Music for Worship this Sunday

Congregational songs at FirstLight will include Reuben Morgan's "I Give You My All," "God of Wonders," and Chris Tomlin's and Louis Giglio's "Holy is the Lord." Our opening songs will conclude with the Iona Community song "Come, All You People." We'll continue the ethnic feel in the music with the Caribbean-sounding "Halle, Halle." The Prophets of Praise will sing a setting of "Refiner's Fire" at the offering. Our closing song (and the last hymn at 11 AM) will be "Lord Whose Love Through Humble Service," to the Sacred Harp tune Beach Spring.

The multi-cultural music carries over to the 11 AM service this week. The choir will be singing "God is here today," a song from Mexican worship traditions arranged by C. Michael Hawn. Any time I have a question about global worship and music, Mike Hawn is my go-to man; thanks bro'! The choir will also sing the jaunty "Halle, Halle." To conclude the service, the choir will sing John Stainer's beloved "Seven-Fold Amen." In lieu of a choral anthem Ken Scott, Jr. will be singing a setting of text from Amos by Michael Barker. "The Lord Was Standing" (Amos 7.7-9) is from a set of four songs for bass soloist with piano accompaniment written in 2001 employing various passages from Amos. The music has a distinct modern quality while remaining definitely tonal. Organ music at this service is also by Michael Barker, his Psalm Suite for Organ: four shorter pieces which reflect on passages from the Psalms. These pieces are all heavily influenced by the music of Carl Orff. This will be the first public performance of all these pieces. The hymns for worship this Sunday will be "Praise ye the Lord the Almighty" (Lobe den herren), "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" (Rest), and "Lord Whose Love..." mentioned above.