{"id":142,"date":"2013-08-28T14:21:36","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T14:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namethathymn.com\/blog\/?p=142"},"modified":"2013-08-28T14:21:36","modified_gmt":"2013-08-28T14:21:36","slug":"review-of-the-niv-worship-together-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/namethathymn.com\/blog\/review-of-the-niv-worship-together-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of the NIV Worship Together Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"When I signed up for the Booksneeze program, I figured I’d be reading and reviewing all kinds of books, but it turns out that the kind of book I tend to get again and again are Bibles. This works out well for me; as I mentioned in an earlier post<\/a>, my mom used to give me a Bible every year, and since we’re only a few weeks from my birthday, I was happy to receive another one from Booksneeze to review.<\/p>\n

This Bible is called the NIV Worship Together Bible<\/a>\"\". The tagline of the book says “Discover Scripture through Classic & Contemporary Music”. I was especially happy to review this particular Bible, as its theme of music and worship ties in very well with the mission of this site. <\/p>\n

When you take the book cover off, the book itself looks like a standard hardcover cook or pew Bible. In fact, the cover only reads “New International Version” and “Holy Bible”–there’s no indication on the cover that it’s a special kind of Bible. As such, it’s definitely a Bible that’s appropriate not just for personal worship, but also for buying for use in a church or a small group setting. <\/p>\n

As usual with my Bible reviews, this review won’t review the actual Bible nor the translation, but instead it’ll focus on the special features that make this Bible unique. The “Bible” portion of the Worship Together Bible is a fairly standard NIV Bible, with books, chapters, and verses arranged in the usual way and NIV footnotes on the bottom. The paper is thin and an off-white color. <\/p>\n

The highlight of the book is that every 40-60 pages or so there are two pages dedicated to a popular worship song, complete with full lyrics, the verse that inspired it, a “behind the song” story\/devotional about how the song came to be written, and even a “Selah” call-out that gives you short, practical advice to use in your personal or group worship. <\/p>\n

While the devotionals are well-written and provide some fascinating insight behind the writing of some of 50 modern praise and worship songs, the one thing that struck me is that it just felt kind of incongruous. Each song seems to be placed almost randomly within the Bible, so that there’s not really a connection between what you’re reading. For example, the Chris Tomlin song “Holy Is the Lord” was inspired by the books of Isaiah and Nehemiah, but for some reason it’s placed in the middle of 1 Kings. The story of the praise song “Happy Day”, inspired by the events of Matthew 28 inexplicably appears in Isaiah. <\/p>\n

At the end of the book, they do have full lyrics and chords for 20 of the praise songs highlighted in the Bible. This is a great feature to have, especially when using the Bible in conjunction with a praise session. But the obvious question I had is, why limit it to only 20 songs? <\/p>\n

There’s also an original article by the author at the end of the book that talks about the history of worship music. It’s a well-written article, but in many ways also felt a bit out of place, as if it was something I’d think of reading on a Web site or a magazine as opposed to a Bible. <\/p>\n

There’s also a “Table of Weights and Measures” which also seems kind of random, as if they just had to fill up one more page. <\/p>\n

Overall I like the idea of the NIV Worship Together Bible, but I’m not so sure I’m crazy about the execution. It feels like either a Bible with a small worship music book thrown in, or a small worship music book with a Bible built in. Both are definitely solid on their own, but putting them together didn’t really add much to either. <\/p>\n

I almost would have rather seen the song lyrics and devotionals in a separate book, with a lot more commentary and deeper history of the use of music in worship, a more full set of lyrics with chords and even sheet music, a wider selection of praise songs and hymns, and some practical advice for worship leaders that talks about how to lead worship services. On the flip side, I wouldn’t have minded seeing it in Bible form if it more closely tied together themes in songs and hymns with themes in the Bible. <\/p>\n

Despite its flaws, as someone who spends a lot of time with Christian music, I did appreciate the insights that the history and devotionals offered from the original artists. If you’re a praise and worship leader and happen to need an NIV Bible, this is just as good an option as any. <\/p>\n

Here’s a full list of the songs highlighted in this Bible. Names with asterisks mean that the chords are included as well.<\/p>\n

Blessed Be Your Name *
\nYou Never Let Go *
\nGive Us Clean Hands
\nO Lord, You’re Beautiful
\nThe Heart of Worship *
\nGod of Wonders
\nSing Sing Sing
\nBetter Is One Day *
\nHow Great Thou Art
\n10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) *
\nThy Word
\nOur God *
\nForever *
\nHe Is Exalted
\nHow Great Is Our God
\nIndescribable *
\nAll Creatures of Our God and King
\nYour Name
\nJesus Paid It All
\nOpen the Eyes of My Heart *
\nHoly Is the Lord *
\nForever Reign
\nEverlasting God *
\nBeautiful One
\nFrom the Inside Out *
\nBeautiful Things
\nThe Stand
\nMighty to Save *
\nHosanna
\nHosanna (Praise is Rising)
\nCornerstone
\nHappy Day
\nThe Wonderful Cross (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross) *
\nYou Are My King (Amazing Love) *
\nGlory to God Forever
\nChrist Is Risen
\nJesus Messiah
\nEnough
\nYour Grace Is Enough
\nHow Deep the Father’s Love for Us *
\nAmazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
\nGive Thanks
\nHere I Am to Worship *
\nBe Thou My Vision
\nIn Christ Alone *
\nSing to the Lord
\nHow He Loves *
\nRevelation Song *
\nWe Fall Down
\nSoon and Very Soon<\/p>\n

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com\u00ae<\/a> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s 16 CFR, Part 255<\/a> : \u201cGuides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I signed up for the Booksneeze program, I figured I’d be reading and reviewing all kinds of books, but it turns out that the kind of book I tend to get again and again are Bibles. This works out well for me; as I mentioned in an earlier post, my mom used to give […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotionals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/namethathymn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/namethathymn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/namethathymn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namethathymn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namethathymn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/namethathymn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/namethathymn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namethathymn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/namethathymn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}