For preachers and church musicians

I heard about an interesting resource for preachers ands church musicians yesterday which I thought I would share here for my readers who fulfil either of these roles. It is the website associated with Singing the Faith, the new hymn book of the Methodist church and has a section that details hymns for each week to go with the lectionary readings. Numbers are all from Singing the Faith but many of the suggested hymns can be found in other  hymn books –it is something I may well use in the future at least as a starting point.
You can find the page here .

Singing the Faith–reminder

Just thought I would remind readers who live near enough to Walsall about our Singing the Faith workshop this Saturday (29th October)

The event will take place at Bentley Methodist Church, Margaret Road, Bentley, Walsall, WS2 0HB and will run from 10a.m. until 4p.m. with an admission charge of £2 per person. Any one attending will need to bring a packed lunch but tea and coffee will be provided during the day.

The workshop will be led by two members of the worship resource group Revs Ian Worsfold and Paul Wood and we will be singing a number of items from Singing the Faith so it will be quite interactive.

For readers who may not know Singing the Faith is the new Methodist Hymn book that was launched at the Methodist Conference this year and one of its aims is to keep the Methodist people singing through a book that combines old, not so old and new in one collection.

I am looking forward to the day which is open really to anyone with an interested in learning a little more about the new book and perhaps learning the odd new hymn or two.

If you are a reader of this blog and you come along please make sure you say hello to me as I am always interested in meeting readers.

And the best preacher is……..

In the previous post I raised the question that Robert Johnson had put over on facebook. He did get a number of replies and the names there were some I would have expected to find.

I think while it was an interesting question in itself it does prompt another question in my mind and that is ‘what makes a good preacher’? I suppose this might be as subjective as the previous question but I would be interested to see what people think on this one – I might even pop it on facebook as it will the hit a different audience to this page. Please feel free to offer an opinion or comment.

Interesting Question

Robert Johnson on the Facebook group 'Worldwide Christians' has posed the following question amd sparked an interesting conversation. I thought readers here might also find it interesting.

Who in your humble opinion, is the greatest preacher of all time? [and no picking the obvious 


one]




It will be interesting to see what readers think on this one so over to you

Previous post

Anybody notice the missing info on the previous post? No details of when in October - it is Saturday 29th.

Singing the Faith day

Just thought anyone reading this blog who lives reasonably near to Walsall Might be interested in a Singing the Faith day we have coming up in October.

The day will take place at Bentley Methodist Church, Margaret Road, Bentley, Walsall, WS2 0HB and will run from 10a.m. to 4 p.m. for a cost of just £2.
The day will be led by Rev Paul Wood and Rev Ian Worsfold who are members of the music resource group.
Tea and coffee will be provided but people attending will need to bring a packed lunch.

The event is open to local preachers, ministers,  church musicians, worship leaders and anyone who is keen on engaging with the new book in an interactive session.

Singing the Faith

I have now had my music copy of Singing the Faith since Friday last week and have been working through it and have mixed feelings. It is good to have a copy of it at last – wish it had been out in June as originally planned. It is a pity that take up does not seem to have been very good and I know this is for a variety of reasons that may be very sound and well argued by those who are not supporting the new book. I probably agree with some of the thoughts.

But lets come down to the actual book and some observations I have made in respect of it – they are not in any particular order.

The book is a fair size and appears to sit on the organ music stand quite well – time will tell.

The print is reasonably clear and for me a good size.

There is some inconsistency as some hymns have guitar chords and others do not – I think it would have been helpful to have chords on all the hymns and I am sure it could have been done reasonably easily. When the worship group lead worship leads at our church this would be helpful to our guitarists who read chords rather than music.

Some hymns songs go over three or more pages which means a page turn and while this may not have been something easily solved it does mean it may be necessary to photocopy music to assist musicians.

I was disappointed that words were separate to the music – often we lead worship from a keyboard at the front of the church and there is an expectation that we will sing and play – not always easy when the hymn is not so well known and the music and words are not together – I have seen books where the words are all within the music and hoped this might happen with Singing the Faith.

While I realise this all seems quite negative they are early observations on Singing the Faith which may well change to some degree as I use the book and get more used to it.

Watch for further updates.