BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too...

Take me home...

And after your children memorize their catechism questions, they do what? Practice their flute? Bet they'll never make music like this. (TB w/thanks to DC)

Musical worship must be manly...

How do you get men to sing in worship? And I mean really sing.

Sing of God's judgment. Of His justice triumphing over wicked men...

The world music of Alan Lomax...

At the height of the sixties civil rights movement, Alan Lomax put on a concert in Central Park. He was trying to close the distance between blacks of the south and white sympathizers in the northeast. One year later, in 1966, Lomaz recorded the Newport Folk Festival. But here are clips from Lomaz's recording of the earlier Central Park Concert. Check out numbers 43, 45, 48, and 50 by the Georgia Sea Island Singers from St. Simon Island. Then go exploring. By the end of February, Lomax's life work should all be up and ready. (TB)

Happy birthday, Professor Baker...

Speaking of art, one blessing of Bloomington is the constant stream of operas (if you like that sort of stuff), recitals, and concerts flowing out of our music school. In the past few years a young husband and father of our congregation named Alex McNeilly has played his sax in several Jazz Ensemble concerts led by the universally respected jazz composer, Professor David Baker...

Another good review...

Here's a nice promo of Repeat the Sounding Joy posted just now on Sylvia McNair's web site.

Fifth annual Christmas Sing-a-long...

Our fifth annual Christmas Sing-a-long was joyful. If you weren't here, you missed it. The IU paper, Indiana Daily Student, gave it a nice write-up. Sing-a-long CDs make a great Christmas present, but you better hurrry because they're almost gone. (TB)

It's Sing-A-Long time again...

You and your family are invited to our fifth annual Good Shepherd Band Christmas Sing-A-Long concert, this Friday, December 9th at 7pm at ClearNote Church. Think of it as our contemporary take on the traditional lessons and carols service. For the concert, our band will join forces with adult and children's choirs, and an orchestra of musicians from IU's Jacobs School of Music. This year we're celebrating the release of the band's debut Christmas album Repeat the Sounding Joy, which features some of our favorite arrangements from Sing-A-Longs past.

It will be grand. It will be glorious. It will be free of charge. What more could you want? Please join us.

Another good review...

Here's an excerpt from another review of Good Shepherd Band's Repeat the Sounding Joy:

"Until three weeks ago I had never heard of the band from Bloomington, Indiana, but currently this album holds a firm spot in what I consider to be the most Christ-centered and worshipful of Christmas records.

"In a season where vapid holiday fluff by the likes of Mariah Carey can be heard cycling the local radio stations, Repeat the Sounding Joy is a welcomed proclamation of the coming of Jesus put to creatively beautiful musicianship." (read on)

If you haven't yet bought a copy for yourself or your loved ones, why not do it now? (TB)

Good Shepherd Band's Christmas CD reviewed...

Here's an excerpt from a nice review of Good Shepherd Band's latest CD, "Repeat the Sounding Joy:"

(Repeat the Souning Joy) is definitely heads and shoulders above most of the Christmas music you’ll hear this season. I make a mix for my mom every year called Christian Music That Doesn’t Suck for those times I ride in the car with her... (to continue reading)

If you haven't bought a copy for yourself yet, do it now. And get some more copies for your friends and loved ones. It will encourage our men in their work here at ClearNote Church, Bloomington. (TB)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING: Mary's song in a limestone mill, with crickets...

Woolery Stone Mill is the limestone mill where the Empire State Building's facade was cut; also where Breaking Away's mill scenes were shot. The place is now largely abandoned but there are two connections to ClearNote Church, Bloomington, that might interest readers.

First, about ten years ago our head elder, J Lee, and I went through the mill and it's office building considering purchasing them both to house our church and a church-school. Given the massive scale of the mill, though, we gave it up. Now we have a 220 acre farm, instead. (Yes, I'm chuckling.)

More recently the mill was the site where this glorious video recording of Mary's Song was filmed. It's a high definition video and it serves as the perfect introduction to the CD, Repeat the Sounding Joy, released a week ago. What a fitting setting for Mary''s Song--outside/inside a stone mill, with crickets.

Give a listen to the video. It you knew the musicians, the video might bring tears to your eyes as it does to Mary Lee's and mine. Tears of joy for God's kindness in allowing us to be led in worship each week by humble men and women who, like Mary, are wonderful instruments of God's grace in our lives. Gloria!

Music for a foggy day...

Can I just say there's hardly anything more fitting for a foggy day than Mozart's Clarinet Concerto? Second movement, adagio; and Gerard Schwarz.

Good Shepherd Band releases "Repeat the Sounding Joy"...

Today I am pleased to announce the release of “Repeat the Sounding Joy”—a new album of Christmas carols by our Good Shepherd Band. This recording is the culmination of five years of creative work on the part of our musicians. The crucible for that work has been our annual Christmas Sing-A-Long. Every December, we hold a special evening service in celebration of the Incarnation of our Lord. It's a kind of contemporary take on the traditional Lessons and Carols service...

TidBITS, smartphones, music sales, newspapers, and Google+...

The only Mac publication I read is the Engsts' (not Angsts') TidBITS. If you use a Mac or iPhone, go ahead and subscribe now. It's free so just do it and you'll thank me. I've read TidBITS for maybe twenty years and it's the first place to go for accurate information on all things Apple.

The latest issue links to an interesting chart showing the relative obsolscence of Android and iPhone handsets by tracking their ability to take operating system updates. In other words the chart shows how long this or that phone is able to run the current version of its OS.

But once you look at that chart, keep clicking on Michael Degusta's other charts. Fascinating...

Free music and a little history lesson...

Our Good Shepherd Band is giving away a free track today from their forthcoming Christmas album, Repeat the Sounding Joy. This is “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” like you’ve never heard it. And I’m not just referring to the pizzazz-y arrangement. There’s actually a whole verse making its world debut here. Well, sort of.

Originally, “Hark!” had ten four line stanzas. Thanks to George Whitfield, who took the liberty of tweaking and republishing Wesley’s hymn (much to Wesley’s chagrin), most of us know “Hark!” in Whitfield’s revised, three-verse form. For their own rendition, the band harkened back to Wesley’s original and constructed a hybrid fourth verse from portions of his seventh through tenth stanzas. Here is that “new” verse…

Good Shepherd Band: I wait for the Lord...

This tune written by Phil Moyer to serve the text of Psalm 130. (TB)

ClearNote Bloomington Choir: Ride On, King Jesus!

Phil Moyer directs the choir of ClearNote Church, Bloomington last Lord's Day singing "Ride On, King Jesus!" (TB)

Good Shepherd Band: Unseal my eyes...

Good Shepherd Band does Horatius Bonar's "Unseal My Eyes." If I were a pastor, I'd invite Good Shepherd Band to my church so my people could see how the Sons of Asaph led the Israelites. I never cease thanking God for these men... (TB)

For poor on'ry people like you and like I...

I've mentioned before how much our worship leaders, Good Shepherd Band, strengthen us in our corporate worship here at ClearNote Church, Bloomington. The highlight of the year is our annual Christmas Sing-a-long and coming soon is a CD of their Christmas music titled Repeat the Sounding Joy. The disc will be realeased November 11th--just a couple weeks from now--but you can listen to one of the tracks now.

Here's the olde carole, "I Wonder as I Wander." If you like it, drop us an e-mail to reserve your copy. (TB)

Listen to my inspiration...

 01 Wake Up Sleeper

With me, as you start your work today listen to the title track from Good Shepherd Band's latest EP, Wake Up Sleeper. Then move on to the next cut, Where Are the Persecuted:

02 Where Are the Persecuted_

I'll say this: it's impossible for me to separate the work I do from the strength God gives me for that work through the music and worship leadership of these men. Think of our pastors preaching sermons written with this music playing as we read, study, pray, and write our sermons. God bless you, sons of Asaph!

And by the way, here's my own fav...

03 Hiding Place

Finally, this old, old one...

04 Rock of Ages

I lied. Sitting here listening as I write, this one to end on:

06 The Son of God Goes Forth to War

And that progression's what I write my sermons to... (TB)

Turning the hearts of the fathers to their children...

Manly Christian love. But you could as easily call it manly Christian social action. Anyhow, it's perfect. (TB, w/thanks to Ben and Mike and...)

 

Official Christcentric Video- "Fight For The Children" from Christcentric on Vimeo.

Masculine worship: pounding guitars and lots of D minor?

Here's a post sampling the sort of music here being discussed. Check it out, then read this discussion. Or the other way around.

Here's an e-mail exchange between our Pastor for Music and Worship, Jody Killingsworth, and another church musician outside our church. The subject is men leading worship.

Yes, some readers are sceptical of the entire enterprise. The effeminacy of androgyny has taken over our culture whole-hog, leaving even the vows of wedding ceremonies neutered. Tragically, otherwise Biblical churches think and act as if men and women are interchangeable in everything but the Sunday morning pulpit and Thursday evening session meeting. Here, though, we'll assume the worthiness of the work under discussion and leave those unconvinced to argue over it somewhere else.

So, assuming men--not women--should lead the corporate worship of the church; and also that those men should lead from their manliness; what are the steps to be taken? (The e-mail has been redacted to protect the guilty.) (TB)

Dear Jody,

What are the essential elements of "masculine worship?"

Free at last, free at last...

Two changes this week--Google+ and... 

Jamie Soles in concert at ClearNote Bloomington this coming Thursday...

ClearNote Church of Bloomington is pleased to be hosting Jamie Soles and family for a concert this coming Thursday evening, June 2^nd, at 7 PM. Jamie is a prolific Christian songwriter of music for all ages (but especially children, I think). He hails from Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, where he serves Christ Covenant Church as Chief Musician. He began writing songs back in the mid ‘90s for his own family to sing at home. Eventually, word got out that these songs were good, and people began urging Jamie...

ClearNote Church Bloomington's worship this past Lord's Day...

Hallelujah Chorus from ClearNote Church on Vimeo.

When we say we think our musical prayers in worship should be in the vulgar tongue led by instruments and with tunes and rhythyms someone walking in off the street would be familiar with, it's inevitable that our readers will comment by waxing somnolent about the absolute superiority of pianos and organs and old tunes and singing four part harmony.

As if this were foreign to us--something we'd never considered.

Well, each Easter Sunday we end the service by handing out sheet music to all those present who...

Good Shepherd Band releases EP of ClearNote Church's worship music...

(Tim) Here's a recording of a small part of the music ClearNote Church uses for our Lord's Day worship. The EP was just released a couple days ago. Give it a listen.

(Note to downloaders: check your email's spam folder if you do not receive a download code immediately)

 

False dichotomies and contemporary worship music....

(Tim: this from our worship minister and music director, Jody Killingsworth) Defenders of traditional worship consistently present a false dichotomy. Observing that CCM is lyrically and theologically impoverished, they conclude that this must somehow be the fault of the music. As if popular style and lyrical drivel are somehow intrinsically connected. Bring in the drums and guitars, they say, and inevitably you'll have us singing 30-minute versions of “Shine Jesus, Shine” every Sunday.

I’m sympathetic, of course, because CCM really is the mountain of emotive garbage they say it is, and there are precious few positive examples to point to. But this isn’t the fault of the rock n’ roll genre, per se. Rather, it highlights the failure on the part of godly pastors and elders to lead musicians to think...

Classic rock and manly zeal....

"...it's indie or classic rock that moves our spirit."

(Tim) You all know ClearNote Church is filled with classical musicians but we worship mostly under the leadership of amplified instruments. This EP just released by our worship musicians gives you a good feel for how we're led. What distinguishes our worship leaders is that they use instrumentation and tunes and rhythms that are familiar to those who attend. We're not asked to go back into genres of previous centuries when we sing God's praises and pray.

Then too, we believe our music should be characterized by masculine zeal. The congregation should have men pushing us to express our joy and firm commitment and worship for the majesty and glory of God. Faint spirits and cold hearts are challenged when singing God's praises, here.

So you'll notice how well-matched the music and instrumentation and beat are to our goal. If you were to worship with us one Lord's Day morning, you'd notice this is how we pray and preach, also--we don't give people space for unbelief and ambivalence...

Leading worship, I: singing praises...

Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him; Worship the LORD in holy array. (1 Chronicles 16:28-29)

(Tim) Young men reading the stuff published on worship today would be quite justified in fearing that worship is very, very complicated and only the people who buy lots of books and read lots of articles and think very deeply about this matter could possibly design and lead a worship service that does what it's supposed to do. Why, simply the debates over what the Regulative Principle prohibits and requires are endless! What's a poor boy to do?

In the interest of cutting through some of the verbiage and helping Reformed pastors who want to follow the early Reformers in worship as they follow them in preaching God's Word, here are a few reforms which take their cue from Geneva.

1. The main method of restoring congregational participation within Reformed worship was to call congregants to sing. Thus the music had to be (and was) quite simple. Under Calvin, the congregation sang only the melody; it was plainsong with no parts. Certain men of our time debate endlessly over whether popular tunes known outside the church were used during early Protestant worship. Both sides have their scholars, but my recommendation is that you not waste time on the argument. Leave it alone.

Following the Geneva pattern of repudiating the high style of the idolatrous Roman Mass and cultivating a simplicity that would encourage the common man to join in the singing, we ourselves should repudiate high classical style that communicates our most-excellent taste while masquerading as being all about reverence for God...

"The bristly in life, the shrivelled over the abyss..."

(Tim) For best effect, read this out loud following a late supper (and while taking a little wine for the stomach).

Decades have come and gone while Church of the Good Shepherd elder and ClearNote Pastors College instructor David Canfield has bought and sold classical vinyl. Until he (sort of) closed his store, Ars Antiqua, a couple years ago, he had the largest classical record inventory in the world. For years he produced the definitive price list used by dealers and collectors. Last week in David and Carole's dining room with a good snow falling and loved ones around the table, we told jokes and laughed outselves sillier. In the mood, David went back to his office and returned with a thick folder filled with stuff that had struck his funny bone through the years.

For instance, here are the program notes transcribed exactly (spelling and punctuation) as they appear in an “English” translation from the original Slovenian notes on a long-playing record on RTV Ljubljana LD 0540. David suggests someone might find these notes good fodder for a doctoral dissertation. Religious Studies would be the logical match.

Well, I'm shivering over the abyss. On to the notes...

Lord's Day weddings, classical composers and musicians, and worship...

(Tim) Thirty-some years ago in one of his "Out of My Mind" columns, Dad proposed that, given the attack upon the marriage institution across our culture, Christians make a clear break with the world when we give and receive marriage vows; and that the first step in making such a break might be to place Christian marriages back on the Lord's Day as was the practice of the Puritans and early Reformers.

Following Dad's recommendation, both Christ the Word and Church of the Good Shepherd have witnessed couples taking their vows on the Lord's Day and it's a practice I commend. The first couple to do so at one of our churches...

Redemptive-Historical rap...

(Tim) At our recent Christmas Sing-A-Long, Church of the Good Shepherd's Mike Lockett rapped a Redemptive-Historical sermon he'd written that had me meditating on the basic doctrinal truths of God's Word. Ask some of your own young men to write a rap that preaches the Fall, the Incarnation, and the Atonement, then send a recording to us for posting here on Baylyblog. Thanks, Mike and Taylor, for busting me out of my ghetto.

The Redemptive History

 

The full Sing-A-Long can be enjoyed online here.

"When Half Spent Was the Night"

Another gem from our recent Christmas Sing-A-Long!

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming

 

2010 Good Shepherd Band Sing-A-Long

The videos of the Church of the Good Shepherd Christmas Sing-A-Long are up! For the full list of videos, click here. Here is a sample to whet your appetite:

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

 

Good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people...

(Tim) So far, it's been watched by twenty million, all of whom--together with the food court patrons--have heard that Jesus Christ Alone is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Forever and ever and ever and ever and...

2010 Good Shepherd Band Christmas Sing-Along...

(Tim) This is to invite you to our Good Shepherd Band Christmas Sing-Aong next Saturday, December 11th, beginning at 7 PM sharp. After the sing-along, we'll give you cocoa and lots of cookies and the love of Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit has put in our hearts. Come one, come all! Here's a map.

Announcing our 4th Annual Good Shepherd Band Christmas Sing-A-Long.

(Jody Killingsworth) Each year, our worship band joins forces with our adult and children’s choirs and fifteen or so orchestral musicians from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music to lead the Bloomington community in celebrating the Incarnation of our promised Messiah. It’s exuberant, ecstatic, poignant, energetic, stirring, tremendous, resplendent; and best of all, participatory!

So come sing your Christmas hearts out with us. Then join us for Lord’s Day worship the next morning. We’d love to have you, especially if you’re from out of town. Let us know, and we'll do our best to find a home for you and your family while you're here.

When: Saturday, December 11 at 7pm 

Where: Church of the Good Shepherd          

Here’s a teaser to whet your appetite…

Melodies as lovely as primary colors...

(Tim: here's a small taste of Joe Sobran. At his wake, his son/grandson, Joe Jr., told us Joe always had three radios and a television going at once--while he read. One radio was classical music, one some talk show, one upstairs matching one of the two downstairs, and who knows what on the idiot box. Drove other people crazy, but Joe was at home.)

Some guys have it and some guys don't. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, now exactly 250 years old, obviously had it. By age eight he was already writing symphonies you can still hear on the radio. And there is no sign that the Mozart fad will blow over very soon.

A couple of years later he was writing operas, which culminated, for me, in THE MAGIC FLUTE toward the end of his short life. To my mind the saddest fact in musical history is that he died at 35. Nobody can imagine what his inexhaustible imagination would have produced if he'd been granted another five years. If he'd lived to threescore and ten, there would have been no need for Beethoven, whom I also adore.

Actually, if the two men's lives had overlapped more, each might have inspired the other to new heights in a sort of divine rivalry. I can just imagine Mozart's reaction to the Eroica symphony: "Not bad, kid! Not bad at all! But watch this!" And then he would have...

Homegrown big band, and you can get it on vinyl...

(Tim: Alex McNeilly, a sax player from Church of the Good Shepherd, writes...) Back in May, I was involved in recording an album titled The Good News! with a group called The Matt Nowlin Jazz Orchestra led by trumpeter/composer/arranger and Indiana University graduate, Matt Nowlin. The Good News! is finally released and you can get it on iTunes or here.

The gospel of art...

(Tim) From ClearNote Blog: The notable disciple of Spurgeon, Archibald Brown, warns: 

The devil has seldom done a more clever thing, than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. From speaking out the gospel, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses!

...In vain will the epistles be searched to find any trace of the 'gospel of amusement'. Their message is, "Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them... Don't touch their filthy things..." Anything approaching amusement is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon. (Read more.)

Blokey blokes and church music...

(Tim, w/thanks to Brian A.) Here's a clip of a Matt Redman interview where he addresses men and the music of worship. Good stuff. Note his comment about the church being over-mothered and under-fathered...

Social class or the Gospel: pick only one (part 2)...

(Tim) Most responses under the recent post, "Social class or the Gospel: pick only one...," have gone off on tangents, tilting at windmills. Some have been helpful, though--including some who have disagreed with the post. I want to promote the discussion back to the main page, so here are three short contributions.

The first is by my brother, David; the second by our church's worship pastor, Jody Killingsworth; and the third by your faithful scribe...

"Spirituality and sexuality are two separate things..."

(Tim) Craig French writes: Not that you should know who Katy Perry is, but a headline on MSN caught my attention. Apparently Katy Perry doesn't like other people making a living by way of blasphemy... Ironically, she's a former CCM "artist" now known for her overt sexual displays and singing of the joys of kissing other girls. There was a curious quote that reminded me of (a certain well-known Reformed man):

"(People say) I'm a very hypocritical person: 'How do you say that and (sing), I Kissed a Girl?' Spirituality and sexuality are two separate things. When you decide to put it into the same subject, it gets interesting for some people."

It appears Perry and (our well-known Reformed man) have something in common when it comes to faith and practice. A snippet from an Offspring song summarizes it well: "Ya gotta keep 'em separated!" Perry ...seems to understand (these guys') Law/Gospel dialectic quite well.

The Sacred Swoon...

(Tim:This from ClearNote Blog, by Pastor Stephen Baker) There's a lot being said these days about the feminization of the Church. It’s an objective fact there are more women in churches than men. This cuts across all denominations, liberal and conservative, Protestant and Roman Catholic. Overwhelmingly, the Church has become the realm of women.

Some contemporary writers have noticed this trend and offered their remedies. Churches can attract men by using sports illustrations, preaching short sermons, showing clips from movies, perfecting the art of the man hug. All these solutions are shallow and superficial.

The key to getting men back to church is worship, but the evangelical Church has reduced worship to an emotional, feminine activity. Case in point: The Sacred Swoon. Here's another version. Go ahead, click on the links.

If you've been in an American Evangelical church for five seconds, you've seen this: eyes closed, head back, hands limply raised, body swaying… (to continue reading...)

Opening song, lights and big drums...

(Tim, w/thanks to Jake and Dan G.) By God's grace, neither my wife nor I have ever been in such a service. All the years Willow Creek was riding the crest of DuPage County's wave of population and money growth, Mary Lee and I avoided the place like the plague. (We both grew up in DuPage County.)

So watching this clip, I asked a couple men from our congregation last night whether there really are churches like this one?

They promised there were and I have to take their word for it.

Worship in the olde, but also the vulgar, tongue...

(Tim, w/thanks to Lucas and our CGS musicians) Every church should celebrate Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday--and particularly Good Friday--if they're to be allowed to celebrate Easter. And a corollary: no believer should be permitted into Easter morning worship unless he's first been in attendance at a Good Friday service. But of course, who's making any rules in Protestantism, today?

Anyhow, yesterday we held our noon Good Friday service and, on the spur of the moment, I decided to record some of our worship liturgy on my iPhone to share with you. First, from Bach's St. Matthew's Passion, "Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben:"

For love

For love my Savior is now dying,

Of sin and guilt He knows not.

So eternal desolation

And the sinner's righteous doom

Shall not rest upon my spirit.

If the video above isn't working, try this link.

We speak of worship and music often, here and on the ClearNote blog, and many of our readers are uncomfortable with our commitment to musical worship that's in the vulgar tongue. So I thought I'd provide a taste of what it looks and sounds like, admittedly on a more unplugged day in our congregational life...

Worship wars, part I: Sure, I must fight if I would reign...

(Tim: This from our Worship Director, Jody Killingsworth, over on ClearNote Blog)

Lo, by the sons of hell he dies;

But as he hangs ‘twixt earth and skies,
He gives their prince a fatal blow,
And triumphs o’er the powers below.

                    ~ Isaac Watts

The most frequent metaphor Scripture uses to describe daily Christian life is the metaphor of war... (read more)

The Reformed doctrine of reaching down...

(Tim, w/thanks to Ben Cr.) One of the more hidden members of Good Shepherd Band is Aaron Jones, an early music keyboardist who serves the Lord by "reaching down." What's the reference?

Check out his myspace Radio Friendly: American Pirates page--particularly his song, "Reach Down." (I also appreciated "I Shall Be Satisfied.")

Knowing many of our readers are forthrightly Reformed, I can anticipate objections to a Reformed man putting "the least of these" to song...

Christmas evangelism and worship...

(Tim, w/thanks to Luke and a host of others) Last night, Church of the Good Shepherd was filled with unbelievers who came to our third annual Christmas Sing-a-Long and heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed through words and music. Like twenty minutes of Scripture and preaching and forty-five of Scripture in song. My heart, like all believers there, was filled with joy. Thank you, Jody, Phil, Jim, Andrew, and Aaron (and yes, you too, Mick). Thank you makers of cookies and cocoa. Thank you publicists/marketers/advertisers. Thank you, members of the choir. Thank you, orchestra. Thank you, sound men. Thank you, young men at the projector. Thank you, set up and tear down men. Thank you, Luke, for taking pictures. Thank you, Ben, for the graphics. Thank you, Ali, for serving us all. Thank you, Dave, for helping Jody with his sermonettes. Thank you, wives and husbands of the band and choir and musicians, for sacrificing your loved one for many hours over many weeks. Thank you everyone!

I'd say close to half the congregation was not from Church of the Good Shepherd, many of whom were unbelievers invited by believers who love them and asked them to come with the prayer that they'd hear the Gospel, repent, and believe. May God answer our prayers.

If you'd like a recording of the evening's worship, please send Ali an e-mail.

Two nights a-jousting...

(Tim) Just a reminder to come to our Christmas Sing-a-Long this Friday evening--now just two nights away. Don't miss it and invite everyone you love! There will be lots of cookies and cocoa as we take joy in, and glorify, our Lord Jesus Christ. See you there!

Three days a-counting...

(Tim) Only six days from now, next Friday evening beginning at 6:30 PM, the Good Shepherd Band, Good Shepherd Choir, Good Shepherd Symphony Orchestra (no kidding), and Good Shepherd Cookie Crums with special guest Hot Cocoa will be putting on the Third Annual Christmas Sing-a-Long.

It will all start with a bang when a composition of our own choirmeister, Phil Moyer, receives its world premier. Right here at Church of the Good Shepherd across from Karst Farm Park and just down the street from our very own SuperWalmart. (Eat your hearts out, Oxford and Cambridge.)

It won't be "saving the best for last" this year. Rather, "the early bird gets the worm."

Come one! Come all! Bring every last one of your roomates and friends and relatives and neighbors and co-workers!

Come as you are! And don't be late!