Hymnal Choices

J.Schmitz
Forum category
Church & Ministry
Our church is considering changing the hymnal it uses. We currently use Great Hymns of the Faith. We love this hymnal, but would at least like to consider some options. We are considering switching to Majesty Hymns. As far as we know, that hymnal best reflects the doctrine/tradition of our church.

But are there other hymnals that should be considered? Among the reasons for our decision to contemplate switching is that we use a lot of songs in our church that people know, but are too new for our current hymnal - e.g. Hamilton, Lynch, etc. Are there other hymnals that would incorporate musicians of a fundamentalist stripe that I may not know of? I appreciate any input on this!
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Discussion

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Greg Linscott
Mon, 03/07/11 10:07 pm

There is a new one from Majesty due out this month: http://www.majestymusic.com/c-154-rejoice-hymns.aspx

Hymns of Grace and Glory deserves consideration: http://www.bjupress.com/product/243477?path=5970 I prefer it for the Psalter it contains.

Hope Publishing has just released Worship and Rejoice- http://www.hopepublishing.com/html/main.isx?sub=31&workid=2196

There are others you could consider, but given the details you’ve shared, I imagine these options would be the ones you would give the most consideration to.

Greg Linscott
Marshall, MN

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rogercarlson
Tue, 03/08/11 11:59 am

Our Chuch has used Hymns of Grace and Glory for several years. We love it! I would suggest going to the Link that Greg gave for it.

Roger Carlson, Pastor Berean Baptist Church

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dcbii
Tue, 03/08/11 2:47 pm

[rogercarlson] Our Chuch has used Hymns of Grace and Glory for several years. We love it! I would suggest going to the Link that Greg gave for it.
I own a personal piano copy of this one, and I really like it. I wish we used this at our church. From what I’ve seen so far, Trinity Hymnal, Baptist Edition is also a good choice. I’ve been wanting a personal copy of this one as well, but I just haven’t gotten around to it.

Our church uses Majesty, but that one seems way too heavy on “gospel songs,” way too light on some of the “great hymns of the faith,” and includes quite a few Hamilton/Garlock/Majesty Music songs (not my taste in most cases, but I’m sure there are many who disagree). The biggest problem I see with this one is that there are a lot of wording changes in well-known hymns. This is not just for doctrinal issues, but in some cases just to be more modern English. If solid doctrine with modern English is desired, then I think a number of Sovereign Grace hymns would fill that niche nicely without butchering the original language in older hymns. This messes me up all the time if I’m not actually looking at the text, and even when I am, I have this perverse desire to loudly sing the original anyway, and sometimes I do…

Also, with Majesty, although I haven’t done a comparison with other hymnals, it seems to me that the various harmonies of the original settings have been changed in many cases to make them easier to sing or play. In any case, they don’t sound right to me. That’s probably just me being an old fuddy-duddy, but such changes seem to me to be more change for the sake of change than anything really useful. Even the timing changes in “A Mighty Fortress” bother me. They just strike me as completely unnecessary. I used to like the way Majesty was really easy to read and sing from compared with some of the older hymnals I have used, but after using it for going on 8 years now, I personally think the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. There are worse choices, but I think, also better ones.

Dave Barnhart

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rogercarlson
Thu, 03/10/11 1:27 pm

I would agree Dave

Roger Carlson, Pastor Berean Baptist Church

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Darren Mc
Mon, 04/11/11 10:00 am

[Greg Linscott] There is a new one from Majesty due out this month: http://www.majestymusic.com/c-154-rejoice-hymns.aspx
Our church just purchased this hymnal. It is markedly improved from the original Majesty, in my opinion. It has a few worship sequences with musical segues from one song to the next. Surprisingly enough, it also has some conservative CCM including several Townend/Getty songs.

No wisdom, no understanding, and no counsel will prevail against the LORD. Proverbs 21:30

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dcbii
Wed, 04/20/11 3:22 pm

[Darren Mc]
[Greg Linscott] There is a new one from Majesty due out this month: http://www.majestymusic.com/c-154-rejoice-hymns.aspx
Our church just purchased this hymnal. It is markedly improved from the original Majesty, in my opinion. It has a few worship sequences with musical segues from one song to the next. Surprisingly enough, it also has some conservative CCM including several Townend/Getty songs.
I just got a copy of this one (the accompanist version for my daughter, who is our main church pianist). I like some of the changes already (at least some of the inclusions). I wish I could find a list of which songs were added and which removed, etc. I know I could do the comparison myself, but that would take a while. From what I’ve seen so far, it does look like a big improvement.

My daughter doesn’t like some of the key change choices they made on some of the familiar songs (even though she can play them fine), but she does think some of the additions with key changes for extra versions, and combinations of songs would make for some nice specials. We’re not in the position of being able to replace our hymnal at this time, and I don’t know how many would want to do so anyway.

Thanks for the tip, Greg!

Dave Barnhart

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J.Schmitz
Wed, 04/20/11 9:19 pm

I sincerely appreciate all the suggestions - I honestly had no idea there were even this many options available. We have purchased some review copies of several of these from Greg’s post and SHoward. I will have to examine these others as well. Thank you all for such valuable input!