Discover how music can do far more than enrich worship – it can grow hope.
In this lively and practical book, Andy Thomas shows how music helps congregations sense God’s presence, imagine the new creation, and rediscover who they are in Christ. Drawing on real parish experience and accessible theology, he offers fresh inspiration for clergy, musicians, worship teams, and small churches working with limited resources.
Resounding Hope reveals how even simple music‑making can strengthen community, spark imagination, and transform how we live out our faith together.
This book will help you:
- Recognize the roots of Christian hope already present in your community
- Use music to ground worshippers in place, story, and relationship
- Build environments that encourage prayer, reflection, and transformation
- Envision how your church’s musical life can reflect the values of the kingdom
- Encourage participation, nurture gifts, and inspire a renewed sense of purpose
A book for anyone who believes church music can change lives – and wants to see it happen.
Resounding Hope is a book grounded in lived, personal experience. It gives cause to stop and think; it helps draw attention to the different purposes and functions of music in church and in worship.
For all of us who contribute to church music, in whatever way and in whatever circumstance, it reminds us of the anchoring role of church music in our own lives, and of those in the communities we serve. It encourages us to look positively for nurturing opportunities even when challenges abound; and to guard against things which might have negative consequences or wrongly draw our priorities.
All church musicians should make the time to read this book; it gives cause to hope anew in the value of church music as an endeavour.
Hugh Morris, Director, RSCM
If you like your books about church music and musicians to come with thoughtful theological reflection, then this is the book for you. Readable, accessible and practical, Andy Thomas shows how the business of making music in local churches not only glorifies God, but can also nurture Christian hope.
Mark Earey, Tutor in Mission and Ministry, Ripon College Cuddesdon
In this book Andy Thomas demonstrates very beautifully how powerful music can be in nurturing Christian hope. This is theology at its best: imaginative insights derived from lived experience expressed in a highly accessible manner: I give it a ringing endorsement.
The Rt Revd Dr John Inge KCVO, former Bishop of Worcester
This is a book to inspire church musicians and to encourage church leaders to work with them. Andy Thomas positions church musicians as key lay ministers of the Christian Gospel. Church music lifts our spirits and engages our minds to experience and to comprehend the profoundly hopeful good news of God's activity in our world. Here is a vision for church musicians to be theologically formed and musically educated. Here is a strong case for harnessing the power of music to sustain church growth.
The Revd Canon Professor Leslie J. Francis,Professor Emeritus of Religions and Psychology, University of Warwick
