Resonate now one year into its work

News Release: September 19, 2017

Resonate now one year into its work
Various products in the collection come into focus

HARRISONBURG, VIRGINIA—Members of the Mennonite Worship and Song Committee are now one year into their work toward a new hymnal.

At a recent meeting at Camp Friedenswald in Cassopolis, Michigan, the committee processed more than 220 songs and reflected on the past year of learning and working together.

“In the last year we established productive committee and subcommittee structures, and all those subcommittees have developed a clear sense of purpose,” said Bradley Kauffman, general editor.

“We did some important calibrating of our process at this most recent meeting, successfully testing models to evaluate contemporary worship music, global songs, new texts, and harmonizations—as well as discussing many songs from our existing collections.”

The 13-member volunteer committee, working under the name Resonate Team, is discerning content for the 2020 release of a suite of new worship and music materials to be published by MennoMedia in cooperation with Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA.

“Being in a camp setting offered an immersive retreat space allowing our committee to share deeply together in work, in worship, and in song,” Kauffman added.

Amy Gingerich, editorial director at MennoMedia, brought a report about the various products that will be included in the new worship and song collection.

• Pew edition: The new pew edition hymnal is projected to be about 30 percent larger than the current Hymnal: A Worship Book. In addition to music, great care is being given to worship resources for the future church and this volume will contain more resources than previous collections.
• Projection edition: The same content that is in the pew edition will also be available to congregations in the form of a projection edition. Right now MennoMedia plans to have PDF and PowerPoint versions of the songs available in the projection edition, recognizing that technology needs continue to evolve and therefore other platforms may be found to be preferable by 2020.
• Worship resources leader edition: A separate volume of expanded worship resources is being planned for pastors and worship leaders.
• Accompaniment edition: The committee is pursuing various options for a keyboard accompaniment edition, and expects to offer increased musical accompaniments.
• App edition: MennoMedia will contract to produce an app edition offering access to several products surrounding the worship and song collection. While the app itself will be free, customers must purchase the hymnal, the worship resources edition, or the accompaniment edition within the app to enjoy the content.

“We are excited about all these products, and the potential that each has to energize and enliven worship,” Gingerich said. MennoMedia will release final pricing and product details sometime in 2019.

Enjoy and share a video from the group’s recent committee work together. 

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact LeAnn Hamby at (540) 908-3941 or email [email protected].