The Celebration Hymnal

Introduction Editors & Advisors Forward by Jack Hayford

The Foreword
by Jack Hayford
Senior Pastor, The Church On The Way, Van Nuys, California

Our song is the one thing we most commonly enjoy amid the broad diversity of our Christian traditions. We meet in different types of buildings on every continent; we set our tempo at varied paces, our tone at varied levels. But we all still meet on the common ground of song-and often intersect at the precise point of even singing the same songs! But I wonder if we all realize how central our song is to the release of God's divine power within, among and through us-the many-membered body of Christ's living Church.

Song may not be listed as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but it is certainly one of His mightiest means of ministry. There is a "life-begetting" power in music that's born of His anointing. It's found in its dual potential for "life"-both in respect to life's birthing power and its breakthrough qualities. Millions have been born again as God's Word has come to them through music! And how many millions more have experienced the broken chains of bondage to doubt or fear as they lifted their voices in praiseful song? The Church thrills and thrives, multiplies and advances on a Holy Spirit breeze of blessing that we simply call song.

For this reason, the book you have in hand may be called more of a "seeder" than a songbook-more a "weapon" than a hymnal-for its pages are laden with an awesome potential. When breathed upon by the Holy Spirit, and born upon the lips of devotion in praise, the songs in this book become an explosive force. Here are songs-filled with life and liberty, waiting to break forth with grace and glory. This is an entirely biblical proposition, for God's Word clearly reveals:

Don't Just Sing With This Book
- Strategize With It!

Song is the climate in which God Himself works in His most glorious ways as Creator. - Job 38:4-7

Song is the companion means by which we are taught to see the Word of God enriched in its workings within our lives, in practice and purity. - Colossians 3:16-17

Song is the conduit by which the soul's night of darkness is ignited with hope and deliverance. - Job 35:10; Psalm 32:6-7

Song is the claim of the barren, by which God says we may entertain and expect fruitfulness.
- Isaiah 54:1

Song is the conquering instrument available when we are outnumbered by circumstance. - 2 Chronicles 20:21-22

The secret of song is the Church's most distinctive resource, not because music is more powerful than the Word or the Spirit, but because song is a means by which both can become so joyously conjoined -- by ALL the people of the Lord! The Celebration Hymnal has been planned, prepared and published with this in mind. There have been two primary goals targeted: (1) to provide new possibilities for expanded praise, and (2) to assure rich dimensions of substance in worship.

First you will find an unprecedented resource of themed series of songs which have proved to bring a blend and a flow in praise that brings rejoicing to gatherings of believers! This is no ordinary hymnal: It is a marvelous collection of musical resources, conceived and arranged in ways that fulfill a call to creativity which Jesus Himself issued:

He said to them, "Every teacher instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings both new things and old out of his treasure-store." Matthew 13:52

Don't just sing from this book -- strategize with it! The abundance of worship resources is the fruit of a pursuit: These are strategic means to revitalize, energize and maximize the possibilities of some of the richest music of all time-from today and from yesterday.

Second, be assured that nothing here is offered in the socially causal sense of celebration. All sensitive souls know that high praise is more than noise, and that joyous worship is more than foot-tapping. So, expect to find depth and dimension here -- a richness in content that bypasses the superficial, and moves toward the significant. These pages contain spiritual resources designed to bring all who want to worship God toward a genuine entry into His presence-to bow before our awesome, living and loving Father.

He is the Founder of our Song, so it's to Him we come!

His Son is the Foundation of our Song, so it's Him we praise!

His Spirit is the Fountain of our Song, so we drink of Him!

May The Celebration Hymnal be an instrument in your hand to assist you to new planes of praise, and unto new wonders in worship.

Jack W. Hayford