Doxology

A couple of posts ago, I shared with you my Top Ten living musicians that I would love to see as Music Ministers in a local church.  Today, I give you my Top Ten guys (whether musicians or not) who are not alive that I would have loved to see as Music Ministers.  Many of them didn’t profess Christ so assume that they would be truly converted and on staff at a church in today’s world.

10.  David Gates. The lead singer for the 70′s band Bread.  He sang such noble songs as “If“, “Diary“, “Aubrey“, and “Daughter”.  How awesome would it be to hear him lead congregational singing and write songs to the glory of God?

9.  Ray Charles. There’s no telling what energy there would be on “There Is A Fountain” or “My Chains Are Gone” with Charles’ hot piano playing and distinctive vocals.

8.  Keith Green. I know he was already a worship leader and an amazing song-writer and born-again believer.  I’m just letting my imagination run wild with the idea of his serving today in a local church.  I would settle for his just being still with us now.

7.  Martin Luther. This man loved music.  He is known more for being the father of the modern reformation and rightly so.  But most aren’t aware that he is also the father of the modern hymn.  I would love to see how he would have led a congregational celebration in song of the Savior.

6.  Isaac Watts. My favorite hymn writer–without question.

5.  Frank Sinatra. He was a master communicator.  I’m sure that a congregation under his leading would have never missed a word of any song they sang.

4.  Paul the Apostle. If for no other reason, it would give clarity to his epistles as to how congregational singing should look like–not to mention all of corporate worship.

3.  Freddie Mercury. No one had more energy and charisma.  And what a voice!  Oh to see his heart regenerate and dedicated to the glory of God.  Church services would have certainly been a God-glorifying event with him as the Music Minister.

2.  King David. I would think that the writer of the majority of the Psalms would be a fascinating observation.  Plus, it would be indescribable to see his reaction to have the full canon and revelation of the Gospel and how that would affect his song leading.

1.  Luciano Pavarotti. A freak of nature.  There will never be another voice like his.  The biggest challenge for me would be paying attention to the song texts and not marveling at the sound.  But just at least once, I would have loved to hear him worship and sing “How Great Thou Art” or “In Christ Alone”.

Pavarotti--who I would most like to see as a Mus Min

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"Turn in your hymnals to page 175..."

Ok….I’ve got to ‘splain what I’m talking about. I know a lot of great men who are talented musicians who the Lord has saved and called into the ministry where they are serving in local churches as Music Ministers. Lenny LeBlanc is a friend of mine who was first known as a secular musician. He was then born again, began writing and singing Christian music, and is now on staff at a church here in the Shoals as the Music Minister (Worship Leader, Lead Worshiper, etc.)

But there are many singers that I have admired for a long time that I wish (first of all) were born again biblically. But I also wish that once saved that they were the Music Minister in my church and I got to sing congregationally under their leadership (assuming that I was not the MusMin myself). One other condition–all on this list are still alive.

Here are my top ten guys:

10. Vince Gill. He is one of my favorite country artists of all time and I would love to hear how he would lead “Hallelujah What A Savior”

9. Michael Card. Alright. I know he actually is a follower of Jesus. I know he also is a Christian musician. But I would still love to have him as the Music Minister at my (hypothetical) church.  Plus he could sing “Song Of Gomer” EVERY Sunday!

8. Tony Bennett. Instead of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” he would sing “I Found My Life In Jesu Christe”…maybe not….

7.  Andrea Bocelli. Some compare him to Pavarotti….Not buying into that but the guy has pipes.  Wouldn’t it be great to hear him lead hymns every Sunday?

6.  James Taylor. Mean Ol’ Man…’nuf said.

5.  Michael Bolton. Call me stuck in the 90′s but his singing amazes me.  Freak of nature.

4.  Steve Perry. Former lead singer of Journey.  ”Oh Savior, our love holds on, holds on”.  What could be better than that?

3.  John Piper. I know he doesn’t sing.  But the deep affection he has for Christ would be wonderful to see expressed in song leading.  Plus with his ability to write poetry can you imagine the songs he would write?

2.  Steve Green. See No. 9.  When he sings I can almost see Jesus literally.  Bear with me….

1.  Lou Gramm. Lead singer for Foreigner.  Simply the greatest rock voice of all time.  Can you imagine coming to church and have him lead “It Is Well” ending on a high Z?

Well, there it is.  I’ll probably think of others that I omitted.  I may come up with another top ten list like this of those who have passed on.  I can think of about five as I type this.

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If I were starting a church plant or beginning at a new church today here are the first ten hymns out of the hymnal I would teach (if not already known by the congregation):

1.         Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing—Robinson

2.         When I Survey The Wondrous Cross—Watts

3.         And Can It Be?—Wesley

4.         Hallelujah What A Savior—Bliss

5.         It Is Well With My Soul—Spafford

6.         And Will The Judge Descend?—Doddridge

7.         Stricken Smitten And Afflicted—Kelly

8.         Praise To The Lord The Almighty—Neander

9.         A Mighty Fortress Is Our God—Luther

10.       How Sweet And Awful (Awesome)—Watts

(It was hard to find decent video links to some of these videos which speaks of how obscure some may actually be!)

Notice that I said that these were the first ten I would teach.  That’s not to say that these are the only ones.  Most all of these hymns can be found in The Baptist Hymnal, The Celebration Hymnal, and The Hymnal For Worship And Celebration.  Numbers 7, and 10 can be found in The Trinity Hymnal.  Number 6 can be found by contacting my at tclay@gracelifeshoals.org

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Folks just can’t resist a good Top Ten list.  Therefore, I will now answer a question I received a while back:

If you sat down and thought about it, would there be 10-15 worship songs that would fit this criteria:  (1) Easy to play (3-4 basic guitar chords), (2) easy to find on ITunes, (3) easy for a pianist to read and play and (4) theologically solid?

The most difficult element to deal with for me is number 3 b/c it’s hard to know the playing ability of any piano player (do they play from charts? From sheet music?). With that in mind, I would think this list would serve well in a church plant environment or for a new pastor wanting to breathe some life into his new church’s repertoire.  If I had to start with ten easy worship (non-hymnal) songs that fit the criteria in the question, here’s where I would start:

**How Great Is Our God—Tomlin

Chords needed: Bb/Gmin/Eb/F w/o capo (A/F#min/D/E capo first fret)

**Blessed Be Your Name—Redman

Chords needed: A/E/F#min/D

**Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)—Tomlin

Chords needed:  Eb/Ab/Bb/Fmin w/o capo (D/G/A/Emin capo first fret)

**Your Love Oh Lord—Powell

Chords needed:  E/A/Bsus/C#sus/F#min

**You Are My King (Amazing Love)—Foote

Chords needed:  D/G/A/Bmin

**The Wonderful Cross—Tomlin

Chords needed (without a key change):  C/F/G (or D/G/A)

**Nothing But The Blood—Redman

Chords needed:  A/F#min/E/D

**The Glory Of The Cross—Kauflin

Chords needed:  E/A/C#min/Bsus/F#min

**God Of Wonders—Byrd

Chords needed:  Dsus/Emin/C/G/Amin

**In Christ Alone—Townend, Getty

Chords needed:   D/A/G

In my next entry I will give you my top ten starter hymns (with a slightly different criterion).

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I recently received this question from a brother who has taken his first full-time position as Music Minister at a church:

What would be the top 5 on “Tom’s advice list for new music ministers”?

My initial reaction would be “that answer requires an entire book!”.  However, I will attempt to basically boil down this blog into five main points.

Let the worship you “do” on the platform be an overflow of your life of worship. There are too many folks that seem to only give affection towards Christ while on the platform.  I have to confess to times in my life where that was also the case.  The more I am walking in a worship lifestyle, the more natural, the more effective my leadership from the platform will be.

Pursue “selfless excellence”. There is a difference between making excellent music in an arrogant way and doing so from humility.  There is a difference between striving to be selfless and making sloppy music and being selfless and making excellent music.  When music is made in an excellent way it should remove all distractions—including the musicians themselves.

Have a high view of pastoral authority. Again, this point alone could be written at book-length.  Understand that as a Music Minister, your responsibility is to be an extension of the heart of your Senior Pastor just as your Senior Pastor is an extension of the Heart of Christ to your local church.  Do nothing to undermine his leadership.  Listen to him as your primary influence as to the decisions you make.  Don’t primarily listen to your congregation.  You will get caught in the middle and it will not honor the Lord.

Be a theologian first. Whether anyone else believes this or not, you are a handler of God’s word.  Your knowledge of the gospel and of the scriptures will be crucial in your discernment of repertoire.  Tell me what a church is singing and I will tell you what it believes.  The songs you select MUST be faithful to the entire counsel of God from God’s written word.

Find a Timothy. From day one, be looking for someone that you can begin mentoring and training to also serve in music leadership.  Only do this, though, if you also have a “Paul” in your life, which should primarily be your Senior Pastor (as I said in my third point).  Once you find a mentee, teach him to begin looking for a “Timothy” as well.  This is the best way to feed your music program (not to mention that disciple-making IS the Great Commission).

Hope this helps!

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I don’t do a lot of Top 5 or Top 1o Lists even though I will stop and check out just about any Top Ten list anywhere else.  (Why would I be riveted by someone’s Top Ten bar soaps???)

Here are my ten favorite Christmas Projects:

1.  A Charlie Brown Christmas–Vince Gauraldi

2.  A Festival Of Carols In Brass–Philadelphia Brass Ensemble

3.  The Christmas Song–Nat King Cole

4.  Behold The Lamb Of God–Andrew Peterson

5.  Andy Williams’ Personal Christmas Collection–Andy Williams

6.  Majesty And Wonder–Phil Keaggy

7.  Joy To The World–Steve Green

8.  December–Kenny Loggins

9.  Christmas Songs–Fernando Ortega

10.  Christmas With The Imperials

Ok….There it is.  I’m sure I’ll remember another one just after I click “Publish” so stay tuned!  Feel free to rip this list apart.  (Yes, I’m pretty much an old fogey.)

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Bernstein in action

Today is something light.  I enjoy music of all styles.  I get a thrill out of a great movie soundtrack score.  I also love bluegrass!  I like to howl along with a Foreigner classic as well as croon along with Mel Torme or Harry Connick.  And on it goes.  I also love classical music and I sing with the Nashville Symphony Chorus.  It is a top-flight group and I’m glad they let a few meatheads in.

I was thinking the other day of what my top ten classical pieces would be and I came up with this list.  If any of them are unfamiliar to you, I would challenge you to click on some of the links I’ve found or get them on itunes or go totally 90’s on me and get the CD’s.   I list these in no particular order.

Samuel Barber—Knoxville:  Summer of 1915 (get Sylvia McNair singing it!)

Samuel Barber—Adagio For Strings (get L Bernstein conducting it)

Claude Debussy—Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun Listen to it here

G F Handel—The Messiah (I suggest Sir George Solti’s version)

Robert Schumann—Dichterliebe (get Fritz Wunderlich singing it!)

Ludwig Beethoven—6^th Symphony Listen to a portion here

Ludwig Beethoven—9^th Symphony Listen to a portion here

Maurice Ravel—String Quartet in F Major Listen to a portion here

J S Bach—Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 Listen to a portion here

Antonin Dvorak—9^th (New World) Symphony (I again suggest Bernstein!)

OK–so I’m a lush….

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