I’m changing gears with this latest study. There’s no book for group members to read. Rather, it covers some of the most popular hymns of our time. And, yes – the lesson plans call for singing them. Don’t worry, I’ve included links to YouTube instrumentals that will provide good background music. If you don’t have great voices in your group, just turn up the volume!
Full disclosure – the hymns covered are those selected based on a poll I did with my Sunday School class. That said, I’m pretty sure you’ll find several which are popular with your group as well. Examples include:
- Amazing Grace
- How Great Thou Art
- It is Well with My Soul
- The Old Rugged Cross
I used Then Sings My Soul: 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories by Robert Morgan as a great resource for the historical information provided in the lessons. Since there’s only a page of history for each hymn in Morgan’s book, it’s up to you whether you want to have members purchase the book, or simply provide the summaries in your meetings. One side benefit of everyone having the book is that the hymns themselves are included, albeit sometimes with different verse ordering than might appear in your hymnals.
I also used The United Methodist Hymnal for hymn numbers, verse order, music and lyrics, as well as some other lesson content.
There are eight sessions in this one, with the final three sessions focused on Christmas carols. This worked out great for our class as I timed it to complete in December. That said, there’s no reason you couldn’t do this series at any time of year. Have Christmas in July!
Let me know how it works for you in the comments below.