I was chatting with a new worship leader recently who didn’t know any hymns, so I decided to make a quick list of some of my favorites (in alphabetical order, not order of favoriteness). There are multiple versions of each hymn on youtube; I picked the particular videos I linked to somewhat at random.
If you’re a worship leader and don’t know any of these, you should add them to your repertoire. You’ll be amazed at how useful they can be. And if you search for “contemporary arrangement of [name of hymn]” you’ll find good resources for making them sound fresh.
You can find chord charts for most of these at Indelible Grace Music’s online hymn book.
- All Creatures Of Our God and King (Dave Crowder version)
- All Hail The Power of Jesus’ Name
- Amazing Grace (Chris Tomlin version — with “my chains are gone”)
- Be Thou My Vision (Shane and Shane version)
- Before the Throne of God Above (Shane and Shane)
- Christ The Lord Is Risen Today
- Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing (Fernando Ortega)
- Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty (Hillsong United)
- How Great Thou Art
- It Is Well With My Soul
- Jesus Paid It All
- This is My Father’s World (Amy Grant)
- When I Survey The Wondrous Cross (this is the Matt Redman/Chris Tomlin version)
For an interesting list of the most popular hymns of all time, check out The Hymns That Keep On Going.