Sunday September 13

I'm trying something new. I'm seeing if I can put a new post on our worship blog from my phone. It looks like it working!

I'm at a retreat with the TN Baptist Men's Chorale. Retreats are a great time to build relationships and learn music and have some fun. Our choir's retreat is next weekend. You still have time to sign up and go with us.

Here's Sunday's music as best I remember.

Days of Elijah
hallelujah, Your Love Is Amazing
choir - I Will Do the Same
my Faith Has Found a Resting Place
Ancient Words

solo - Cara Manns

see you Sunday!

Lucky 9

There are allllll kinds of things about the number 9. You can check them out on Wikipedia and other sites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_(number)

Here's a little music trivia that has to do with 9.
First you have to remember that 3 is the number of the Trinity. Therefore it was considered a good meter (or time signature) for sacred music.

If you take the beat of a song in three time and divide the beat into two you get 3/4 time. Examples would be "Come, Thou fount of Every Blessing" and "Ancient Words."

If you take the beat of a song in three and divide the beat into 3 you get 9/8 time. This of course then would be very sacred back in the days when numbers meant so much and I've heard is the reason Bach used that double Trinity time of 9/8 for his beautiful song "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring,"



Here's an interesting fact you may not know - possibly because I'm making it up even as I type. When there are nines in the date on a Wednesday it means it's the perfect time to be in choir! So with today having 3 nines in the date is is like triple wonderful time to be in choir. How cool is that? I'll be looking for you tonight!

That's Greek to Me

I wanted to post this today, 09-09-09, at 9:09... didn't make it. But it is an interesting date.

Each day I get an e-mail from Merriam-Webster OnLine - the word of the day.
I get this so I can try to keep up with Bro. Larry.

Today's word was "ennead."
Meaning
: a group of nine

Surely Bro. Larry won't use "ennead" in a sermon. Really! Who would ever use it? Here is the example sentence from MW.

Example Sentence
Immediately following the show, viewers will be able to call or text in their votes for their favorite among this ennead of remaining contestants.

Can you hear Ryan Seacrest saying that sentence on American Idol? I don't think so.

Picture this: Sunday morning, introduction of Psalm 113 as the passage for the day. Bro. Larry says, "the ennead verses is Psalm 113 speak of the majesty of God and of His willingness to condescend to us to help the poor and needy."

Ennead comes to us from the Greek. I think they should have kept it.

Hahaha! I try to always remember to hi spell check before I post to my blog. Ennead showed up as a misspelled word. Hmmm.

As the Deer and Sunday, September 6, 2009

Hahaha! I always like to add a picture to my posts (for my friends who just look at the pictures - you know who you are) and so I searched for "As the Deer" and it ended up that the picture I clicked on was from my own music blog! http://bearhollowmusic.blogspot.com/2008/02/as-deer.html How funny is that? I guess I like this picture.

September 6, 2009 AM

Everlasting God
Fellowship Song – Jesus Saves
Mighty to Save

Choir anthem – Our God Saves

As the Deer
Higher Ground
Draw Me Close

Special Music – Tyson Harris

Message – Dr. Larry D. Robertson

Invitation – I Surrender All

Branded a Spammer Again

Last year I had to blog about Charter thinking I was spam.

http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2008/02/charter-thinks-im-spam.html

I included this picture.

So I wanted a different picture this year.

I gagged several times scrolling through the Spam pictures.

Did you know Spam comes in special flavors. (just gagged again)

All this as an introduction to the e-mail I sent out today that many of you did not get.

Here it is for you.

Many of you won't get this. We've been put on a few SPAM lists and can't convince one or two that we aren't spammers. So you'll need to check our worship blog to see what you missed. http://www.hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/
If you know someone who works for the State of TN (like Shannon) you might forward this to her because I already know form earlier this morning that she can't get e-mail from me right now.

Open mic night THIS Sunday night at the Labor Day picnic.

Some of the bands we thought we had lined up can't come this weekend. (Three bands and a quartet all had different reasons for not being able to bring a little entertainment to our Labor Day picnic.)
So… I want YOU to bring a CD and sing something. Maybe even two songs. Don't be shy. Sing a duet if you want. Get your kids to sing too. This will be a fun family night where everyone needs to sing something.

Welcome new choir members (and some returnees)

Lena (Song) Page - S
Lois Ann Gassdorf - S
Lil Smith - S
Jasmine Chong - S
Michelle Wilson - S2
Brittney Brake - A
Melissa Woodling - A
Rick Stephenson - T
John Woodcock - B
Tim Baggett - B

Comments from Yesterday's Post

Before you read today's post you need to look at yesterday's.

http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-have-fantastic-worship-every.html

I have received a couple of e-mails in regard to yesterday's post. Since they didn't leave a comment with their name I'm going to remove their names from here, but I wanted you to see what they had to say and encourage you to add your own comments either to this post or yesterday's.

"For me worship is a love song filled with joy and thankfulness, sung to my God, my Savior, my King! "

"Your blog yesterday was so encouraging. My Sunday school class got into a discussion about worship. Everything you mentioned that was not about worship they said. Some stated that southern gospel music was real worship; others blamed the imperfections of people that caused them not to worship, etc…. NO ONE mentioned loving, adoring, thanking, and praising God. I was so saddened.

The best way I can describe worship, since I am a visual person, is to picture myself in a sanctuary where everything is dark and a spotlight from Heaven is shining down on me. You do not see anyone around you, just you and God, and you spend time with Him. That is the main focus of worship, Jesus. Maybe we need to hear the words again from the song, “The Heart of Worship”, “I’m coming back to the heart of worship and it’s all about you, it’s all about you Jesus. I’m sorry Lord for the thing I've made it, it’s all about you, it’s all about you Jesus”."

Your turn. Has this discussion got you thinking about worship?

How to Have Fantastic Worship Every Sunday

I work with a lot of wonderful musicians. Some weeks the music is really good. Some weeks the music is really great! Some weeks are better at one service than the other.

However... it's possible to have fantastic worship EVERY Sunday. Here are just a few ideas for you to help you make your time of worship - at Hilldale or wherever - a great time with God.

1. Remember that you are at church for God. It's not really all about you (don't mean to hurt your feelings). If your focus is on Him and not on hoping to hear your favorite song then true worship can happen.

2. Don't rely on the worship pastor or the band or the choir to get you all revved up or feeling good. Feelings are great, but in reality, worship is telling God how great He is and how much you love Him.

3. Worship with your mind as well as your heart. So many of the songs we sing have really terrific texts. We sometimes sing songs so many times that we just sing along and don't even think about the words. But the words are really the point. They tell of God's greatness, they encourage us, they teach us, they inspire us...

4. Come to worship expecting it to be wonderful. In most things in life you get out of them what you bring to them.

5. Pray before you come. (don't make me tell you everything. figure this part out yourself)

6. Worship during the week. It's good practice and your heart will be more in tune with God.

7. Some thinking about others more than yourself. (Ooops. There we go again with the "it's not all about you part.") Be happy to sing some old song knowing it speaks to the hearts of so many others. Be happy to sing that new song you don't know because it speaks to the hearts of so many others. (Get the idea?)

Well.... there are probably more, but these are the first things that popped into my head. Why don't you leave a comment with YOUR ideas of how to have worship be wonderful every week. I would love to hear from you.