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:
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms - Marianne Kim
(c.2018, Lorenz Publishing)
“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” was published in 1887 with music by Anthony J. Showalter and lyrics by Showalter and Elisha Hoffman. Elisha Hoffman (1839-1929) after graduating from Union Seminary in Pennsylvania was ordained in 1868. As a minister he was appointed to the circuit in Napoleon, Ohio in 1872. He worked with the Evangelical Association's publishing arm in Cleveland for eleven years. He served in many chapels and churches in Cleveland and in Grafton in the 1880s, among them Bethel Home for Sailors and Seamen, Chestnut Ridge Union Chapel, Grace Congregational Church and Rockport Congregational Church. In his lifetime he wrote more than 2,000 gospel songs including "Leaning on the everlasting arms" (1894). The fifty song books he edited include Pentecostal Hymns No. 1 and The Evergreen, 1873.
Anthony J. Showalter received letters from two friends who had lost their wives about the same time. He wrote back to express his sympathy, and included a verse of Scripture: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27 KJV). As he thought about that text, he wrote the music and refrain to this hymn. He asked Elisha Hoffman to write the stanzas. The hymn was first published in 1887 in The Glad Evangel for Revival, Camp, and Evangelistic Meetings, for which Showalter was an editor. The text has three stanzas and a refrain. The theme of the text is the peace that comes from knowing that God will protect us, and how that knowledge removes our fears.
What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms;
what a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms
Leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus, safe and secure from all alarms;
leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arms;
O how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms.
What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms.
A Chicago-based composer, pianist, organist, and harpsichordist, Marianne Kim (b. 1972) has been noted for her vibrant performances and compositions in a wide diversity of musical styles, including classical, jazz, Broadway musicals, R&B, and gospel, alongside traditional and contemporary church music. Born and raised in Korea, Marianne studied piano and composition at Pusan High School of Arts and earned a BM in composition at Pusan National University. After working professionally for more than a decade in the United States, she returned to school and earned dual Masters of Music in jazz studies and organ performance with scholarships and prizes from Northern Illinois University.
About the Piano Music:
On Jordan's Stormy Banks - C. E. Walz
(c.2018 Lorenz Publishing)
Samuel Stennett (1727-1795), an English Baptist, came from a long line of ministers. He was the son of a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor. In the 18th century, university education was not easily available to nonconformist families—those who refused to swear allegiance to the Church of England. Stennett did study at the academy at Miles End with distinction, however. In spite of his nonconformist religious stance, Stennett was a personal friend to the reigning monarch, King George III. Stennett was honored in 1763 with a doctor of divinity degree from King’s College, Aberdeen, for his accomplishments. He served as an assistant to his father in his congregation in 1747 and assumed the position of pastor upon his father’s death in 1758.
John Rippon, an English Baptist pastor, published in 1787 an influential collection, A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors. Thirty-eight of Stennett’s hymns appeared in this popular collection. Among those was a hymn under the heading of “Heaven Anticipated” with the title of “The Promised Land” in eight four-line stanzas. The hymn as it appeared in America looked and sounded much different. William Walker’s The Southern Harmony (1835) was the first to include “The Promised Land.” This was one of the most popular of the 19th-century, oblong-tune books with shaped notes. The tune PROMISED LAND was paired with the text. The Southern Harmony attributes the tune to “Miss M. Durham” but we know nothing else about the composer. The tune has many of the characteristics the traditional folk melodies of the time. Originally written in a minor mode, Rigdon M. McIntosh, a Southern musician, altered the tune to the major mode, and as was customary among American evangelicals in the 19th century added a refrain beginning with “I am bound for the promised land.” This version was published in 1895 in H. R. Christie’s Gospel Light and has become the standard version for many hymnals since that time.
From the start, the four stanzas focus on heaven. The singer stands on the banks of the Jordan River looking across to the “fair and happy land” of Canaan—a metaphoric mixture of images from the books of Exodus and Revelation. Our true “possessions” lie in Canaan (Heaven) and not on the earthly side of Jordan. metaphors of the vision, vigor, enthusiasm, and optimism of frontier life moving on to the promised land of Kentucky or Missouri.”
The hymn has appeared in each American Methodist hymnal since Francis Asbury included it in his Supplement to the Pocket Hymn Book (1808).
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, and cast a wishful eye
to Canaan's fair and happy land where my possessions lie
There gen'rous fruits that never fail, on trees immortal grow.
There rocks and hills and brooks and vales with milk and honey flow.
All o'er those wide-extended plains shines one eternal day;
there God the Son forever reigns and scatters night away.
No chilling wind nor pois'nous breath can reach that healthful shore;
sickness and sorrow pain and death are felt and feared no more.
When shall I reach that happy place and be forever blest?
When shall I see my Father's face and in his bosom rest?
I'm bound for the promised land, I'm bound for the promised land.
Oh, who will come and go with me? I'm bound for the promised land.
C.E. (Carolyn) Walz was born and raised near Atlanta, Georgia, where, at age ten, she began piano lessons with Robert Fraumann, the minister of music at her church. By age twelve, Carolyn was playing piano solos for church services and accompanying children’s choirs. Apart from her musical studies, Carolyn had a keen interest in teaching English and writing children’s books. She earned her Bachelor of Art Degree in Christian Education from Atlanta Christian College and her Master of Science Degree in Middle Grades Education from Georgia State University. She authored several books for children and became a full-time English teacher at Woodward Academy. In 2015, she retired as English Department Head of the Middle School after more than thirty years of service.
Since retirement, Carolyn has become an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a two-time national winner of the DAR’s American Heritage Instrumental Music Award. Today she continues to serve as a church musician, accompanist, and children’s choir director as she pursues her new interest: composing and arranging piano solos and choral anthems for Lorenz and other publishing companies.
About the Vocal Solo Music:
The Prayer – arr. Tom Fettke
(c.2009, Warner-Tamerlane Publishing)
"The Prayer" was written by David Foster and Carole Bayer Sager. It is most commonly known as a duet between Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli. The song won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song from the 1998 film Quest for Camelot. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1999 and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2000.
This solo arrangement was written by Tom Fettke, who has taught music in both public and Christian schools and has served as a church choir director and minister of music in churches large and small for over 30 years. He is a composer, arranger, clinician, and producer of Christian music recordings. Fettke was the creator and senior editor of the Hymnal for Worship and Celebration (1986).
We pray You’ll be our eyes, and watch us where we go,
And teach us to be wise in times when we don’t know.
Let this be our prayer when we lose our way.
Lead us to a place, guide us with Your grace
To a place where we’ll be safe.
We pray we’ll find Your light, and hold it in our hearts
As darkness falls each night, remind us where You are.
Let this be our prayer, when shadows fill our day.
Lead us to a place, guide us with Your grace.
Give us faith so we’ll be safe.
Lead us, Lord. Lead us in Your righteousness;
Make Your way plain for us to see.
Let this be our prayer, just like every child
Needs to find a place, guide us with Your grace.
Give us faith so we’ll be safe. Lead us, Lord.
About the Hymns:
Freely, Freely
(c.1972, Communique Music)
Carol Sue Owens (b.1931) attended San Jose State College and Cathedral School of the Bible, Oakland, Calif. She and her husband James make up a songwriting team that became known to the world during the Jesus Movement of the 1970s.
One Sunday evening after a church service, Jimmy and Carol were eating with Jack Hayford, pastor of the Church on the Way, just northeast of Los Angeles. Pastor Hayford suggested, “Why don’t you write a musical about our church?” This suggestion wasn’t intended to focus on their particular church as much as it was meant to focus on the principles of ministry that had made the church successful. Jimmy and Carol began to work on the project immediately. They saw it as “a gift from God to the universal church”. Working with singer Pat Boone, they put together the Come Together musical. In 1973, they took the musical to England, where it was presented 400 times, often in large halls in cathedrals. Across the United States, young people of diverse churches were coming together in new ways that hadn’t been experienced before.
At the heart of this musical were the simple words and melody of “Freely, Freely”, written by Carol, and taken from the instructions of Jesus as He sent out His disciples: “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8).
God forgave my sin in Jesus’ name. I’ve been born again in Jesus’ name.
And in Jesus’ name I come to you to share His love as He told me to.
All pow’r is giv’n in Jesus’ name; in earth and Heav’n in Jesus’ name,
and in Jesus’ name I come to you to share His power as He told me to.
God gives us life in Jesus’ name; He lives in us in Jesus’ name,
and in Jesus’ name I come to you to share His peace as He told me to.
Freely, freely, you have received; Freely, freely give.
Go in My name and, because you believe, others will know that I live.
Lord, You Give the Great Commission
(c. 1978, Hope Publishing Co)
Jeffery W. Rowthorn (b. 1934) wrote this text in 1978 while he was Chapel Minister at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut. The text was first published in Laudamus (1980), a hymnal supplement edited by Rowthorn and used at the Yale Divinity School. This powerful text about the various ministries of the Christian church has two striking features: each stanza includes a quotation of Christ's words (usually from Matthew), and a concluding refrain line turns each stanza into a prayer. Christ's words are applied to the tasks of God's people in the world with a fervent prayer that the Spirit will equip the saints to carry out these ministries faithfully.
Rowthorn graduated from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, Union Theological Serninary in New York, and Cuddeson Theological College in Oxford. Ordained in 1963 in the Church of England, he served several congregations in England before immigrating to the United States, where he was chaplain at Union Theological Seminary and a faculty member in liturgics at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, which he helped to establish. He was then elected Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. The writer of several hymns, Rowthorn was also coeditor with Russell Schulz-Widmar of A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools (1991). Rowthorn has since moved to Paris, where he is Bishop in Charge of the American Churches in Europe.
Lord, You give the great commission: “Heal the sick and preach the Word.”
Lest the Church neglect its mission, And the Gospel go unheard,
Help us witness to Your purpose With renewed integrity,
With the Spirit’s gifts empower us For the work of ministry.
Lord, You call us to Your service: “In My name baptize and teach.”
That the world may trust Your promise, Life abundant meant for each,
Give us all new fervor, draw us Closer in community.
With the Spirit’s gifts empower us For the work of ministry.
Lord, You make the common holy: “This My body, this My blood.”
Let us all, for earth’s true glory, Daily lift life heavenward,
Asking that the world around us Share your children’s liberty
With the Spirit’s gifts empower us For the work of ministry.
Lord, You show us love’s true measure: “Father, what they do, forgive.”
Yet we hoard as private treasure All that You so freely give.
May Your care and mercy lead us To a just society.
With the Spirit’s gifts empower us For the work of ministry.
Lord, You bless with words assuring: “I am with you to the end.”
Faith and hope and love restoring, May we serve as You intend
And, amid the cares that claim us, Hold in mind eternity.
With the Spirit’s gifts empower us For the work of ministry.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
