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:
Kingsfold - Aaron David Miller
(c.2004, Augsburg Fortress)
Horatius Bonar (1808-89) was a great lover of children and was concerned about how little the children understood of the metrical Psalms that were sung in the Scottish church of his day. "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" was one of the over 600 hymns he wrote to address the needs of the churches he served. It was published in his Hymns Original and Selected, 1846, and in the 1st series of his Hymns of Faith & Hope, 1857, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines, and headed, “The Voice from Galilee." It is one of the most popular of the author's hymns.
Thought by some scholars to date back to the Middle Ages, KINGSFOLD is a folk tune set to a variety of texts in England and Ireland. The tune was published in English Country Songs (1893), an anthology compiled by Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland. After having heard the tune in Kingsfold, Sussex, England (thus its name), Ralph Vaughan Williams introduced it as a hymn tune in The English Hymnal (1906) as a setting for Horatius Bonar's "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say".
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto me and rest;
lay down, O weary one, lay down your head upon my breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was, so weary, worn, and sad;
I found him in a resting place, and he has made me glad.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold, I freely give
the living water, thirsty one, stoop down and drink and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream;
my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in him.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s light;
look unto me; your morn shall rise, and all your day be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found in him my star, my sun;
and in that light of life I’ll walk till traveling days are done.
Aaron David Miller is a renowned concert organist and composer, having won numerous international awards and given concerts across the United States. Dr. Miller’s performances have been heard on National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, Pipe Dreams, and many television programs. Dr. Miller’s work was recently honored with the 2004 Hellenikon Idyllion Composition Prize offered by the Olympic Committee in Athens, Greece. In 1996, Dr. Miller won the Top Prize in Improvisation at the American Guild of Organists National Convention in New York. In 1998, he went on to win the Bach and Improvisation Prizes at the Calgary International Organ Festival and Competition. His other prizes include the 1999 Helen Cohn Award for Music Research for his study of late Medieval and Renaissance keyboard music.
Dr. Miller attended the Chicago Academy for the Arts and received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music. Dr. Miller completed his graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music, earning his Master of Music degree and his Doctor of Musical Arts. Dr. Miller was a member of the theory faculty at the Manhattan School of Music from 1996-1999. He served as Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago from 1999-2000. Dr. Miller is currently the Music Director at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, MN.
About the Piano Music:
Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather - Lynette Maynard
(c.2016, Augsburg Fortress)
Tokuo Yamaguchi (1900-1995) was a Methodist pastor in Sawara, Tanimura, Fujieda, and Asahikawa, Japan, following his graduation with a theology degree from Aoyama Gakuin University in 1924. His longest term of service was as pastor of the United Church of Christ in Toyohashi in the Aichi Prefecture (1937-1979). He translated The Journal of John Wesley into Japanese in 1961 and was honored by the Christian Literature Society of Japan in 1983 for his translation work.
This hymn expresses Christian unity in diversity, especially cultural or ethnic diversity. As servants of the Lord, believers sing of hope amid change and turmoil. They find rest in the Lord's peace and proclaim their purpose by living the way of Christ. Based on Jesus' words in John 14:6 and on Christ-centered teachings such as those in Romans 10:12-13 and Ephesians 1:7-14, "Here, O Lord" states that Jesus, our Savior, is the Way; Jesus, our Teacher, is the Truth; and Jesus, our Healer, is the Life. The song closes with a prayer asking Jesus, our Master, for continued help and guidance.
While serving as a pastor of the United Church of Christ in Toyohashi, Japan, Tokuo Yamaguchi (b. Tomie-cho, Fukue Island, Nagasaki-Pref., Japan, 1900; d. Aichi-Pref., Japan, 1995) wrote the text for the fourteenth International Christian Education Conference held in Tokyo in 1958, just one year after the launching of Sputnik and the resulting new emphasis on education. The theme of that conference was "Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Everett M. Stowe (b. 1897) translated the Japanese text into English.
The tune TOKYO is based on the ancient Japanese Gagaku mode of musical composition. Gagaku is the name for all traditional Japanese court music, much of it dating back to the eighth century, with previous roots in Chinese music. Composed by Isao Koizumi (1907-1992) for Yamaguchi's text, TOKYO was first published in the English-language Japanese hymnal Hymns of the Church (1963). Koizumi graduated from the Osaka University of Commerce in 1932. For the next ten years he taught at that school, was an organist in Tokyo, and then went on to work in the import-export business. He has served as the conductor of the Tokyo Choral Society and edited various hymnals, including The Hymnal 1954 for the United Church of Christ in Japan, The Sunday School Hymnal (1954), and Hymns of Praise (1967 edition). A writer and translator of books and articles on church music, Koizumi has also composed and arranged hymn tunes. He is considered a leading figure in modern Japanese hymnody.
Here, O Lord, your servants gather, hand we link with hand;
Looking toward our Savior’s cross, joined in love we stand.
As we seek the realm of God, we unite to pray:
Jesus, Savior, guide our steps, for you are the way.
Many are the tongues we speak, scattered are the lands,
Yet our hearts are one in God, one in love’s demands.
E’en in darkness hope appears, calling age and youth:
Jesus, teacher, dwell with us, for you are the Truth.
Nature’s secrets open wide, changes never cease.
Where, o where, can weary souls find the source of peace?
Unto all those sore distressed, torn by endless strife:
Jesus, healer, bring your balm, for you are the Life.
Grant, O God, an age renewed, filled with deathless love;
Help us as we work and pray, send us from above
Truth and courage, faith and power, needed in our strife:
Jesus, Master, be our Way, be our Truth, our Life.
Lynette Maynard is organist and pianist at Woodinville Community United Methodist Church, Woodinville, Washington.
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.
Lead us, Lord. Lead us in Your righteousness;
Make Your way plain for us to see.
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, just like every child
Needs to find a place, guide us with Your grace.
Give us faith so we’ll be safe.
Lead us to a place, guide us with your grace,
to a place where we’ll be safe. Lead us, Lord.
About the Hymns:
It is Well with My Soul
For more than a century, the tragic story of one man has given hope to countless thousands who have lifted their voices to sing, It Is Well With My Soul. Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a wealthy Chicago lawyer with a thriving legal practice, a beautiful home, a wife, four daughters and a son. He was also a devout Christian and faithful student of the Scriptures. His circle of friends included Dwight L. Moody, Ira Sankey and various other well-known Christians of the day.
At the very height of his financial and professional success, Horatio and his wife Anna suffered the tragic loss of their young son. Shortly thereafter on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed almost every real estate investment that Spafford had.
In 1873, Spafford scheduled a boat trip to Europe in order to give his wife and daughters a much needed vacation and time to recover from the tragedy. He also went to join Moody and Sankey on an evangelistic campaign in England. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him while he remained in Chicago to take care of some unexpected last minute business. Several days later he received notice that his family's ship had encountered a collision. All four of his daughters drowned; only his wife had survived.
With a heavy heart, Spafford boarded a boat that would take him to his grieving Anna in England. It was on this trip that he penned those now famous words, When sorrow like sea billows roll; it is well, it is well with my soul..
Philip Bliss (1838-1876), composer of many songs including Hold the Fort, Let the Lower Lights be Burning, and Jesus Loves Even Me, was so impressed with Spafford's life and the words of his hymn that he composed VILLE DE HAVRE to accompany the lyrics. The song was published by Bliss and Sankey, in 1876.
Original lyrics:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
A song in the night, oh my soul!
Hymn of Promise
From time to time, a choral anthem inspires a hymn. "Hymn of Promise" was first conceived as an anthem in 1985, performed at the Pasadena Community Church, St. Petersburg, Florida, during a festival concert on Natalie Sleeth's music. Long known as a composer of anthems, especially for children, Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992) contributed one of the favorite new hymns to The United Methodist Hymnal.
Sleeth was as native of Evanston, Illinois. She began piano study at the age of four and gained much of her musical experience by singing in choral ensembles during her earlier years. Studying music theory, piano, and organ at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, she received her B.A. in 1952. Married to Ronald E. Sleeth, a United Methodist clergyman and professor of homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, she served as music secretary at Highland Park United Methodist Church from 1969-1976. During this time, she studied music theory with Jane Marshall and audited a course in choral arranging taught by Lloyd Pfautsch at SMU. Choristers Guild published her first anthem, "Canon of Praise," in 1969, the highest selling anthem in the history of this publisher. Her choral works for all ages number more than 200. Sleeth received honorary doctorates from West Virginia Wesleyan College (1989), and Nebraska Wesleyan College (1990). Some of her compositions are described in her devotional book, Adventures for the Soul (1987).
Sleeth had the ability to compose both texts and music. Though "Hymn of Promise" has become a favorite hymn for funerals, it was written at a time when the author states that she was "pondering the ideas of life, death, spring and winter, Good Friday and Easter, and the whole reawakening of the world that happens every spring." Inspired by a T.S. Eliot line, the germ of the hymn grew from the idea "in our end is our beginning," the phase that begins the third stanza of the hymn. While it carries the promise of spring and the hope of Easter in its beautiful metaphors, it is a very appropriate hymn for funeral and memorial services. Shortly after its composition, the composer’s husband was diagnosed with what turned out to be a terminal malignancy. Ronald Sleeth requested that "Hymn of Promise" be sung at his funeral service.
A wonderful child-like simplicity permeates "Hymn of Promise." Natalie Sleeth had a gift for composing texts on complex theological ideas that were still accessible to children. Her melodies seemed totally natural and therefore effortless for people to learn. "Hymn of Promise" is one of the most memorable hymns written by an American United Methodist in the last part of the twentieth century, and it promises to be sung for many years to come.
Composer R. G. Huff, who attended her funeral in Denver, Colorado, describes her impact on him in Worship Matrix, an online hymnal companion for the hymnal Celebrating Grace (2010): "In March 1992, I attended the memorial service of Natalie Sleeth at Wellshire Presbyterian Church in Denver, across the street from the church I served there. I had been a pen-pal of sorts with her for several years and wanted to be there for the celebration of her contribution to church music, especially the music of children. For a full hour before the funeral, the church’s choir, soloists and organist performed her songs, hymns and anthems. It was a great tribute to her writing legacy. Of course, this was one of the songs we heard that day…Like the theologian she was, Natalie Sleeth moved on to worship: songs rising from silence, words seeking melodies, darkness becoming light, hope becoming evident in future days. Finally – and this relates to the afternoon in March 1992 – she expressed how life moves into death, death gives way to eternity, and ultimate victory comes for those whose doubt has evolved into belief."
In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise; butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
There’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity.
In our doubt, there is believing; in our life, eternity.
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
Something yet unknown, which God alone can see.
As We Go - Jeremy Johnson
(c.2007, Van Ness Press, admin by LifeWay Worship)
Jeremy Johnson is a full-time songwriter and producer for LifeWay Worship Music Group. Originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, Jeremy moved to Nashville in 1994 to attend Belmont University. He signed an exclusive publishing deal with LifeWay in 2004 when his songs gained the attention of producer/songwriter Greg Nelson. Jeremy is the pianist/band leader at The Church at Station Hill in Spring Hill, TN.
This hymn is a simple, sincere call to carry the message and Spirit with us wherever we go. The words and music were written by Jeremy Johnson in 2011. The text is based on Psalm 48:14 and Matthew 28:16-20.
As we go, may your Spirit go before us.
As we go, may we follow where you lead.
May we live what we have learned,
share the message we have heard,
and be a light unto the world as we go.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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