In the past twenty years, worship styles in many churches have transformed, emphasizing a personal worship that strives for intimacy with the Father. This renewal led some ministries, perhaps unintentionally, to abandon the great hymns of our faith in favor of newly composed worship songs. Other ministries, in an effort to create a balanced worship style, mixed the new with the old, sometimes with results that only amplified the differences between the two.

Hymns for Praise & Worship bridges the stylistic gap between modern-day worship songs and the hymns of our Christian heritage. A select advisory board of active music ministers, Word Music staff and key choral arrangers were assembled to pinpoint fifty-six hymns from the vast array of hymnody, not only for their musical quality, but for the messages that they bring to worshippers today. Veteran choral arrangers John E. Coates and Travis Cottrell have been creating new settings of hymns for their own congregations for years. Their experience as worship leaders brought not only musicality, but also congregational and choral pragmatism to each new arrangement in Hymns for Praise & Worship.

With all of the same editions and features as the Songs for Praise & Worship series, this collection is designed to work hand-in-hand with existing resources for worship. Various stylistic changes make these settings flow easily, appeal to the modern ear, and correlate with the styles of contemporary praise & worship songs. Throughout this book you will encounter variations from traditional time signatures, intuitive syncopated rhythms, and substituted chords and harmonies. Even the few hymns with more traditional settings are treated in a manner that takes the congregation on a journey through the verses, sometimes in a more through-composed manner, and usually culminating in a climactic conclusion. Each of the changes was not implemented arbitrarily, but with the goal of making the timeless messages of each hymn leap from the page in new and exciting ways.

Two added features of Hymns for Praise & Worship are the demonstration and accompaniment recordings. While the songs in the collection are well known, the new arrangements are not. The staff of Word Music felt that it was vital to provide audible resources to teach and lead worship to best communicate the desires of the arrangers. All of the core editions (Choir/Worship Team, Worship Planner, Keyboard Edition, Guitar Edition) reflect the verses and voicings used on the recordings.