QUOTE 

It does not take great people to do great things;
it only takes consecrated people.
Phillips Brooks

SCRIPTURE 

Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow,
the Lord will do amazing things among you.
Joshua 3:5

PRAYER

"Creator of all things, Redeemer, Counselor and Abba Father, You have called us to consecrate ourselves before You--because when we do, You will do amazing things among us tomorrow. I know that "tomorrow," in Your time frame, can be today or a way off--but you have promised that if we will do that, You will hold up Your end of the promise.

I claim this promise for all my brothers and sisters in music ministry who are following their high calling to be one of Your workers in their Vineyard--and I pray that they will seek a fresh renewal with You--to consecrate themselves anew to the tasks of their calling. How fortunate we are as, Your children, to be able to call You "Abba Father," You who created the world and all that is within it. I bless Your Holy Name this day and ask Your grace and mercy on Your followers--who love and honor You with their lives. Blessings be to You, O God of us all. I pray this prayer in the strong name of Jesus Christ, who gave so much of Himself for us to become one with Him.  Amen." 

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LEADERSHIP

Vision to Die for

The opening message of the Willlow Creek Leadership Summit 2007 by the Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, Bill Hybels--and he was one of the main highlights for me. Here are some of his thoughts on VISION FORMATION, for your consideration:

1. VISION FORMATION can take the Sinai Approach, where all "messages" are direct from God--and are delivered to the people without question. Older pastors love this approach! This approach is quick and efficient, and of course, much easier--but not always the most effective.

2. VISION FORMATION can take the Team Approach, which of course, is direct opposite from the Sinai approach. Remember: people don't always have to have their way--just have their way considered!  Wow! Wish I had learned this approach earlier in my own ministry! The Team Approach challenges the leadership to try to determine what the Vision will look like five years from now. Dreams involve talk--leaders must communicate the value of the Vision to the people.

3. VISION FORMATION has to have a Supplemental Draft, which means taking it to others for their opinions. Shop the first draft around. Get feed back. This approach paves the way for the people to have ownership in the Vision.

4. VISION FORMATION leads to a Vision Declaration. This raises the risk level, will cause lots of rethinking, but it will unleash compassion for the Vision. The solo approach is not the best way here--the team approach will always work best.

5. VISION FORMATION can cause Vision Leaks. Remember that church people have real lives--and leaders can't forever "beat the sheep!" Vision buckets have to be refilled often. Not everyone carries the Vision as well as the leader. Refill the Vision bucket through news letters, emails, websites, group meetings--whatever works best for your church family.

6. VISION FORMATION will need to Celebrate Process and Progress. Mark every milestone of Progress. Tell the story often of the Process. The people will begin to see the Vision more clearly as they celebrate process and progress! You, the leader, own the Vision. Followers take their cues from you and they are not fooled. Share often the Vision. Celebrate the Vision. Let the people share the Vision. The Vision will take on a new life.

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INSPIRATIONAL CORNER

I'VE BEEN THINKING...

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MARRIAGE SUGGESTION

* Keep God FIRST!
* Pray Together!
* Respect and honor each other!
* Encourage each other to grow together!
* Read the Bible together as much as possible!
* Be swift to hear and slow to speak!
* Plan a special "date" often!
* Make time to communicate with each other!
* Protect and honor your marriage vows!
* Do not let others come between your marriage!
* Consider writing a "Mission Statement" for your Marriage & Family!
* Thank God everyday for your mate & the Life you have together!
* Understand that "love" is a choice, not a feeling!
* You must choose everyday to love your mate afresh and anew.

PARENTS

It is one of those essential facts of life: raising children of character demands time and attention. While having children may be “doing what comes naturally,” being a good parent is much more complicated. Here are ten tips to help your children build sturdy characters:

1. Put parenting first. This is hard to do in a world with so many competing demands. Good parents consciously plan and devote time to parenting. They make developing their children’s character their top priority.
 
2. Review how you spend the hours and days of your week. Think about the amount of time your children spend with you. Plan how you can weave your children into your social life and knit yourself into their lives.
 
3. Be a good example. Face it: we learn primarily through modeling. In fact, you can’t avoid being an example to your children, whether good or bad. Being a good example, then, is probably your most important job.

4. Develop an ear and an eye for what your children are absorbing. Children are like sponges. Much of what they take in has to do with moral values and character. Books, songs, TV, the Internet, and films are continually delivering messages—moral and immoral—to our children. Parents must control the flow of ideas and images that are influencing our children.

5. Use the language of character. Children cannot develop a moral compass unless people around them use the clear, sharp language of right and wrong.

6. Punish with a loving heart. Today, punishment has a bad reputation. The results are guilt-ridden parents and self-indulgent, out-of-control children. Children need limits. They will ignore these limits on occasion. Reasonable punishment is one of the ways human beings have always learned. Children must understand what punishment is for and know that its source is parental love.

7. Learn to listen to your children. It is easy for us to tune out the talk of our children. One of the greatest things we can do for them is to take them seriously and set aside time to listen.

8. Get deeply involved in your child’s school life. School is the main event in the lives of our children. Their experience there is a mixed bag of triumphs and disappointments. How they deal with them will influence the course of their lives. Helping our children become good students is another name for helping them acquire strong character.

9. Make a big deal out of the family meal. One of the most dangerous trends in America is the dying of the family meal. The dinner table is not only a place of sustenance and family business but also a place for the teaching and passing on of our values. Manners and rules are subtly absorbed over the table. Family mealtime should communicate and sustain ideals that children will draw on throughout their lives.

10. Do not reduce character education to words alone. We gain virtue through practice. Parents should help children by promoting moral action through self-discipline, good work habits, kind and considerate behavior to others, and community service. The bottom line in character development is behavior--their behavior.

As parents, we want our children and grandchildren to be the architects of their own character crafting, while we accept the responsibility to be architects of the environment—physical and moral. We need to create an environment in which our children can develop habits of honesty, generosity, and a sense of justice. For most of us, the greatest opportunity we personally have to deepen our own character is through the daily blood, sweat and tears of struggling to be good parents.

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BY THE NUMBERS

THIS IDEA WILL WORK !

 Tips for Choir Members

• Don't spill !! Never spill anything--period. If you drink coffee, don't spill it.  If you have a soft drink or even water, don't spill it. It could stain the carpet or it will make the floor slick and maybe cause someone to fall. If you can't drink something without spilling, don't drink.  (Basses, by the way, are the worst spillers!)

• If someone near you is consistently singing wrong notes over and over, quietly tell the director after the rehearsal so he can deal with it. He will be glad you told him about the problem.

• Hang up your robe neatly! It will help on the cleaning/pressing bills! (Altos are the worst robe hanger-uppers!)

• Use your pencils. Mark in your music! The old proverb says: "He who has not marked his score--will sing solo at the wrong time!"

• Hug a Tenor this week. They always need it.

This Idea Will Work !!  

WORSHIP

 Priority On Worship

GEORGE BARNA, the religion researcher, offers five ideas
for what is required for a church to place a priority on worship

ANTHEM REVIEW

Two exceptionally fine hymn arrangements came across my desk recently from Oxford University Press. I was so impressed with these that I decided to review both for our MME readers. For those who do not know, Mack Wilberg is the Associate Music Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and is Music Director for the Temple Square Chorale.

DEEP RIVER, Arr. Mack Wilberg, SATB (Divisi), Keyboard;    Full Score and Set of Parts for Orchestra is available on rental from OUP, Oxford University Press, $1.80; This arrangement is recorded--orchestra only--on The Mormon Tabernacle Choir album, Peace Like A River.

Mack has taken this great spiritual, wrapped his genius around the score and has given us a masterpiece. This one is not as difficult as it looks! Yes, at times, the voicing is SSAATTBB, but it works so well! The keyboard accompaniment is not easy! It will take a fine pianist. The keyboard supports the voices so nicely--and the Altos have the main melody in m. 11-20! Yea for the Altos! The piece gradually builds to a huge ff in
m. 32--then gradually decrescendos to a double pp in the final unison Amen. It you have the horses, this chart is well worth the time--and the congregation will love it!

BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND, SATB (Divisi), Piano  Four-hands; Full score and parts for orchestra accompaniment is available on rental from OUP; $2.50. The full arrangement of this chart is recorded on The Mormon Tabernacle Choir album, Spirit of America.

Mack takes this very familiar American Folk Hymn, puts his magic tough on it and gives us a work of pure genius! I know I've said that word once already, but I think Mack deserves it twice!  The accompaniment is tough, so, secure two very good pianists and give them have the music well in advance of the choir! The first 16 measures is
a cappella, with men beginning with marked articulation and the women enter at m. 8 with same instruction. Keyboard enters m. 17 and the roof begins to raise. Tenors pick up the melody and the ensuing measures kick up to a double ff by m. 24. Measures 32-63 are piano four-hand solo and it is breath-taking. Wow! Tenors and Women enter at m. 63 and in m. 87, the parts go in to overdrive-- SSAATTBB. The ending is glorious--full of surprises. I call this kind of anthem a "semester piece," for you will need few good, strong rehearsals to pull it off, but when you get it right, and perform it for your people, they will be astounded--as will you!

Way to go, Mack!!

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NEW PRODUCT REVIEW

E•Z BOCK'S BEST, Ten Piano Arrangements, Volume #5, Arr. Fred Bock, Adapted by Lloyd Larson, Fred Bock Music Company, #BGK1038, $12.95, Distributed by Hal Leonard Music Co

                                       Wow! What memories flooded my mind as I played through the late Fred Bock's marvelous, creative, innovative and stimulating piano arrangements. My good friend, Lloyd Larson, has adapted the original Bock charts--which were sooooooooo difficult--and brought these delightful pieces back to please yet another audience of young pianists as well as pleasing those who already know these charts. I never cease to be amazed at Fred's inventive mind--and how he could wrap so much around a basic hymn tune. As I played through these, I found my heart to be glad for Fred's genius and happy that others were now going to be able to hear Fred's great writing.

Some of the pieces in Volume #5 include

• Be Thou My Vision • Blessed Assurance • God So Loved The World (my favorite!) • O God, Our Help In Ages Past

By the way, the other volumes are equally as good--all adapted from Fred's original charts by Lloyd Larson. In case you are interested, Volume #3 is all Christmas, including • Mary, Did You Know? (My favorite!) • We Wish You A Merry Christmas  • He Is Born, The Divine Christ Child. This collection would be a wonderful gift to any medium-level pianists you know! They would LOVE playing these chords!

One more thing, please: Larson’s work in this series is not a book of new arrangements--but a simplification of Fred’s original arrangement (same harmonic structures, same chords--just not so many notes) and because these are adaptations and not  arrangements, it is possible (and, in fact, is designed specifically) for a piano teacher to play the original--while a student plays the adaptation. For those who are piano teachers and have students that play in church, this is an ideal series of books--well worth your investigation.

Fred Bock Music Company has made a special package just for MME readers! If you go to  http://www.fredbock.com/promo.asp?page=306 - you may purchase all five (5) of the E-Z Bock’s Best volumes and you can get a 15% discount (which will be a $10 savings). This only applies only to the purchase of all 5 books. When you get into the shopping cart for the site, just enter the special code for MME readers: Bock5

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CD REVIEW

HYMNS ETERNAL, the Briarwood Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir and The Alabama Philharmonic Orchestra, Birmingham, AL, Clay Campbell, Conductor

CLAY CAMPBELL, MoM at this great church, has just released this most interesting and exciting CD--full of the great hymns of the faith--sung by the Chancel Choir AND the congregation, with a professional orchestra! It is a "Hymn Festival" setting and the singing is with great gusto, the orchestrations are supportive and clean, and Clay does an excellent job of "holding all things together!" Included on the album are congregational settings of eight of Mack Wilberg's orchestra charts:

#2 - Be Still, My Soul - Oxford University Press
#3 - Praise To The Lord, The Almighty - Oxford University Press
#7 - Be Still, My Soul - Oxford University Press
#8 - Bound For The Promised Land - Oxford University Press (Reviewed above)
#10 - Deep River - Oxford University Press (Reviewed Above)
#12 - Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, SATB – Oxford University Press This is probably one of, if not THE best setting of this great hymn!
#13 - God Be With You – Unpublished

You will also hear:
Richard Proulx – #6 - Jesu, the Very Thought of Thee” - GIA Music
Phillip Allen – #4 -  Our Foundation” – out of print now
Billy Payne – #9  - “Heaven Medley” – Prism

There are several other charts on this outstanding album. If you are thinking about doing a Hymn Festival with your choir and congregation, this is a fine album to hear. And you can contact CLAY CAMPBELL if you have any questions as to how to do such a festival. His email is ccampbell@briarwood.org. Your people will thoroughly enjoy singing these great hymns.

Clay is offering MME readers a special! The album is $15, but MME readers can order it for $12. Go to www.briarwood.org--you will find the album there and you can order online. Take advantage of this special offer and treat yourself to a delightful listening experience!
 

MUSIC MINISTRY NEWS

MME readers may have a free trial issue of Creator Magazine, the magazine for Balanced Music and Worship Ministries. If you like it and decide to continue, pay just $19.95, and receive a full one-year subscription (6 issues). That's a savings of $13 off our regular price! Otherwise, If you don't like your free issue, just return the bill--marked "cancel"--and you owe nothing. This is a great price and we hope you will take advantage of this special offer. The November/December issue will be a COMPOSER ISSUE--and you will be able to see and read 10 short articles by some of today's outstanding composers!  For further information, go to www.creatormagazine.com

The 51st Annual Meeting of the Georgia Baptist Church Music Conference will be Thursday/Friday, October 11-12, at the Bull Street Baptist Church, Savannah, GA. President JIMMY HOWARD and the other officers encourage MME readers to go to the website--found at http://www.gbcmc.org--for all information pertaining to this event. The schedule is packed with inspiration, information, and an anthem-reading session scheduled for 3:00 Thursday, with 30 anthems from a wide variety of publishers. There are only 70 packets available, so first-come-first served. In addition, the Conference will hear Esther Burroughs speak on the subject: Home: Beginning on the Local Level. MME always encourages music ministers to attend local or state-wide conferences, if at all possible. This conference has a 51-year history of excellence. You can see the complete schedule by clicking on the following for a PDF file: www.gbcmc.org/pdf/GBAMA2007Schedule.pdf 

The internet phone conversation with ANTON ARMSTRONG last month was a big hit!  It was a treat to hear him answer questions and be more specific about ChoirFest 2008 and what we can expect. He is a fine conductor as is evidenced by the reputation and performances of famed St. Olaf College Choir. He makes "music" of the highest order in these festivals and you and some of your choir members would benefit greatly from his expertise. The 300-Voice Choir for this outstanding event is limited because of space, once the 300 have registered, no more will be accepted.  You can secure full information at this web site:  www.choirfest.com 

Monday Morning Email began 10 years ago—as a weekly encouragement ministry to Florida Ministers of Music, when I was the Director of the Church Music Department, Florida Baptist Convention. It began with 37 subscribers. It contained, as it does to this day, scriptures, prayers, challenging thoughts, inspiration, reviews of books, CDs, new products, conferences and workshops and more. MME--as you know, also provides marriage and parenting tips, a bit of humor, and much more.

MME circulation--before June, 2005--was about 1500. Since the June transfer to the CREATOR magazine website at www.creatormagazine.com, readership has gradually grown and today, it ministers to all denominations, as well as church and school musicians, staff members, pastors, readers from the USA and other countries, and a directors of all kinds of ensembles as well as a host of lay people who care about church music, and a readership approaching 9000.

The only changes in MME--since going on the CREATOR website--has been the addition of pictures, logos, and cover pictures of books, CDs and new products--to let our readers see what is being reviewed.  This has met with excellent response. It takes a good amount of time to research news of interest to our readers, as well as searching for items to review that would be beneficial.

MME does not come together in a few days, I assure you. Every review or product MME recommends has been read, played, seen, or tried before we recommend it to our readers—and—we try very hard to always secure a special MME price--to save you money. This also takes time—being in touch with these people and asking them to consider such a special.

I hope the new look of MME—with pictures, logos, and such—is a welcome addition to your reading. I am always anxious to hear your thoughts and comments. I treasure helpful emails that make MME better!

The extravagant grace of Jesus Christ be with you.