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:
A Fuge or Voluntary - William Selby
(c.1975, McAfee Music Corporation)
William Selby (1738-1798), born in England, was one of the first composers to emigrate to America and was organist at King's Chapel, Boston at the time of the Revolutionary war. Besides being organist, he was an "all purpose" musician in the area as well as a composer. Just like today, he needed a "day job" to make ends meet, so he worked as a grocer and purveyor of spirits. In Boston, he also organized the first colonial music festival. Selby's surviving works include two voluntaries and one Fugue for the organ, a lesson in C for the harpsichord, and an anthem for Thanksgiving Day. His Boston compositions included a Jubilate and three anthems, including Behold, he is my salvation, composed for the rededication of Old South Church, Boston. The patriotic choral ode To Columbia’s Favourite Son, was performed at the Stone Chapel in 1786, in the presence of President Washington.
This fugue, as it's now spelled, is also a voluntary, a term for an instrumental piece of church service music.
About the Hymns:
This is My Song
(c.1964, Lorenz Publishing)
This is of the most stirring tunes in the United Methodist Hymnal. The melody comes from a symphonic tone poem by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) by the name of “Finlandia”, Op. 26. It was adapted for the 1933 hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in the United States to be sung to the text “Be Still, My Soul”. Not only is the spirit of the music appropriate for “This Is My Song,” but the history of Sibelius’ composition also adds meaning. He wrote “Finlandia” as a patriotic offering in 1899. The composition was performed as the last of seven musical pieces that accompanied a series of tableaus, each reflecting portions of Finnish history. Out of agitated and tumultuous opening music symbolizing the struggles of the Finnish people, the serenity of the hymn-like melody emerges, symbolizing hope and resolution. In February 1899, a manifesto from Tsar Nicholas II declared Russia’s right to rule Finland without the consent of local legislators. Sibelius’ choice of “Finlandia” as a title for the composition served as a subtle form of protest against Russian censorship; however, that censorship was so intense that it couldn’t be performed publically as “Finlandia”, so other titles were devised including “Happy Feelings at the Awakening of Finnish Spring.”
Lloyd Stone (1912-1993), an American public school teacher who lived in Hawaii, authored 10 books of poetry and two children’s books. He wrote the first two stanzas of “This Is My Song” for its inclusion in the collection, Sing a Tune (1934). During the brief time of peace between two world wars, it was a song of hope for all nations—“for lands afar and mine.” The poet acknowledges love for his own country, but balances that with the love that others feel around the world for their nations. The second stanza begins by alluding to the blue skies, the ocean, sunlight, “cloverleaf and pine” of Stone’s own country, but then acknowledges that in other countries, “skies are everywhere as blue as mine.” The stanza concludes: “O hear my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine.”
Methodist theologian Georgia Harkness (1881-1974) added a third stanza at the request of Marion Norris, then executive secretary of the Wesleyan Service Guild of the Methodist Church. Harkness related: “[Marion Norris] wrote me that they had been using the first two verses but wanted something with a more distinctly religious note as a supplement to them. I cannot tell you exactly how long ago this was, but since I can recall writing the stanza at my desk when I was teaching at Mount Holyoke 1937-39, it was within this period.” The hymn was adopted as the official hymn of the Wesleyan Service Guild and was widely sung throughout the former Methodist Church.
Harkness, one of the first women ordained in the Methodist Church and a leading ecumenical theologian of her day, added two additional stanzas, the second of which appears in our hymnal as the final stanza of the hymn. It is a prayer to the “Lord of all earth’s kingdoms.” Harkness skillfully ties the reference to “earth’s kingdoms” to a petition found in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come; on earth thy will be done.” Christ becomes the central figure in Harkness’ stanza, as one who will unite us in service to each other and help us to “learn to live as one.” Her stanza ends with a personal dedication: “Myself I give thee; let thy will be done.” In this stanza, Harkness transforms a hymn of peace with vague religious overtones into a prayer for peace that comes from the author of peace, Jesus Christ.
This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on clover- leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh, hear my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.
May truth and freedom come to every nation;
may peace abound where strife has raged so long;
that each may seek to love and build together,
a world united, righting every wrong;
a world united in its love for freedom,
proclaiming peace together in one song.
About the Modern Band Music:
Always On Time - Jonathan Smith, Leeland Mooring, Patrick Barrett, and Steven Furtick
(c.2024, Be Essential Songs, Cashagamble Jet Music)
Elevation Worship is a contemporary worship music collective from Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. The collective leads worship in weekend church services at Elevation Church, as well as performing concerts and tours around the United States. Elevation Worship began in 2007 at Elevation Church in Charlotte.
Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us that God doesn’t operate like we do. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine…my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” God is never late, according to His sense of time. Elevation Worship’s song, “Always on Time,” embodies this reality. The chorus specifically reminds us that just like an angel walked with three young men in the fiery furnace of Daniel 3, God walks with us through our fiery trials. In fact, the songs teaches us at least four lessons about God’s timing - insights we all either need for our present or future struggles!
First, we need to beware of trusting our assessment when it comes to God’s timing. According to Ecclesiastes 3:11, our ability to discern God’s timing is limited. ”God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
Second, we need to remain patient and persevere while waiting on God. Habakkuk 2:3 speaks words of encouragement to our impatient hearts. “The vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slowly in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place.”
Third, we need to remember that God is outside of time, while we are bound by it. We see through the lens of our lifetimes, while God sees all of human history. 2 Peter 3:8 describes this with poetic language. “A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.”
Fourth, we experience God’s presence when we surrender to His timing. Psalm 46:10 invites us to “Be still and know that I am God.” The Hebrew word for “be still” is a word picture of fists being unclenched. One Hebrew expert told me the verse could also be translated “cease striving.” When we stop striving and start surrendering, we trust God’s timing and worship Him with our whole heart!
I remember how You provided, How You held me through the night
And I remember how You sustained me When You stepped in to save my life
If I knew then what I know now I would be still and let You work it out
Jesus I was tossed in the water But I never went under
You were always on time
Jesus when I went through fire You were right there beside me
You were always on time
You were always always always on time
You were always always always on time
I remember how You carried When I couldn't take a step
And I remember how You loved me When I couldn't love myself
There's never been a day, Never been a minute
Never been a moment That You weren't in it
There's never been a time That You didn't see me through God
So I worship You
Build My Life - Brett Younker, Karl Martin, Kirby Kable, Matt Redman, and Pat Barrett
(c.2018, Said And Done Music, sixsteps Music, Thankyou Music, and worshiptogether.com songs, all admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing
"Build My Life" is a song by American contemporary worship musician Pat Barrett, taken from his self-titled debut album (2018). It was originally released by American contemporary worship band Housefires on their album, Housefires III (2016). The song was written by Barrett, Brett Younker, Karl Martin, Kirby Kaple, and Matt Redman, and was produced by Ed Cash. "Build My Life" was released as the third single from the album on December 21, 2018. "Build My Life" was met with rave reviews and was picked as one of the best worship songs of 2018.
Barrett shared the inspiration behind the song, saying “'Build My Life’ is one of those songs for me personally, that has carried me through so many years of change and uncertainty and if I’ve learned anything from being a father of three kids and Megan and I just celebrating nine years, it's that life rarely behaves with our plans and it's usually in the uncertainty and the not knowing and the trials that reveals what we’ve been standing on and what we put our trust in. Jesus talks about it in Luke Ch 6 and says its like a man who dug a hole and built his house on the rock, when the storm came and the house withstood the storm. This really is a reminder for us that we can build our life on anything, we have the freedom to build our life on whatever we want. And the invitation of Jesus is to build our lives on things that last.”
Worthy of ev'ry song we could ever sing,
Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring
Worthy of ev'ry breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
Jesus the name above ev'ry other name
Jesus the only one who could ever save
Worthy of ev'ry breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
Holy there is no one like You
There is none besides you Open up my eyes in wonder
and show me who You are And fill me with Your heart
And lead me in Your love to those around me
I will build my life upon Your love
It is a firm foundation
I will put my trust in You alone
And I will not be shaken
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
