Rehearsals for the Passion Play

Look here for rehearsal information for the Passion Play.

Rehearsals for Sunday, March 17

3:00 - "All to Give You Glory"

People needed - dancers - on stage

4:30 - "Be Born in Me" - in choir room

People needed - Gabriel, Mary, backup singers
“Alive” - on stage
People needed - Gabriel, Jesus, Mary Magdalene, backup singers

4:50 - "Alive" - in choir room

“Be Born in Me” - on stage

5:15 - Arrest & Crucifixion

People needed—Jesus, Peter, Paul, John, Judas, angry mob,  Roman soldiers, thieves,

5:45 - arrest & crucifixion with choir

6:15 - "When Love Sees You" - on stage

People needed - Jesus, lady who touches His hem, choir

6:45 - "Everybody Sing Hosanna" - on stage

People needed - Jesus, choir, crowd extras

7:10 - Heaven Scene - "The Great Day" "All to Give You Glory" "Jesus Saves"  

People needed - Choir

Please make plans to be at these important rehearsals.

Wednesday, March 20, 6:00 - full rehearsal. Thieves and soldiers in costume.
Thursday, March 21, 6:00 - Dress rehearsal - choir, actors, everyone!

The Power of the Cross

A perfect song for Lent - or as us Baptists usually say, the weeks leading up to Easter. :-)

This is a video of Kristyn Getty singing this incredible song that her husband Keith and Stuart Townend wrote way back in 2005. Absolutely fantastic lyrics and a beautiful melody. And of course Kristyn sings it sooooo beautifully!



Oh, by the way. The Getty's are in concert at the Ryman on St. Patrick's Day. How cool is that?! There are still tickets available. I might be able to get you a good price on tickets if you are interested.

A New Blog

Hilldale's High School Handbell Choir is going to Portugal in June. We'll be playing in schools and churches and using those events as opportunities to share our faith.

One of the things we will be doing is handbell flash mobs. How fun is that?! We'll enter a courtyard or plaza from several directions "randomly" ringing bells and then when we all get to the center and have a good-sized crowd we'll play "Amazing Grace." This should draw a big crowd. Then we will give away CDs we are going to make (I'll give you all an opportunity later to help pay for them.) and give out fliers advertising an evening or next day concert.

I'm VERY excited about the CDs. We are going to record several songs. The missionaries in Portugal (Andy and Michelle Milam - you may have met them at our On Mission Conference last May if you attend Hilldale) are going to have people from the churches around Porto record either the Roman Road or some sort of Gospel presentation that we will include on the CD in between the songs. This way, if a person accepts a free CD they will not only hear beautiful handbell music, but he/she will then hear the Gospel in Portuguese and will have the address of a local Baptist Church that they can contact.

The CDs will be free to give away because you all - for a simple $15 gift - will get a CD for yourself but will also pay for three or four more.

Last night I had this thought - I figure it was the Lord speaking to me because I don't really do much thinking at 3:30 AM - that I should include on the CD a website for people to visit. So today I began a blog. You can see it at http://rezoundingpraize.blogspot.com/ This blog will have posts by our handbell choir where they will talk about the music or give their personal testimony or something like that. This is simply another way to get the Gospel out to the people of Portugal. There is already a link on that blog that gives you "The 4 Spiritual Laws" in Portuguese. I will add other similar links.

The first post on the blog is how our handbell choir got our name "Rezounding Praize."

Check it out, begin praying for our mission trip, buy a CD when they come out and we'll share blog posts before we go and then report back on the great things God was able to do in Portugal.

Shooting at the Wrong Target

A country that celebrates the murder of the unborn should not be surprised when that disregard for human life is echoed by someone with no regard for a 6 year-old's life.

A nation filled with video games and movies that glorify violence, murder and bloodshed and that celebrate evil should not be surprised when an evil person seeks fame the same way. (Do we really need to spend millions of tax dollars to study the obvious?)

A nation whose courts consistently rule against religious liberty, who caves into pressure from the ACLU (and similar groups) to keep God out of everything, who ignores the words from our founding fathers who trusted God and tried to follow Him should not be surprised when it's citizens act ungodly.

Will more laws fix our problems? Obviously not. It is a spiritual problem and those of us who have the answer keep it to ourselves for fear of offending someone or appearing to be intolerant.

The children of Light live like those in darkness.

You can't legislate morality. It is a heart problem and only Jesus Christ can change a heart.

Romans 10

9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved ; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek ; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."  


14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed ? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard ? And how will they hear without a preacher ? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent ? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS !" 16 However, they did not all heed the good news ; for Isaiah says, "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT ?" 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

So we can shoot at gun control laws (pun intended) and anti-abortion laws and try to overturn HHS mandates and work to defend religious liberty, but in the end, to really make a change in our society, we need to have beautiful feet. We need to bring to our world the Good News that Jesus Christ makes men new creations!

Art for MIssions - Jan. 20

"Art for Missions" is something we started a few years ago here at Hilldale. We have had several different art projects that many have taken advantage of and they've ended up creating some beautiful works of art.

In the past we have mainly had youth and adults in our classes, but I've had a mom and a grandmother both ask about their girls painting and I said, "Sure! Why not?" So... if your younger person can focus for an hour on something and likes to paint, sign him up! (Call the FLC)

I've had the fun of leading several of these.

We've painted hydrangeas in a vase,

fall leaves

and other things.

THIS coming Sunday, January 20, at 3:00 at the Family Life Center I'll show attendees how to paint a beautiful winter sky and tree. This is the demonstration painting, but I'm going to show you how you can have a sky of many colors using whatever colors you like. I'll also have photos that will give you several different options for how you paint your tree(s).

Call the FLC and reserve your spot by this Friday (so I'll have enough paint and canvas.)
Invite a friend and plan on a fun afternoon painting!

The cost is only $35 (with proceeds going toward our HS Handbell choir's mission trip to Portugal in June.) The canvas is 16x20. The paint is acrylic.

The Grand Ol' Hilldale Opry

One of the songs in "the Tree" this year was a medley of songs called "Ring Those Bells" that included "Come On Rings Those Bells" made famous in the 70s by Evie 

and "I'll Be Home with Bells On" by Dolly Parton.

(as always, you can click on a picture to see a larger view of it)

It had a great "country" flavor so in addition to handbells (it IS a bell song after all)

We also had cloggers

And cowboys and cowgirls

AND!.....

Dolly and Willy!

Found this pic while I was putting this together.

Don't do this in "the Tree!"

A Solemn Assembly

From the Tennesse Baptist Convention's website.

Solemn Assembly: Fewer and fewer believers seem to be familiar with the term and even less have ever participated in one of these most holy sacred times of consecration and renewal. There are no less than twelve in the Old Testament. They were more than a service, in fact none were less than a day in length and most were several days. The emphasis was not on the ceremony or the ritual but on repentance and consecration. The call for a Solemn Assembly was first and foremost a call from God to His people to return to Him. They focused more on the sins of the corporate body of Christ than on the individual believer. The call for Solemn Assembly carried with it a strong warning (Isaiah 1) about making a Solemn Assembly into a mere worship service or ritual that was void of true humility, repentance and consecration. A Solemn Assembly is a call from God to His people to return to Him. It is like the cry to the church of Ephesus in Revelation to “Remember – Repent – Repeat”. Because of its very nature it involves: A seeking of His face; A forsaking of sin; A humbling before the King of kings; A confession and a consecration; A renewal of covenants and commitments; A cry for help and a cry of hope; and it is a repentant heart that drives all those who participate.

The Tennessee Baptist Convention desires to assist our churches in answering the need for Solemn Assemblies. We live in a time when true revival and awakening is desperately needed in our nation and among us as a people of the King of kings. We must return to Him with all of our hearts. We must ask for His searching of our hearts and we must respond to His Spirit with hearts of repentance. We must consecrate ourselves. Our Lord deserves nothing less from us and the lost world needs for us to be salt that has not lost its savor.

From me:
Not only is the TBC encouraging local churches to have solemn assemblies, they are hosting three during the month of January. The first one is THIS Tuesday night, January 8, at Hermitage Hills Baptist Church in Nashville. Get directionsThe service begins at 7:00 and will last a little more than an hour.

I hope several from Hilldale will be able to attend with me. I'll meet you there.