Paul Ferrin’s AN OLD FASHIONED HYMN SING welcomes THE CHRISTIAN LIFE HYMNAL

Last Friday night at Living Hope Church in Colorado Springs, Paul Ferrin’s AN OLD FASHIONED HYMN SING celebrated its 10th Anniversary of twice yearly city-wide hymns sings introducing THE CHRISTIAN LIFE HYMNAL as the new hymnal for use at the gatherings. In spite of a change of venue, a large crowd gathered and sang for 2 hours from the hymnal. Joining Paul was Marjorie, his wife, at the organ, Grace Merrill on the piano, and the Mesa Hills Bible Church Choir.

I had the privilege to be in attendance – and the thrill of hearing 500+ voices singing from the hymnal. Highlights for me was to hear #58 “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” (tune: Coronation), #599; “Shall We Gather at the River” with vs. 2 and 3 a cappella; singing that rollicking bass line on #282 “Wonderful Grace of Jesus”; the Trinitarian hymn #4 “Come, Thou Almighty King”;

our closing hymn of the evening #363 “It Is Well with My Soul”; and the final benediction #632 The Lord’s Prayer” (tune: Malotte). At the beginning of the evening, Paul read a letter from Wess Stafford, president of Compassion International expressing his congratulations on 10 years of hymn sings and his regret he could not be there in attendance due to a board meeting.

Paul and Marjorie, through their “Old Fashioned Hymn Sings” are ambassadors of good hymn singing, and it was such a joy to see them bring these hymns to life in a creative and rewarding way! I’d encourage you to check out their website and consider bringing them to your city for a hymn sing. It would be a great way to bring people from various churches together. On Friday night as I watched people from churches all over the Colorado Springs area (and some who traveled a greater distance to be there) singing together, I was reminded how music is one of the great unifiers in the body of Christ.

AN OLD FASHIONED HYMN SING

This testimonial came in recently from my good friend Paul Ferrin – Paul has been active in church music for many years, publishing choral and piano arrangements for many publishers. He was a Minister of Music for many years at Bethel Church in San Jose, CA and now lives in Colorado Springs. Here’s what he had to say about the hymnal:

My wife, Marjorie and I are privileged to host “Old Fashioned Hymn Sings” across the country and in most of the major Denominations. This has given us the opportunity to use a wide variety of Hymnals from most the publishers in America. However, in Branson, MO, we were privileged to use “The Christian Life Hymnal” and found there to be an amazing variety of Hymns from which to select our Hymn Sing program. We like to include traditional Hymns such as “Fairest Lord Jesus”, Gospel Songs like “Standing On The Promises”, Southern Gospel Songs such as “If We Never Meet Again”. I was pleased to find all of them included in one Hymnal. AND in keys that were so singable! Never has there been a great response to one Hymnal as we received when we used “The Christian Life Hymnal.” I recommend it very highly!

Paul Ferrin

www.hymnsing.org