It consists of words and music to 695 hymns including traditional favorites from the earlier Church Hymnal that it replaced, American folk hymns, modern gospel songs, compositions by Adventists, contemporary hymns, and 224 congregational responsive Scripture readings.

[1] As part of the process more than 3000 Adventist ministers were asked to rate the hymns of the then existing Church Hymnal.

Songs that were added to the new hymnal include those of a more diverse and contemporary nature.

The hymnal was preceded by the following:[2][3] There are 695 songs and 225 scripture readings (SR).

It contains the history of each hymn in the hymnal and biographical information on the composers and authors.