Our Story

Written by Stephen Zhu, Founder

The Hymn Singing Club started out my sophomore year at Hillsdale College as a small group of students gathering informally to sing hymns. When some of my friends mentioned that they missed singing hymns because their churches back home rarely sang them anymore, we decided to start singing hymns together every week in my dorm. Growing up in a church that used only a hymnal for worship, I had always loved hymns, so I was eager for the chance to sing hymns with other people. However, I was not actually a Christian, though I thought I was. My love for hymns was entirely musical: I knew many by heart, but the words were empty to me. I never thought about the meaning of the songs I was singing.

That changed when, by God’s grace, I came to a truly saving faith several weeks after we started meeting to sing. When I was born again, God opened my eyes to see hymns completely differently. The Bible suddenly became alive to me, and for the first time I wanted to sing hymns not because I loved the music but because I loved God and the truths of His Word, which these hymns so wonderfully portrayed. Lyrics that I had mindlessly sung countless times now exploded with meaning as I now saw the rich Scriptural truths they contained. I began to see what hymns actually are: not merely beautiful music and poetry, but songs of praise to God saturated in biblical truth, joyfully overflowing from hearts made alive in Christ.

As God continued to grow me, I wanted to share what I was learning from hymns with the friends in our hymn singing group. Under the encouragement of Chief Rogers, the Associate Dean of Men, we turned our informal group into an official club. In our club meetings, we began studying hymns together to learn more about what we were actually singing and to better understand what the words of the hymns taught us about God and His Word.

We also came to see hymns as a vehicle for sharing the gospel with others. We began performing at the local food pantry, pairing our singing with Scripture readings that connected with each hymn’s themes. This became a way for us to use our musical gifts to serve other people, not just by bringing them the beauty of music, but more importantly by clearly proclaiming the gospel and talking with people about the meaning of the songs we were singing. Over time, we also began singing at a nursing home and the local hospital, where we have built ongoing relationships with the people there.

God has continued to teach us how to sing hymns to encourage one another and glorify Him. Today, in addition to our regular hymn studies, our club hosts theology events focused on what Scripture teaches about why we sing, training sessions that teach others how to study hymns, how to lead discussions, and how to clearly present the gospel. What began as a personal preference for a certain kind of music has become, by God’s grace, a ministry centered on building one another up in the knowledge of God and His Word through the rich treasury of hymns.