Rainy Days and Wednesdays

Karen Carpenter sang a song - "Rainy Days and Mondays" which had the phrase "rainy days and Mondays always get me down." I actually kind of like Mondays. I might as well. They come by every week.
And rainy days aren't so bad either. As someone who likes to have a beautiful yard with lots of trees and flowers I see rain as rather important.

The only thing I don't like about rainy Wednesdays is that sometimes people use the rain as an excuse to skip choir. You'll hear "Oh, I got home from work and just didn't want to get out in the rain again" or a similar phrase.

If you are a person who gets a little down on rainy days here is some exciting news you may not have realized. CHOIR perks up a rainy day!

It's true! Scientific studies have shown that - oh, hahaha. I was going to make up a bunch of stuff and put here... Let me just say I know that in OUR choir we have a great time and people leave with big smiles on their faces because we've had a great evening together.

Here's a choir having a great time with rain!

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!

It's Wednesday - Do You Know Where Your Choir is?

If you go to Hilldale Baptist Church in Clarksville, TN then you probably remember that we will NOT have choir rehearsal tonight. I'm attending the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference at LifeWay's gorgeous Ridgecrest Conference Center . It has been a very inspiring and refreshing week.

If you are in the choir at just about any other Southern Baptist Church my guess is YES, you do have choir rehearsal tonight. You need to be there. Your Minister of Music or Worship Pastor or Song Leader or whatever you call your music guy needs you.

Even if you are going to be out of town Sunday you need to be in rehearsal. Your attendance encourages others in the choir, you'll work on other music too - not just what you're singing Sunday, the art of singing in an ensemble (your choir) is something you all need to do together week after week so you can be your very best.

And besides... CHOIR IS FUN! It's the perfect pick-me-up for the middle of the week.

See you Sunday.

Hoops and Choir

It sounds like there is going to be close to 3,197 people at the big Hoops Hoop-de-doo this Wednesday night. Sounds like tons of fun. However, since there will be 3,197 people there Bro. Paul said it would be just fine - in fact he encouraged me - to go ahead and have choir rehearsal this Wednesday night. He's hoping that 3,127 people won't be as crowded! Ha!

So..... if you don't have a child in upward basketball or aren't a coach, I'll be looking for you in the sanctuary at the main campus this Wednesday night. We'll start about 6:15.

THERE WILL BE CHILDCARE for you at the main campus.

Warm Your Heart

So... the weather man says that today's high is going to warm allll the way up to 28! Woohoo! If there wasn't hope for the 60s by Saturday I think I'd be packing to go visit Florida. Us skinny boys don't stay very warm in this kind of windy cold. I think I need a fireplace in my office.

Since it is so cold it makes it easy to think about staying home instead of getting out to choir rehearsal. Let me encourage you to fight that hibernation instinct and come warm up in choir.

The old saying "Cold hands, warm heart" can be seen perfectly tonight. The best way to warm your heart is by getting out (getting cold hands) and getting together with friends and singing songs of praise to the Savior (that will warm your heart up quickly).

Bring someone with you tonight that needs to warm up!

Wednesdays Are Going Again

Having Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve on Wednesdays kind of messed up our rehearsal times. And even though it was nice taking a couple of weeks off, I'm ready to go! I miss you when we don't get together.

Wind and Fire - our instrumental ensemble - will meet tonight at the FLC at 5:35. This is a great time for new players to join us. We currently have (if we all show up on the same night) 3 flutes, 1 clarinet, 1 alto or soprano sax, 1 tenor sax, 1 trumpet, 2 trombones and a drummer. This is a great start! Tonight we'll work on some things to play on Sunday mornings.

Our adult choir meets at 6:30. I've already had four men and one lady tell me they are going to join choir tonight. Woohoo! I'd like to see us back up close to 100 enrolled in the next few weeks. Bring someone with you to choir tonight.

the important things

I'm typing this with just one finger, left-handed. Why? Because Haven and Hannah are asleep on top of me. I think my right arm has lost most of its feeling. I've often had choir members apologize for missing choir when they needed to be with family for one thing or another. I've always assured them and want to emphasize to you now, that it is important to be with family when you need to be. that doesn't mean you need to skip church to watch a football game, but it is important to take care of your parents or children or others when they need you.

I'm not saying that you should schedule a family gathering every Sunday at 10:30 so you don't have to show up for Sunday morning worship, but I do know that there are times when you need to miss a service or a rehearsal or some other happening. The purpose of these church things is to give you opportunity to worship, serve, be discipled or disciple someone else, but you must be careful. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for not taking care of family by saying what they had was dedicated to God.

I'll not keep on preaching. I'm sure you get the point.

So here I am in Oklahoma, wishing I could be at choir, but totally glad I'm not going to be there. With both of my brothers here at Mom's house, I'm soooo glad I'm here. With all three of us in full-time vocational ministry we rarely get to see each other. It has been great spending time with them and their children all week.

When you have those family moments available, please take them. Then be sure to be faithful to choir or teaching your Sunday School class or attending worship or whatever/however you are involved in church. That's important too.

Sorry, no picture. (My niece Alyssa only looks at the pictures.) I'm on my dad's computer.

I'm on my computer now. I found a picture you all need to see. (Alyssa probably won't care.) Pretty amazing! If you've seen posts from the past fews days you'll notice how fast a dramatic the drop in price has been! I sure hope it's doing this in Tennessee!

Commercials

I have a love/hate relationship with commercials. There are some that are so funny that I laugh out loud just thinking about them. There are some that are so annoying that I wouldn't buy anything from the advertiser. For example anything sold by that guy that yells everything. He realllly needs to lay off the caffeine!

Hahahaha! one of the ones I think is so hysterical just came on. Some ladies are in the grocery store talking about all these yummy sounding desserts and one of them mentions Boston cream (creme?) pie and Richard Simmons jumps in, "Boston creme (cream?) pie? No! Ladies, please... I believe in you, on and on...." Hahaha.

Some commercials have been on so long I want to scream when they come on again.And what is a three year old pappion anyway? and what does that have to do with plumbing? I don't even know what the lady is advertising!

Well, at the risk of annoying many, here's my Wednesday commercial.

It's Wednesday! I hope I'll see you in choir tonight!

An Old PSA Made New

When I was a little boy there was a Public Service Announcement that they played all of the time.

It's 10:00. Do you know where your children are?

If you click this link you'll find the history of the phrase and a few jokes that are take offs from this phrase.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_you_know_where_your_children_are

So here's my new wording I thought up just for you. Hahaha makes it sound like it's going to be something really clever doesn't it?

It's 6:30 pm on a Wednesday. Do you know where your choir is?

If you live in Clarksville, TN the answer to that is "at the Family Life Center." Come join us tonight. We're going to sing a lot of Christmas music!

It's Wednesday! Time for Choir!

What better way to make the middle of your week more joyful than to spend time singing God's praise with some of your good friends in choir? I'll be looking for you tonight!

If you've been out of the country for a month or so you may not realize that we are now meeting at our new Family Life Center on Old Farmers Road.

Hmmm, I wonder if it's called Old Farmers Rd because there is a new Farmers Road or if it is named after an old farmer (like the guy in the picture) and it is his road? But I guess that would require an apostrophe... oh dear, I'm starting to sound like Bro. Larry!

Choir Rehearsal at the FLC

I don't know about you all, but I thought rehearsal worked out very well at the FLC. I wasn't really sure how it would actually sound in that big room and if we could see and hear and get our music and carry over a keyboard and all of those things... but it was great. At least where I was standing you all sounded wonderful. And I guess you all had missed choir as much as I have because we had:

17 Sopranos
24 Altos
14 Tenors
7 Basses

62 Total

Thanks for being in rehearsal.

I worked very hard to remember to put my camera in my car so I could have pictures of our first night out there. And I DID remember to put my camera in my car. Unfortunately, that is the last time I thought about it. Perhaps we'll get some pictures next week...

Songs from the Loft

Not Amy Grant's album from years ago...


us!

We're going to have this Wednesday's rehearsal in the choir loft.

Everything has been cancelled for Wednesday night so we can "blitz" the neighborhoods around the new FLC, but Bro. Larry said we could go ahead and rehearse. This gives us a perfect opportunity to work on microphones, sing with the band, and all of those things that happen on a Sunday morning. I'll be able to walk around the room and listen and talk to sound guys while we sing. We'll be able to move the mics around to see where we get the best sound.

So... we need you in rehearsal THIS Wednesday night at 6:30. See you then.

P.S. The Golden Granny Awards Dinner is THIS Saturday night. Have you paid for your tickets?

It's Wednesday! Perk Up!

There are many people who don't like Wednesdays. Wednesday is stuck right in the middle of the week. It's too long from the coming weekend to look forward to being away from work and too long from the past weekend to still remember what a nice weekend you had, so you're just kind of stuck. Stuck at work or in school and you need something to perk up your day and maybe even your week.



From Merriam-Webster.com

perk
intransitive verb

1 a: to thrust up the head, stretch out the neck, or carry the body in a bold or insolent manner
b: to stick up or out jauntily
2: to gain in vigor or cheerfulness especially after a period of weakness or depression —usually used with up "he's perked up noticeably"


I have just what you need! - CHOIR!


Where else can you have great fellowship with your friends, sing some great music, worship, be encouraged, work hard and accomplish something, have someone else watch your kids, and more - all within one hour? I don't think there is anything else that offers so much and it's free!

Or you could just drink a pot of coffee.


See you tonight!

The River of Life

We've got a great new song we'll look at Wednesday night in choir - The River of Life. You're gonna really like this one.

I'll be looking for you in rehearsal - 6:30.

I have a picture to go with this post - posts without pictures are BORING. But Blogger doesn't want to load it right now. Check back later....

How to Memorize Anything

I ran across several web sites that claim to help you memorize anything.


I found fancy diagrams of the brain and detailed information about synapses a snappin' and nervous nerves and things I don't remember...


But I've found the best way to memorize music is to sing it. Singing by yourself in your car with a CD is pretty good, but the best way is to be in choir singing with your friends.

So... let me encourage you to be in choir tonight. We still have a few weeks to memorize the music and then we'll get out on the stage and sing.