The Calling of God

What is the calling of God? Apostle Paul said of himself that he was the called one of God. So are we all called by God or just a chosen few? Well of course we all know the right answer is that we all have a calling on our lives as a Christian.

Our calling is simple. It is to know Him and to make Him known. It is to live every breath breathing in and out the life of Jesus. I have yet to meet a person that lives this calling to its fullest extent. I have to say with Paul that the very thing I don’t want to do, I end up doing and the very thing I want to do I find I don’t always follow through with. (Oops ended that last sentence with a preposition…bad writing.) But still in our calling we are exhorted time and time and time again to press on toward whom we really are in God’s eyes. We are to live in a manner that exemplifies that high calling.

I have to admit though, I feel sometimes like I take three steps forward in getting to know Jesus better, and something comes up that takes me two and half steps back. It does get frustrating at times….HEY but great news…we are overcomers, joint heirs with Christ. We have been made in His image and from glory to glory He is changing us. It is great news and absolutely gives such a positive spin to life to know that though I am not the man in action all the time that God sees me as, I am certainly not the man I was without Him. He truly is the source and lifeblood that flows through us. We are adopted by the King. We are royalty!

Have a great week.
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Emotions

Emotions are an interesting part of our human make up. They can cause us to fall to our knees in praise (figurtively of course since we are Baptist) or to be angry or to be happy. Some get offended or hurt and the next day the emotion is under control and the offense is forgotten. Some hold on for a lifetime. Emotions...what do we do with them?

I say go for it! Use it for the benefit to walk with God. Be passionate in our emotions toward the One that not only saved us to take us to heaven as Rusty talked about last night in his message for the church, but saved us to walk this present life in total abandonment to Him.

I encourage us all this week to do buy into 1 Corinthians 10:31....whatever we say or do, do all for the glory of God.

Have a great week.

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Why? Part 3

For the past couple of weeks I have been explaining how I am led to the songs that I choose for the choir to sing. Again, I want this blog to always be encouragements from Scripture, and I hope that in the past few weeks as I explained procedure that you still very much received a deeper understanding of the Savior.

This week I want to talk about other aspects of what enters into picking a particular song and what does not!

1. Performance verses worship leading? My understanding from all that I have been told is that over the past several years Wedgwood Baptist Church choir has truly become a worship leading choir. The hearts of the choir members long to connect people to the Father rather than perform the next Sunday special. Other than the musical aspects of a song, this is the number one thing that steers me toward or away from a song. There are church choirs out there that unfortunately are in show business. They work countless hours on the next performance. Although I expect excellence from the choir every time they sing, it is never a performance at Wedgwood. It is always about putting the emphasis on the Lord instead of “wowing” the audience with great abilities.

2. Connecting with the sermons? Although this is not always the reason I pick a particular song, the more the choir can enhance the vision of the message, and the overall flow of the day the more purpose a particular song has. I will never pick a song that has nothing to do with what is happening that day. Now there is wide latitude here, but still the song the choir sings never is a song that just features the choir so the choir can be featured. We can save that for the show choirs. I strongly believe that the purpose of the choir “special” is to be in line with everything else happening.

3. Multiple uses of the song? Because I am charged with also being a good steward of the funds allotted to me through the budget, I must be able to see multiple uses for the song. If I am purchasing a song from one of the publishing companies, a single song can cost between 200 to 400 dollars I must be able to use it more than once for the amount these songs cost.

4. Is the Lord speaking? I know this phrase sounds super-spiritual, but I choose songs for the choir to sing just like I choose every song for a particular Sunday. Scripture says in James 1 that if I lack wisdom, all I have to do is to simply ask with right motives. My main concern more than any other person being pleased with my selections is the Lord being pleased. So I must ask Him for wisdom…every time! Opinions on what songs need to be sung are as many as there are people in the congregation. Again, not to sound pious, but there is only One opinion that really counts.

So there you have it. I hope my ramblings will help explain a little better of why the choir does a particular song and doesn’t do another.

Have a great week.
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Why Part 2

Why? Part 2

As I said last week I was asked how I am led to the songs that I choose for the choir to sing. I want this blog to always be encouragements from Scripture, and I hope that you are truly ministered to in understanding the method to my madness.

This week I want to talk about the second most important element of the song…the music. There are several elements in music.
1. Does it compliment the lyric? Sometimes as I listen to songs, the lyric is a very emotional lyric and the music is this kind of a happy go lucky sound and melody that doesn’t match. The purpose of the music is to enhance rather than detract.
2. Is it sing-able? Let me name drop for a second… J When I was traveling full time, I got to do a couple of concerts with Michael W. Smith. I’ll never forget the words he said to me. He told me that no matter what kind of style of music I wrote, the big score was when someone could walk away singing it. Although I don’t expect everyone to walk away singing every song that the choir sings when only hearing the song one time, the melody needs to connect easily.
3. Does the style of music work at Wedgwood? In Christian music there are all kinds of styles from country to heavy metal. Although we do have a variety of music, there are parameters that we stay within. What works at one place doesn’t necessarily work at Wedgwood.
4. Do the harmony parts in the song fit well with the voices of Wedgwood? We have some very good voices in the choir. The best sound the choir is going to produce is simply from music that fits their voices.
5. How fast can the choir learn the song? Since the choir sings a song almost every Sunday, the learning curve of a song is extremely important. I do choose songs that are hard to learn because of rhythms or harder to hear harmony, but these types of songs can only make up a small percentage of what we do because of how many songs we need to learn. I want to challenge the choir to stretch and grow musically as well as spiritually, but the main objective always has to be to lead people the next Sunday in worship. I try to balance the hard with the ones that don’t take much to learn but still gets the message of God’s love across.

So this is the music side of choosing the songs. Next week I will close this by explaining aspects that don’t enter into the decision of picking songs.

Have a great week.

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Why?

Why? Part 1

I was asked the other day how I am led to the songs that I choose for the choir to sing. I want this blog to always be encouragements from Scripture, and I hope that over the next few weeks as I explain procedure that you will still very much be ministered to in how it is tied to Scripture.

This week I want to talk about the most important element of the song…the lyric. There is a set of criteria I use for analyzing the lyrics.
1. Is it Scriptural? Obviously this is the most important aspect of any song that is being used for worship of the Lord Jesus. There are many cool grooving songs that are written that claim to be worship songs that fail this first step.
2. Is it sing-able? Do the words make sense and easily understandable by the worshipper? Are they corny lyrically? I received a song in one of the packets a few weeks ago called “Don’t Get Me Started.” I thought it was an interesting title…well after I read the words guess where that song went…you are right straight to the trash. CORN CITY!!!!
3. Is it usable in this setting? Again, there are many wonderful songs out there that meet the first two requirements lyrically but will never be used here at Wedgwood. Why? Because they don’t head us in the direction of the vision.
4. Are the words vertical or horizontal? I lean toward the vertical…not to say that we don’t proclaim statements of our faith through music. Psalm 33:3 weighs heavily when I am analyzing lyrics…sing TO Him, not about Him. But of course you can and will continue to see many songs that come across Wedgworship that are proclamations.

So that is the criteria for choosing a particular song lyrically. Next week I will talk about the music itself.

Have a great week.

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