Yes, You Can Sing...

but it may not sound good.

We all can sing, though. I tell my choirs that at the most basic level, if you can speak, then you can sing. All speech is melodic or musical in some sense. So, you have the equipment to be able to sing. But, how often do we hear people say about a friend or relative's singing inability that he/she "just can't sing." I've stopped speaking like that. I believe it is more diagnostic to say that he/she doesn't have the ability to mirror the sounds that they hear. Not everyone is capable of singing with a professional tone and quality. Not everyone is gifted with singing, obviously. We too often say singing is something that you are/aren't born being able to do. So, we don't pursue it or exhaust the possibility that this ability might just need hard practice or cultivation like playing the piano or the violin. The longstanding debate of genetics vs. environment as applied to music is hard to separate. It may be that those who sing well may have had a great environment that was saturated on many levels with music in subtle and overt ways. It may be that you need purposeful and direct saturation of music to help you. You may not have had that in your past.

Regardless, it is safe to say that more people, claiming that "they can't sing," could improve their singing abilities by training their ears with singing intervals and learning these patterns and structure of music. It takes a lot of repetition if you aren't "aurally coordinated." Just don't be hasty to say, "I can't sing." You just may not have cultivated your ear and learned to work your voice accordingly. No one's promising an opera career, but you might not be much practice away from singing in a choir at church or in your community.

Focus on THE Family...

Dr. James Dobson's "Focus on the Family," is right to want to bring focus to the family. The question I raise in this little blurb is, "Which Family?" Are we focusing on the Richey family or the Family of God—the Church. The Church family is getting the short end of the stick it seems when it comes to focus. As Christians, we should think of our families as an extension of the Church. We don't think like this though. We put our focus on our individual families in that we must have "family time." In lieu of weekly church worship and communion we have "family time at the game" or "family time at the lake." So many factors contribute to this. We have a low view of church and a low view of why we even need to go to church. We are very individualistic. Everything from worship and church revolves around our very own needs and wants. Our individual family focus is fueled by the desire to repair broken and dysfunctional family units. That hyper-correction will only hurt it the long term. Either way, the Christian family will only thrive long term in the weekly life of the Church. That is where they will learn and fellowship with other imperfect people. That is where our families will be encouraged and grown through shared trials and joys. Alone we become wierd people, but in community we are made aware of what it means to live as image bearers of God—in fellowship and peace.

So many things can be said, but family must be viewed in light of the true family—the Church of the Lord Jesus. I want my kids to see our family unit flowing out of the church family. It is the Church that should get our focus when trying to make corrective measures to improve our families. We'll be better off focusing on THE Church family and give our families time and energy in as much as they are subjected to the church. Not neglecting our individual families but rather learning how to live in them day in and day out because of the greater nurture and admonition of the Church family.

On the March...

In talking with men and women who are more experienced than me in singing the hymns of the faith in the context of a covenant renewal worship service, you hear the term "warfare" and "militant" arise in the conversation. The Church is, of course, the Lord's Army and whether we fully understand it or not, we gather each Lord's day to gather in the Lord's presence and renew our commitment and vigor for kingdom work and service. We proclaim his praise, confess our sin, hear His Word preached to us and then are fed at his table. This army ritual is being fleshed out in my mind gradually as I learn more and more.

So, of course, music should be warlike in some ways or battle tune-esque. Our Hymns and Psalms should be our war tunes that we sing to honor our King and call each other to renewed service in the week after we worship. So, we must rethink the tradition of playing the piano/organ and singing in the style of ragtime, durge, liberace or any other style that would detract from this genre of worship as warfare.

So, we need to think more "March" when we play or sing through hymns. Is this too slow for a march? Is this too fast? Is this too soft and timid for a march to war? Is it too weak? These are things that we need to rethink as we mature in our understanding of worship and worship music. This can and is done well. It just doesn't happen on accident. It also doesn't happen in a year either. It has to be a goal. As a musician, who plays and accompanies for worship sometimes, this "on the march" is what I try to call to mind just before I downbeat the hymn or the song.

Florida Fiasco!

Sarah and I were looking forward to going to Florida to the 19th Annual Trinity Presbyterian Family Advance Conference in Destin, FL last week. We were getting packed and ready when Solomon got sick the day before with the stomach virus. Then, the next day, Arthur got the bug about an hour before we were scheduled to drive to Alexandria to drop the kids of with my parents. Arthur was sick on the drive down. Then, Sarah got the bug in the middle of the night and we wondered what to do about the trip. We ended up leaving late from Alexandria and headed to the conference. The conference went well and a good time was had by all. Then Saturday evening, our last night in town, we were headed to have dinner with some friends and our van was rear ended by a Cadillac Escalade and it ended up totaling our vehicle. We were stuck in Florida for an additional 2 days trying to get that sorted. During this time there was a tropical storm, Ida headed right toward the coast and that only made things more eventful. We did finally make it back to Monroe on Wednesday night. It was a fun and challenging weekend. When it rains, it pours. I wonder what the Lord was trying to teach us during this whole weekend. Glad we went, even though things didn't come close to going like we imagined they would. Sarah and I are okay from the wreck and are still scratching our heads over the craziness of the whole weekend.

Things to Say to Get Out of Jury Duty Summons:

I have jury duty here in Monroe next week. So, I'm preparing myself in case I need to use one of these Dave Letterman's past Top 10 zingers:

• I can tell if people are guilty by looking at them.
• If a police officer told me I was a bug, I would believe him.
• Is it murder if I haven't been caught?
• My religion prohibits me from sitting near other people.
• Would I have to bathe?
• Can each of my personalities vote in deliberations?
• Laws are for sissies.
• I'm allergic to justice.
• I'm deaf. (Answer questions thereafter by cupping hand and shouting "What?")
• A pit bull named [defendant's first name] just killed my baby.
• I get dizzy if I try to weigh evidence.
• An eye for an eye? I say we take his head for an eye! (Point at defendant).

Well, I wouldn't use all of them, but there are a few.

We should be ashamed...

of how we Christians get all up in arms over the policies and happenings of the current administration. We act as if the election of Barack Obama has sent this country into a tailspin that we'll never recover from. We puff our chests up and forget those eight years of big government with George W. Bush. We make claims that the end is near and that this is a "sign of the times."

We Christians show our lack of faith by some of the untempered responses we have to the current administration. It's not that we don't have reason for concern with Barack Obama, it is that there is a panic or unrest among professing Christians that doesn't help our witness to the world. Who do we serve? Is he a puny and whiny God? No! We serve the Triune God that works His purposes out in the world as He sees fit and in the best way for us. As Christians we should realize that leaders and nations come and go. We shouldn't put our faith in government when we like the leadership or when we don't like the leadership.

To get all riled up over Barack Obama and to fret and worry about this, even if we don't admit that that is what we are doing, is a sin that we must repent of quickly. We Christians need to focus on doing what we are called to do: to be faithful and world-changing all-the-while remembering that God will work out all things to our good. We don't have time to worry and think too much on all the things that can and might happen because of the Democrats or Barack Obama. We must be faithful to our callings and work in the here and now. There is always a place and time for dissent and protest of policies when we disagree with our government. But that must be done while ever remembering that we serve a God who created all things and holds all things together. Accidental or unaware, we must stop putting faith in government and forgetting who places men and women in power and removes them. Let us again be reminded that, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God" (Psalm 20:7)

Prostituting Your Football Program!

Yes, that is what lower tier schools in my state and others do when they go play the likes of Texas, Florida, LSU, USC and other Top 10 Division I schools. We prepare ourselves to get whooped and get a handsome check of half a million dollars or more just to get waxed. Of course there are exceptions, but those prove the rule.

To Louisiana Tech's credit, under its current football coach and athletic director, Derek Dooley, he's tried to cut down on the number of these games per season. Yes, you may get a million or more, but you also get losses in the win/loss column. You then have losing seasons and you don't get to put an asterisk next to your record at the end of the year that says, "well, we played 3 Top 10 schools this year." You already are "competing" with the major conference schools. It is a precarious situation. Go to a bowl game and play smaller beatable schools or play the big schools and start with 3 losses before conference play. I understand that it ain't easy to fund these programs. I do like that LA Tech's current football program is trying to limit themselves to playing these big schools and when they play them trying to play teams that aren't ranked #1 and #2 in the country.

I also liked how they played Mississippi State last year even if they would have lost to them. That is a good size SEC school to play, maybe even Auburn or Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

Since, I was at Tech, we played Florida, Tennessee, Miami(FL) 2 times, LSU 2x, California then ranked #2, and others that I'm forgetting. The better approach from this arm chair quarterback is to not try to fund the program on losses, but maybe have 1 of those games and try to build winning seasons that foster regional recruiting and sponsorship.

Watching Him Hear!

Yesterday, Solomon, my youngest son received hearing aids. He is almost a year old. It was so exciting to see him look around with sensory curiosity and overload of all these new sounds. He looked around the room constantly looking for the first confirmation of who/what was making the new sound he was hearing. Then, last night I was holding him and playing for him some cinematic movie scores and other songs for him to hear. It was fun to watch him pause his squirmy ways to take in a fuller sound than he's heard to date.

How often do you get to watch people hear? I wouldn't have traded that moment for anything else. It was a lot of fun and Sarah and I both are so happy with and for him. In those few moments I wasn't hearing with my ear, I was watching him hear in new ways. Thanks for hearing aids and technologies that help our bodies.

Podium Time

Engraving a Supplemental Hymnal

I am working on compiling a supplemental hymnal of sorts for our church pews. It involves me re-engraving older hymns and chants that are out of print in some cases. It has been a great exercise for me personally. I find that some of the great hymns and psalms are on my lips and the tunes are in my head in new ways that weren't there before. Something that we deal with is trying to incorporate songs in our local church's worship that has appropriate words and music. That means that we want to sing songs that are pleasing to the Lord. So, we try to sing the words that we have--the Bible, the Psalms mainly. Whether that be in a hymn form or in straight Psalm singing, we are constantly trying to find a good medium of that.

The rub comes in when you try to figure out what to sing. We want to sing vigorously and with energy. Where appropriate, we want to sing in four-parts. We want the music to not be sappy or trendy. We don't want the music that we sing in worship to just be a knockoff of a pop music song. We aren't try to cause people to have a "romantic encounter" with Jesus. We want to worship the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) the best way we can according to what we can understand that he wants. We look to the Bible for that. So, we won't be singing songs that are designed to save people. We sing songs that proclaim to greatness of our Lord. We sing songs that remind us of who we are and what we are to be doing. We are the Lord's army and we gather in worship each, not to be a part of a circus show or performance in surround sound and high definition. We come to worship and commune with the God of Abraham, the God of our Parents, and the God of our Children to come after us. So, our music has to fall in line with this vision. Music is truly a wonderful thing and we are trying to use it in wholesome ways. We don't for one minute shy away from it because it is being done badly or poorly. We want to use it as best we can.

So, my task is to work with the leadership of our church to come up with a supplemental hymnal that includes some of the great songs that have been written long ago and some more modern songs and chants. We are doing this with our congregation in mind. We want to be able to sing the best songs that we can, even if they aren't in the hymnals we have in our pews currently.