Song Talks

Winning is a big deal.  Take the Blues for example earlier this month. They had never won the Stanley Cup and only played for it one time, 49 years ago! This year they triumphed! Beating the Boston Bruins in game six to bring home good ole' Stanley. It was an amazing winning season for the St. Louis Blues. I know my partner in crime in the worship office, Ryan Ward, who played collegiate hockey was one happy dude! He and his dad are the biggest Blues fans I know! That is certainly one aspect of "winning". There has been a struggle and you or your team have reigned victorious…you have won. I think there is another sense of the word "won" that brings a different nuance. Let me see if I can illustrate. When I was in college in St. Louis, my wife (then my girlfriend) lived in my hometown of Washington, MO about 45 minutes away. I would make every effort during get home as much as I could. I would leave silly notes on her car at school just to make her smil...

Good day to you fair song talkers! I'm so appreciative to those of you that have dove into the waters of this blog. It has been a relatively fun experiment that turned into a staple of my week. Ruminating on some of these songs has been immensely helpful to me in preparing for worship, humbling in how God has used them to encourage me, and eye-opening in Him using people's experiences to create moments of worship for the global church. Today there is an interesting connection between two songs we will be singing in the 9:30 service. About a month ago I asked Dr. Hemphill if there were any songs that we have done since he has been here, that he really enjoyed. I explained we would be happy to include them in his last service with us this weekend.  After a few text messages back and forth we landed on two hymns. One we had done as an orchestra feature a few times and one we haven't sung since I've been at Second, and probably that most of us haven't sung in ...

This Sunday is Father's Day. I'm a dad of 5 kids, so I love Father's Day. I even said to my kids last night, "Hey ya'll, Sunday is Father's Day, so let me remind you what my love language is…GIFTS!" Who knows what I will get this year, but you can be sure that there will be some homemade cards filled with exciting and colorful "I love you's" all over the place! My dad just celebrated his 9 th year in heaven. He died of Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) in 2010 and not a Father's Day goes by where I don't wish that my dad was still around, but I wouldn't take back his nine years in heaven for anything. I seriously doubt he would want to give them back either! My dad was a great man.  Provided well for his family, loved his wife, and most importantly loved Jesus. My favorite picture of him is one my mom must have taken when he was studying for a Sunday School lesson he was teaching.  It's a picture of him dressed in his...