Hymns We Love is an evangelistic course designed to introduce seniors to the good news of the gospel.
Each session explores a different aspect of the Christian faith through a familiar, well-loved hymn. At the heart of each session is a 30-minute video, which brings together music, testimony and prayer, along with a short talk which tells the story behind the hymn, and explores the meaning of the words and the Bible truths on which it is based. Week by week, the series aims to take guests on a faith journey from understanding who God is to making a personal commitment to him.
The main series comprises five sessions. There are also three additional introductory sessions, which can be used at Christmas and Easter, or as a one-off at any time of year. You can preview the first video session in full below, which explores the incredibly uplifting hymn, “How Great Thou Art”.
How you use Hymns We Love will depend on your context:
If you already run a group for seniors at your church, you could include Hymns We Love as part of your regular sessions; or you could run it as a special series of events.
You might choose to run your Hymns We Love sessions weekly or monthly—whatever you think will work best.
If you prefer, you can also run Hymns We Love without the video episodes, by having the hymns played and sung live and talks and testimonies delivered in person, and by using the prayers and discussion questions from the guest Songbook. You’ll also find the talk transcripts in the Leader’s Guide.
To run Hymns We Love you will need the following:
You'll also need some pens to allow people to jot down notes or questions, if they’d like to. The Leader's Kit is a great way to get started and contains everything you need to evaluate and plan your course - the Leader's Guide, the guest Songbook and access to the video downloads.
Head to the series page where you’ll be able to explore the course components, preview the content for Session 1 and access promotional materials to help you advertise the course in your church.
Whatever points of contact you and your church have with older people, we pray that Hymns We Love will provide fresh opportunities to share the love of Jesus with seniors in your community.
Hymns We Love is written and presented by Pippa Cramer and her husband Steve. Pippa serves on staff at Holy Trinity Claygate, Surrey, UK, with responsibility for ministry to seniors, and in 2022 was awarded an MBE in recognition of her work with older and vulnerable people. Visit here to find out more about this resource, designed to help you share the love of Jesus with seniors in your community.
Pippa Cramer serves on staff at Holy Trinity Claygate, Surrey, UK, with responsibility for ministry to seniors, and in 2022 was awarded an MBE in recognition of her work with older and vulnerable people. Pippa is the founder of Connections – one of the largest Church based gatherings for seniors in the UK - and she is passionate about loving and caring for older people, reducing loneliness and giving seniors the opportunity to find hope in the gospel. Pippa is a qualified Occupational Therapist, having specialised in the support and care of older people, she is an Ambassador for Faith in Later Life, and in 2021 she was awarded The Alphege Award for Evangelism and Witness by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
