Music Monday: God So Loved

I know, I know - it’s hard to believe, but it’s Monday again! Part of my job at Peakland UMC is listening to Praise and Worship music, trying to determine what songs would work well in our Horizons service - that’s the Contemporary service we offer on Sunday mornings. Thee are sooooo many songs out there, and a lot of them are really appealing, but won’t necessarily work for us. That’s another story another time. Recently, I ran across this song and it immediately appealed to me. I didn’t even have to listen all the way through to decide that it would work for us. In the course of writing a vocals chart, and making a sound track, I also thought this might be a good song for Music Monday. So we have used this song twice in our Horizons service and it has been well received. So I turned my attention to how this might work for a Music Monday, and in the process, it took not one, not two, but three different turns I had not anticipated. It’s not unusual for me to have different thoughts on something I have created, but I can’t remember the last time a song took this many turns in different directions. After you have listened to the song I’ll expand on what I mean. But I will say that one has to do with the how much fun the song was to listen to - that being groove-wise. And the other 2 had to do with the lyrics of the song. Here’s God So Loved So I usually never put an instrumental solo in a Praise and Worship song, particularly because it leaves the congregation with nothing to do while that’s happening - that was the first turn. The 2nd was what I perceived as a reference to the lyrics from the Doxology we use in the Methodist Church - the “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Very “liturgical”, that is very “churchy” sounding. Hence the brass and more traditional organ sounds underneath the “Praise God” section. Lastly the a cappella, 4-part harmony section. That idea just jumped out at me - as an emphasis to the lyric. So thee you have it - my thoughts on this arrangement, which was probably a whole lot more than you wanted to know haha! If you enjoyed it, please consider sharing with a friend. Thanks for listening - see you next time!