Leader's Guide for those leading this evangelistic course that shares the good news of Jesus with elderly people by exploring the Christian beliefs expressed in some of the nation’s best-loved hymns.
Part of the Hymns We Love series.
Older adults are the fastest-growing age demographic across the Western world, and yet there are few materials to support churches who want to help this older generation hear about God’s love.
Hymns We Love aims to fill that gap. It is a gentle which uses well-loved hymns to share the good news of Jesus and key truths about God’s character in an accessible way. Many in this generation have grown up singing these hymns at school, church or Sunday school, and they have therefore proved to be a non-threatening and accessible way to connect with seniors and help them to engage with the gospel.
The series comprises five video sessions. Each one tells the story of the hymn writer, how the hymn came to be, and the Christian message behind it. Across the five sessions, Hymns We Love will help bring the core truths of the Christian story alive in a way that is gentle, warm and clear.
The video sessions also feature beautiful renditions of the hymns, filmed in a historic English village church, along with testimonies and prayers.
There are also three introductory sessions: for Christmas and for Easter and a third which can be used at any time of the year.
This Leader's Guide ebook will equip you to lead this enjoyable that reaches out to the older people in your community.
It includes:
Main Series
Session 1: How Great Thou Art
Session 2: Rock of Ages
Session 3: Amazing Grace
Session 4: The Lord's My Shepherd
Session 5: And Can It Be?
Bonus Sessions
Christmas: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Easter: Thine Be the Glory
Introduction: My Song Is Love Unknown
| Contributors | Steve Cramer, Pippa Cramer |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9781784988838 |
| Format | eBook |
| First published | July 2023 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | The Good Book Company |
This is a resource which engages with so many of our older people. They have sung these hymns again and again but don't necessarily understand the gospel they contain. While many older people are sadly a bit suspicious of just opening the Bible, this provides a way in to understanding the Christian message which they can trust. I wholeheartedly commend Hymns We Love as a unique tool for explaining the gospel to what is, unfortunately, an often overlooked generation.
This is an outstanding evangelistic resource! Every church should use it to reach the elderly in your community who are frequently lonely, vulnerable and looking for hope.
Hymns We Love has been wonderfully created to help the older generation engage with faith. Different generations need different approaches to faith discovery. This is an excellent "Christian basics" course and tool for mission to the older generations.
My wife and I have done 3 of the sessions and the responses have been overwhelmingly positive. Participants are enthusiastically looking forward to the next hymn with a request to have a Xmas carl in the 6th week. Our group has brought Roman Catholic and Anglicans together from different parishes and each have involved in enlightening discussions around the set questions. I am now contemplating taking this study sessions to aged care facilities in 2025. Thank you for producing this resource.
I heard about Hymns We Love via a presentation I attended by Faith in Later Life. I bought it for use with a group of Seniors. We had our first session this week and had a marvellous afternoon, they all were richly blessed and are now thinking who they can invite along to our next session. After the video, the cake stands came out filled with goodies, tea/coffee was served.
An afternoon of challenge, chat and fellowship. Videos were very professional. Having the subtitles option is a good idea for those with hearing impairment. Thank you!
Hymns we love is the best tool for sharing Jesus love with older people available today.
Why listen to me?
I have served as a older persons chaplain for over 15 years, speak write and teach on Gospel ministry in later life. I have had an evangelistic resource for people with dementia published and am across all the ministry resources available in English.
Every church should have a copy and use it regularly!!!
We’ve started running this at our church and the feedback has been very positive. People love these hymns and they like the format of videos, cake and a chat.
The information pack supplied is very comprehensive and gives good guidance on how to run this.
This resource meets a real need. We made a great start with our first meeting on Monday - with 22 guests from the wider community and church. The gathering enabled people to meet and the content and company was enjoyed. The subtitles were particularly appreciated. Thank you GBC and the HWL team.
This is a great study. We are a small rural church with an older population. I currently use this at a local nursing home for a Bible study. I wish it had closed captions because the accents can be difficult for our people to understand (hearing impaired).
This book is such a beautiful way to examine some classic hymns deeper. There are five hymns covered in the main section and then three seasonal hymns covered. Personally, I wish there were more covered.
The leader’s guide companion is spilt into four sections;
1: About Hymns We Love
2: Getting ready to run Hymns We Love
3: Team-Training material
4: Session notes and talk scripts
These sessions are helpful to ensure the leader is prepared to go through this book with others. I loved section two which helps the leader prepare both spiritually and practically!
This leaders guide set is a perfect for somebody who wants to lead a group through Hymns We Love.
Hymns We Love is a beautifully designed series to teach us about some well-known hymns, while sharing the good news of Jesus.
The Leaders Kit contains:
-Guest Songbook
-Leaders Guide
-Access to Video Downloads
I enjoyed this leaders kit as it is versatile in the way it can be used; such as in your home as a family, in a small or large group at your church, or for an independent study.
While doing a study on 5 specific hymns, as well as 3 seasonal hymns, this kit is also full of many great resources, biblical references, historical facts, and so much more.
The Leaders Kit provides all of the information and resources needed to run a group study, and it is truly as simple as open and go.
The Video downloads are easily accessible and bring so much more to the study!
This is a Great resource!
A great evangelism resource! The Leader's Kit includes:
-Guest Songbook
-Leader's Guide
-Access to video downloads
The leader's guide has everything the guest songbook has along with the scripts from the video sessions and information on how to use this resource in different ways.
This evangelism series is a study of five farmiliar and well loved hymns along with a few seasonal hymns. It is a great tool designed especially with the elderly in mind to teach them of the Christian faith and the gospel through songs they may have heard before.
Each session talks about a hymn and some of the background of its origin. The lessons teach about God and about us as humans and share the gospel. There are so many different ways this study can be done. It can be done in a community or church or in the home. Though not extensive, it is a great introduction to the gospel through well loved hymns. Music is such a powerful tool and the words in a song have a way of reaching our hearts and sticking in our minds more easily. I think this is a wonderful way to share the gospel with the elderly. As someone who has worked a lot with the elderly, I loved this approach to sharing the gospel through hymns. Honestly, this would be a great resource to use in a nursing home/care facility setting if able!
Thanks to @thegoodbookcompanyusa for a copy of this series for my honest review!
I grew up on hymns and absolutely love them. I have also done other hymn studies and they have always been powerful means of growing closer to God. This leader's kit is no exception.
The kit itself is presented in a beautiful box-like format. When you first open, you receive a two post cards:
- one provides a promo code to download the videos related to the study
- the second is simply an invitation that can be used to bring people together for the study
The actual hymn study is created simply. It covers five specific hymns as well as three seasonal hymns. Each hymn study is formatted with the following:
- Written copy of Hymn
- About section
- Exploring section
- Scripture reference
- Questions section
- Prayer section
There is plenty of space for writing, doodling, journaling, etc.
The Leader's Guide is significantly more hefty. It includes four sections:
- About Hymns We Love
- Getting ready to run Hymns We Love
- Team-training material
- Session notes and talk scripts
I was impressed with how many resources the Cramers provided in the leader guide. It is incredibly full of rich history and biblical references.
I will say that even though you could technically complete the hymn study on its own without the leader's guide, it will not be as rich and powerful as if you were to do it alongside the leader's guide. The hymn study has very simple, basic points but the leader's guide provides an immense amount of more information to go alongside the study.
The additional resources they provide allow the study to be even deeper.
The authors make it clear that this study is geared towards the older community but I would argue that it's just as effective for any age.
I enjoyed the entire study and hope that they will continue making more that cover additional classic hymns.
I received a copy of this book from The Good Book Company in exchange for an honest review.
