O Come O Come Emmanuel

Jordan

Jordan has left for an adventure out West, and we are missing him already. Listen to him play here:

Who is He?

Many people wonder about the second verse of the Gaither song, “Because He Lives”.

This verse speaks of the wonder of holding a newborn child but then speaks of the assurance that one can feel because one knows that “this child can face uncertain days because He Lives”.

The word “He” in this verse, as well as in the chorus of the song, is written with a capital, upper-case letter. The word “He” refers to the living Jesus Christ; (-NOT to the newborn baby). Many translations of scripture also capitalize the pronoun “He” whenever it is used in reference to Jesus Christ.

Each time that the chorus is sung, the “He” refers to the risen and living Christ.

Verse one summarizes Christ’s purpose in coming to earth.

Verse two summarizes our confidence that Christ provides for future generations even in troubled and uncertain times.

Verse three is similar to David’s statement in Psalm 23 that “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever”.

And; - it’s all because He (Jesus Christ) lives.

~ Keith

"Praise Him with trumpet sound"

Not all of us have our instruments directly mentioned in the Bible, but John does!  Here is an interview revealing some insights into his musical life.

Why did you decide to learn trumpet?

A boy that lived down the street from me played the trumpet. I heard him and decided that I would like to learn to play it. I was 8 years old at the time. My mother wanted me to play the piano, since we had one in the house, but that was not for me. We borrowed a Cornet for a year, I took lessons, then bought a trumpet of my own. When I was 15, I then travelled to Toronto every other weekend to take lessons from a well-known trumpet player. 10 years later I received The Associate of The Royal Conservatory (ARCT) diploma for Performance in trumpet from the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto.

What other instruments can you play?

I used to play the upright Bass (played that for four years in High School), played the Clarinet for a few years in High School, the flute for a year and I was the Junior Organist at the Lutheran Church in Port Colborne where I used to attend. I also have my Grade 9 Piano with the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto.

How often do you practice the trumpet?

I try to practise at least every other day. It is necessary to keep the lip in shape. It doesn’t take long for it to go soft and then it is a difficult road to get it back in shape.

What are some specific practice strategies you use?

To get me to practise regularly, I use CD backup tracks albums. Over the years I have purchased over 40 backup CDs, each having 10-12 songs per CD. Each CD runs approximately 30-35 minutes and that keeps me practising for 30-35 minutes at a time.

Why do you enjoy playing the trumpet for worship services?

I enjoy it because I know that my playing touches people’s hearts. That gives me great satisfaction. It also helps that I really love to play. I thrive on the live performances but do not like to rehearse!

What other groups have you played with?

In my younger years during High School, I played with a 9 piece Soul band and then later on a Rock band. I later joined up with a wedding band (for 16 years) and have played in Concert bands as well as 16 piece dance bands. I was trained classically but have played many musical styles over the years. I also occasionally play trumpet for two church choirs in Niagara Falls.

Who are your favourite artists? 

Francesca Battistelli and Meredith Andrews

What are your favourite songs right now? 

“Open Up the Heavens” by Meredith Andrews and “Angel by My Side” by Francesca Battistelli

Do you have any other comments about worship?

I really enjoy playing the Contemporary Worship songs. It allows me to freely express myself since there are no trumpet parts scored for me. I follow the chord and lead charts and just fill in whatever comes to my mind and what I feel will enhance the sound of the Worship Team.

Top Songs

In a typical hymnbook, you find around 500 to 600 hymns. Hymnbooks of different denominations reflect some distinct hymns, but the majority of songs across hymnbooks remain the same. The same 90% of songs sung by the hymnbook generation of churches are printed and reprinted in a testimonial to the communal church experience.

Now, however, with the age of print falling behind the rapidly accelerating digital world, there is a new way to document the shared experience that is Christian musical worship.

Christian Copyright Licensing International was created to protect churches and copyright owners around the world, and acts as a distributor for most professional Christian worship musicians. 160 000 churches pay each year for the right to universal access to CCLI's vast bank of worship resources. Being a member allows Glengate to display lyrics to the congregation during worship services, use fully transposable digital sheet music, and print and copy these resources as we please.The licensing fee charged is calculated proportional to our church size, and a percentage is paid as royalties to the composers, lyricists and publishers of the worship music we enjoy so profusely.

CCLI is also able to track member churches' activity through their SongSelect service, and data collected directly from churches. They post a continuous, comprehensive ranking of the 100 most popular songs being sung in churches today. For most of this year, "10 000" Reasons has held the #1 spot. This licensing agency provides information, once manifested in hundreds of similar hymnbooks, now readily available to anyone at the click of a button.

There is a reason some songs are so popular. God is using these songs to speak to the hearts of worship leaders and church congregations throughout North America. He is influencing trends and leading people to sing for a reason. There is something about these songs that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy, and CCLI organizes them for anyone to access. We know first-hand that 10 000 Reasons is a beautiful song that allows people to worship every time we sing it, and the CCLI Top 100 list only corroborates this connection we feel to it. This list is a legitimate resource that the Glengate worship team should continue to use and reflect upon, as it can give us insight into how God is moving in churches across the world, and allow us as worship leaders to better serve Him in our own services.

~ Clara and Heather

No Other Name

~ by Heather Birch

Here is an interview with Pastor Jake which took place during his week of holidays, where he was camping at Rondeau Shores Park.

Why is worship important?

Worship is part of who we are. We were created to worship before we were even created to relate to one another. Adam was first with God in the garden and it was very good; it was only later that human relationships came along. We were created primarily to worship, to relate to God and to reflect back to him how much he is worth to us.

It's also important because we're commanded to worship. Jesus said that the most important commandments were to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and strength and to love your neighbour as yourself. The love referred to here is not primarily about an emotion, but it's primarily about loyalty and action and priority, and about putting God first in our thoughts, deeds, and attitudes. That is at the root of what worship is, showing something worth.

What's one thing you appreciate about the Glengate worship team?

I appreciate the team's diversity - diversity of ages and styles; how together everyone works together in selecting songs, and in performing and leading songs. I also appreciate the team's artistry - we have some amazingly talented musicians.

What is one thing you've learned about worship and worship teams over your years of being a pastor?

I have learned that developing new worship team members is very important. Worship teams can fall into the pattern of the same people playing the same songs all the time, and one of the best ways to keep worship fresh and innovative and connecting with the people, is to keep the team members developing as individuals, becoming better singers and players, but also growing and developing the team as a whole. This helps the congregation as they see new people up there worshipping, playing and singing in different ways, it encourages them to worship in their own way. 

What is your favourite worship song right now?

Right now, one of my favourites is No Other Name because it reminds me of how we are saved only by Jesus and his blood and his work for each of us, that there is no other way, and no other name. It stresses that Jesus is the one who died for me personally and that matters a lot to me. This is a song that the kids learned in 2:52, and then taught it to the congregation. This is exciting for me because it gives our kids the opportunity to contribute to the service, to feel a part of our family of believers.

No Other Name (Todd Fields)

No other name on earth is worthy

No other name in heaven above

No other name is sung in glory

But Jesus, God's redeeming Son

No other name would die for me

No other name could cleanse my sin

No other name could set me free

Jesus, your fame will have no end

Jesus, your praise will have no end

Jesus, your name will have no end.

Blessed

~ by Carol Wright

We are blessed to have a real sense of community in our worship team. We spend time together Thursday nights and early Sunday morning in order to prepare musically and spiritually to lead the larger community of believers in worship. Through tears, laughter and sharing our hearts with each other, we are grateful that God has helped us to become more bonded together with one common goal, to see God glorified in all we do and say in Sunday morning worship. We are thankful that the Holy Spirit is working in us and through us to lead our church in worship.

Youth Worship

~ by Jessica Thompson

This past weekend I had the great privilege of leading worship at Glengate’s annual youth retreat. Every year, it ceases to amaze me how God uses worship to speak to the young people who attend the retreat. God continues to show me the power that music has to penetrate our hearts and create a forum to speak freely and honestly to him.

Together with the other members of the worship team, we chose a collection of songs that represented traditional youth favourites, songs that reflected the messages of the weekend and a couple brand new ones that we hoped would become the songs our youth would quietly hum and sing on the car ride home; a chant they would use as a reminder of the weekend. Jordan McCourt and I prayed over these songs and decided on one named “We Won’t Be Shaken” by Building 429. The chorus goes as follows:

“Whatever will come our way

Through fire or pouring rain

We won’t be shaken, we won’t be shaken

Whatever tomorrow brings

Together we’ll rise and sing

We won’t be shaken, no we won’t be shaken”

During our third and final worship set, this song came on and I remember stepping back from the microphone, closing my eyes and hearing the vibrant, bold voices of the many youth in the room singing in unison “We won’t be shaken, no we won’t be shaken!” This song that God had placed on the hearts of the worship team had become this beautiful testimony of the weekend. It served as a reminder that this world is not our home and that through the many trials that we will face in life, we must stand firm, refusing to be shaken. In that moment, we were united as one entity, praising our heavenly father and committing to standing firm. It was both amazing and humbling.

Music may come in all styles, but worship transcends them all. I know that at that moment, God was looking down at his children, listening to them sing as one, and was very pleased. And that moment will forever serve as a reminder for me to remember that whatever I am going through, God is bigger. When difficult times arise, I am not alone. I will rise and sing with my brothers and sisters “we won’t be shaken” and remember the love and power of my God Almighty. 

True Worship

~ by Adam Ane

When I first came to Glengate, I already had a background in music and had been to countless shows in Toronto and other places. What I really appreciated most about the worship at Glengate was that the songs that I had recently come to know were being played and sung- but the weren't done like I had heard from the artists. I really appreciated that because what I heard was people worshipping the only way they knew how. And that was the way God had built them. I got to see people in true worship. In front of their family, and as they worshipped the family also worshipped and it wasn't a performance like I was used to . It was a family of believers worshipping: some on the stage and some in the chairs in the gym. That is what I appreciated. There was no pretension, no 'performance', no ego, and to me it seemed more real than some of the other church places I had been that seemed to be all caught up in 'performance' and lights. And coming from that background for many years prior- it was the last thing I wanted to see. It's not that doing those kinds of things are wrong but if it becomes the driving force then I think we've lost something.

Dead Air

~ by Heather and Clara Birch

Absolute silence in a worship service can be desirable, if it is planned or if it results in worshipful contemplation or reflection. However, if periods of silence are due to the worship team shuffling their music or a speaker walking to the podium, these silences are not valuable, and can distract worshippers. We are not advocating for busy or rushed worship services, but for the worship team members to take responsibility for minimizing potential distractions.

We propose two ways in which our worship team can minimize undesirable silence, or, “dead air.” First, when a worship set is coming to an end, the worship leader can give a small nod to the speaker who is up next. Then the speaker is prepared to walk up to the podium on time, reaching it as the music ends. Second, the worship team can make an effort to minimize dead air between any two worship songs. This can be done by

• playing worship sets which feature songs in a single key and time signature, and playing them without stopping in between,
• being prepared after each song to quickly begin the next one, within 1-2 seconds, or
• practicing musical transitions which can effectively link worship songs together.

While we try to link worship songs together as often as possible, admittedly, it doesn't always work perfectly. Poorly executed transitions which sound abrupt or awkward, or cause the congregation to become confused about when to come in are unfortunate. However, this is not a reason to declare that musical transitions are inappropriate or undesirable, but a sign that we need more practice, or that the transition needs adjusting.
It is possible to move between songs of different keys, without stopping, by playing a chord progression (series of chords) which leads you from one key to another. This is known as modulation.  

Tools

• Tim Bergmann has created a tool called The Modex, which he advocates as “an effective tool for creating musical bridges.” An old-school version of The Modex, which is made of paper and a plastic spinner, is in the Worship Room for your use. There is also an iPhone app ($1.99) called “Musician's Toolbox,” which contains The Modex, as well as a transposing tool and a tuner. When you indicate any two keys to The Modex, it provides 7 different sets of chords you can use to move between those two keys. I highly recommend buying this app if you have an apple phone!
• A tutorial explaining how to write modulations between keys is also available on this site.

Transitions Tutorial

- by Heather Birch

See a post about why transitions are important. Use the charts below to determine chord progressions which can be used between songs of different keys, to create smooth transitions, or modulations.


Step 1
Decide which key you are starting in (Original Key). 


Step 2

Decide which key you are moving to (Destination Key). 

Step 3
Figure out the distance between the Original Key and the Destination Key by counting the number of semitones the two keys are apart, on the keyboard. A semitone is the distance between one note and the very next note, black or white. When counting the distance between two keys, do not count the first key. For example, if your two keys are C and F, do not count C. Count C#, D, D#, E, and F. Therefore, the distance between C and F is 5 semitones. Other examples: The distance between Aflat and D is 6 semitones. The distance between F and G is 2 semitones.

Picture by: piano-keyboard-guide.com

Step 4

Look at the row in the chart below which corresponds to the distance you are moving from key to key. Write down the roman numerals for the set of chords (chord progression) you will be working with. 

Example 1

I'm moving up 5 semitones. Therefore, my transition chord progression will be:   
I I   I7sus  I7  IV

Example 2

I'm moving up 10 semitones. Therefore, my transition chord progression will be:
I I7sus flatIII/IV  IV7 flatVII 

Step 5
Look at the Original Key row in the following chart to determine the seven notes which are played in that key, and the Roman numeral which corresponds to each note. Then, substitute each Roman numeral of your chord progression for a note letter name.

Example 1

My original key is G. Therefore, my transition chord progression will be:  

G  G  G7sus  G7  C

Example 2

My original key is C. Therefore, my transition chord progression will be:

C C7sus Eflat/F  F7 Bflat

Take note:

• When a Roman numeral has a flat, lower the note letter name by one semitone. For example, in the key of C, the III chord would be E. Therefore, the flat III is Eflat.

• When a Roman numeral has a flat, lower the note letter name by one semitone. For example, in the key of C, the III chord would be E. Therefore, the flat III is Eflat.

• When a chord indicates two letter names with a slash between them, the first letter names the chord and the second letter names the bass note of the chord. For example, Eflat/F means that you would play an Eflat chord with an F bass. This is easy to do on piano, since you play the chord with your right hand, and the bass note with your left hand. On the guitar, this is not quite as simple. On the bass, you simply play the second letter name.

Step 6
Play the chord progression. If you are in 4/4 time, each box in the chart above represents 2 beats. For the above example, you would play 4 beats of G, 2 beats of G7sus, 2 beats of G7, and then land on C, your Destination Key. If you are unsure how to play some of the chords you end up with, use these amazing Piano Chord, or Guitar Chord resources. For demonstration videos of these modulations on piano, visit <Youtube link - coming soon>.