Tony Cummings interviewed compiler Peter Horrobin about the hymn and song publishing phenomenon MISSION PRAISE

Peter Horrobin
Peter Horrobin

On 25th June HarperCollins published the new 25th anniversary edition of Complete Mission Praise. Over its 25 years of existence Mission Praise has become a cornerstone book in blending the glory of the old hymns with the immediacy and relevance of the new worship songs and in the process has found its way into thousands of churches of all denominations both in the UK and across the world with over 2.5 million copies sold. The new edition has 106 new hymns and songs to bring the grand total of old and new favourites up to 1,250. Mission Praise is compiled by Peter Horrobin and Greg Leavers. Peter Horrobin is, of course, a renowned figure in both ministry and publishing circles. This extraordinary multi-talented man pioneered Ellel Ministries which today has a full time team of over 300 people running a continuous series of healing retreats and training courses and schools at about 20 different centres around the world. He is the author of several books about healing and deliverance; he is the chairman of the well established Christian publisher Sovereign World Ltd; and he is the author of the Complete Catalogue Of British Cars, the standard reference work on the history and technical specification of every model of every make of British car made between 1895 and 1975. Yet somehow this extraordinary man found time to be involved in compiling the most successful post-war Christian song/hymnbook.

Peter told Christian Marketplace how that particular work, then called Mission England Praise, began. "I was the Chairman of the local area of work for Mission England in North Lancashire and the Lake District. The vision for Mission England Praise was birthed in 1982 out of the first Praise and Prayer Night for Billy Graham's 1984 visit to the UK. The Baptist Hymnal in the church we were using seemed so limiting, when compared with the many other hymns and songs that were available at that time. There was much division in the country between the different music camps - especially between the traditional hymn folk and those promoting the many new songs that were coming out. I realised that Mission England in 1984 would provide the ideal opportunity to bring unity across these divides by compiling a new hymn and song book for the mission which would, for the first time, give traditional hymns and modern songs equal weight by putting them together in alphabetical order. I tested out the vision with Gavin Reid, the National Director that weekend - he was all for it and the rest is history.

"I recruited the help of two friends, Greg Leavers (a local guitar playing worship leader and piano tuner!) and Roland Fudge (a professional violinist and worship leader at a local church) to share the load with me of putting the book together and we completed the work in just 12 weeks from beginning to end. The book that resulted, Mission England Praise, was an outstanding success which fulfilled the vision for the book, bringing together the best of the old and the best of the new in a format that was universally accepted and adopted as the genre for the era. For some time after Mission England I continued to collect items for the 'best of the old and the best of the new' and Greg and I worked with the publishers to produce ongoing volumes from which we dropped the word England from the title, leaving Mission Praise as the name which has become so well known over the past 25 years. Greg and I have always worked together as a team in doing the selection - but it is Greg that provides the solid musical input. My role has been much more to do with the organisation of the whole project."

Peter suggested there are four reasons why Mission Praise has been such a huge publishing success down the years. He itemised them as:
1. It got a huge kick-start with a national mission behind the original volume. The songbook was launched with a pre-Mission England national tour with Cliff Barrows.
2. The formula - 'the best of the old and the best of the new' - exactly matched what people wanted. They loved the new songs but didn't want to say goodbye to the hymns they loved and valued. Mission Praise gave them the vehicle to have both.
3. Musically, as far as possible, we have tried to use arrangements which were relatively simple so that the music could be played by most organists/pianists/guitarists who are leading worship up and down the land in all sorts of different environments.
4. We have kept updating the book so that it has always contained the modern songs that have found their way into common use. With every update we have also delved into the past and found some wonderful old hymns that merited resurrection!"

Mission Praise: Blending old hymns and new worship songs for 25 years!

Peter said it was difficult to know how many editions of Mission Praise there have been in total. He explained, "In addition to the main issues of Mission Praise, there has also been the Junior Praise sister volumes. But there have been six main editions of the full Mission Praise over the 25 years if one is to include Volume 2 which was the first extension of the original work."

Christian Marketplace asked how difficult it was to select the new worship songs for the anniversary edition out of the tens of thousands of new songs published over the last few years. He responded, "Both Greg and I travel extensively and minister in many different environments, so we tend to be familiar with those songs which are actually being sung regularly in a variety of places. We are always keeping our ears open for ones that might fit into the next edition. Right now I have a wonderful old Salvation Army hymn which I am expecting to include in the next edition! Yes, we had to reject a lot of songs, not because they were bad songs, but there is a limit to what can be included. At the end of the day, you have to go with your spiritual instinct as to which ones are right for the Mission Praise market. I don't think we've made too many mistakes over the years."

In the past compilers of worship songbooks have complained that some songs they wanted to put in their editions were unavailable to them, such is the competitive nature of today's worship song publishing. Did Mission Praise have any problems in this respect? Peter replied, "Only rarely has this been a problem, but there are so many other good songs that can be put in that it's not an issue."

Peter said that he and Greg Leavers worked on the anniversary edition of Mission Praise for about six months in total - but he then added, "In reality one never stops working on it. As I said, I am already collecting items for the next edition!"

We finished our interview by asking Peter whether he thought Mission Praise will still be being used in churches in 25 years' time? He answered, "If we can continue to recognise those hymns and songs which have the touch of God's anointing on them for the season we are in, then I have no doubt Mission Praise will be around for a long time to come - yes, even 25 years and more." CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.