Some churches sing only old songs—they rely on the great hymns of the faith and add newer selections on only the rarest of occasions. Some churches only sing new songs—they rely on their own songwriters or the Christian top-40 and sing older selections on only the rarest of occasions. I am convinced there is value in deliberately singing both the oldest and the most recent songs (though gladly extend an exception to those brothers and sisters with the conviction that the Bible permits us to sing only the psalms in our worship services).
Charles Wesley is probably the most prolific hymnwriter in history. We don’t know exactly how many he composed over the course of his lifetime, but when combined with his poems, the total likely approaches 10,000. That is an incredible body of work and it seems unlikely it will ever be matched. We still love to sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sings,” “And Can It Be?”, “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” and many more.
If anyone ever did approach or even match Wesley’s total, it would be Fanny Crosby. Again, we aren’t sure exactly how many hymns she composed,
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