The 2008 Baptist Hymnal
August 25, 2008
Ever since God called me into ministry, I’ve served Southern Baptist churches. That isn’t to say I wouldn’t serve churches of another denomination (or ones with no denominational affiliation) if He called me to do so. But as it stands, I’ve only served Southern Baptist churches. Even so, you couldn’t call me a “fanboy” of the SBC. I love the Cooperative Program and I believe it is the strongest infrastructure of global missions anywhere in the world. But just because something might be proposed or published by the SBC or its publishing arm, LifeWay Christian Resources, doesn’t mean I fall all over myself to buy it and use it. In fact, I’m often skeptical because sometimes we just flat out get it wrong.
Note: This is a long article. If you would like to skip to the conclusion, feel free to do so and come back later and read the rest. Skip to the conclusion.
The Southern Baptist Convention typically publishes a new hymnal every fifteen or sixteen years. The last Baptist Hymnal was published in 1991 and the one before it was published in 1975. So we’ve been expecting a new version for some time. This summer, LifeWay Worship released the latest edition and here’s my conclusion: Stop what you’re doing, call whoever you need to call at your church and start raising funds to purchase this hymnal. Seriously. Mike Harland and his team have provided the church with an incredible resource that combines the rich tradition of historical hymnody with modern worship songs.
Theological Importance
One of the main concerns the folks at LifeWay addressed in compiling this hymnal was the theological depth of the material. I’ve communicated here and elsewhere many times that the theological content of what we sing is so much more important than the style in which we sing it. The new hymnal weighs that thought heavily and makes theology a hallmark of the new publication.
More Songs
The 1991 hymnal had 666 (yes, that’s right–whose decision was that?) songs. The 2008 edition includes 674 sings in the printed edition and an additional 250 songs and arrangements are available online. LifeWay says they’ll be adding roughly 100 songs to the online repository each year, making this the first truly expandable hymnal. Of course, that isn’t going to appease those brothers and sisters who strongly believe you should be holding a book in your hand when you sing in corporate worship. But it does provide the church with additional resources.
Additional Resources
The 1991 Baptist Hymnal included resources such as an organ edition and a piano edition and a singer’s edition, but these were nothing more than repackaged versions of the pew edition. This time, LifeWay has made these versions idiomatic for their intended instrument. The organ edition uses three-staff scores. The piano edition (and likely the organ edition, too, although I haven’t seen it) includes written intros. The singer’s edition is an enhanced version of the pew edition, and includes full vocal scores for the songs. This will be of great help to your choir or praise team. All of these resources are available in printed form and as PDFs on a CD. Other available resources include full parts for just about every orchestral instrument (including the harp) and a DVD-ROM of Finale files, although you’ll need a generous donor for that product.
Online Tools
The internet has become a ubiquitous part of our lives in the last decade. LifeWay Worship is taking advantage of that and has become the first hymnal publisher to provide online downloads of all of the songs (and more) available in the printed hymnal. The keystone resource of the online hymnal is a technology LifeWay calls “song mapping.”
Song mapping allows the user to make custom arrangements of songs and print scores and download tracks for the custom arrangement. For example, let’s say I want to schedule a hymn that uses verses and refrains. And let’s say I want to sing Verse 1, followed by the Refrain, followed by Verse 2. But what if I wanted to go right back into Verse 3 without singing the Refrain? With song mapping, I can create the arrangement to follow that flow. Verse 1 > Refrain > Verse 2 > Verse 3 > Refrain. I can then purchase and download that arrangement and I won’t have to spend time in rehearsal explaining to our instrumentalists how we’re going to play the song.
In addition to song mapping, there will be a rudimentary worship planning tool. It doesn’t appear that it will be able to rival other more established online worship planning sites, but additional functionality is slated for the first half of 2009.
Conclusion
When I first picked a copy of the new Baptist Hymnal, I was reading through and naming some of the songs included and my wife said at least a dozen times, “That’s in there?” The level of thoroughness the team at LifeWay Worship accomplished is quite stunning. In fact, “hymnal” is probably a bad term for the book. It includes standard hymnody and so much more. Their goal in compiling this edition was to include songs the church is singing, not songs the church should be singing. There has been a welcomed shift in recent years toward doctrinally-sound material for corporate worship. Had LifeWay Worship insisted on maintaining the practice of previous hymnal committees by publishing a book of songs they thought we should be singing, the 2008 Baptist Hymnal would not have been as successful as this one no doubt will be. I’m grateful for such a resource and I look forward to using it for many years to come.
Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,
P.S.: By the way, the hymnal is also available as The Worship Hymnal. If your church is not a Baptist church, or if it is a Baptist church but doesn’t want to send the message that there is a specific “Baptist way” to worship, this is probably what you’ll want to look into. The content is identical to Baptist Hymnal. Only the cover title is different.
Comments
18 Responses to “The 2008 Baptist Hymnal”
Add to the discussion
[...] 26, 2008 Isaiah Six does a review of the new hymnal that is to be released soon he [...]
So, I’ve searched the internet and couldn’t find an example page from the pew version (or any other version for that matter). So, I’ve got a question. I’m a guitarist and usually like to get music in “lead sheet” format: melody, lyrics, and chord symbols. Which version should I look for?
A few years back I was given the pew edition of the Episcopalian hymnal, “Gather,” as a gift. I love the song and liturgy selections, but it only had melody and lyrics. Without either chord symbols or harmonies from which to extrapolate the chords, it’s been a lot less useful than I’ve wanted.
Obed, Thanks for stopping by. The Baptist Hymnal is available in both lead sheet and what LifeWay refers to as “quick chart” format. The lead sheets include the melody and chord symbols. The quick charts are simply the text to the songs with chord names printed above the text. I’m not sure if either is available in printed form, but I know they’re both available on CD-ROM.
Rhonda B shared your blog with me – I was blessed by your comments. I know there are going to be “kinks” as we move forward but thanks for believing in what we’re trying to do. Your insights sound like you’ve been in a few of our meetings!
blessings on you – Mike
Mike, I’ve been a believer in this project since I first saw the hymnal several weeks ago. I’ve only been in one meeting where the hymnal was introduced (this past weekend), so some of the factual information came from that. But the opinion was formed long before this weekend. Thank you for your service to the Body of Christ.
[...] The initial tip came from Michael Spencer, who merely pointed to the article with all the info by Isaiah Six. While quite informative overall, I was actually looking for just a few words, and there they [...]
[...] Isaiah Six has recently posted a review on the new Baptist Hymnal: The Southern Baptist Convention typically publishes a new hymnal every fifteen or sixteen years. The last Baptist Hymnal was published in 1991 and the one before it was published in 1975. So we’ve been expecting a new version for some time. This summer, LifeWay Worship released the latest edition and here’s my conclusion: Stop what you’re doing, call whoever you need to call at your church and start raising funds to purchase this hymnal. Seriously. Mike Harland and his team have provided the church with an incredible resource that combines the rich tradition of historical hymnody with modern worship songs. [...]
It looks really good. I only with they had included “O The Deep Deep Love of Jesus” with the Ebenezer tune.
First blog review!…
Isaiah Six is the first to respond to this week’s “call to posts,” and it’s an exhaustive review! You can read the article for the punchline, but I love his setup: But just because something might be proposed or published……
Our interim music minister went to Glorieta for Music Week this past summer and was introduced to the new hymnal. He was enthusiastic. He ordered copies for the choir. I have been separating the sheets to get them organized numerically.
Is anyone aware that the middle pages of these songs have no markings? I had volunteers here separating the sheets and have wound up with a middle page of some song that I have no clue where it belongs. They are not named. They carry no number.
This doesn’t matter when you have a book in hand but working with the sheets only makes me think it would have been nice to see some kind of title or number on the inner pages of these multi-paged songs.
Suzanne Cranford
Music Secretary
First Baptist Church
Big Spring, Texas
Are there Chord charts already available that coincide with the 1991 Baptist hymnal? I personally don’t see the need to “upgrade” to the worship hymnal. We’re primarily contemporary with word projection so any newer song we do most likley will not come out of the hymnal. I’ll find the music elsewhere. But we still do a few hymns and it would be nice to have a hymnbook with chords that match our existing 1991 Baptist hymnal.
tommy everett
worship leader
FBC Genoa, AR
I want a listing of the songs in the new hymnal in view of purchasing new hymnal for our small congregation.
Rev. Wilson
Tommy, I haven’t done an extensive side-by-side analysis, but from what I’ve seen, the two should work fine together. In fact, I’ve done that on a few occasions. But I would say there are probably other sources you could use to accomplish your goals, Hymns for Praise & Worship (published by WORD) and HymnCharts, just to name a couple.
Gary, I recommend you visit LifeWayWorship.com. The list you’re looking for is there, but not necessarily in a way you can print out and peruse. Probably the best way would be to buy a single copy. (I promise I’m not on their sales team.)
I am just a music loving, not very good at playing the piano, Baptist. I love this new hymnal. I bought a copy at the LifeWay store in Lubbock, TX. before Christmas and recommended it to everyone I know who plays the piano really well! Even my Methodist friends are loving it!
I am looking for a hymnal that only uses King James verses in it. We have the 1991 addition and has a lot of NIV. Our Pastor is very conservative and would like to find KJV if possible. What does the new 2008 addition have and do you know of any others that are KJV only?
Mitch,
Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any hymnal that uses KJV only. They may be out there, but I doubt it. If they do exist, I would guess the selection of usable hymns would be extremely limited. Having said that, I rarely (read maybe two or three times in my ministry so far) use the scripture portion of the hymnal. So I would recommend finding a solid hymnal and coupling it with your preferred Bible translation.
You can find the Baptist Hymnal 2008 online at http://www.hymnary.org/hymnal/BH2008. Only some of the full texts are there; if anyone wants to help out making it more complete there is more information at Hymnary.org!