amount of time evaluating the options, we settled on a final list. Such is the gloriously awkward work of curation: spreading the nets open wide, then sifting through everything to find the gems.

The ‘official’ storage place for this content is this site. But we also have a compendium of additional outlets: Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Live Events and our Patreon. In addition, we have a few Spotify Playlists: Worship, Justice, Black Lives Matter, Hip Hop and Everything On Our Label.

Spiritual Underground

To get a feel for the spiritual underground it is probably best to first visualize the spiritual overground, the highly visible, well-intentioned and well-established network of churches, ministries and institutions that are the face of Christianity to our world. In contrast, the spiritual underground is that less visible space, on the outskirts of Christendom, where unconventional and unlikely candidates do life and mission together in less-formal structures.

Historically, these misfits have been pioneers who have contended for authenticity, honesty and original thought. Although their efforts have seemed scrappy, they have been surprisingly consequential. Their forward-thinking has triggered new ideas and given birth to new initiatives. More often than not, reformation in the overground has been the result of provocation from the underground.

In recent history, the term ’underground’ has been used to describe the unregistered church in China. Believers there have had to choose between joining the state-sanctioned church, or building community outside this closely monitored system to avoid being forced into perpetual compromise. In crude terms, overground versus underground has to do with the way we negotiate with power.

For two thousand years, overground communities have formed around theological beliefs. In a surprise development in the modern age, theology has taken a bit of a back seat to personality and production.

Conversely, the underground is more sociological in construct with relationship being the primary draw. In recent years we have seen informal friendship groups morph into movements as friends have traded skills and teamed up around mutual interests. The net result has felt increasingly like the collaborative kingdom of priests that Moses spoke about back in the day.

Just as with athletics, where you can either ‘run track’ or ‘play team sports’, so it is with art and creativity. You can work alone or in cahoots with others. Because of the collaborative culture of the underground, our contributors are more likely to prefer working in team than alone. This has had a way of cultivating a vibrant sense of community in our ecosystem, not to mention the incurable ‘party spirit’.

As with everything in this life, there is very little that is straightforwardly ‘black and white.’ Nuance, contradiction and compromise abound. Therefore, it is worth noting that there are many who live and serve in the overground yet identify as underground. These are also welcome participants in this venture. That being said, there is a potential vulnerability in their engagement. With all the kindness in the world, we simply cannot afford to get drawn into their personal reality if their involvement in our work creates problems for them at home base. If we were to get bogged down with these complexities, we would quickly lose our way.

Construct And Culture

We were intentional when we built and branded this project as a ‘hymnal’, and have done our best to stick to the plot. Despite the current trend, we are not a church with a flagship worship collective. Therefore, we do not process our work through the lens of an ecclesiastical governing body. Neither do we dictate theology, prescribe policy, certify members, ordain leaders, or officiate weddings, etc. In full disclosure, we source our content from people whose life experience, art and interpretations of the bible do not always fit the confines of mainstream Christianity. The pool from which we draw includes everyone who is searching for or following after Jesus, with ‘whosoever will may come’ being the operative qualifier. It feels important to emphasize that we are driven by creativity and prophetic insight, and not bitterness toward the establishment. We are not rabble rousers, but neither are we a neatly packaged, business-as-usual Christian outfit.

Making the distinction of being a hymnal and not a collective may seem like semantics, but it is foundational to understanding what makes us tick. A lot of thought has gone into the building of this enterprise and it ordinarily requires time, proximity and curiosity to intuit our culture and modus operandi. We have done our best to spell things out in this About page, but there are things are just going to be better ‘felt than telt’.

Our first point of contact with an artist is usually a piece of content that comes across our path without full knowledge of the creator's theological or philosophical leanings. We find this stuff out along the way if a person pressses in to a more intentional relationship with us. Per se, our contributors are in different places in their faith journeys, their lifestyles, and in their righting of the wrongs in our world. This being said, the ideation of this project was birthed back in the eighties in the South African anti-apartheid struggle. As a result, anti-racism and anti-colonialism are cornerstones of the endeavor. Yet racism and colonialism are not the only horrors that our contributors address. Xenophobia, homophobia, sexual abuse, war, gun violence, institutional violence, vindictive capitalism, mass incarceration, capital punishment, mistreatment of the environment, are all on the list.

All this being said, our construct as an aggregator is quite blurry. We ask that your expectations of us be similar to those of other curators in your life, whether your preferred coffee bar that hosts a weekly open mic night, your local library that stages a monthly book reading, or a tastemaker who compiles your favorite playlist.

The margins, too, are blurry. They can also be messy. Well, if the truth be told, life is generally messy everywhere. We are not assuming to pastor our contributors, but we are committed to doing our best to engage in the way of Jesus, which includes both grace and truth. Embracing broken people but always with the hope for health and goodness. We will not always get it right, but we are learners, and we are ever hopeful for the resolving of relational clumsinesses when we are journeying with other learners.

Invariably, with these kinds of initiatives, certain styles, genres and emphases rise to the top of the totem pole. There is no way that we can avoid developing our own personality and sub-culture, shaped by our individual journeys, combined experiences and ‘taste’. You will easily be able to intuit the kind of art that we value by a cursory browsing of this site.

Ethnology

It will quickly become obvious to you that Common Hymnal is multiethnic. This, against a backdrop where racial diversity is trending in Christianity. This interest in multiculturalism, especially in worship music, is a fairly recent development, and it is mostly happening in churches led by white people. Truth be told, a disproportionate number of these entities have sketchy histories when it comes to racial justice, and are very often led by people who boldly and publicly support politicians with racist histories, racist rhetoric and racist policies. When unity and diversity are championed across racial lines without a simultaneous commitment to tackling systemic racial injustice, it creates an unbearable dissonance in the lives of the congregants and discredits Christianity in the face of a watching world. That is why people of color are speaking out more and more about the evils of white supremacy. You will probably never hear us throw around words like diversity, unity or racial reconciliation as we are not merely pursuing a multicultural aesthetic but a just society.

A consequence of some of these entities being inattentive to the historic injustices that people of color have faced is that they can tend to back black and brown people into a corner, having them appear to be compromising their convictions in order to gain access to resources, when they are simply trying to seize opportunity and fulfill their dreams. This awkward reality, in itself, is an all-too-frequent consequence of white privilege. We are committed to seeking out places and spaces where we can thrive without the need to bow the knee to ‘white access’.

Trajectory

We are not pursuing a platform of influence in the Christian bubble, nor are we seeking to recycle familiar practices with new packaging. Neither are we revolting against the ‘overground’. We are simply drawn to what we see happening outside the current structures, and are committed to chronicling some of the creative expression that we are discovering in these spaces. Some Jesus followers have made their way to the outskirts because of prophetic insight, some because of unfortunate experiences in the system that have caused them to search out a place of safety. With regard the latter, we are fully aware of the risks involved in working with people who are still in pain from church trauma. Nevertheless, the example of Jesus compels us to journey with them at the speed of their healing process.

When it comes to music, underground believers tend not to be caught up in the current trends, including the freeze-framing of communal worship as an intensely emotional song set where everyone and every song is spiritually valiant, where theatrical production is a given, and where the set list is derived from the priority songs that are currently being promoted by well branded worship movements. These underground believers’ commitment to thoughtfulness, honesty and originality will not allow them to function as a metaphorical Xerox machine for a karaoke franchise, especially when contemplating something as weighty as the worship of God. Hence this hymnal is more about documenting an evolving culture than promoting a genre - a culture that embodies a broad spectrum of ideas, values, convictions, disciplines, expressions, styles, anomalies, quirks and production sensibilities.

This venture is more of a long distance run than a sprint. Speaking truth to power is not typically a recipe for quick success. Prophetic work requires dedication, resolve and a long term view. We are not saying one thing with our mouths while secretly hoping to make it big in the praise and worship scene in disguise. We are serious about the work and we are in it for the long haul.