“On your first Sunday at a new church (which you are church shopping or where you have been hired to work), what three hymns or songs would you really like to sing?”
That is a question I included in an anonymous survey that I asked students in my spring “Christian Worship: History and Theology” course shortly after they registered for the class in November. About two-thirds of the students completed the survey. They provided a total of twenty-eight titles. Many of them, as I requested, also the authors as well.
My students identify as Baptist, United Methodist, Presbyterian, or non-denominational, and with a few exceptions worship in congregations that sing primarily contemporary compositions. My own liturgical experience is different than theirs, I think I know eleven of their twenty-eight titles. I will be finding and listening to the rest before our class starts on January 25. I’m grateful to have the homework. Here are their responses:
- ‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus
- All Hail King Jesus — Bethel
- All I Have is Christ — Sovereign Grace Music
- Another in the Fire
- Be Thou My Vision (2 students)
- Come Thou Fount (2 students)
- Death was Arrested — Passion
- Doxology (2 students)
- Father’s House — Cory Asbury
- Good Grace — Hillsong UNITED
- Great Are You Lord — All Sons & Daughters
- Holy, Holy, Holy — Hillsong UNITED
- How Deep the Father’s Love for Us — Austin Stone Worship
- In Christ Alone
- In the Sweet By and By
- Jesus Paid it All
- Lord Have Mercy — Matt Papa
- Man of Sorrows — Hillsong Worship
- Nothing But the Blood
- O Praise the Name
- Promises — Maverick City Music
- Remedy — Red Rocks Worship
- Sanctuary — SEU Worship
- This Is Amazing Grace
- This is My Father’s World
- Waymaker
- Yes I Will
- You Keep Getting Better– Maverick City Worship
As pianist I used many of these.
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