New Baptist hymnal released

From the Associated Baptist Press:

Bucking a trend in many churches to eschew four-part harmonies for praise choruses projected on a screen, a new hymnal released March 8 seeks to introduce both old favorites and lesser-known new compositions to a new generation of Baptist congregations.

"We were trying to create a hymnal for churches that use hymnals," said Stanley Roberts, a Mercer University professor and member of the editorial team that planned the Celebrating Grace Hymnal, "to provide a resource that our current generation and future generations could use for worship in the local church."

Tom McAfee, a Georgia layman who conceived of the idea for and oversaw development of the hymnal, said the new song book seeks to embrace a denominational identity broader than battle lines that divided Baptists in the United States in the latter decades of the 20th century.

"One of the things we did in the beginning was to intentionally be inclusive," said McAfee, chairman of a health-care company and member of First Baptist Church in Macon, Ga. "I think it's one of the things that make our hymnal unique."

Starting at the grassroots level, McAfee said, editors and board members sought input from individuals and churches affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, African-American Baptists, Canadian Baptists and the Southern Baptist Convention.

"If you had a Baptist badge, we wanted you to be involved," McAfee said. "We also wanted to incorporate some Methodist traditions, Presbyterian traditions. We wanted to be something that is, yes, Baptist, and is built by Baptists with Baptists in mind, but we also wanted to be able to bring in these other traditions so that others can use the book as well."

"It's not just a book for Cooperative Baptists or Southern Baptists or the other brands of Baptists," said McAfee, "We've got materials there that will meet the needs of a number of different denominations."

Mark Edwards, vice president of music and worship resources who oversaw the music side of the project, said Celebrating Grace was already in the works and unrelated to a new Baptist Hymnal that LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention released in 2008.

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