I was having a conversation last evening with a couple of world-travelers…
I asked them that if, in their upcoming world travels, they were to find themselves in some old European bookstore where their eyes happen to come across hymnological gold, to, of course, pick it up for me.
This sent my mind racing down the path toward my dusty, cobweb-covered blogosphere…that I haven’t touched since last September.

When I last posted, I was in the throws of finishing my Masters’ Degree, and all that was associated with that.
One of those items that’s ongoing is the Lasting Hymns Project.

While I haven’t written anything about this in some time, suffice it to say that I’m still very much involved in this research…It’s evolved into an ongoing process of at least three stages.  I’ll be presenting it at several places this coming Summer…

I’ll post some of the info on here very soon…
Of the 50+ respondents to the initial letter I sent out, asking individuals (scholars, pastors, worship leaders, musicians, theologians, etc.) to share what they thought their “Top 150” Lasting Hymns were, the results were astonishing.  No hymn was universally selected.  Upwards of 800 total hymns were represented with those selected 18 or more times finding their way into the “Top 150.”  Anyone want to try to guess what some of those “Top 150” were?  I’d love to field your guesses!

The upcoming stages involve several levels of analysis of this “Top 150” data as well as a stage dealing with contemporary hymnody.  I’m excited to see where it goes…
And I hope to blog about it more often!