Never having written an article in this publication, I’d like to begin by thanking you for the opportunity to serve in the interim position. I have chosen to treat this as an "Intentional" interim by inten-tionally seeking to make a transition eas-ier for our coming Minister of Music. I thought it might be good to articulate a few things I’ve been striving to do.

1. Catching up… when I began leading services in January I researched the top 25 songs that are being sung in churches throughout the United States and made a plan to sing all those songs during the 13 weeks that I’ll be leading. I don’t like to label songs, some are in our hymn book, some are not, but we are singing and worshipping with the songs that the vast majority of churches in our na-tion are singing. I believe this will help us greatly when a new music leader enters our midst.

2. Building up...speaking from experi-ence, one of the most discouraging things a prospective music leader could face is a choir rehearsal with 11 people! I’m not disparaging the 11 people by any means, I’m just saying that a joyful, joy-filled choir is a drawing card for any church staff member. Our church family has re-sponded and the choir is growing rapidly and I thank you so very much. That group effort will pay immeasur-able dividends! (And we still have room for you!)

3. Opening up...it is the goal of any wor-ship leader to allow people to use their love, their gifts for the Lord. By expanding our vision of worship, we have people in the choir that have never sung in the choir and can’t read a lick of music...and they’re loving it! (continued)

Music notes: continued:

We have instrumentalists that have been longing to play and contribute their talents to the Lord that are play-ing on a regular basis. We have folks that are gifted in acting and drama that are boldly attempting thought-provoking skits in our services that are related to the theme of the ser-vice. I consider this to be the tip of the iceberg, just the first of many waves of talent that our church can use to be more effective in our cause...which is to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ.