Out of need and out of custom
Out of need and out of custom. Ken Medema* (1943- ).
Medema has described the origins of this song in an interview in September 1988 (see below). One stanza of this song for the opening of worship was written in 1974 at Baltimore, Maryland. Medema had been talking to some young people about a youth service, and what they wanted to express in it (‘we want to say this is boring. We want to say that church is a drag’). They liked his song, and it was sung to a traditional tune on the Sunday morning. Medema later added two further stanzas, and wrote the tune, before publishing the song as part of The Gathering, A Musical Worship Service for Choir and Congregation (1977). It is found in the...
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Chicago style (see The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Ed.)
. "Out of need and out of custom."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, accessed July 11, 2025,
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/o/out-of-need-and-out-of-custom.