TABERNACLECARDIFF - Heath Citizens Hall, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4EP

Christian Worship Hymn Book

Presentation of Hymn Book given by Stephen Ford at various Preaching Rallies.

The word of God is the only definitive way for us to know what is pleasing to God. The central message of the scriptures is the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour sent in mercy to reconcile lost sinners to God. The worship of such saved sinners must therefore focus on Christ and be regulated by the Holy Scriptures. Colossians 3:16 says “...let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…” This tells us, not only that singing is a legitimate part of God’s worship, but also that it is an apostolically approved method of Christian instruction.

It is important to renounce the idea that singing merely provides the congregation with a little light relief between more heavyweight elements of worship – the reading the word, prayer and preaching. Rhyming verse of any sort can make a powerful impression on the mind and memory. It has therefore great potential to contribute to “worship in spirit and in truth” by engraving Biblical truth in our minds. Unfortunately rhyming verse has equal power to engrave theologically deficient ideas in our minds, and these are very difficult to shift. So it is most important that we sing only hymns which contain theologically sound concepts.

It was considerations such as these which led to the launch of the Christian Worship project in 2005. The aim of the project is to put back on the market a book of Christian praise which would uphold reverent worship and emphasise the serious teaching aspect of hymnology. It is to stand completely separate from charismatic emphases or associations, and will renounce aspects of modern worship which are deemed to rest heavily on the ethos of worldly secular entertainment and popular music. In pursuit of these objective a charitable trust was established late in 2006. This is known as The Christian Worship Publishing Trust (registered with the Charity Commission – registration number 1117057).

The Trust proposes to compile a book, to be called Christian Worship, which will contain a slightly modernised version of the Scottish metrical Psalter of 1650, and approximately 1000 hymns. The Psalter section will not displace the well-known and well-loved evangelical psalm paraphrases in the style of Isaac Watts. The hymns will include a considerable number by well-known authors such as Watts, Wesley, Montgomery, Newton, Cowper, Toplady, Hart and so on. There will also be a number of hymns composed by more recent authors, not least by our esteemed Trustee, Rev Vernon Higham. We hope to cover the whole range of orthodox evangelical Christian doctrine and experience.

The selection of hymns is now near complete, though we decided that there was no point in finally “closing the book” until we were ready to go to print. There was no problem in finding sufficient hymns, only in deciding which ones to leave out. The heritage we have is exceedingly rich, and this was another reason for our hesitation and selectivity in accepting modern compositions which have not yet stood the test of time. The selection includes a substantial core of hymns fround in the original edition of Christian Hymns, though many of these are also found in most traditional evangelical hymnbooks. The balance is made up of hymns drawn from various sources, including substantial numbers from Grace Hymns, Gospel Hymns, the Methodist Hymn Book (1933), Gadsby’s selection and a few others.

In terms of tunes, again we are ransacking many sources to discover or re-discover good tunes, many of which have undeservedly fallen into disuse. Our experience with Christian Hymns was that certain metres were inadequately represented, and we plan to redress this shortage in the new work. In view of the substantial size of the hymn collection, it was eventually (and reluctantly) decided to produce a separate book containing tunes only, rather than the more usual combined words/music book. We trust that this will not deter churches from using Christian Worship. Indeed we venture to suggest that the Christian Worship music book might find a wider place, helping churches which use other books to enlarge their repertoir of tunes.

We are very much aware that many churches (especially, but not exclusively, the small ones) have difficulty in finding people to provide musical accompaniment for the worship services. Accordingly we are looking to have available suitable electronic media from the time of publication in order to provide a facility for those who may need it.

The original plan was to publish the book in 2010, although we now think this can be brought forward to Autumn 2009. There is however considerable work yet to be done, including clearance of copyright issues for both words and music where necessary, and the preparation of suitable electronic files of text and music to supply to the printer. Not least, of course, we have to put in place the necessary finance. Our original estimate for the words and music books was around £50,000. However modern technology has substantially reduced this figure by allowing the economic production of smaller quantities of books than we had assumed.

We do encourage contributions to the project, either by individuals or churches. Those individuals who pay UK income tax can make a gift through the government’s Gift Aid scheme, allowing us to reclaim tax paid on the gift. We will be happy to provide further details and/or a Gift Aid declaration form on request. Gifts may be sent to our Administrator, Pastor Stephen Ford, at 4 Elm Grove Drive, Dawlish, Devon, EX7 0EU. (Tel : 01626 865230. E-mail : stephenford323@hotmail.com.) Alternatively gifts can be transferred by BACS direct to the Trust’s bank account with CAF Bank Ltd, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent. ME19 4JQ. Sort code : 40-52-40. Account no. 00014705 (The Christian Worship Publishing Trust).

We have agreed that any churches which contribute to the project will be eligible for a discount if they wish to purchase Christian Worship when published. Details of this scheme have not yet been decided, and will be made known nearer to the date of publication.

As we seek to promote the singing of worthy praise to the God of grace, we remind all readers of these words of the ancient Psalmist : “Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand.” Psalm 149:5–6.