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.
WE ARE ON=LINE ONLY TODAY BECAUSE SANCTUARY AC IS BROKEN AND TEMPS ARE OVER 100. THE SERVICE IS ABBREVIATED (SINCE WE RECORDED IN THE HEAT) THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE. PRAY FOR WISDOM FOR OUR AC REPAIRMEN.
About the Vocal Solo Music:
Child of God - Mark A. Miller
(c.2014, Choristers Guild)
Mark Miller believes that everyone is a Child of God and that music is instrumental in healing the world. He also adheres to Cornel West’s belief that “Justice is what love looks like in public.”
Since 2006 he has been a Lecturer in Sacred Music at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music and Divinity School. Mark is Professor of Church Music, Director of Chapel, and Composer In Residence at Drew University in Madison NJ, and is the Minister of Music of Christ Church (UCC & Am Baptist) in Summit, New Jersey. Mark believes that music, social justice, and the beloved community are inextricably tied.
His hymns and anthems are sung by communities of faith throughout the world. His songbook Roll Down Justice! Sacred Songs & Social Justice, was published in 2014 by Choristers Guild. His album, “Imagine the People of God”, is available on itunes. In 2017 he was appointed to serve on the Hymnal Revision Committee of the United Methodist Church. Miller spends a portion of the year traveling the country, often with his band S2C (Subject to Change), leading worship and workshops, preaching and presenting concerts focused on creating community and advocating for social justice. Overseas he has led choirs and performed in Sweden, South Africa, Austria, Russia, and the Baltic states.
Miller is a graduate of Julliard (M.Mus. in Organ Performance) and Yale University (B.A. Music) and was Assistant Organist and Music Associate at The Riverside Church from 1999-2001 and Director of Contemporary Worship at Marble Collegiate Church from 2002-2007, both in the city of New York.
About this song he says: These lyrics are a reflection of my reading of Romans 8:38-39: “What can separate us from God’s love?” Paul makes the supreme list final, culminating in: “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers nor things present, nor things to come…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” We may try to create groups of people that are “in” and groups that are “out,” groups that don’t measure up to our standard. We humans are good at deciding who’s included, who is worthy of our particular badge of membership. But no matter what people say, no matter what the world says, no matter what the Church says, “you are a child of God!”
No matter what people say, say or think about me,
I am a child, I am a child of God.
No matter what people say, say or think about you,
you are a child, you are a child of God.
No matter what the world says, says or thinks about me,
I am a child, I am a child of God.
No matter what the world says, decisions, pronouncements on you,
you are a child, your are a child of God.
And there is no thing, or no one who can separate, they can’t separate you
from the truth that you’re someone, you are family,
you are meant to be, a child, a child of God!
You are a child, a child of God!
About the Hymns:
How Great Thou Art
(c.1981, Manna Music)
"How Great Thou Art" is a based on a Swedish poem written by Carl Gustav Boberg (1859–1940) in Sweden in 1885. “O Store Gud” (O Great God) is a paraphrase of Psalm 8 and has nine verses. It was sung in the underground church in Sweden in the late 1800s when the Baptists and Mission Friends were persecuted. Boberg himself gave the following information about his inspiration for this hymn:
It was that time of year when everything seemed to be in its richest colouring;; the birds were singing in trees and everywhere. It was very warm; a thunderstorm appeared on the horizon and soon thunder and lightning. We had to hurry to shelter. But the storm was soon over and the clear sky appeared. When I came home I opened my window toward the sea. There evidently had been a funeral and the bells were playing the tune of “When eternity’s clock calling my saved soul to its Sabbath rest”. That evening, I wrote the song, “O Store Gud”.
Boberg first published "O Store Gud" in the “Mönsterås Tidningen” (Mönsterås News) on 13 March 1886.The poem became matched to an old Swedish folk tune and sung in public for the first known occasion in a church in the Swedish province of Värmland in 1888. It was soon published in additional hymn collections and was translated into German and Russian.
British Methodist missionary Stuart Wesley Keene Hine (1899-1989) heard the Russian translation of the German version of the song while on an evangelistic mission to the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine, near the Polish border, in 1931. Upon hearing it, Hine was inspired to create his English paraphrase known as “How Great Thou Art". According to Michael Ireland, "Hine and his wife, Edith, learned the Russian translation, and started using it in their evangelistic services. Hine also started re-writing some of the verses --- and writing new verses (all in Russian) --- as events inspired him." Hine finalized his English translation in 1949.
When the Billy Graham team went to London in 1954 for the Harringay Crusade, they were given a pamphlet containing Hine's work. They worked closely with Hine to prepare the song for use in their campaigns. They sang it in the 1955 Toronto campaign, but it didn't really catch on until they took it to the Madison Square Garden in 1957. According to Cliff Barrows (Dr. Graham's longtime associate), they sang it one hundred times during that campaign because the people wouldn't let them stop.
George Beverly Shea's recording of the beloved hymn ranks number 204 on the top recordings of the 20th century according to the Recording Industry Association of America. It was voted the United Kingdom's favourite hymn by BBC's Songs of Praise. "How Great Thou Art" was ranked second (after "Amazing Grace") on a list of the favorite hymns of all time in a survey by Today's Christian magazine in 2001.
Evangelist Billy Graham indicated: “The reason I like 'How Great Thou Art' is because it glorifies God. It turns Christian’s eyes toward God, rather than upon themselves. I use it as often as possible because it is such a God-honoring song.”
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
,I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze,
And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die - I scarce can take it in.
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And there proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
On Eagle's Wings
(c.1989,North American Liturgy Resources)
Michael Joncas (b. 1951) was ordained in 1980 to the Roman Catholic priesthood, and has served since 1991 on the faculty of the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. He has written three books, more than a hundred published articles, and has compiled more than 20 collections of liturgical music. Father Joncas was visiting a friend at the major seminary in Washington. One evening, Father Joncas’ friend got word that his father had suffered a fatal heart attack. Father Joncas wrote “On Eagle’s Wings” in the days that followed and it was was sung for the first time publicly at the friend’s father’s wake service. The song is based on Psalm 91 and Isaiah 4031:, its lyrics drawing from the Scripture’s descriptions of God’s protection and providence.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord
Who abide in His shadow for life
Say to the Lord, "My refuge, my rock in whom I trust!”
The snare of the fowler will never capture you
And famine will bring you no fear
Under His wings your refuge, His faithfulness your shield
You need not fear the terror of the night
Nor the arrow that flies by day
Though thousands fall about you, near you it shall not come
For to His angels He's given a command
To guard you in all of your ways
Upon their hands they will bear you up
Lest you dash your foot against a stone
And God will raise you up on eagles' wings, Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun, And hold you in the palm of God’s hand
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
