Have to agree with the above, especailly both sides of anything that contradictcs. :)

Nobody should be without RUS, if only because there is something in there everyone else loves, you don't know, and it needs some harmony. Granted you won't sound great reading the lyrics, but if you know what is coming, hear the first verse most of us can do something.

On the other hand, the more I get out of the music the better I like it. I was at a church sing the other night, and I had my hymnal open only becaues the person next to me didn't have her's. As long as it was open I looked back once in a while (often in surprize cause I mixed up the words) Its been spoken on a little bit that, the hymns are not just words you sing, they are lines, pleadings, advice, prayers. . . You should not sing them, you should know them, know what the words MEAN. Then sing with feeling. Some songs are better for different times, but until you know a song well enough that you can turn a very inspirational song into a funeral durge you don't know the full extent of the meaning.

So use RUS as and where you need it, it won't bite. Learn the song though, memorise the ones you like the best, the rest know enough that you don't have to stare at the words.

Don't be afraid to mix songs up. Generaly my church will sing most songs straight through, except the last one where we sing only one or two verses. (because service always seems to run long) When you ask someone to choose which verse they have to think about the song, each verse is different, and doing a different verse will change the feel. Perhaps it should be a habit to find some song and not sing all verses. (The froze logger can't really be shortened like that, but just about everything else can lose a verse, and some songs really should, Bridge Over Troubled water should never be sung with the last verse.)