"Hymn of Welcome" Video with Text

Here is a video of my friends Ben and Jillian Trawick
     singing "Hymn of Welcome" (with hymn text).

I wrote these lyrics for a collaborative sermon series
     called "The Welcoming Church"
          (produced by the Baltimore Washington Conference
               of the United Methodist Church).

The tune is "Beach Spring",
     a beautiful melody that originated in the southern USA
          in the early 1800s.

Have a wonder-filled day!

Hymnbook is Finished!

Yesterday I completed my hymnbook "In This Fair Morning", with about 40 hymns, songs and poems. This is a self-published project, housed in a three-ring binder. The cost of the materials for each copy is nearly $7, but I'm shipping it at no charge to those who request it. The next step: recording about 10 of these songs (with a little help from my friends), and making them available to you.

Here's the Preface to the hymnbook:

"Thanks for your interest in new hymns and songs for Christian worship. This is my second collection of such hymns and songs. Most of this material has been posted on the “New Hymns” blog (www.wattswesley.blogspot.com).

My aim is to provide music that is usable and useful to Christians and churches everywhere. Please contact me (caedmullen@gmail.com) if I can assist you with alternate versions of this material. You may need a song in a higher or lower key, and this can easily be provided.

These songs (and several hundred others) have been written and used in four local churches over the past 25 years. Posting them on the “New Hymns” blog has provided a great opportunity to edit and refine older songs, to “blow off the dust” in hopes that one or two of them might find wider circulation.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was one of the greatest of English hymn writers. He wrote 750 hymns, and (after 260 years) less than 10 of them are in wide-spread use. Joy to the World has found its way into the pantheon of well-known Christmas carols.

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was one of the most prodigious of hymn writers. Incredibly, he wrote about 8000 hymns, yet only a handful are commonly sung today. His hymns Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Christ the Lord is Risen Today are sung by Christians in many languages around the world.

I am a mere tinkerer with words compared to these masters, yet I aspire to join hundreds of others who have followed in their pathway. If hymn writers hope that one or two of their songs might find some enduring use, it makes sense to write many songs, and to disseminate them as widely as possible. The internet makes it possible to broadcast material around the world. But I must still find the motivation (almost every day) to take up the pen and write.

So I rise early most mornings, and write while my mind and body are fresh and strong. This is a joy for me, and a discipline. Right now I’m making my way through the Psalms, and God is doing His work in me as I wrestle with His Word, phrase by phrase. It’s a powerful devotional exercise!

Again, let me know how I may assist you. Please don’t hesitate to request a new hymn or song for a specific occasion or use. I want to be available to the Lord and to His “faithful, common saints, That motley blood-bought band.”

Rich blessings in Jesus Christ,

Gary Hicks

Frederick, Maryland, USA

November 24, 2010"

New Hymnbook Coming Soon

For a number of months now,

            my early morning hours have been taken up

                        with the writing of hymns and songs.

I have more than 100 of these.

Now it’s time to get them written out in good notation

            and distributed.

So I’m making a brief change in my morning routine

            to gather the music into a hymnbook.

This will be a simple three-ring binder

            of 50 to 100 hymns and songs.

It may take several weeks,

            and I’ll try to keep you updated

                        on the process here.

When completed,

            the hymnbook will be available to you at no cost.

Thanks for your interest!

charity:water

Last week’s Catalyst conference highlighted a large number of social action projects, from the Two Futures Project (nuclear disarmament) to the Tronie Project (ending slavery).

Today I want to highlight charity:water, a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

Its website (HERE) provides several hours of challenging reading and watching.

Scott Harrison was a self-absorbed nightclub promoter in Manhattan until 2004, when he volunteered to serve on Mercy Ships, a humanitarian organization which offers free medical care in the world's poorest nations. It was a life-changing experience.

“Faced with spiritual bankruptcy,” Scott says, “I wanted desperately to revive a lost Christian faith with action and asked the question: What would the opposite of my life look like?”

In 2006, Scott founded charity:water, which has now raised almost $20 million and funded almost 3,000 water projects in 17 countries.

Scott’s passionate testimony and persistent vision challenged me, and I’m getting on-board. I’ll be setting up a fund-raiser for charity:water sometime soon. In the meantime, you need to explore the website HERE.

Two Big Ideas from the Catalyst Conference

Last week I attended the Catalyst conference in Atlanta,

            a kind of “think tank” for church leaders,

                        especially younger ones.

                                    (I hardly qualify.)

I came away with two big ideas:

(1) “The Tension is Good.”

This was the theme of the conference:

            Tension is inevitable in life and in ministry.

                        Don’t run away from it.

Embrace it as part of God’s methodology

            to accomplish His kingdom purposes.

Deal with it to enhance your personal relationships.

            Intergenerational tension can be

                        a starting place for creativity and love.

            The tension between two good ideas

                        (great programs vs. budget constraints)

                                    can be understood

                                                and even encouraged.

(2) “Autonomy Fosters Creativity.”

Organizations benefit when

            they allow employees (or volunteers)

                        the freedom to do things their own way.

Several software companies have given employees

            one half-day per week

                        to work on projects of their own choosing,

                                    and the result has been

                                                increased productivity,

                                                            higher morale,

                                    and profitable new products and ideas.

In the 21^st century, autonomy and mastery

            trump micro-management.

More on Catalyst next time…

Canadian Thanksgiving

(Photo: Canadian troops attend a Thanksgiving service

in the bombed-out Cambrai Cathedral, in France,

October 1918)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Canada formally celebrates Thanksgiving

            on the second Monday of October.

Long before Europeans arrived in North America,

            Native Americans throughout the Americas

                        had organized harvest festivals

                                    and other celebrations of thanks.

Canadian Thanksgiving goes back to Martin Frobisher,

            the English explorer who searched

                        for a “Northern Passage”

                                    from Europe to China.

Frobisher's Thanksgiving was for homecoming

            rather than harvest.

In 1578 he arrived safely back in Newfoundland

            after a voyage of exploration,

                        and there he formally gave thanks

                                    and celebrated his crew’s survival

                                                of a long journey.

This feast was one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations

            by Europeans in North America,

                        predating the Pilgrims’ 1621 celebration.

Ten years after Frobisher's return, England gave thanks

            for deliverance from the Spanish Armada.

In her last speech to Parliament Queen Elizabeth I said,

            "We perceive your coming is to offer thanks ..."

                        and returned those thanks to her subjects.

It was in this spirit of thanksgiving –

            for being alive, protected, and appreciated –

                        that English language and culture flourished.

England was very different then –

            it was known as Merrie Englande:

                        its grown men laughed, cried,

                                    danced and loved exuberantly –

                                                like their Sovereign.

This was the context of Frobisher's 1578 Thanksgiving

            in Newfoundland. 

More HERE and HERE.

Today and every day we thank God for His protection,

            His provision, His blessing and grace.

Longleaf Church

I met Jared and Lindsey Gilstrap yesterday

at the Catalyst conference near Atlanta.

About 13,000 people attended this conference

for Christian leaders.

Many participants, like the Gilstraps,

were in their 20s and 30s.

We met at lunchtime outside the hockey arena

where the event was held.

Jared and Lindsey have been very busy recently

            as part of the launch team of Longleaf Church

                        in Warner Robins, Georgia.

Longleaf Church opened its doors to the public last month,

            after about two years of preparation.

Longleaf is a Strategic Partner

with North Point Community Church,

the multisite megachurch in the Atlanta area.

North Point was founded by Andy Stanley in 1995

and is now the third largest church in the USA

with 23.000 weekly attenders.

Andy Stanley will preach by video at Longleaf

80% of the time, with the other 20% of the sermons

preached by Longleaf’s pastor, Jeff Jeffords.

Jared and Lindsey told me that about 30 churches

are Strategic Partners with North Point Church.

Longleaf was required to raise $100,000

and build a monthly tithing base of $20,000

in order to be a North Point Strategic Partner.

Though some may object to this kind of church planting,

I see the beauty and wisdom in it.

Check out Longleaf’s website HERE,

and North Point Strategic Partners HERE.