Great Hymns Of The Faith

How to actually use Great Hymns Of The Faith in your church or personal study

Great Hymns Of The Faith

Great Hymns Of The Faith is a hymnal compilation that circulates primarily in Churches of Christ and similar a cappella traditions. It collects hymns like "Amazing Grace," "In the Garden," "The Old Rugged Cross," and dozens more into one organized volume. If you're looking for the book, you'll find it through churches of Christ publishers, Christian bookstore sites, and occasionally as a PDF on congregation websites. The physical copy is usually a thick, spiral-bound volume published by Randall House or similar imprints in Nashville. The digital versions float around the internet at varying levels of quality. I've seen scanned PDFs from church libraries that are legible but scan-marked from books three decades old. Here's the practical part that nobody bothers explaining. The book is organized by theme, not alphabetically or by tune. Sections break down into subjects like salvation, the church, the second coming, and Christian living. That means you can't flip to a hymn unless you know which category it lives in. If someone requests "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah," you're going to need a decent index or you're going to spend five minutes hunting through the creation and providence section before finding it.

Most copies come with both lyrics and melody notation. The notation is simple four-line staff music. For congregations that actually play instruments this isn't useful to them, but for churches that do a cappella worship it matters enormously because you need a lead singer or organist to establish the key before the congregation sings. I ran into a real problem a while back when our church was transitioning into using this hymnal instead of the older hymnbook we had. The tunes are different. We'd been singing "Rock of Ages" to one melody for years and the version in Great Hymns Of The Faith uses a different tune altogether. The congregation was confused at first because their muscle memory didn't match the notes on the page. I solved it by having our lead singer practice the tunes separately and slowly introducing one new hymn per Sunday until people adjusted. Took about eight weeks before the confusion stopped. One thing beginners miss about this hymnal is the tune names. Each hymn has a tune name printed at the top, sometimes with a reference to a composer or a traditional melody designation. If you want to look up recordings of a particular tune, those names are what matter, not the hymn title alone. "THE LAKESIDE" and "AZMON" and "LONDON BURGH" are tune names you'll see repeatedly. Look those up and you can hear how the hymn was intended to sound before you teach it to anyone.

Another thing nobody tells you: the page numbers vary between editions. I've seen a 1998 edition, a 2004 printing, and a 2015 revision all circulating. The hymn selection is nearly identical across them but the ordering shifts slightly. If you're coordinating between multiple churches or sharing notes, check the edition year first so you aren't pointing people at page 142 when the hymn is on page 148 in their copy. For personal study, the hymnal works well as a reference tool. I keep mine open on a stand next to my Bible during personal quiet time because the theology in these hymns aligns closely with Restoration Movement doctrine. Hymns like "Holy, Holy, Holy" and "The King Shall Come When Morning Has Begun" carry substantive theological content that doubles as study material. You're not just filling time between readings. There are downsides worth mentioning honestly. The collection skips a lot of contemporary worship music entirely. If your congregation expects modern arrangements or current songs, this book won't help you. It also doesn't include many of the newer hymnals' additions like "What a Beautiful Name" or "Oceans." The selection skews heavily toward nineteenth-century hymnody and early twentieth-century gospel songs.

The notation is also fairly bare. There's no harmony part printed, no chord symbols, and no accompaniment guidance. If you're an accompanist trying to figure out how to support the congregation, you're on your own. I usually cross-reference with The Sacred Harp or even hymnals from other traditions to get chord progressions that work. If your church needs a more comprehensive resource alongside this, you could pair it with The Church Hymnal or even a contemporary worship songbook for flexibility. Great Hymns Of The Faith is solid for what it is, but it's not meant to be a standalone solution for every worship need. To get a copy, check with your local church of Christ bookstore, look at Randall House Publishing's website, or search online retailers. The price runs somewhere in the fifteen to twenty-five dollar range depending on binding and edition. Digital copies show up on sites like Good Faith Publications and various church resource pages, though I'd recommend verifying the source is legitimate before downloading anything.

The book does what it promises. It collects a reliable set of hymns with straightforward notation and keeps them organized by theme. That's it. It's not flashy, it doesn't try to be everything, and it won't replace a full worship planning system. But if you want a dependable collection of traditional hymns that your congregation can actually learn and sing without confusion, this is one of the better options available.