Wind and Fire update

My original thoughts in naming this group had to do with the fact that most of the players play "wind" instruments and "wind and fire" represent the work of the Holy Spirit. It seemed like a cool, youthful name. and I suppose it is. However, I hear "Earth, Wind and Fire" a lot from people referring to this ensemble, so maybe it's too close to that.

What I want to tell you today is how GREAT they sounded last night. It was a lot of fun playing together. We had 2 flutes, 3 clarinets, 1 alto sax, 1 tenor sax, 2 trombones and a percussionist with yours truly playing the keyboard. I'm not very good at that while directing, so if any of you piano players out there want to join us, please let me know. There's room for more, so encourage your band students to join us. Oh, and not everyone is a student. We have a couple of adults playing with us too. We'll be playing the offertory in just a couple of weeks!

Studentz Praize to Sing

Our student choir - Studentz Praize - will be singing this Sunday night for our evening worship service. I'm really glad they are going to sing. You may be surpirsed at how good they sound. Many of them, however, are a bit nervous about singing in front of others, so be sure and give them an encouraging word.

They need to be here at 4:45 in the Sanctuary/Worship Center to get in place and go through the song once. They will be switching choir time with Bible study time this week.

Wednesday!

Here we are again, cruising through a Tuesday night. My lovely wife, Cheryl, is already asleep and I've grown bored with computer games, the New Hampshire election results are only interesting for so long, so naturally my thoughts have turned to Wednesday and, YEAH, Choir Rehearsal. I LOVE Wednesdays!

I really love the music in Bow the Knee too. If you missed rehearsal last week I hope you can join us tomorrow to hear this beautiful work.

And not only are the songs beautiful, the script is excellent. It looks at the last week of Jesus' life through the eyes of the Centurion - the one who had such great faith. You can read about him here - the story of the Centurion found in Matthew 8

There is all kinds of interesting information in tomorrow night's Inchoirer so be sure and pick up a copy. I'll post most of that info here on Thursday, but it's just not the same as reading it in person with all of your choir friends at 6:30 Wednesday night.

I'll be looking for you then!

Praise Teams Returning

One of the main reasons we took a break from our Praise Teams was because I wanted to figure out a way where we could get the monitors where the singers were comfortable with what they were hearing and where we weren't blowing out the first two rows in the congregation with the amount of sound we wanted.

We looked at these, but thought they might be a little too large for the platform area.

What we came up with - for now - is a separate monitor for the praise teams. (We hope to eventually move to an "in ear" system.) Right now we have that monitor where the praise teams can mix the piano, drums, etc. in their monitor themselves. We are working on getting it where they can mix their own mics in too, but have a few things to rework before that can happen.

We'll begin again soon - possibly this Sunday. Stay tuned...

Handbell Festival - Feb. 22-23

The Handbell Festival for Middle Tennessee is February 22-23. Our handbell choir will be attending. We had our first look at the music for festival last night. They made some good choices for this year's music.

For those of you who have never been to a handbell festival, this is how it works. We will join 15 or so other choirs from across the state and ring four songs together. We will also play one song by ourselves for "adjudication" which is a fancy way of saying we'll ring for some judges who will then give us a score and tell us all the wonderful things we did as we rang.

Tim Waugh will be our clinician this year. That means he will be directing all of the choirs when we play together.

This is a good picture of Tim, but it doesn't show his pony-tail. He's a great director and makes festival fun!




You can see all of this info and more at http://www.tnbaptist.org/CalendarEvent.asp?eventid=1006&cat=music&subcat=events04

A Ride to Tulsa and Singing in Heaven

As most of you know, we left Whites Creek this morning for Tulsa - my son driving his van with his wife, three children and me (Papa) while Grani (Cheryl) drove her car with Christy and her two babies. I got to ride in the back. Wow! Riding down I-40 at 200 miles an hour is a whole different experience form the back! Twelve and a half hours later we arrived. Try keeping five children cooped up in a car for twelve hours then let them loose in great-grandma's house and watch the fun! Wheeee!!


Gibson, my oldest grandson (five) knew Grandmama and wanted to know how she died. One of the relatives - who will remain nameless to protect her bad theology - said, "Jesus came and got her." Gibson lit up and was very excited. "Did you get a picture?"


Wouldn't that be cool? We didn't get a picture, but we know Grandmama is with Jesus. I'll leave the preaching for the preachers, but I know once you're in heaven it's all music and dancing 'round the throne. Grandmama is there now singing the song of the redeemed, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain."

We actually get to have a head start on what is taking place in heaven as we gather together every Sunday morning! I'll be looking for you all as we worship together this Sunday.

Sunday's Anthem

Sunday's Anthem - Our Heart

This is the "All Nations Worship" window from a church in Alaska. I think it's cool.

See you Sunday morning!