Last night, I had the great honor of singing at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville with the Tennessee Men's Chorale (my backup singers). The event was PraiSing '08 which was the premiere of Lifeway's newest Baptist Hymnal (some of you can actually remember hymnals. Churches used to have them in pew racks. They are like books with songs in them. Ask your grandparents).
There were about 120 of us singing under the direction of Wayne Causey (super job, guy) who was actually a "fill in" due to the absence of our regular (he eats a lot of bran) director, Paul Clark who is ailing (our prayers continue to be with you).
The Nashville Praise Symphony conducted by Camp Kirkland (the musician, not the military base) accompanied us on several pieces and they played for all the congregational singing.
Mary McDonald (did you know she loves "The Closer"?) and Vicki Wright (she plays the organ with one hand because there's always a Starbucks coffee in the other) are the accompanists for our group and they were awesome .. per usual.
There was Mike Harland, editor of the new hymnal (it was a little embarrassing when he challenged Terry York, project coordinator of the 1991 hymnal, to wrestle him on stage), Buryl Red (Mr. Celebrate Life) and Travis Cottrell (Beth Moore's "go to" guy).
It was a "whos who" that would impress anyone who knows anything about Baptist church music, but no one was there to wow the crowd. They were there to honor, glorify and exalt the Lord and that's exactly what took place.
The evening was a worship experience that I will never forget.
3 comments:
What you need is a choir FULL of "empty nesters".
Kevin,
Is it okay if I continue to refer to the 1991 Hymnal as "the new" hymnal? I promise to call the 2008 book "the really new hymnal."
By the way, Wes Forbis was the editor of the 1991. I was just his "go-fer."
Peace,
Terry York
Terry York's roll in the 1991 hymnal has been changed to "project coordinator". I do pride myself in the accuracy of my entries.
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