Saturday Spiritual Song Selections

I am spending this Saturday evening the same way I spend all of my Saturday evenings, praying and pouring through hymn books and choir notebooks for songs that I will use in our worship services. Like I've mentioned before, any music minister/worship leader worth his/her salt will spend countless hours through the week focused on the next service. God has never let me down in selecting the perfect songs. I'm not one to be unprepared. I like to know the order of the service and not be put on the spot with dead silence while standing in front of the congregation hastily searching for a song. I believe that the music is just as important as the sermon and should be treated that way.

We have been singing Christmas hymns for the past 3 weeks for our congregational numbers. I am anxious to move on to other music. A couple of months ago I made a plea to several Baptist churches in the area that might be upgrading their hymnals and needing a place to dispose of their used ones, to let me know. The great folks over at Sunnyside Baptist Church in Kingsport, TN, came through for us. They donated 230 of the 1991 edition Baptist Hymnals. They are in excellent shape. I am excited about introducing my choir to these hymn books and many of the wonderful songs that are in them. I hope the choir will be as excited...

I was blessed with an MP3 player for Christmas this year and I've already loaded it to the max with music. Most of it is choir music that my sister Jennifer sent me; New Manna Youth Choir, Middle Tennessee Baptist, Shenandoah Haven, and many others. I find that listening to this type of music while seeking God's voice, greatly aides in the song selection process. I always know when it's the right song. I get chill bumps running down my arms and a wonderful filling inside. I thank God every time He pours His Spirit on me like that.

So far tonight I have settled on "Saved to the Uttermost" for the morning choir special, and "I Am Redeemed" for the evening special. I'll probably stay in the Inspiration Hymnal tomorrow morning for congregational numbers. There are a lot of those '70's Southern Gospel songs in that hymn book, that just have so much meaning. I can just sit here and visualize the Spirit of God flowing through the congregation as we sing, "Thank God I Am Free," or some other such song.

Well, I better get off of this computer and get with it!