Chancel Choir

The Chancel Choir has been busy ‘making a joyful noise’ on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. and on Sunday mornings during the 10:00 a.m. Worship Service. If God has gifted you in the area of singing with a group that loves to praise the Lord (and has a lot of fun doing it), please prayerfully consider joining us. We would love to find you a seat, a folder and some great fellowship. The door is open and we’d love to welcome you into this ‘family.’

Chancel Choir | Youth Choirs
Ballet Emmanuel | Sacred Tones Handbells Drama Ministry

Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.  Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.    Psalm 96:1-2

 

 

 

 

Shout for joy to the Lord,

all the earth

Burst into jubilant song with music.

                                                       Psalm 98:4

Moses and his sister, Miriam, led the Israelites in singing after they passed safely through the Red Sea.  King David wrote psalms (songs) that are the basis for hundreds of our hymns and worship choruses today.  We know that Peter and Paul were singing hymns to God while they were in jail.  The Apostle Paul tells all believers to “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.(Ephesians 5:19-20)

Isaac Watts is the famous writer of many of our most beloved hymns including O God Our Help in Ages Past, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Alas and Did My Savior Bleed? (At the Cross), I Sing the Mighty Power of God, and Joy to the World.  He is quoted as having once said, “The singing of God’s praise is the part of worship most closely related to heaven.” The more I think about it, the more sense that statement makes.

We know that in heaven we probably aren’t going to be taking an offering or listening to announcements, but the Bible speaks a lot about our singing and making music unto God.  We believe that there will be a great diversity of people in heaven.  Doesn’t it make sense that there will be a great diversity of music there, also?  When you think of heaven, what kind of music comes to your mind?  Do you imagine strains of Handel’s famous Hallelujah Chorus being heard for eternity?  Do you imagine all of the Saints singing The Old Rugged Cross forever?  What about all of heaven singing Shout to the Lord or Worthy, You Are Worthy?  Do you imagine heaven’s halls being filled with beautiful unaccompanied Gregorian chant (like the Christmas carol, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel)?

            Will heaven’s choirs sing traditional hymns or more contemporary numbers like The End of the Beginning?  What if there’s country music in heaven, or rap, or reggae, or hip-hop (it could happen).

            I know that we don’t need to worry about such things, but can you make a list of your favorite music of any style and say that list is enough music to praise our awesome God?  Even if I listed every single piece of music I can think of, it would only scratch the surface of the amount of praise God is due.  Doesn’t it make sense that we will hear and sing every style of music ever invented to praise God, the Chief Musician? 

            In our worship services at First Baptist Church our goal is to use as many different styles of music to praise our Lord as possible. As long as the quality of the music is good, we believe that it glorifies God.  We all have certain styles that we enjoy or relate to more than others. Does that mean that our favorites are the only ways to praise Jesus?  No. Does that mean that we shouldn’t try to broaden our appreciation for other styles that maybe aren’t our favorites?  No.                                              Looking through the bulletins from the last 7 Sundays, I was surprised to realize that our services have used 28 traditional hymns of the faith. We have praised God with different anthems and specials that include everything from music you hear on contemporary Christian radio stations to gospel, classical, and traditional. We’ve been blessed by a kids’ musical from JAMPAC. We have worshipped by singing 35 different choruses - some almost quote scripture verbatim, and others glorify different aspects or Names of our Blessed Redeemer.  We have used organ, piano, keyboard, electronic and traditional percussion, bass and acoustic guitars, handbells and violin. Have we come even close to exhausting the amount of praise for which God is worthy? Have we even begun to use all the possible instruments available to give glory to the Most High God?

            Let’s keep our hearts and minds open as we worship. We are a diversified group of people and backgrounds and traditions. Regarding the music in our services, the more we imagine the Lord Jesus Christ being present in our sanctuary, the more we can hopefully offer our singing as an offering of praise to Him. Remember it’s a worship service to experience and be a part of, not a concert to sit back and observe. I’ll make you a deal – if you agree to try to get that image in your mind during worship, I’ll try to get in my mind the possibility of rap music in heaven.

Carol