{"product_id":"the-small-church-hymnal-9798198330665","title":"The Small Church Hymnal","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Gary Rader\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Printed Music - Choral\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSmall churches have always carried a large song.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn sanctuaries with a few pews, in country chapels, in town churches with aging congregations, in home gatherings, nursing homes, fellowship halls, and borrowed rooms, the people of God have continued to sing. Sometimes there is a choir, and sometimes there are only a few faithful voices. Sometimes there is an organ or piano, and sometimes there is only a guitar, a song leader, or the congregation itself. Yet where two or three are gathered, praise still rises.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Small Church Hymnal\u003c\/b\u003e has been prepared for congregations like these.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is not intended to be an encyclopedic hymnal containing every worthy hymn. Rather, it is a carefully chosen collection of familiar, singable, durable hymns for ordinary Christian worship. Its purpose is practical: to provide small congregations with a body of hymns that can be used confidently for Sunday worship, prayer meetings, funerals, communion services, baptisms, weddings, home visitation, nursing-home services, seasonal worship, and times of grief, thanksgiving, and hope.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe hymns included here have been selected with several guiding convictions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst, a hymn for a small church must be \u003cb\u003esingable\u003c\/b\u003e. A small congregation cannot depend on a large choir to carry difficult music. The best hymns for such a setting are sturdy, memorable, and clear. They can be sung by older voices, by children, by a congregation of fifteen, or by a roomful of worshipers gathered around a piano.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSecond, a small-church hymnal should be \u003cb\u003epastorally useful\u003c\/b\u003e. The life of a congregation includes more than Sunday morning praise. It includes illness, death, loneliness, new birth, confession, forgiveness, marriage, aging, service, and quiet endurance. For that reason, this hymnal includes hymns for comfort, grief, trust, prayer, discipleship, and the hope of eternal life, along with hymns of praise, thanksgiving, and proclamation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThird, a hymnal should help preserve the \u003cb\u003eshared memory of the Church\u003c\/b\u003e. Many of the hymns in this collection have been sung for generations. They connect today's worshipers with parents, grandparents, saints, reformers, missionaries, poets, pastors, and ordinary believers who found in these songs a language for faith. In a time when music can become temporary and fragmented, these hymns offer continuity, depth, and common ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFourth, this hymnal is designed for \u003cb\u003ereal worship under real conditions\u003c\/b\u003e. Many churches do not have trained musicians every week. Many cannot maintain large choirs. Many need music that works simply, reverently, and reliably. The hymns in this book are intended to serve such churches without embarrassment or apology. Small congregations do not need lesser worship; they need worship resources shaped to their actual life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis hymnal is also offered in gratitude for the older small hymnals that served earlier generations. They remind us that a church does not need abundance in order to sing faithfully. A modest book of strong hymns, chosen well, can sustain a congregation through years of worship, sorrow, celebration, and service.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMay these hymns strengthen small churches.\u003cbr\u003eMay they give voice to prayer when words are hard to find.\u003cbr\u003eMay they comfort the grieving, encourage the weary, teach the young, steady the old, and gather scattered hearts into one song.\u003cbr\u003eAnd may every congregation that uses this book discover again that the song of the Church is not measured by its size, but by the faith, hope, and love with which it is sung.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Independently Published","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47890709840023,"sku":"9798198330665","price":1763.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9798198330665.webp?v=1781181013","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/the-small-church-hymnal-9798198330665","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}