Rehearsal Notes

I'm sorry it's taken so long to get rehearsal notes posted. I had to leave early in the day on Thursday for the funeral and just got back this afternoon. Only now have I had a chance to sit down and make a blog post.

I was delighted with our rehearsal Wednesday. The desire for excellence that you are showing is amazing. Frankly, I am humbled by it. I've had some wonderful experiences in directing choral groups over the years; but I've never experienced the passion that I'm sensing from you. I am very privileged to be a part of our group. I believe that God has great things in store for us. We may, or may not, see what God does through our ministry. But I know he has great plans for us.

As Jerilin noted, it is clear that many of you are putting in the work to insure that you can sing your part well. It really showed in rehearsal. We could never have covered all the music that we did this week if you were not working on your own. Thank you very much for doing that.

Thursday morning, before I left for the funeral, I was given the good news that Alea has signed a substantial contract that we've been trying to land. PTL. It's a rush project, however, so the client wants me on-site in California next week. They wanted me on Thursday, but I told them I have prior commitments for that day ... technical rehearsal. We were able to renegotiate and I'll be taking the red eye back Wednesday night in order to be at rehearsal on Thursday. I'll miss the optional rehearsal on Wednesday, but Jerilin has agreed to be there to work with all who want additional practice. Thank you, Jerilin, for your selfless leadership!

See you Thursday!

Thanks for your prayers

Thanks for your prayers regarding my cousin's funeral. It was a painful experience, but one that was wonderful at the same time. The circumstances of his death were very sad, but we celebrated the life of a wonderful, loving man. The love and support shown to the family by friends and my cousin's fellow police officers was overwhelming.

Vocal Technique

One of our key focal points this year is going to be vocal technique. This Wednesday, we'll begin working on a singing method based on the "speech level method" and developed by Brett Manning. It's a method designed around singing popular rather than classical styles of music.

The first 15 minutes of each rehearsal, from now on, will be focused on vocal technique. Be sure to be ready to sing right at 6:30. This method will build on itself from week to week. You won't want to miss any of it.

By the way, sometimes I wonder if anybody reads this blog. So, I'll give a new CD of one of my favorite artists to the first person to post a comment to this post letting me know that you read it.

Rehearsal Notes

Thanks for a great rehearsal last night! I was very pleased with our new start. I'm excited about the year ahead. The full sound that we had, when we really tried to create it, was awesome!! Way to go.

I thought that the sight singing sessions were fun. If you found the material in lesson one a bit on the easy side, be patient. We'll get to harder things soon. We need to build a strong foundation and give folks who are completely new to reading music time to absorb the foundational material. It will be exciting to see how well we can read by the end of the year.

If you didn't get your t-shirt ordered, please email Rob Wharton in the next couple of days and place your order. He'll be submitting the order soon. Call or email me if you need Rob's email address. I don't want to post it here because web crawlers will pick it up and he'll be slammed with spam.

For next week, work on memorization of lyrics to the songs we rehearsed last night. Also see if you can find your part in the chromatic chord progressions with which we struggled last night. Jerilin and I will be prepared to rehearse those sections carefully so we can sing them right.

Prayer Requests:
Priscilla - her uncle passed away
Maretta - recovering from foot surgery
Linda - recovering from a cold or sinus infection

Verse for thought:
You are blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. Matt 5:3 (The Message)

Prayer Request

Priscilla Hagins has asked us to pray for her family. Her uncle, Rev. Vernon T. Carter, passed away yesterday after a fight with cancer.

Playlist for September 9

Here is what we'll be singing for our first Praise Date on Sept 9:

Sweeter
Everyday (new)
Better is One Day
I Give You My Heart
You Give Me Joy

Reminder: The technical rehearsal for this Praise Date will be Thursday, Sept 6 - 6:30 to 8:00 PM. We will NOT meet on Wednesday of that week.

New Album to Check Out

I am enjoying a new album by Chris Rice entitled What A Heart Is Beating For. It's a Jack Johnson-esque album that has a positive faith based outlook on life. One of my favorite tracks is Lemonade. Check it out.

By the way ... if you, like me, are an Urge subscriber, you should know that Urge and Rhapsody are merging. Your Urge account works on Rhapsody. So you now have access to both libraries. The biggest benefit that I see right now is that the Rhapsody player works much better than Windows Media Player which Urge used. I'm lovin' it.

Preparation for Sight Singing

If you are going to be participating in the sight singing sessions, please read the information in your text that leads up to Lesson 1 prior to the session. Since our sessions are going to be only 30 minutes, it will help greatly if you've covered the preliminary material on your own. Thanks.

Praise Choir T-Shirts

The new Brookwood Church Praise Choir t-shirts will be on sale at rehearsal on Wednesday. I'm excited about them. Here is a mock-up. One sleeve will have the Brookwood tree logo; and the back will have our vision statement "Living in Worship Singing His Praise" along with Ps. 108:3. Prices are as follows:

• Small to XL - $9.00


• XXL - $11.25


• XXXL - $12.25
  

I can't wait to wear mine!

WOW!

Was that a great concert, or what?!?

I hope you got to stay to the end. For me, the Nicholtown Community was the best part of the evening!

Concert Sunday Afternoon

Remember that there is going to be a concert at Brookwood on Sunday afternoon. Doors open at 4:00 PM. The concert starts at 4:30 PM. The featured artist is the group that sang at church last Sunday morning. In addition, two or three gospel choirs are going to be singing. It will be a great chance for us to hear some choral music and see how other groups "do choir".

I'll be there. I hope to see you!

Ministry

Here are some thoughts that I read last night. They are written by Dallas Willard to people in vocational ministry. But, since our ministry is leading worship, I think they apply to us also.

The people to whom we minister and speak will not recall 99 percent of what we say to them. But they will never forget the kind of persons we are. The quality of our souls will indelibly touch others for good or for ill. So we must never forget that the most important thing happening at any moment, in the midst of all our ministerial duties, is the kind of persons we are becoming.

If we are going to be people of worship and praise, we will need to give attention to the kind of persons we are becoming.

Choir Kickoff

Thank you for your sweet, even enthusiastic, response to the things we covered in our meeting last night. I know that what I am asking of you will make it so that you have to work more to fulfill your role in choir. Your willingness to do so is humbling to me. I am very honored to be a part of such a great team of people. And ... I'm excited to see what God has in store for us!

In the event that you want to review what we discussed, here are the slides from last night's presentation.

This is it ...

Our first meeting of the new choir season is this week. Wednesday at 6:30 PM. It will be a great time to reconnect and look ahead to the new season. Be sure to bring your favorite ice cream topping. See you there ...

Foundation Three

My previous post should have been labeled Foundation Three. The scripture posted there reminds us much better than I could have that we do what we do for God. Not to impress anyone or get attention from anyone. It's all "For Him and about Him".

Matthew 6

I just read Matthew 6 in The Message, a contemporary translation of the Bible. It struck me that we need to keep these words of Jesus in mind as we approach our ministry.

1 "Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding. 2 "When you do something for someone else, don't call attention to yourself. You've seen them in action, I'm sure - 'playactors' I call them - treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that's all they get. 3 When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks. 4 Just do it - quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

5 "And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat? 6 "Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace. 7 "The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. 8 Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need.

We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Our kick-off meeting on Wednesday, August 15 will feature an ICE CREAM PARTY!!

Please, bring your favorite topping ... strawberries, chocolate syrup, nuts, sprinkles, chocolate covered raisins, granola, broccoli ... whatever. Brookwood will provide the ice cream and drinks. We'll make our own sundaes and splits and eat to our heart's content.

I'll also review and we'll discuss the plan for the new choir season. It's going to be a great year. I'm excited and can't wait to get started.

See you there!

Funeral Arrangements

The funeral for Sandra's sister will be at 2pm this Wednesday at the Brown Funeral Home at 811 Pendleton Street. If you can be there, I know that Sandra will appreciate your presence.

We are going to participate with Sandra's small group, Kim and Sharon are in the group, and provide a meal this week. In order to simplify things, Sharon is going to have a meal prepared and will deliver it. We will split the cost with the small group. We'll take a collection at our 1st meeting on Sept. 15 to cover the cost. Thanks to Sharon and Kim for organizing all of this.

Keep Sandra and her family in your prayers. Despite the fact that her sister had been ill, her sudden death was unexpected.

Prayer Request

Please keep Sandra Robertson and her entire family in your prayers. Her sister, Lois, who we had been praying for, passed away last night. We will be updating how we can help in the next couple of days.

FOUNDATION TWO - Reaching Higher

Colossians 3:23 has been a part of my life for a long time ... all that way back to before I can remember. My dad went to a Christian college and was a member of a student organization for which Colossians 3:23 was the theme verse. The verse became important to my dad and I think he passed it on to me. Then, I went to the same college and was a part of the same organization. The verse was still the theme verse. "Whatever you do, do it heartily, for the Lord and not men." While I have my lapses, and don't always live up to that standard; I do believe at my core that we should give everything our best effort and do it for the Lord.

What does that mean to us? When we started together as a choir, we were less capable than we are now. We gave it our best. But our best then wasn't what our best is now. We have grown spiritually and musically over the years that we have served together. We sing and serve at a higher level than we did at the beginning. BUT ... our our way of doing choir, how we prepare, the effort we give it, what we expect of each other, and what we expect of ourselves has not changed much.

As the old adage says, "you can't do things the way you've always done them and expect the results to be any different than they've always been." As one who believes that we should do all that we do heartily for the Lord, do the best we can do for God, I believe that we should expect something different, demand more of ourselves ... because we are now capable of more.

We should reach higher now, because we can ... because God wants us to (Col. 3:23).