Hi Folks,

In this article we will explore how to keep good records of hymns chosen for church service. But first, you may be wondering. Why is it important to keep records of hymns selected for church service? Here are few reasons.

Firstly, good hymn recordkeeping helps you know what songs your choir knows how to sing and what songs they very likely do not know. That way, you can more easily pick relevant songs that your choir can sing confidently, and that your congregation can relate to, enjoy, and learn from. It also helps you avoid awkward situations that happen when you accidentally choose hymns that the choir has no clue how to sing.

Secondly, good hymn records help you know how frequently the choir has sung a particular song. That way, you have a decent idea of how well they can sing it. This helps you to be able to assess how much practice the choir will need to get up to speed with a song. For example, if a choir has sung a hymn several times within the last year, chances are that they will easily remember it and will be able to perform it easily and excellently with little practice. But if the choir has only sung the song a few times in the last several years, then most likely they will need more practice to be able to perform it fluently. This insight can help you avoid choosing too many hymns that the choir may not be very fluent in for a single service.

Thirdly, good hymn recordkeeping helps you plan how to introduce new hymns to the choir to expand their knowledge. Let’s assume you come across a new melodious and highly inspirational hymn from your church’s hymnbook, and you start thinking to yourself how amazing it would be if your choir could learn this song to bring some new excitement to the church service. How can you tell with high confidence if the hymn is indeed new to your choir? Simple. Check your hymn records to see if the song has never been picked in the past.

Now that you know why keeping good hymn records is so important, let’s cover the next topic. What details should good hymn records contain? One important detail to write down is the date on which the church service takes place. You can even include the day of the week too, e.g. Sunday, 4/1/2026. Next, if the service falls on a special day in the church calendar, e.g. Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, etc., then it’s good to include that detail. Also, it’s useful to include the positions and hymn numbers. For example, if the first hymn chosen for the service is Hymn 11 and the second hymn is Hymn 378, then you can have a record like 1. 11, 2. 378, etc. Next, it’s handy to take note of the main bible lessons used for the service.

Next, how can you keep good records of hymns chosen for church service? We will cover 3 approaches, starting from the simplest to the most sophisticated and robust.

The simplest way to keep records of hymns chosen is to write them down in a book. An advantage of using a book is that books are cheap. Also, they are easy to use. There are some downsides to using books though. The first disadvantage is that it can be quite tedious to search books for specific hymns. This means it’s hard to do any analysis to gather insights on the kinds of hymns sung. Also, physical books cannot be easily shared. Furthermore, they are quite bulky to store.

As you can see, there are quite a few drawbacks to using books to keep records of hymns. So how do some choirs overcome these issues? This brings us to the next approach to keeping records of hymns, called spreadsheets. What is a spreadsheet? A spreadsheet is a computer software used for organizing, storing, and analysing data in a tabular form. An advantage of using spreadsheets is that they make it easy to keep your hymn records organized. They are also easier to search than books. Furthermore, they’re relatively easy to share. Some downsides of using spreadsheets are that they are quite limited in the kind of information they can display to a user. For example, if you want to see some more details about the hymn written in your spreadsheet, you may have to leave the spreadsheet and find another document e.g. a hymnbook to get those details.

What if you want something richer and more robust than just hymn numbers/titles and dates? For example, what if you want to be able to access more details about the hymns being recorded e.g. the lyrics? This brings us to the third technique you can use to keep records of your hymns, i.e. using a hymn planning software. What do I mean by hymn planning software? This is a computer program designed to allow choirs easily plan what songs to sing during church service and keep records of songs chosen in the past. Some examples of hymn planning software are Hymnnotes, The Hymn Planner, and Yinkos Hymns Manager (YHM). If you attend Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), then YHM is an excellent choice because it provides a robust Hymn Planner that is designed for planning hymns for CCC service. It can help you not only plan your hymns, but also listen to the hymn MP3s, view the lyrics in English and Yoruba, and read the hymn tonic sol-fa. YHM even has a Hymn Recommendations tool that can suggest good hymns for you to pick for future church services. That’s not all. YHM can help you analyse how frequently your choir has sung any hymn, helping you gain insights about if and how well they know certain hymns.

Here’s the thing, whatever technique you choose to keep records of hymns, it’s very important to store the hymn details diligently. This requires discipline. If your church has service on multiple days of the week, it’s necessary to keep track of the hymns chosen for all service days, not just for Sundays alone. That way, the book or hymn planning software can provide maximum insight and support to the people who choose hymns.

So, there we are. We have discussed various techniques for keeping good records of hymns chosen for church service and why it’s important to keep good records of hymns. Till next time, happy hymns management.