We have been using Crossway’s new The Sing! Hymnal at our church for a few months now so I think its about time I write a review about it. After all, the reason we are using them is because I introduced them to our church.
Even though I can’t read music, and I am not a very good singer, I do love music. As Pastor it is my responsibility to be sure our church is singing good, Scriptural music. While we always had good hymns to sing from the hymn book we had, in 2024, I began to be convicted that our worship service needed to have more variety. There are modern hymns that are theologically rich – I knew this becaue I had heard them on Apple Music and in some of the churches I visited.
My problem was the fact that we do not have any tv screens in the church building. So I was limited to what I could introduce to the church.
And then Keith and Kristyn Getty introduced their hymnal. If you don’t know the Gettys, you are missing out on a huge blessing! They are maybe the best modern hymn writers and great singers too.
So I ordered my first copy of The Sing! Hymnal in September 2025 and shared it with the membership here, who liked what they saw, and then I ended up ordering more. These days this is our primary hymnal.
The hymnal has hymns divided into three main sections:
- The Worship Service
- The Christian Life
- The Life of Christ
Each section has their own subsections with their own titles. All in all there are 497 classic and contemporary hymns with some Psalms included, but also 403 liturgical readings found throughout the book.
In the back of the book, there is a section called “Hymn Stories” which gives the origin or some story regarding every hymn in the book.
There is also a section called “Scripture Index” which is very helpful to use in planning to match songs with particular texts.
The Foreward from Alistair Begg, the Prelude (“Why We Sing and Why This Hymnal”) at the beginning of the book, and the Postlude (“A Final Word For Those Leading Hymn Singing”) at the end of the book are definitely worth reading more than once.
Be sure also to check out the companion website at https://www.singhymnal.com/.
Keith and Kristyn Getty definitely put their heart into this project. Crossway definitely produced a fine looking book. And the price is excellent, wherever you buy it. Not only does this make a great hymnal for churches which will be great for all generations of God’s people, it is a great hymnal/devotional for families. Be sure to get a copy if you don’t already have one.