WorshipTraining

One of the things I enjoy the most about leading worship is finding new ways to present the timeless truths found in the ancient hymnody of the church. Hymnody is finding its way back into the contemporary worship expressions of today’s church in a big way, whether in the form of newly arranged hymns with added sections, or newly composed hymns such as those of Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. In considering what to do for my creative project in the course “Essentials in Worship History,” a new hymn arrangement seemed a logical choice, for such a creative effort is a beautiful marriage of the new and the old – remembering and cherishing the faith of our fathers while engaging the culture of today.

“Love Lifted Me” was written in 1912 by James Rowe, and is based on the passage in Matthew where Peter walks on the water. He has great faith at first, then becomes fearful and doubtful, begins to sink, and is moved to the realization that only Jesus can save him. What a powerful image and story for today! I originally wrote this arrangement for a ladies’ conference at which I had been asked to provide the music. They specifically requested this song because of its thematic connection to the conference. However, having never really liked the music, I decided to redo it. The new bridge came as a stroke of inspiration as I was sitting at the piano attempting to fine tune the harmonic progressions in the verse and chorus. The recording is a bit rough, done at a Korg Triton workstation; noticed a few quantization errors in playback, that I simply did not have time to go back and fix. Oh well! Maybe you can get the gist of it!