ATLANTA – A new hymnal, Celebrating Grace, debuted March 7-8 at Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta with packed-house concerts during a national conference for church musicians.

Leaders of the hymnal project, which also includes online music and worship planning resources, dubbed it as a comprehensive mixture of treasured hymns and songs that have been sung by generations as well as new ones by many of the nation’s best-loved composer and arrangers.

Tom McAfee, who was project chairman, said the new volume was five years in the making and was culled down to about 700 from more than 2,500 submissions.

John Simons, coordinating editor of the hymnal and director of The Townsend-McAfee Institute for Church Music studies at Mercer University, said the project was successful in large part because of the grass-roots effort involving churches, music ministers and laity in the creation of a new hymnal. With an editorial board composed of seven people and more than 70 other committee members, leadership involved a broad group of contributors.

"At the beginning and the heart of our project was the driving philosophy that through the power of the Holy Spirit, music changes lives," Simons said. "This very grass roots organization was distinctive because it cuts across denominational barriers, and it unites us in this philosophical cause through the power of the Holy Spirit."

McAfee said a goal from the beginning of the project was to be intentionally inclusive of all Baptists and folks from other denominations.

"One of the things that makes our hymnal unique in the Baptist family and in hymnals in general is we included the Cooperative Baptists, the National Baptists, American Baptists, Canadian Baptists, Southern Baptists – if you are Baptist, we wanted you involved in this," McAfee said. "We also wanted to involve people from the Methodist tradition, the Presbyterian tradition, we wanted it to be something that is yes, Baptist, built by Baptists with Baptists in mind, but we also wanted to bring in these other traditions so others can use the book as well."

Along with the new hymnal, project leaders have developed The Worship Matrix™ and online Supplemental Music Resources, which will provide church leaders planning tools and online access to worship materials that are designed to create cohesion between music elements, scripture readings, sermon illustrations and other worship elements.

Mark Edwards, vice president and worship resource manager for Celebrating Grace, said there will be 900 additional items on the Web at www.celebrating-grace.org, created by more than 100 different composers and arrangers.

"These days, there are many other things that have to go along with a hymnal book if it is going to be used effectively," Edwards said.

Simons said the goal with the new hymnal was to make these hymns and the worship experience as a whole meaningful to congregants. "It’s not so much focused on a certain genre or certain type of Christian music, as it is intended as a worship resource for the entire family."

The hymnal’s debut featured two concerts – March 7-8 – with selections from the hymnal performed by a mass choir made up of musicians from across the country. The hymnal event coincided with the national meeting of Polyphony, the Fellowship of Pastoral Musicians.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.