Letâ s Praise Combined

'Let's Praise!' is a songbook designed for churches and fellowships who care about the words they sing and who want a breadth of musical vocabulary. The original 'Let's Praise!' has become established in many churches since first published in 1988. Now enlarged with a second volume of songs, we believe it to be a magnificent collection of material suitable for many different contexts of worship.

'Distinctive Features'
One of the distinctive features of 'Let's Praise!' is the range of sources from which the material has been collected. The worship songs range from soft to hard rock, from reggae to black gospel, from ministry or presentation items to recently composed and previously unpublished material; from jazz to response-style psalms and hymns. The Iona and Taize communities and the St. Thomas More Centre are well represented. There are over thirty items from the world church: songs from Africa, South America, Asia, Eastern and Northern Europe and the Caribbean (selected from Jubilate's 'World Praise' published by HarperCollins). All this, together with most of the current and popular worship songs from Britain and North America, make 'Let's Praise!' a truly distinctive songbook for congregations today.

We believe that there is great nourishment value in having hymns of deep spiritual content, which are in a language understandable by today's generation, included in the 'Let's Praise' collection. We have tried to eliminate archaic language and what we believe to be unfortunate emphases, but where permission for revision was not granted, we have made a few exceptions of the grounds of popularity of the items.

The extensive Bible and thematic indexes in the music edition will help worship planners use 'Let's Praise!' to the best possible advantage. Also available in the music edition are a variety of music indexes. Of special interest will be new words set to familiar melodies, making new texts readily accessible to those unfamiliar with the regular church music repertoire.

'Prayers'
You will also fins in the book a selection of prayers from the Bible (many drawn from 'Prayers for the People and Bible Praying', published by HarperCollins). At the back of the book are found prayers suitable for congregational use in worship, including prayers appropriate for use at a communion service. The prayers placed after items 244 and 374 are best used in conjunction with the songs they follow.

We offer this combined volume of 'Let's Praise!' to congregations around the world, praying that the rich vocabulary found in the book will help many to truly praise, worship and respond to God.