Archive for May, 2009

“Lord I Lift Your Name On High” – A song for many occasions

May 31, 2009 at 11:19 am · Filed under All Others, Using Videos ·Tagged ,

The song, “Lord I Lift Your Name on High” has been around for 20 years now, perhaps long enough to knock it out of the “contemporary” genre but its popularity is still high.  I think that one reason for this is its broad application for the Christmas through Ascension church year that’s summarized in its short and simple chorus as shown below:

 

You came from heaven to earth – reference to Christmas (Christ’s birth)

To show the way

From the earth to the cross – reference to Lent

My debt to pay

From the cross to the grave – reference to Good Friday

From the grave to the sky – reference to Easter & Ascension

Lord I lift Your name on high

 

It has a verse as well:

 

Verse:

Lord I lift Your name on high

Lord I love to sing Your praises

I’m so glad You’re in my life

I’m so glad You came to save us

 

CCLI Song #117947

© 1989 Maranatha Praise, Inc.

By Rick Founds

 

I like to use this song when I know there will be a lot of unchurched visitors and children because it captures a lot of information about Jesus’ life in a memorable and singable format and is easy to comprehend.  I’ve specifically used this at our worship service that concludes our Summer VBS where a lot of visitors are in attendance. 

 

As Lutherans, we tend to like a lot of words, some doctrine, and some theology packed into our music.  This song doesn’t do much of that, although it contains the Gospel and is specific in its references to Christ.  It’s not a hymn, but sometimes, keeping it simple is a good idea.  Sometimes we need to see what the creatures do to praise God that were made specifically for that purpose.  Consider the Seraphims for example, they call back and forth to each other, in the presence of God, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full with His glory.”  As far as I know, they are still repeating this today. 

 

If you aren’t familliar with this song, you can hear it here:

This particular version is sung by Paul Baloche.  This is also an example of Integrity’s worship videos that can be used for congregational singing during worship.

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What Does the Holy Spirit Do?

May 25, 2009 at 9:45 pm · Filed under Pentecost Ideas, Scripture ·Tagged ,

What does the Holy Spirit do?

 

P:  The Holy Spirit lives within Christians.  (John 14:17)

 

C:  The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

 

P:  He teaches.  (John 14:26)

 

C:  But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

 

P:  He convicts us of sin.  (John 16:8)

 

C:  When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.

 

P:  He guides us.  (John 16:13)

 

C:  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

 

P:   He glorifies Christ.  (John 16:14)

 

C:  He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

 

P:  He strengthens and encourages (Acts 9:31)

 

C:  Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.

 

P:  He assures us that we are God’s children (Romans 8:16)

 

C:  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

 

P:  He helps us in our weakness.  (Romans 8:26)

 

C:  In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

 

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.  Used by permission of International Bible Society

 

 

 

 

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He’s worshiped in Iceland and Africa too!

May 23, 2009 at 4:26 pm · Filed under Creeds ·Tagged , ,

IMGP0718I was cleaning out some old files on my PC recently and came across these photos of the Leif Eriksson Church in Reykjavik Iceland.  I happened to be there a few years ago on business and what’s amazing about Iceland, especially from approaching in the air into the airport, is the moon-like landscape.  As I was shuttled from the airport to the city of Reykjavik, I was amazed at the lack of trees and the steam rising up from hot water pools in and among the moon-like rock formations. 

The Leif Eriksson Church is strikingly beautiful and it looks like two vastly different churches from the front versus from the side.  The inside is pristine; it actually makes me wonder how much it’s used but perhaps it was recently renovated when I was there.

IMGP0730Can you imagine something this beautiful built to worship our Triune God in Iceland?  Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own church life that we forget how big this world is and how widespread the effects of Jesus are.

 There’s a fellow in my Office from Cameroon Africa, in fact his Mother is a member of the WELS Mission Church down there.  One day he recited an African Christian Creed to me.  I did some research on the WEB and found it.  Here’s the Creed:

IMGP0723 We believe in the one High God, who out of love created the beautiful world and everything good in it.  He created man and wanted man to be happy in the world.  God loves the world and every nation and tribe on the earth.  We have known this High God in the darkness, and now we know him in the light.  God promised in the book of his word, the Bible, that he would save the world and all nations and tribes.

 We believe that God made good his promise by sending his son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left his home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and man, showing that the meaning of religion is love.  He was rejected by his people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died.  He was buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him, and on the third day, he rose from that grave.  He ascended to the skies.  He is the Lord. IMGP0726

 We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love, and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again.  We are waiting for him.  He is alive.  He lives.  This we believe.  Amen.

 One of the amazing things about God is that he transcends time and culture as we know it.  To us, worship music is accompanied by the organ.  To these Africans, God might be worshiped with the sound of drums.  To us this might be absurd.  To them, the organ might be absurd.  To God, my guess is that both can be glorifying and pleasing to Him.

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As a side note, BLOG reader and fellow guitarist, John Kehl, has updated his CCM database file once more.  It is available for download in my file download area (grey box at the bottom of the right column – look for the file named “CCMsongs 2 (1).xls”).  This file contains John’s favorite contemporary Christian songs, along with many lyrics and thematic information.

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Trinity Sunday, Isaiah 6, Using Art in Worship

May 17, 2009 at 9:39 pm · Filed under Holy Trinity Sunday ·Tagged , , , ,

Holy Trinity Sunday falls on June 7 this year.  I’ve already posted about the fact that we will be using “Father, I Adore You” during this service and that a teen will be joining us in the musical accompaniment.

As it turns out, the OT reading for this particular Sunday, according to our Lectionary, is Isaiah 6:1-8, a favorite of mine.  One other thing that we will be doing at this service, and it involves another teen, is to use a piece of art, an original watercolor prepared by a talented young artist in our congregation.  His artwork is a depiction of the Seraphim described in Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in the Temple.  I plan to use his artwork as a talking piece for the children’s message.  We don’t use art much in worship (except for banners), but for the few times that we have, I wished that we could do more of it because the visual perspective is so helpful to me and I assume to others as well.  It’s helpful because it presents God’s word in a visual format, plus it gives us a chance to see people using the gifts that God has given them to glorify the source of all gifts.  In this instance, it brings these magnificent Seraphim to life which is difficult to do through reading.  And in true Lutheran fashion, this young man does not want any notoriety and has expressed his work to remain anonymous.

I don’t know why the Isaiah 6 account is used on Trinity Sunday but recall that the Seraphim were calling to one another “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty…”; which we will be singing to each other as well in the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty”  (CW195).

There’s a contemporary song that takes these exact Isaiah 6 words of scripture and masterfully puts them to music.  You can listen to the song entitled “Isaiah 6” by Todd Agnew here:

Also, we happen to use the “Best of the Best” songbook at our church and song # 112, “I See the Lord” by Chris Falson is a wonderful song to be used as a response to the Isaiah 6 reading.

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Music for Holy Trinity Sunday & How to Transpose

May 12, 2009 at 4:16 pm · Filed under All Others, Capo, Children, Holy Trinity Sunday, Theory ·Tagged , ,

On Trinity Sunday, I have chosen the song ”Father I Adore You” as a song choice.  Many congregations use this on Trinity Sunday.  There are other good contemporary song choices, such as “Glorify Thy Name”, but I chose ”Father I Adore You” because there is a portion of our congregation that normally does not sing, but they will be singing this song.  I’m talking about our smallest children, and more importantly, those too young to read.  At our church, this age group knows this song from previous VBS and other children’s activities.  I think it’s important for us as worship planners to include a song that they can join in on every once in a while.

 “Father I Adore You” was written by Terrye Coelho Strom, many of us WELS types know it as LAPPY # 67.

 Last week, during our monthly contemporary service, a teen in the congregation approached me after worship and offered to play her guitar in future services.  Apparently she has been taking lessons and is ready to use her gifts.  I am very excited about this because it’s a teen showing an interest in participating in worship which for some reason is an age group that we find to be difficult to get involved.

 But here’s the problem.  “Father I Adore You” is written in the key of F and includes the chords: F, Gm and C.  Not a big deal for most guitarists, but for a beginner, the F and Gm chords can be difficult.  Here’s the solution: transpose.

In this instance, usually the best thing to do is to transpose down to a more guitar-friendly key, then use your CAPO to lift the pitch back to the original key.  For example, let’s transpose this song down to the key of D.  To find the new chords, we need to write down both of the major scales (F and D) as follows:

Original Key:  F  G  A    Bb  C  D  E    F

New Key:       D  E  F#  G    A  B  C#  D                   

Next, find the original chords in the original key (upper row), then read the new chords, in the new key directly beneath the original chords.  For example:

F becomes D

Gm becomes Em

C becomes A

The new chords are now D, Em and A which are all very easy to play.

The last thing we need to do is to find the CAPO position.  Remember that we lowered the key from F to D, which is 3 half steps (just count the number of frets between the F and D note on any one string). This means that we need to raise our pitch by 3 half steps so the CAPO needs to go at the third fret.

And here’s a neat trick; if you have two guitarists, let one play in the key of F and have the second guitarist play it in the key of D at the capo 3 position.  This will add some color and different chord voicings to your music.  Also, check your guitar tuning with the CAPO in place as this will sometimes throw your tuning off.

For future reference in transposing, here are all the major and minor keys: 

MAJOR SCALE   R   -   2   -   3   4   -   5   -   6   -   7
   C  maj.:   C   -   D   -   E   F   -   G   -   A   -   B
   Db maj.:   Db  -   Eb  -   F   Gb  -   Ab  -   Bb  -   C
   D  maj.:   D   -   E   -   F#  G   -   A   -   B   -   C#
   Eb maj.:   Eb  -   F   -   G   Ab  -   Bb  -   C   -   D
   E  maj.:   E   -   F#  -   G#  A   -   B   -   C#  -   D#
   F  maj.:   F   -   G   -   A   Bb  -   C   -   D   -   E
   F# maj.:   F#  -   G#  -   A#  B   -   C#  -   D#  -  (E#)
   G  maj.:   G   -   A   -   B   C   -   D   -   E   -   F#
   Ab maj.:   Ab  -   Bb  -   C   Db  -   Eb  -   F   -   G
   A  maj.:   A   -   B   -   C#  D   -   E   -   F#  -   G#
   Bb maj.:   Bb  -   C   -   D   Eb  -   F   -   G   -   A
   B  maj.:   B   -   C#  -   D#  E   -   F#  -   G#  -   A#
 
MINOR SCALE   R   -   2   b3  -   4   -   5   b6  -   b7  -
   A  min.:   A   -   B   C   -   D   -   E   F   -   G   -
   Bb min.:   Bb  -   Cb  Db  -   Eb  -   F   Gb  -   Ab  -
   B  min.:   B   -   C#  D   -   E   -   F#  G   -   A   -
   C  min.:   C   -   D   Eb  -   F   -   G   Ab  -   Bb  -
   C# min.:   C#  -   D#  E   -   F#  -   G#  A   -   B   -
   D  min.:   D   -   E   F   -   G   -   A   Bb  -   C   -
   Eb min.:   Eb  -   F   Gb  -   Ab  -   Bb (Cb) -   Db  -
   E  min.:   E   -   F#  G   -   A   -   B   C   -   D   -
   F  min.:   F   -   G   Ab  -   Bb  -   C   Db  -   Eb  -
   F# min.:   F#  -   G#  A   -   B   -   C#  D   -   E   -
   G  min.:   G   -   A   Bb  -   C   -   D   Eb  -   F   -
   G# min.:   G#  -   A#  B   -   C#  -   D#  E   -   F#  -

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To God Alone be the Glory (SDG)

May 9, 2009 at 9:06 pm · Filed under Aaron Shust ·Tagged

Aaron Shust is one of my favorite Christian artists and Greatworshipsongs.com is one of my favorite sites for free sheet music and MP3s.  Right now they are featuring a new song by Aaron called “To God Alone.”  It’s a song based on the Latin phrase Soli Deo Gloria.  To God Alone be the Glory.   The song is easy to play, a bit mroe difficult to sing, and you can learn it here:

 

To get a free lead sheet and MP3, sign up here:

http://www.greatworshipsongs.com/

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Reviving Hymns

May 3, 2009 at 10:15 pm · Filed under Hymns

There are several things we can do as Pastors, Leaders & Musicians to enhance our hymn singing.    Here’s a list of things we’ve tried or considered:

1.  Introduce the hymn by telling the “story behind the song”; talk about the writer and what he or she may have been going through when writing the hymn.  These stories are available all over the WEB; especially for the more popular hymns.

2.  Use modern hymn arrangements once in a while.  We’ve used Chris Tomlin’s arrangements of “Take My Life and Let it Be” and “Amazing Grace” where he has added some wonderful choruses.  We also sang Todd Agnew’s version of Amazing Grace called “Grace Like Rain.”  Other modern arrangements of many hymns are available on line; here are two such sites:

http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/home.html

and Gary Sonnenberg’s “Son Songs” website:

http://www.freewebs.com/sonsongs/

3.  A few years back we had a series of summer bible classes where we studied a hymn, or a song, each Sunday.  This included a bio on the writer, digging into the scripture references used in the song, song commentaries, then finally singing the song.

4.  Hold an annual “Favorite Hymn Sunday” and let your members choose the hymns by popular vote.  We even preached on “the importance of hymns” at one of these services.

5.  Use the descants, or add a choir behind the congregation that can sing the hymns in parts.

6.  Use guitar and piano for those hymns in the hymnal that include guitar chords.  Also use your children if they play violins or brass instruments.

7.  Hold a “hymn writer” Sunday service.  Using only hymns from one writer (Watts, Wesley, Luther, etc.).  These are great because many people don’t pay any attention to the writers and are surprised to find out that for example, the same guy wrote “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” also wrote “Joy to the World.”  Plus, when else can you sing these two songs together!

8.  You can also use a hymn as the theme for worship on a given Sunday .  Here is an example of one we did:

http://sjbrown58.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/hymned/

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