Common Hymnal has been working these past few years to create something special. As today’s generation engages less and less in the ‘overground’ church, we have been investing in the spiritual underground, building out a virtual library to facilitate a vibrant and ongoing exchange of songs, stories and ideas between the various communities in this space. We have treasure-hunted the uttermost extremities of the faith to stock this library with quality content, steering clear of cliches and spiritual fads in an effort to contribute meaningfully to a culture that values thoughtfulness and honesty. A growing realization: you get a much better view of the the future when you spend time at the margins. A growing hope: the transformation that happens when God’s people grab a hold of the future and drag it into the present. In the underground, praise and protest are inextricably intertwined. Spirituality is not escapist or dualist: it is real, integrated, and has a social conscience. Spiritual colonization is taboo. Likewise with this hymnal. We would like to see the seamless worship set replaced by a more democratized ritual that includes more art forms, a broader range of subject matter and a gutsy honesty. A kind way of saying: 'No more cliches! No more karaoke!' We are purposefully not pursuing a footprint in the current CCM/worship sub-culture, but are working, slowly and carefully, to coalesce a new demographic, serious Christ followers who find themselves on the outskirts as a result of not fully connecting with mainstream Christian culture. Therefore, we have been building out a Discord community (as part of our Patreon) to kill several birds with one stone: coalesce the uncoalesced into a new ecosystem; provide opportunity for underground creatives to meet, learn and collaborate; give underground activists backstage access to our content creation and internal communications; and realize some financial support.
