In the last decade, the volume of hymn and worship song writing has been at its highest level. It is our mission to continue to include and infuse our worship with the best available worship music for our congregation.
As our current hymnal is nearly 20 years old (which is also the average lifespan of a hymnal), we introduced the green songbook “SING! A New Creation” to our 11 a.m. worship last fall to offer a broader selection of congregational song. Many thanks to Pillar Church, Holland, who was in process of purging songbooks and made it possible for us to introduce and experiment with the music of the songbooks.
Hymnal creation committees have a large task of evaluating the existing songs and new music as well as naming what are the future needs of their congregation or denomination. As this process evolves over a 5-10 year span, the content and market determination is developed from nearly 10,000 entries. In general terms, nearly 30% of existing hymns are retained with the balance consisting of new hymns firmly tested in other music editions and newly composed hymns.
The hymnals that are emerging are “Glory to God”, the Presbyterian Hymnal Project, and “Lift Up Your Hearts”, the combined effort of the CRC and RCA. The goal of the “Glory to God” project was to produce a collection of songs for the church, experiencing a diversity of liturgical practices and in recognition that many members have not had a lifelong formation by Scripture and basic Christian doctrine. Lift Up Your Hearts was developed to give a common voice to CRC/RCA worship for the 21st Century. It includes music ranging from traditional hymns to contemporary worship music and music of the global church. Each hymnal contains over 900 hymns and worship songs.
The WPS ministry, music staff and pastors have studied the two hymnal options and recommended to purchase both. In our study of the two hymnals, only 234 songs were common to both hymnals thus offering over 1200 additional songs for our worship.
Approved by WPS ministry and consistory, we plan to introduce one hymnal in October and the next one in February. This plan also includes adapting the hymnbook holders in each pew so both hymnals and the Bible will be well-organized.