I love me some hymns (in my Toni Braxton voice)

Don't you just love it when you go to church and the leader says, "turn to page 109 of your hymnal and let's sing I Come to the Garden Alone"? Man, I love me some hymns!

The funny thing is, the church I came from, didn't sing them as they were written. We remixed them until they sounded Pentecostal. And then when I went to a predominately white church down south and heard how they were really written, I was like "Oh, that's kinda lame."

You know what else is funny about hymns, everybody uses the lyrics. I've heard preachers preach hymns and singers ad lib using hymns. They're like the Christian version of Kyle Korver. You pull them off the bench and it's a score! (Go Bulls! I know KK is with the Hawks now.)

The other thing that's funny is that no one is really coming up with new hymns. I'm not sure why. Total Praise by Richard Smallwood made it in the New National Baptist Hymnal, but I can't think of very many other game changing, tried and true, new songs. And Total Praise is like 20 years old so I guess it's not new. Then again, I'm not a hymnal connoisseur. Maybe there are more.

So, why aren't we making new songs that fit in this genre? These are the songs we sing at funerals to comfort families, at Christmas to celebrate the true meaning of the holiday, and during worship services to reflect on the many aspects of God. I think it's time to dust off those books and bring them back en vogue.

I pitched long ago that we should have an "old school" Sunday where we give the hymns some play. After all, these oldies but goodies deserve their props, much like Kyle Korver.

Out with a bang

Looks like the End Times Ministries praise team is ending the year on a good note. Sunday we had another rehearsal and are ready to re-introduce a song back into our P&W rotation. We also have our next rehearsal scheduled - the first one for 2015. I couldn't be happier. Well, I could, but baby steps.

Cheers!

How Can It Be - Lauren Daigle

I just found out about this artist a few months ago as a result to listening to K-Love 94.3fm Chicago - big shout out to them! I love, love, love her voice. She's like the Adele of Christian music. So much soul. Her sound is raw yet beautiful and the words of this song are perfect. Everything about this song is perfect. Somebody should buy me her CD for Christmas. (And yes, I still prefer a CD because I spend most of my time in the car and don't like fidgeting with my phone when I'm driving. And because I'm old school like that. :) Enjoy!

Lauren Daigle - Light Of The World (Lyric Video)

Just in time for Christmas... I heard this for the first time yesterday and really like it. Enjoy!

Martha Munizzi - Come Holy Spirit - LIVE (@marthamunizzi)

I love this simple worship song. Enjoy!

My top 14

I love to make lists at the end of the year.

Here are my 14 favorite P&W songs. (I know as soon as I press the publish button, I'll want to change some of these.)

14. Every Praise - Hezekiah Walker

13. Holiness Take My Life - Micah Stampley

12. It Is To You - Byron Cage

11. As the Deer

10. Give Me a Clean Heart - Fred Hammond

9.  Lift Him Up - Walt Whitman and the Soul Children of Chicago

8.  Smile - Tasha Cobbs

7.  Great and Mighty - Byron Cage

6.  Rain On Us - Earnest Pugh

5. Agnus Dei (Hallelujah For the Lord God Almighty Reigns) - Michael Smith

4.  Free - Kierra Sheard

3.  To Worship You I Live - Israel

2.  Lord I Love You - Youthful Praise feat. JJ Hairston

1.  I Love You Lord and I Lift My Voice

 

Get it right!

Dear Church Folk,

I'm tired of us getting the words to common church songs wrong.

Please note: the correct lyrics are "there's not a friend like the LOWLY Jesus" not "lonely." How can Jesus be lonely if he sits with God the Father?

Please also note that the correct lyrics are "eyes HAVEN'T seen, ears HAVEN'T heard what's recorded in God's word..." not "have have seen, ears have heard..." May I point you to 1 Corinth. 3:9.

That is all for now.

:)

A new level

All of a sudden out of nowhere, I have written 7.5 songs in 4 days! And these don't sound like your home-made songs with janky lyrics. These are songs with radio-bility. (Yes, I totally made that up.) This is amazing!

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do next. My brother (a professional musician) says that I need to join ASCAP or BMI to get my songs copy-written and become a legit songwriter/publisher. As things progress, I'll blog about my choices and what I learn. I'm sure this will be a whole other level of experiences. Stay tuned.

P.S. I'm taking any and all advice so feel free to comment or email me with your tips and suggestions.

Blessings!

Tell 'em why you mad, son

Maybe the title of this post should be The Struggle, cause that's what it is right about now.

P&W at a small church comes with its own set of unique problems. Here's one that's really killing me: there's hardly no one attending church. I shouldn't be surprised by this because I'm almost positive the same thing happened last year, but dang! This is cray! It gets warm in Chicago and ninja don't know how to act or what to do!

This Sunday outside of my family (the "first" family), there were only about 3 others families at church. Attendance is at an all time low and it sucks. Perhaps it wouldn't be bad if everyone would lift their voices and sing, but that's not happening right now either.

In general, I'm slightly burned out. I like to think I'm focusing my time and energy on only 1 or 2 priorities, but this is difficult at a small church where one wears many hats. So when Tasha Cobb talked about spiritual burnout tonight on the iLeadescape, I knew I was meant to be on the call at that particular time. (It took me 20 times to get through.) While I would love to take a sabbatical, I wouldn't do that; it feels irresponsible when we've got such a small congregation and praise team. I have been thinking about attending another church's Bible class or weeknight service to get a different Word and replenish a bit. I'll keep you posted if I find anything worth while.

I know there's nothing too hard for God, so I'll keep my head up and keep on keeping on. I guess the challenges give me things to talk about with you guys. Trying to make lemonade out of lemons.

Holla back in the comments with anything you're struggling with. Maybe we all similar problems.

P&W Mathematics

We were one woman down for P&W this Mother's Day. One doesn't sound like many, but we are a 4 people deep so that's 25% us. However, my aunt decided to sing with us. She knew 3 of the 4 songs so that puts us at about 75%. Additionally, my dad had to tend to some building issues and missed 2 of the songs. So that drops us to 50%. We were at 50% on one of the most populated Sundays of the year. However, I think we only had 1 visitor who had been there before, so all in all, it wasn't disastrous.

There's always next Sunday!

Sunday's Playlist
You are Good
More than Anything
Because of Who You Are
Days of Elijah


P.S. Drunk non-member's nephew from last week's post made it to church just like he promised. (Although not at 11:00 a.m., but hey, he's a man of his word.)

To-do List

Time to start preparing for our church anniversary which is in June.

We'll probably have live music so this will be more akin to what the rest of the country is doing. That leaves me to figure out what we should sing. I know I want to sing Every Praise is to Our God. Still thinking about the rest. I'm also going to ask if my aunt, who used to lead P&W but left when she got married, if she wants to join the team for this service. We also have one member of the church who wants to join the team on a permanent bases.

We also have to find uniforms. Last year, we ordered shirts for the ladies and wore black pants or skirts. The tops looked nice so we'll likely go in the same direction. Since we only have 1 male, he wore a black suit and picked a tie that matched one of the colors in the shirts. That was pretty easy.

Last and probably most important, we need our mics in decent working order. One stand collapses to half its size and I don't know how to keep it tightened. Two mics must be of lower quality because they always sound muffled or lower than the 1 good mic. And there's another mic that is ok. I could really use some technical support. I have know clue what I'm doing.

Will keep you guys posted about how this all shapes up.

Last Sunday's playlist:
Create in Me a Clean Heart
This is the Air I Breathe (... Somehow, even though we sing this song frequently, I managed to mix up the words)
I Will Always
Blessed Be the Name of the Lord