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What is the songbook you would recommend for church use?

For a single book or would this be paired with an existing Hymnal?

Paired with another one, or perhaps two others yet to be chosen.

Hymns of the Church. I cannot speak highly enough of this hymnal.

I would probably also get a copy of the hymnals they use for the L.A. street meetings and toss those in the pews as well and have a box of 'em for the youth group to get together and sing... just because you're on the west coast and it'd be good to start perpetrating that special culture of street meetings and the songs that go with it.

Hymns of the Church. No other hymnal comes close. Our church has used this for a good while. I think it is truly impressive to have a hymnal that has enough familiar material to to keep older or less musically inclined folks inspired, and enough new material to keep younger or more musically gifted people challenged. John struck the right balance with this hymnal and I can't recommend it too highly.

The website link above has a page for quantity discounts.

It was a fairly big factor in my decision when I left my old church that I didn't want to leave a place with Hymns of the Church, and I honestly don't know if I'll ever get used to the hymnody at my new church. It will always have a special place in my heart as the hymnal that taught me I could sing bass, and that I could sing 4 part acapella.

I miss it every Sunday.

I think you would be very happy with Hymns of the Church. My personal favorite to lead from for Sunday worship is the Church Hymnal, but then I like to have something like Church & Sunday School hymnal or Zion's Praises available for a larger variety of gospel songs. Hymns of the Church contains a good mix.

Josh wrote:It was a fairly big factor in my decision when I left my old church that I didn't want to leave a place with Hymns of the Church, and I honestly don't know if I'll ever get used to the hymnody at my new church. It will always have a special place in my heart as the hymnal that taught me I could sing bass, and that I could sing 4 part acapella.

I miss it every Sunday.

Which hymnbooks are common in your churches?

ken_sylvania wrote:Which hymnbooks are common in your churches?

We have the old Christian Hymnal, and then we have the newer Gospel Hymns for Worship which is essentially a supplement. Most congregations also have their own copy of "Congregational Favourites". We have a denomination wide CCLI licence (I think somehow that makes buying our own copies of Gospel Hymns a lot cheaper, I'm not clear on the details.), so the local photocopied Congregational Favourites can have virtually anything in it you want.

One hymnal I like quite a bit is Songs of Faith and Praise. It has a good combination of traditional hymns, gospel songs, and contemporary songs, including some songs sung by Hallal - anyone familiar with that group? I'd love to have that hymnal in church and sing some of those songs. I wouldn't get it by itself as the only book, but would recommend it highly as a second hymnal to pair with a traditional-oriented one. Make sure you get the shaped-notes version though.
http://www.ceibooks.com/music/songs-of- ... ape-notes/
http://www.lipscomb.edu/music/undergrad ... /sfp-index

We only have one hymnal in my church though. We used to use The Christian Hymnary, until the books started getting old and some were kind of beat up, and then we switched to Zion's Praises. I think one of the brothers in the church (not sure who) offered to give Zion's Praises for the church as a donation, so we didn't really look around for other books, but just accepted his offer. Some people miss the Hymnary and would probably like to go back to it, but others prefer to stay with the new books. No hymnal is perfect.

I have looked through Hymns of the Church a couple times and it looks impressive. A couple of my friends would like to switch to that one, so that goes along with the recommendation of the others here. One thing to consider: I'm not a fan of an editor going through and changing a lot of familiar lyrics and I'd generally like to learn the classic version of the songs, though I'm okay with some minor exceptions. I have heard that John D. Martin made some changes to some song lyrics - as did John Coblentz in the Hymnary. So I'd have to go through more carefully and see whether I like the changes.