Happy Mom's Day!

One of the things I look forward to every year, is our special tradition of having our children's choir join with their moms and grandmas to sing a special song on Mother's Day. What a wonderful memory this can be for the families, and what a joy it is for the congregation to see and hear the kids and their moms and grandmas lift their voices together.

I usually arrange the song so that the kids sing a verse by themselves, the moms sing a verse by themselves, and then they join together.

Precious!

New music Thursday

Hammock- Instrumental- sound track for our lives- post rock- love!

Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson make up this duo.  I do believe Marc Byrd wrote the well know contemporay worship song "God of Wonders".   It appears they have a new record coming out on May 18, along with a book of photos.  Check them out!   http://www.hammockmusic.com/

Hammock - Breathturn from David Altobelli on Vimeo.

new Music Thursday!

So I'm a day late on my New Music Wednesday Post, that I just started last week, it's pretty new, so I'll call it New Music Thursday this week!  Disclaimer about the music that I will post on here in the future-  it is new to me.  it may not be new "on the scene".  Just new to me, and posted here for your enjoyment!

So here we go!   I'm really enjoying this song Refuge by the folks over at Sojourn Music.  Sojourn is a worship community in KY that produce a lot of great music!  Check out their music page and blog here

Their latest record is one based on hymns written  by Issac Watts ( a famous hymn writer- Joy to the World, When I survey the wondrous Cross- who lived from 1674-1748)

Love this song Refuge(adapted from "Psalm 31, pt 1)  Here is a snippet!

I know my days are in Your hands though I draw near to dust. 

You are the God in whom I trust. 

 You are my refuge. 

So lift up your voice and sing a loud, and praise Him, all you saints. 

 How wondrous is His grace? 

 He is our refuge.

Good Shepherd Sunday

It was Good Shepherd Sunday this past week. Pastor Prohl gave a very comforting message about how Jesus continues to call our name, hold our hand and tell us how much he loves us. no matter how far we stray.

Pastor Prohl preached at both campuses this Sunday, so that meant as soon as he was done preaching the sermon at 10:00 he drove over to Sanctuary in Woodridge, preached there, drove back to Downers Grove to Immanuel and finished off the day preaching there for the 11:30

Vicar Lohman was at north campus helping out while Pastor Prohl was at Sanctuary. Vicar Lohman had is own running around today though, because I had asked him to sing lead for our worship band, so he was back and forth from the worship leader mic, and then up to the front of the church for the children's message, and then back over to the band area, and then back up front for prayers, and back and forth, back and forth. Fortunately he had a smile on his face the whole time, and was able to catch his breath enough to sing beautifully!

Speaking of singing beautifully , and playing beautifully, the band and choir sounded great today, and just shined on our song selections;

Glory to God Forever- a new one for us by Steve Fee-  we like this one! 
Take My Life/holiness
Shout to the Lord
Glorious by Paul Baloche- another favorite of ours!
You are Holy/prince of Peace
I am Free

In closing this morning- I would like to dedicate the following video to all the running around and back and forth our Pastor and Vicar did this Good Shepherd Sunday!  Enjoy!

Listen...Hear... "new" Music Wednesday

Thought I'd try something new, and attempt a weekly post of new music I find, and like, that you might like, so take a listen to Josh Garrels


"The Children's Song" - Josh Garrels from Josh Garrels on Vimeo.

Not by might, nor by Power!

Greetings!

Today at Sanctuary Pastor James preached his STRONG sermon. Wanna know what I mean? Check out the sermon recording at www.ilcdg.org

I really appreciated Pastor James' message that strength in our belief and faith in the resurrected Jesus, comes not from what we can do, but from how the Holy Spirit works within us.

I really enjoyed putting the music together for today, and was looking forward to singing with Pastor James, who has an unusually amazing voice for a Pastor (not to mention a pastor who can lift a lot of weight during a service! see STRONG sermon above)

Rather than our 'typical' opening worship set, we saved the music to be used as a response after the message. We sang Hillsong's Stronger after the message. I thought it fit well with the message, and I was feeling pretty good about everything when, bam! My 10 year old, always reliable, Roland keyboard stopped working. This was particularly eventful because it was a piano only Sunday, so there was no other instruments, and not a harmonica or accordion in sight! My old faithful then proceeded to cut in and out throughout the song, losing power and then gaining power and back and forth. Despite our valiant efforts (Don literally sitting in front of the keyboard holding the power cord in place, the keyboard (and its electrical power) failed us.

We proceeded through the service singing the rest of the songs A Cappella
I know My Redeemer Lives (the beloved Easter hymn)
In Christ Alone by the Getty's
I Will Rise by Chris Tomlin

I'm not sure Pastor James and I sounded all that great without the comfort of the piano behind us but it was a beautiful, beautiful thing hearing the congregation sing despite lack of accompaniment. A beautiful, Spirit led thing!


Check out what other churches sang this past week right here

ok so something is up with my blog

Has anyone been watching Celebrity Apprentice? Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois is one of the celebrities, well should I say one of the celebrities until he got voted off last week. Why did he get voted off? Basically for not being able to use a computer or a cell phone. He is not technologically gifted. In the least. How did he manage as governor of Illinois not knowing how to send an email, I have no idea, but I feel his pain. Although I know how to send a text message to my kids, I am behind in every other technological gadget. Now my latest issue is with this blog, for some reason it is only showing 1 post, and none of my additional information in the sidebar. So i post this in the hopes it is just a one time thing and everything will go back to normal. If you actually have a reasonable solution that makes sense please let me know!

Thanks!