Praise and Harmony Weekend

I got home tonight about 5:45p from Keith Lancaster's Praise and Harmony Holy God CD recording in Tulsa. W..o....w. I don't know what to say. That was the most awesome time of worshiping God I've ever been privileged to be a part of.

I have to admit, when I first heard about the material, I was hoping for more of the "newer" newer songs.

(Slight digression: I categorize church songs in three, distinct categories:

• Old hymns, anything written before Bobby Richardson caught Willie McCovey's line drive to end the 7th game of the World Series (look that one up),
• Newer songs, anything written between number 1 and when I started college in 1998, and
  
• The "newer" newer songs.

But I digress...)


Okay where was I... ah yes. I was hoping for material closer to Awesome God or Glorious God. It's not that I don't enjoy the older hymns, I do. But I enjoy learning new music as well.

Something I learned from the Covenant Chorale was that you can breathe new life into old hymns and make them sound new again. Dr. Rodney Bell's arrangement of "By Christ Redeemed" or "'Tis Midnight and on Olive's Brow" or even "Night With Wings of Darkness"... all of them them will stir my heart even though I have heard those words all my life. What I discovered was that some of those other top 40 songs (as Ken Jowell liked to call them) can be made new again. I think my favorite song in Holy God is a very simple song.

The Lord is in His holy temple
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.
Keep silence, keep silence, keep silence before Him.
-- Habakkuk 2:20

It's a very simple message. I love the tenor line, it is a different arrangement that I remember learning previously. It just sorta floats in the air and can sound very pleasing if it's not pushed.

That was something else that struck me during this recording. Dynamics. The training music we had didn't include any dynamics. When you have such a large group, the dynamics in a song really make it honey in your ears. Without all the gooey mess.

I might blog again about this. It was a very wonderful experience and I hope to be invited back again. Next time, maybe I won't wear my KU Jayhawks t-shirt. Maybe they won't make me stand up. LOL.

Last item, here's the picture of our Overland Park Church of Christ group with Keith: