"Then Sings My Soul - Book 3" by Robert J. Morgan

I grew up in a church that really knew how to sing the hymns.  Over time that church transitioned to more contemporary music.  In fact, (and don't laugh) as a teen I was part of the church's contemporary choral group that performed musicals at other churches.  This wasn't "your parents' choir."  If I could find a picture, perhaps I'd embarass myself and share with you a sampling of what we looked like all dressed in matching outfits. :-)  Then again...perhaps not.  You can get a sampling of the type of music we sang here.

I remember going to Sandi Patty, 2nd Chapter of Acts, and other concerts.  "Those were the days," as they would say.  

The hymns begun to be sung less frequently, but were still included somewhat regularly, mostly as a "concession" I think to the older members of the congregation.  As an organist, I still enjoyed them.

Early in our homeschool journey, our support group began a monthly hymn sing, which continues to this day.  The family-integrated church we now attend sings mostly hymns with an occasional smattering of choruses.

In our family worship, we regularly pull out the hymnals we salvaged from the church I grew up in and each of our children have their select favorites which we sing over and over and over again.  They have quite a few of them memorized.  Katie will even choose to put on a CD of hymns at bedtime over anything else.

As a homeschool mom, I love that the words teach the deep truths of the faith in a way that truly gets them into our hearts and minds.

Robert Morgan's book, "Then Sings My Soul: The Story of our Songs," is the third in a series of books about the great hymns of the faith.  (There is also a special edition focusing on Christmas and Easter and other beloved hymns, and there is a book of meditations on the hymns.)

The author takes us through time, beginning with the songs penned by the authors of Scripture, through the Medieval, German and English hymns and finally arriving at the wonderful hymns still being penned today by songwriters such as Keith and Kristen Getty.

He ends this wonderful book with an appeal to not let the richness of our Christian heritage be lost, and suggests how one might incorporate hymns into private worship.

This book introduced me to some new hymns I'd never heard before and renewed my love of others that I'd grown up singing but had not heard in quite a while.  Below is a sampling of some of the hymns mentioned in the book.








**My thanks to Thomas Nelson Publishers for a copy of this book to review.