Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196182 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-23
• Binding: Hardcover

Customer Reviews

Unsurpassed source of hymns old and new
"the source" is a collection of 600 hymns and worship songs, compiled by Graham Kendrick. The publishers claim that it "includes the most popular traditional hymns, the enormous outpouring of worship songs of the last twenty years, and much new material destined to become tomorrow's favourites."

Ten per cent of the songs are classic hymns such as Amazing Grace, And Can It Be, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say, Love Divine All Loves Excelling, O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus and The Lord's My Shepherd. It even includes Abide With Me and Nearer My God to Thee. (I can't help wondering if this was influenced by a certain recent disaster film!)These songs have been well chosen and would be greatly appreciated by young and old.

One minor quibble concerning the presentation of the older hymns in the book: in a few cases, there are some rather curious harmonisations. Have a look at "Be Thou My Vision," for instance.

the source also contains a selection of popular Christmas songs [with a few new ones] and some of the well-loved children's hymns, such as All Things Bright and Beautiful. Ian Smale's 5 0 0 0+ Hungry Folk is fifteen years old,but new to me! This looks like a fun song for a children's service.

You will probably find most of the favourites of the past 10 years included here in one handy volume. And the musical arrangements and engravings of the songs are usually first class.

The book only has a very small number of the older Scripture in Song choruses, and I would be interested to see if anyone plays "This Is the Day" the way it is printed in the book.

Of course the book contains a lot of songs by Graham Kendrick, the compiler. But at least half of these 100+ songs are already well-known and loved by Christians all over the world. For those who want their songs to be biblically accurate and saturated with Scripture, Graham is your man! In the UK, the Church Copyright Licence listings show how popular his music is. Nine of the top twenty-five, and eighty of the top five hundred songs sung weekly in a cross section of UK churches are Kendrick compositions.

I think you would find that there are at least 200 to 250 useful songs in the book, which is a much greater proportion of useful stuff than is found in many songbooks, sacred or secular. And the songs are mostly copyright free, if you have paid your Church Copyright Licence. The front cover has a sticker which boasts "Photocopy this songbook legally!"

There are some great new songs in the book. The pick of these may be Stuart Townend's "How Deep the Father's Love For Us": a simple but effective song,which sounded magnificent when performed by orchestra and singers in Katoomba, Australia, recently.

The songs are printed in singable keys, with guitar chords [sometimes transposed to easy guitar keys] and a number of useful indices such as you would find in a traditional hymnbook. There is an enormous Scripture index,as well as an index of songwriters and a thematic index.

The book is excellent value when you consider the number of songs it contains. You may find that it won't fit on some piano or keyboard stands, but this would also apply to other large hymnbooks.

Conclusion: an excellent production, containing hundreds of great songs. The book would be useful in many different types of churches. This is the best collection of old and modern hymns I have seen. Highly recommended.

A useful collection of worship songs in use today!
The aim of this book was to provide a single source of music and words containing most of the hymns and worship songs that are popular within the UK church today. It accomplishes this very well. The musical arrangements are good and tend to be in set a lower key than other hymn books. This is a real bonus as many people find the higher notes difficult to reach. There are also tapes/CDs, a CDROM containing the song lyrics, OHP masters, and musical arrangements available for various instruments too. The only down-side is that some of the older hymns have had the words changed. This can cause confusion if the music group are singing from the source and the congregation from another book! This is probably the best 'source' of modern church music available at present. With a CCL licence you can also copy the music - if you are prepared to squash your book! Now if only they could produce a CD-ROM with the music on too!

Unsurpassed source of hymns old and new
"the source" is a collection of 600 hymns and worship songs, compiled by Graham Kendrick. The publishers claim that it "includes the most popular traditional hymns, the enormous outpouring of worship songs of the last twenty years, and much new material destined to become tomorrow's favourites."

Ten per cent of the songs are classic hymns such as Amazing Grace, And Can It Be, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say, Love Divine All Loves Excelling, O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus and The Lord's My Shepherd. It even includes Abide With Me and Nearer My God to Thee. (I can't help wondering if this was influenced by a certain recent disaster film!)These songs have been well chosen and would be greatly appreciated by young and old.

the source also contains a selection of popular Christmas songs [with a few new ones] and some of the well-loved children's hymns, such as All Things Bright and Beautiful. Ian Smale's 5 0 0 0+ Hungry Folk is fifteen years old,but new to me! This looks like a fun song for a children's service.

You will probably find most of the favourites of the past 10 years included here in one handy volume. And the musical arrangements and engravings of the songs are first class.

The book only has a very small number of the older Scripture in Song choruses, and I would be interested to see if anyone plays "This Is the Day" the way it is printed in the book.

Of course the book contains a lot of songs by Graham Kendrick, the compiler. But at least half of these 100+ songs are already well-known and loved by Christians all over the world. For those who want their songs to be biblically accurate and saturated with Scripture, Graham is your man! In the UK, the Church Copyright Licence listings show how popular his music is. Nine of the top twenty-five, and eighty of the top five hundred songs sung weekly in a cross section of UK churches are Kendrick compositions.

I think you would find that there are at least 200 to 250 useful songs in the book, which is a much greater proportion of useful stuff than is found in many songbooks, sacred or secular. And the songs are mostly copyright free, if you have paid your Church Copyright Licence. The front cover has a sticker which boasts "Photocopy this songbook legally!"

There are some great new songs in the book. The pick of these may be Stuart Townend's "How Deep the Father's Love For Us": a simple but effective song,which sounded magnificent when performed by orchestra and singers in Katoomba, Australia, recently.

The songs are printed in singable keys, with guitar chords [sometimes transposed to easy guitar keys] and a number of useful indices such as you would find in a traditional hymnbook. There is an enormous Scripture index,as well as an index of songwriters and a thematic index.

The book is excellent value when you consider the number of songs it contains. You may find that it won't fit on some piano or keyboard stands, but this would also apply to other large hymnbooks.

Conclusion: an excellent production, containing hundreds of great songs. The book would be useful in many different types of churches. This is the best collection of old and modern hymns I have seen. Highly recommended.