Behind the Music Stand

I’ve heard the question before, and since I chose a French carol to sing on Christmas Eve, I thought it was a good opportunity to put the answer out there in greater detail and for the world to see!  There are several things I take into consideration when picking out music for church.   In (relatively) random order: 1)          PRAYER. I cannot emphasize this enough. My mother, who was a church organist for about 40 years, told me a story about another organist she knew. This other lady (NOT Mom!) would watch a certain variety television show every Saturday night, on which the last song played was always a religious song. That was the song she would choose for her offertory the next day! This comes from the same school of thought that says, "Let's see what God's will for us is in this situation. Quick--Open a bible randomly, close your eyes, and point to a verse!" While I don't debate God's ability to use this methodology, I wouldn't recommend it

Google says “A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit… A breaking-news outlet… Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world… “In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis… Then [readers] comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.” My report cards in elementary school frequently sported comments like, "Eric is quite a talker," or even, "Eric has difficulty paying attention and waiting for his turn to talk!” So, “To Blog or Not to Blog?” Easy question! Give me a forum, I’ll fill it—Give me a soap box, I’ll stand on it—and heaven help you if you give me a microphone! Meanwhile, from time to time, I humor myself by supposing that parishioners might wonder what I was thinking when I picked out a particular song to include in a service, so I thought I’d take advantage of the Blog format to give you a peek inside my thought process…. and any other music and art-related flotsam that might slosh out of the bilge water of