Each week, you may find information here about the music in the traditional worship services at First United Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas. Some of this information is original; most of it is copied from other websites such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org. It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.
About the Organ Music:
God has Spoken by His Prophets - Benjamin Culli
(c.2015, Concordia Publishing)
George Wallace Briggs (1875-1959) was a Canon of Worcester Cathedral and one of the most distinguished British hymn writers and hymnologists. Six of his hymns appear in the Episcopal Hymnal of 1940 (American). Another hymn on the Bible entitled "Word of the living God" was written for the 25th Anniversary of the British Bible Reading Fellowship and was sung in Westminster Abbey on June 5, 1947. Canon Briggs was a leading member of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He was also the composer of several hymn times, six of which appeared in British hymnals. In addition to his work as a clergy man of the Church of England and hymnologist, he was active in the field of religious education, being largely responsible for two books with wide circulation in Britain, Prayers and Hymns for used in Schools and The Daily Service. These books had great influence on the worship practices of British schools, public and private. It is of historic interest that he is the author of one of the prayers used at the time of the meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt on H.M.S. Prince of Wales in 1941 when the Atlantic Charter was framed.
“God has Spoken by the Prophets” was first published in Ten New Hymns from the Bible, 1953.
God has spoken by the prophets, Spoken the unchanging Word;
Each from age to age proclaiming God the One, the righteous Lord!
’Mid the world’s despair and turmoil One firm anchor holding fast:
God eternal reigns forever, God the first and God the last.
God has spoken by Christ Jesus, Christ, the everlasting Son,
Brightness of the Father’s glory, With the Father ever one;
Spoken by the Word incarnate, God of God ere time was born;
Light of light, to earth descending, Christ as God in human form.
God is speaking by the Spirit, Speaking to our hearts again,
In the age-long word declaring God’s own message, now as then.
Through the rise and fall of nations One sure faith is standing fast:
God abides, the Word unchanging, God the first and God the last.
Benjamin M. Culli is an active composer, a church musician, and a senior keyboard publications editor at the Hal Leonard Corporation. He is the organist at Peace Lutheran Church in New Berlin, Wisconsin. Culli studied music education at Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois, and after graduation worked as a high school and elementary school band director. In addition to his duties as a band director, Benjamin also directed the children’s choir and the adult handbell choir. He has composed music for organ, choir, chamber ensembles, and concert bands.
About the Piano Music:
I Surrender All - Jim Martinez
(c. 2019, Hope Publishing)
"I Surrender All" is a Christian hymn, with words written by American art teacher and musician Judson W. Van DeVenter (1855–1939), who subsequently became a music minister and evangelist. It was put to music by Winfield S. Weeden (1847–1908), and published in 1896.Van DeVenter said of the inspiration for the text:
For some time, I had struggled between developing my talents in the field of art and going into full-time evangelistic work. At last the pivotal hour of my life came, and I surrendered all. A new day was ushered into my life. I became an evangelist and discovered down deep in my soul a talent hitherto unknown to me. God had hidden a song in my heart, and touching a tender chord, He caused me to sing.
Following his decision to surrender his life to the Divine, Van DeVenter traveled throughout the United States, England, and Scotland, doing evangelistic work. Winfield S. Weeden, his associate and singer, assisted him for many years. Toward the end of his life, Van DeVenter moved to Florida, and was professor of hymnology at the Florida Bible Institute for four years in the 1920s. After his retirement, he remained involved in speaking and in religious gatherings. Van DeVenter published more than 60 hymns in his lifetime, but "I Surrender All" is his most famous.
All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live.
All to Jesus I surrender, humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken; take me Jesus, take me now.
All to Jesus I surrender, make me, Savior, wholly Think;
Let me feel Thy Holy Spirit, truly know that Thou art mine.
All to Jesus I surrender, Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power, let Thy blessing fall on me.
All to Jesus I surrender; now I feel the sacred flame.
Oh, the joy of Thy salvation! Glory, glory to His name!
I surrender all, I surrender all.
All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
Jim Martinez (b. 1966) is a Steinway Piano Artist and has performed/recorded with Jazz notables Lionel Hampton, Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove, Cheryl Bentyne (of the Manhattan Transfer), and many others. His performances have taken him from New York to Sydney, Australia. Martinez worked as pianist/musical director for Joan Rivers and Bob Newhart at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. He is the founder, Executive and Artistic Director of the Roseville Jazz Festival, which takes place annually near Sacramento, CA.
About the Choral Music:
Give Me Jesus - Howard Helvey
(c. 2008, Beckenhorst Press)
“Give Me Jesus” originated as an African-American spiritual written during the time of slavery in the United States. The lyrics and tune of “Give Me Jesus” are simple, but poignant. Whether we are in tragedy or triumph, whether we are weathering storms or counting treasures, our hearts’ desire should simply be Jesus. That “Give Me Jesus” was written by people stripped of all dignity and every human possession says so much about what Jesus is, what He can give and His very nature!
In the morning, when I rise, In the morning, when I rise,
In the morning, when I rise, Give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus,
You may have all this world,
Give me Jesus.
Dark midnight was my cry, Dark midnight was my cry,
Dark midnight was my cry, Give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus,
You may have all this world,
Give me Jesus.
Oh, when I come to die, Oh, when I come to die,
Oh, when I come to die, Give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus,
You may have all this world,
Give me Jesus.
Howard Helvey (b. 1968) was awarded the international choral-composition first prize in 2006 by the John Ness Beck Foundation. Helvey also concertizes frequently as a pianist, conducts (and co-founded) the professional Cincinnati Fusion Ensemble, and in 1998 was appointed as organist/choirmaster of historic Calvary Episcopal Church in Cincinnati. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in composition and piano performance from the University of Missouri (Columbia) and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, and, as a Chautauqua Scholar, studied piano at New York's Chautauqua Institution.
About the Hymns:
Blessed Assurance
Fanny Jane Crosby (1820-1915), born in New York and died in Connecticut, wrote over 8,500 gospel hymns. In 1972, Hope Publishing Co. found over 1,000 unpublished manuscripts. Her work defined what it meant to be a successful writer of gospel hymns. By the age of six weeks, Fanny Crosby was completely blind. She entered the New York School for the Blind at age twelve. She began writing hymns and poetry at age twelve. Her collaborators in publishing gospel hymns included the most successful and popular composers of her day, including William Bradbury, William Doane, Robert Lowry, Ira Sankey, and William Kirkpatrick. Crosby used numerous pen names in publishing her songs, including: Ella Dale, Mrs. Kate Gringley and Miss Viola V. A. She married blind musician Alexander Van Alstyne, and the British most often refer to her by her married name rather than Fanny Crosby. She was a lifelong Methodist and her contributions to The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) include: “Blessed Assurance,” “Close to Thee,” “I Am Thine, O Lord,” “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” “Rescue the Perishing,” and “To God Be the Glory.”
Phoebe Knapp (1839-1908) was a composer of music for hymns and an organist. Knapp was born in New York City. Her parents were Walter C. Palmer and Phoebe Worrall Palmer. She married Joseph Fairchild Knapp, one of the founders and the second president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and he had a pipe organ installed in their apartment. She and her husband were members of the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City. The hymn writer Fanny Crosby was also a member of that church and a friend of the Phoebe’s. She wrote over 500 hymn tunes, the most familiar being the tune now called ASSURANCE for Fanny Crosby's lyrics “Blessed Assurance”.
Crosby was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp as the Knapp home was having a large pipe organ installed. The organ was incomplete, so Mrs. Knapp, using the piano, played a new melody she had just composed. When Knapp asked Crosby, "What do you think the tune says?", Crosby replied, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine." The hymn appeared in the July 1873 issue of Palmer's Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany, a magazine printed by Dr. and Mrs. W. C. Palmer.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
Perfect communion, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight.
Angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Perfect submission, all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and bless’d,
watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
Trust and Obey
This hymn was inspired in 1886 when the composer of the music, Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919), was the music leader during one of Dwight L. Moody’s famous revivals. Towner provided the following account cited by Moody’s musical partner, Ira D. Sankey, in his biography, My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns: “Mr. Moody was conducting a series of meetings in Brockton, Massachusetts, and I had the pleasure of singing for him there. One night a young man rose in a testimony meeting and said, ‘I am not quite sure—but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.’ I just jotted that sentence down, and sent it with a little story to the Rev. J. H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister. He wrote the hymn, and the tune was born.” Sammis is said to have composed the lines of the refrain upon receiving the letter.
As is the case with most gospel songs, these lines provide the central theme around which all of the stanzas were written. The text and first Towner’s tune, TRUST AND OBEY, appeared in the 1887 collection, Hymns Old and New, and has been included in countless hymnals since. Methodist hymnals in the United States have carried it since 1897.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word,
what a glory he sheds on our way! While we do his good will,
he abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey.
Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
but our toil he doth richly repay; not a grief or a loss,
not a frown or a cross, but is blest if we trust and obey.
But we never can prove the delights of his love
until all on the altar we lay; for the favor he shows,
for the joy he bestows, are for them who will trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at his feet,
or we'll walk by his side in the way; what he says we will do,
where he sends we will go; never fear, only trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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