What isThat in Your Hand?

God asked Moses an interesting question in Exodus chapter four, "What is that in your hand?"  In and of itself the question is actually quite reasonable.  I can remember several incidents as a child when one of my parents would ask, "What is that in your hand?"  Usually it was because whatever was in my hand probably should not have been.  While my parents may not have always known what was in my hand when they asked, we can say for sure the Lord knew what Moses held.  The point of the question was to get Moses to see what he held.  God then demonstrated to him what could be done with that old walking stick when it and its owner were in the hand of God.

Moses was equipped with a shepherd's staff, a unique experience with God, and the portion of God's Word given to him in his day.  While we may not have the same sort of burning bush experience Moses had, we have the completed cannon of scripture available to us in multiple translations, paraphrases and media.  We have over two thousand years of writings of Godly men who have studied those scriptures through the ages and recorded their thoughts, insights, prayers, laments and conclusions.  On top of all that we live in an age in which through technology we can access any of that information at any time at no great expense. Truly we do hold much in our hands, and no doubt should be held accountable for these blessings we take for granted.  

There is something else you hold in your hand.  Every week you pick it up on cue, confidently turn in its pages and are exposed to some of the content already mentioned in this article.  There you see words of scripture, the thoughts and prayers of Godly men, and tears of great theologians on the pages of your hymnal.  As the words of our creeds, catechisms, and confessions link reformed believers past, present, and yes, future; so the songs of our hymnal link us through the years.  

You probably seldom think about the hymnal, other than to be exasperated when there is not one in your pew slot.  Many churches have made the decision to do away with hymnals.  It is so much cheaper now to simply project the words of songs on a wall or screen rather than waste resources on dusty books used only once a week.  Although I have always considered myself one who idolizes innovations and promotes progress, I mourn for a new world so brave it does not need the comfort and consolation provided by the companionship of a good hymnal.

Sadly, we don't make use of our hymnals.  Perhaps that is because few know of the tools, resources, and structure of hymnals.  Maybe that is because our church members have never been properly introduced to their hymnals.  Our hymnal, the Trinity Hymnal, is more than an anthology of old music.  It is a rich resource for personal and public worship.  Have you ever looked at the Table of Contents?  You may have assumed there was no rhyme or reason to the order in which hymns are listed.  Did you ever notice ours are arranged based on their general content or use. For instance, the first 99 are about different attributes of God.  Other sections are devoted to the Trinity, God's Word, The Church, etc.  In other words, if you were depressed because of the struggles you have had against Satan and temptations, you might want to look at hymns 570 through 582 that deal with spiritual warfare.  Could singing or reading the words of #570 Faith of Our Fathers, #571 Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus or #582 Yield Not to Temptation, be a source of encouragement to you at such a time?

At the back of the Trinity Hymnal there are a number of different cross referencing tools allow one to look up a hymn by author, (of the text) composer (of the tune), Biblical reference, name of tune, poetic meter, first line of the hymn or hymn topic.  Personally I find it exciting that  we have hymn text going back to Ambrose of Milan (340 A.D.) and as current as Michael Card's El Shaddai #42.  We have hymn tunes composed by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Bach, and Handel, as well as folk tunes from various continents.  Creative combinations and switching around of hymn texts is made possible by using the poetic meter index.  For instance, both O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing (#164) and Amazing Grace #460 have the same meter.  That means either set of words can be sung to the tune of the other.  From the scripture reference index we can see that the largest set of hymns find their source in the book of Psalms.  I count somewhere around 260 hymns having their references there.

There is a big emphasis these days on singing new and modern songs.  Have you ever noticed that the Trinity Hymnal has 742 hymns in it?  Did you know there are 576 different tunes or melodies used for those 742 hymns?  As best I can figure, of those 576 tunes we utilize only 263, and we are probably only comfortable with about 200 of those.  Now I will be the first one to say that a lot of the hymn tunes are just not very singable.  I will also admit to you there are a lot of hymn tunes I really don't like and dread when I see we are going to sing them.  But, just because you or I don't like a certain hymn does not mean it can't minister to someone else and touch their heart.  Through the years there are hymns I absolutely could not stand when I first heard them, but now they are some of my favorite.  Maybe we should try and learn the hymns in our hymnal that have stood the test of time while we also explore the new and modern.

Beyond the anthology of hymns, the Trinity Hymnal also contains printed creeds, the Westminster Confession, and the shorter catechism.  These have little to do with music, but much to do with worship. These resources are available to the individual for personal devotion, or for use in corporate worship.

I am looking forward to the coming months as we attempt to make greater use of our hymnal.  As always, I would like to point out that if you are interested in learning more about music, singing, our hymnal and want a deeper worship experience, then perhaps the choir is where you belong.  We begin rehearsal at 9:00 AM on Sunday mornings.  We have some who go to their Sunday School class at 9:30 and rejoin us at 10:15 for a final run through.  Others stay and we work the whole hour and a half preparing for the coming weeks. You are welcome to come give it a try.  I do warn you though.  Praising God is addictive and once you start it is hard to quit.  Now I ask you that simple question, "What is that in your hand?"

Heal Our Land

I love my country. I am one of those irritating flag waving Christians.  If you don't believe me, just drive by my house on a sunny day and you can see Old Glory blowing in the breeze. I am the son of a World War II veteran.  While I love my country and our heritage, I cannot help but grieve over how wretched and sickening our society has become.  I also happen to believe that as a Christian I am responsible to pray for my country.  As believers we are responsible to lift prayer for our sin sick nation.  There is nothing a candidate, party, special interest group, or filibuster can do to bring healing to our land. Only God has the power to bring spiritual renewal.

On July 6, our choir will be singing a prayer in song for our country.  The song title is an appeal to God repeated over and over again, "Heal our Land." The prayer asks God to "grant us peace".  We are a violent and unruly people.  The psychologists, psychoanalysts, and sociologists argue over the impact of violence in our entertainment, or wish to ban firearms yet ignore the fact that as a fallen race we are at the mercy of a fallen and depraved nature apart from the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Yes Lord, please "grant us peace" and "strengthen all who lack the faith to call on Thee each day."

The prayer of the song goes on to seek the guiding hand of God.  I firmly believe it was the guiding hand of God that led to the founding of our country.  We have never been a theocracy, and I don't pretend to believe God holds America in some favored status over any other country.  But I do believe we have been the recipients time and time again of His blessings and His mercies.  This country has been a rich land in which the seed of the Gospel could take root and grow abundantly and touch the world.  Our nation as it stands today is far removed from this and the ideals upon which it was founded and is sick.  Our failure to live and share the Gospel outside the self imposed ghettos of our churches has opened our nation up to cancerous decay brought on by the sin we embrace.  Only the intervention of God can bring about the change we need.

One of the more uncomfortable topics hit upon in this lyrical prayer is the chastening rod of God. Truly, if we were to ever experience the revival of spirit we need, then it would be brought on by repentance and that repentance would no doubt be the result of God's chastening hand.  Oh that we could turn to Him willingly and not have to face what may come.

II Chronicles 7:14 says, "if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."  While this was a word of promise given to Israel, I believe it can apply to any nation who turns to God. Notice how closely this passage compares with the idea of being born again? What would a born again nation look like?

A song will not change a nation.  A prayer, in and of itself, will not change a nation.  The hand of God sought through prayer and repentance would change a nation.  Will you pray with us, not only this Sunday, but in these days in which we live.  Pray for God's healing on our land. Pray that His Gospel would take root in our lives changing us, and therefore, changing our country.

Be Thou My Vision - A Word of Encouragement to Our Graduates

Through the years a lot of work has gone into developing hymnology tools that aid church musicians in finding appropriate hymns and choral music for special occasions.  One of the most useful of these tools is the topical index at the back of our Trinity Hymnal.  Unfortunately I often find that the topic I am looking for is not there.  "Graduation," should be in there somewhere, I am sure.  Unfortunately our topical index skips from, "Grace" all the way to, "Gratitude."  However, after looking at a few blogs and posts and a little consideration of the topic myself, I came to the conclusion that Be Thou My Vision would be a wonderful selection for our choir to sing on Sunday June 1, the day we recognize our graduates.

The text of Be Thou My Vision comes from a sixth century Irish monastic text.  It was first translated into English by Mary E. Byrne in 1905 and was later versified by Ellanor Hull in 1912.  The modern text we are most familiar with was edited and versified in 1964. The hymn, like so many others like it, is a prayer to God. It is an excellent prayer for anyone, but especially for a young person taking the first steps out into a big wide confusing world.

When we translate a hymn from one language into another and then try to versify the translation so that it fits the rhythm of the original tune to which it is sung, sometimes we get confusing and jumbled wording.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart,

Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art,

Thou my best thought by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

The first stanza of they hymn is a petition for a single-minded devotion and focus on the things of God.  The request is that God, and God alone would be the Lord of my heart.  The confusing second line is saying, "Nothing else, only Thou!"  The petitioner, knowing that in him dwells no good thing, declares that the best thought he can have, day or night, awake or asleep, is to think on the Lord.  He fully acknowledges that God must be not only his vision, but his light.  For those graduates who embark on a collegiate career, you need to prayerfully ask God to be your vision.  You will see great and marvelous ideas, theories, and world views that you will find wonderfully tantalizing.  You will be exposed to wonderful explanations of facts that will challenge the very foundation of all you have been taught.  You will literally hear that good is evil and evil is good.  You will need to have God as your Vision, and the ruling thought in your mind.  Believers, this is a good prayer for all of us, regardless of our age.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my True Word,

I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;

Thou my great Father and I Thy true son,

Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

This second stanza of the hymn is actually about the Word of God.  How can God be a believer's Wisdom and True Word? By the believer reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on the written Word of God. Only by the process of reading and studying God's Word can be achieve the duality expressed in this stanza.  As God's Word becomes part of us we become more aware of the mind of Christ.  We truly begin to act like children of the Father as His Word becomes part of us.  Graduate, if you are not already, it is time to become a student of the Word of God.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,

Thou mine inheritance, now and always,

Thou and Thou, only, First in my heart,

High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.

It is my sincere hope and wish that every single one of our graduates would have very successful and lucrative careers.  Many a young person has sought a career that promised wealth or prestige, but what he found was bankruptcy of the soul.  Be successful.  Pursue your dreams.  Remember, however, that if you are a believer, you are already a child of the King and there is no higher claim to fame than that.  There is no greater inheritance.  There is no greater treasure than what you already have.  This is a perspective we loose site of in the struggles of life.  Believers of all ages, as you face the challenge of life, remember that your Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

High King of heaven, my victory won,

May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's Sun,

Heart of my own heart, whatever be fall,

Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

The last stanza, graduates, is about a subject you do not think on that much.  It is about the end of life.  I pray God grants you a long productive life full of challenges, victories, and few defeats.  There are people I went to school with who did not live to graduate.  There are people I went to school with, who within a decade of graduation no longer walked the earth. This final stanza reflects upon the ultimate and final graduation.  It refers to the end of life as, "my victory won."  Even as you see your high school life ending and a new life beginning, one day you will graduate from this mortal school of hard knocks and, like a victor, you will enter into eternity. But notice even now the petitioner, while addressing God as, "Heart of my own heart,"  requests that God continue to be His Vision, whatever may happen.

You will have a vision and an outlook that characterizes you life.  People will know you for your vision, whatever it is.  You can adopt the vision of your professors, or your employers, or that of your favorite celebrity you follow on various social networks.  Or you can seek to have the Master and Creator of the universe as the source of your vision, and your outlook.  He can be the world view that characterizes your life after this graduation, and those to come.  God Bless you graduates. 

Observations and Conclusions

For the last several years I have been making some very disturbing observations from which I have drawn some very uncomfortable conclusions. I have shared with you before that I have concerns regarding trends in worship music.  It seems to me that there is an almost fanatical move to eradicate traditional worship and replace it with the modern contemporary model that is patterned after the youth rally concept of the 80's.  I really don't have anything against contemporary worship music, and have utilized it throughout my career.  Likewise, I see no problem in utilizing multiple styles of music in worship.  The style and forms of music in worship will quite naturally reflect the culture of the participants.  Depending upon the congregations's education level, overall music background, and local cultural influences, I have utilized, features from folk, components from country, rudiments of rock,  sounds of soul, and the cornerstone of classical upon the occasion.

I have no fear of music styles and I do not believe the utilization of any style is a threat to the Gospel.  I do, however, find the tendency toward polarization extremely disturbing.  The active trend, fueled by popular culture is to go contemporary.  Therefore, the reactive archetype is to embrace more ancient styles and forms.  Are our only two options the scream of the electric guitar or the wail of the Gregorian chant? With the polarization comes new labels.  Now we must stipulate. Are we going to the traditional worship, the contemporary worship, or the blended worship service? Can we no longer simply go to worship?

Another trend that disturbs me involves the absence of music education.  Many of you remember the music teacher who would come to the class room and teach songs and music basics in elementary school.  That is no longer a common sight.  Fewer and fewer families are educating their children musically.  Don't worry though.  The various talent competition shows on TV are training our children about music.  They are learning through watching those shows what "real" music sounds like and what "real" musicians look, act, and dress like.  (In case that wasn't obvious enough for you, that was sarcasm.) In other words, popular culture is leading again.

With music education at an all time low, and popular culture running at an all time high, I fear that worship, as we know it is severely threatened.  As congregations embrace text only song sheets, and lyrics projected on the wall, our heritage of four part sung music is being eroded.  Choirs are being replaced by praise teams because of the lack of interest in singing.  The tunes and forms of more ancient hymns are being lost because they are not familiar to us in structure.  We are moving toward simpler and more infantile melodies in place of the majestic, the artful, the beautiful.

A silly but fun movie I enjoy watching on occasion is Sylvester Stallone's Demolition Man.  In the story, a 20th century cop is wrongfully accused of a crime and sentenced to suspended animation in a cryogenic prison.  Following a Buck Rogers type story line, he is awakened in a very changed 21st century.  While the story is very campy and light, the writers seemed to make some interesting commentaries on society.  One of the more comedic elements in the story revolves around what passes for popular music in this supposed Utopian future. Advertisement jingles from our day have become the popular music culture of the post nuclear world.  "The Oscar Mayer Wiener song is considered top 40 material.  Interestingly enough, with the devolving of music I see taking place in our world today I fear that future may not be as fictional a possibility as it sounds. 

I believe it is possible to maintain scriptural integrity, utilize a foundation of traditional music, and employ elements of various music styles in a balanced manner that would simply be characterized as worship, and need no other label.  I also believe the key to the church's music future is participation in the church choir.  (Oh, come on, you knew that was where I was headed.)  We need to see more people involved in choir and we specifically need to see more young people involved.  You young married need to find a place in the choir so you can learn more about singing and pass it on to your children.  You teenagers and young singles need to pour your energy and your enthusiasm into learning more about our musical heritage through participation in the choir.  The more people we have involved, the more we can explore that heritage and the more we can learn together.

Choir rehearsal begins at 9:00 AM on Sunday mornings.  We would love to see you there.  You enjoy hearing the choir.  You won't believe how great it sounds when your sitting in the middle of it.  Come join us and give it a try.

Bach to Christmas

 As I told you last month, my favorite and I believe most Biblical based holiday time for Christians is Thanksgiving.  Although the advertising and marketing arm of every retailer has been here well ahead of us, we have finally arrived at the Christmas season.  While historically Christmas has, at best, a checkered past I can't ignore the potential for ministry inherent in the Christmas season.

True, there is no command to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  There is nothing linking the birth of Christ with the week of the winter solstice.  There is no Biblical basis for the trappings of the season.  If you want to get down to the truth, there is a very messy and embarrassing history behind everything from caroling to those gingerbread man cookies.  There are even a number of famous historic incidents in which the season and antisemitic actions were linked together.  It is no wonder that our Puritan forefathers banned the celebration.

We live in a world that has become increasingly ignorant of its own history.  The season, though pagan in its origins has, for most of our population, transcended most of its dark roots and is recognized either as a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, or a time to indulge in materialism.  Admittedly, for most of us modern Christians, we do a little of both.  The season is a time in which the secular world notices the Christian world. We have reached a point now in which I believe we are better served to not only celebrate the season, but to celebrate it in the extreme when possible.  Entertainment media, proponents of other recently made up holidays, influences from the Mideast, and others would like to erase Christ from Christmas.  Retailers instruct sales staff to wish patrons, "Happy holidays," rather than, "Merry Christmas."  One could argue quite easily that the best thing for believers to do is separate ourselves from the pagan celebration completely as the Puritans tried and ban all vestiges of it from our churches and our homes. I believe, however, that more good can come from a pagan celebration that has been "salted" with Christianity.

The words of Christ teach us to be the salt of the world.  We know that salt influences flavor, acts as a preservative, and is a purifier.  But for salt to work it has to come into contact with what it is affecting.  Kept in the shaker, salt has not influence or affect.  We too have no effect on the world unless we contact it. Christmas, however tainted it may be, is one of the key contact points we have with the world.  If we remove our influence from the holiday, what would be accomplished?  I believe the work of the church, and the spread of the gospel is better served by claiming what we can of the holiday and keeping it as ours.

Now, like a long winded preacher (which I am actually guilty of having been), that was all introduction.  What I really want to tell you about is how we in the adult choir intend to claim the season through music this year.  First, as your choir provides leadership and encouragement to worship in congregational song I hope you will join your voice singing the familiar songs of the season.  Second, as we sing the various introits and anthems celebrating the coming of the Savior into our world, I hope you will not view them as elevator music or filler time. These are not performance pieces for your entertainment, but are songs of worship being lifted up to the Lord that you can participate with in your heart.  Instead of checking your email on your phone, let the words and the music lift your heart and encourage your spirit and help you tune your mind onto the things of Christ rather than the things of the world.

Our Christmas season begins officially on December 1, the first Sunday in the Advent Season.  The choir will share, "Air for Advent".  "Air" is a music term that means melody or tune.  This particular piece is an arrangement by Tom Fettke that uses the melody from J.S. Bach's (1685-1750) Overture No. 3 in D major,BWV 1068, more commonly known as the "Air on G".  Fettke took the various melodies of this instrumental piece and assigned text from the Hymns, "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" (written by Charles Wesley 1707-1788), and "Come O Come Emmanuel" (an ancient Latin hymn translated b John M. Neale 1818-1866).  The result is a beautiful haunting call pleading for the Jewish Messiah to come and make His appearance in the world.  What a way to prepare your heart to hear the message that will be delivered following the offering that Sunday!

Next, we will share on December 8, a favorite of the congregation, "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Gustav Holst (1874-1934) with text from a poem by Christina G. Rossetti (1830-1894).  While the text of the poem is in error in its attempt to present the nativity in a winter setting, poetically it accurately describes the cold harsh world Christ was born into.  It paints a most wonderful and artistic word picture of the humility of Christ's birth, and the wonder that the simple stable held He Whom neither heaven nor earth could possibly contain. I have been told on more than one occasion by individuals in our congregation that Christmas has not come until we sing this song.

The following two Sundays Bach will provide brief chorales for our introits. Our anthem, "A Joyful Noel" utilizing Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", and the text of "The First Noel" will be sung on the 15th of December. Finally on December 22 our anthem will be a Lloyd Larson arrangement of "Angels We Have Heard on High".  The resounding, "Gloria in excelsis Deo" is of course the famous Latin phrase that means, "Glory to God in the highest!".  As an old preacher once told me, "Singing that gets me so excited it makes me want to charge hell with a water pistol!"

What our choral music is all about is worshiping God through song.  It is about getting excited about the things of God.  It is about lifting your heart high and expressing genuine joy for the Creator of all things who chose to take upon Himself the cruel punishment that was due His creation.  He did so by coming into this world through the indignity of human birth.  Fittingly, we will end the season with the prayerful anthem by David S. Gaines and Ruth Elaine Schram, "Be Born in Us."  Even as Christ changed the world by being born into it, living a perfect life, and dying on the cross, so this song lifts a longing prayer that He would do the same thing in our hearts as individuals.

As the retail world, the secular world, the world that hates us, and the world that tolerates us all vie to keep the season of Christmas in their way, I pray we, like the reinvented Ebeneezer Scrooge will know "how to keep Christmas well" in our lives and our church. In closing I would like to quote from that final planned anthem mentioned above, "Be born in us, O Prince of Peace, let the hope You bring this world be born in me."  God bless you as you keep the season.  Yes, I think it is a good idea, let's keep the season.

Something to Be Thankful For

When it comes to selecting choral music for worship, I believe it is advantageous to make use of the various holidays that fill our calendar. Granted, most of our holidays are not "Biblical", and the few that arguably ever were have drifted far in their observance from any scriptural anchor they may have once had. The fact is however, our hearts and minds become predisposed to the themes and ideas of those seasons as we are assaulted by the secular music, imagery, lawn decorations, and predawn sales events culturally linked to those holidays giving us the opportunity to address the subjects of those seasons with little or no introduction. Ironically enough, the one holiday for which I personally feel there is more scriptural and theological basis tends to get the least attention. That holiday is Thanksgiving.

Throughout history many cultures have observed periods of thanksgiving at the end of harvest season. Our Judeo-Christian roots are no stranger to this practice. The Old Testament is replete with instructions for the celebration of feasts that God commanded of His people, Israel. Of the seven high feast celebrations, three are specifically set aside as times of thanksgiving among the people. The celebrations of Firstfruits, and Pentecost commemorated the beginning of the time of harvest of barley and wheat respectively. These two events fall on our modern calendar between the months of March and June. The celebration of Tabernacles or Sukkot followed at the end of the harvest time in our September or October. Specific instructions for the types of sacrifices and required procedures for these holidays are given throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Admittedly, the New Testament gives us no instruction to celebrate any holidays other than the Christian Sabbath. We have no commands regarding Christian holy days or feasts. Although I adore the Christian themes they inspire, the holidays of Christmas and Easter have a checkered past and are basically the result of attempts at cleaning up pre-existing pagan rites and rituals and incorporating them into the Christian world. Our modern mythologies regarding a red dressed demigod and magical egg bearing rodents have done little to aid in that clean-up. Nevertheless, those holidays get more attention in and out of church than does a celebration intended to simply remind us to be thankful to God.

Since we no longer live in an agrarian society, our culture has become increasingly oblivious to the concept of harvest celebrations. The school calendar which prevails to this day serves as a reminder of how farm life one shaped our culture. As we have moved away from agriculture as a society, and have embraced consumerism, it seems to me that we have become less dependent on God and therefore less thankful to Him for His provision. When we relied upon Him to provide the rain and appropriate weather to make our crops grow we were more aware of his blessings. Now we pray for weather conditions that meet our travel and recreation desires more often than we pray for conditions on our crops.

No, there is no eleventh commandment to celebrate a feast of Thanksgiving in the month of November. But the idea of being thankful to a sovereign God who meets our needs as He sees fit is quite appropriate . Don't be surprised over the next few weeks when you hear music of thanksgiving and appreciation for what God has done in our lives. This month try praying for farmers and for God's blessing upon the harvest. What blesses the harvest does bless us. Be reminded this month that God has been good to us even though we don't deserve His goodness. Gather together to ask the Lord's blessing. Be amazed at the goodness of God.

Not Another Recruitment Attempt!

I don't have a problem admitting that I am a lousy recruiter when it comes to recruiting new choir members.  Through the years I have tried all the different methods I can think of and that the various leadership books tell you to try. I have had the recruitment suppers, breakfasts, and lunches.  I have done the impassioned appeals from the pulpit.  I have done the mail-outs to new church members.  I have even tried the church member interests surveys to pinpoint potential targets... I mean candidates for choir membership.  On occasion one of these has actually drummed up a new choir member.  For some reason, those I managed to conjure up using any one of these methods eventually disappeared.

Now from my perspective, I cannot imagine why everyone is not in the choir.  There is something very special about the connection people in the choir have.  Of course, the first connection they have is their shared faith in Christ.  The automatic sense of brotherhood that comes from the shared experiences of walking in Christ is like no other.  The environment of the choir rehearsal allows for opportunities for members to spontaneously share prayer requests, family concerns, personal victories, and personal anecdotes. There is also something very special about the fellowship that comes from working side by side week after week in rehearsal time.  As you get more and more familiar with the people you are working with week after week toward a common goal, a natural affinity and comradery develops that I have seldom experienced outside of this special group.  Through the years I have heard people talk about the experience of joining a church but never really feeling a part of that church.  I have often asked them, "Did you try joining the choir?"  The answer has always been, "No," usually followed by the question, "What's that got to do with it?"

The fact is people join the choir because there is a song in their heart.  In the Old Testament, the prophets using picturesque language described times of oppression by Israel's enemies as times where music and singing ceased.  Isaiah 24:8 and Ezekiel 26:13 respectively describe such a occasions as a time in which, "the joy of the harp ceaseth," and "...shall be no more heard." Psalm 137 describes the journey into Babylonian captivity as a time in which they hung up their harps and could not muster the songs of Zion.  It is hard to sing without a song in your heart.  Likewise, if you have a song in your heart it is hard not to sing.  People who join the choir do so because you really can't keep them out.

So, all this rambling is really about one thing.  If you have not yet found your place of service where you are being used effectively by the Lord, you have a longing for a closer fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, and you do have a song in your heart, then maybe choir is the place for you.  We meet every Sunday morning at 9:00 A.M.  Yes, that is early, but that time has been selected by our Choir members because with all our various work schedules and church activities, it was the most convenient for all.  We work each week not only on the anthem for that day, but also on those for the coming weeks.  We look at the hymn selections for that Sunday and go over those we think will be challenging to ourselves or the congregation.  We do have time to share prayer requests, usually some devotional thoughts or history associated with the songs and we pray.  In the middle of all this there is usually a lot of hard work, and hard laughing and a whole lot of fun.  I can say that at 9:00 A.M. in the morning, it is the most fun you can have at church.

If you are interested then talk with me or one of our choir members, or even better yet, show up Sunday at 9:00 AM upstairs in the choir room.  I promise it won't hurt, and you might even like it.