The Cokesbury Hymnal

I have grown up in church all my life. In all of my childhood, we sang out of hymnals. Man I loved some of those hymns. The church I have attended for the last 5 years is very modern we have projectors and screens and stuff like that. We have guitars and drums singers leading us in our worship time. But back in those early years we had a choir director and hymnal. I will never forget Sunday evening services in Pelham, GA. My dad (the pastor) would stand in the pulpit and ask for song selections from the audience and our piano player would be ready to flip to whatever and play whatever was called out. I loved that time. My dad would have to ignore me for most of the service because I would constantly have another song I wanted to do. "Old Rugged Cross", "His Eye is on the Sparrow", "Whiter than Snow"(current weather leads me to this entire thought) , but nothing was better than number 85 "Onward Christian Soldiers" That is without a doubt my favorite hymn of all time. I would call out that number each and every week and often time we would sing it and I would be glad. I am certain that old hymnal in that old church is a big reason I find myself still leading worship today just as I did in Pelham, GA with the assistance of my father the pastor and the piano player.

"At this present time we must hold onto the past to better appreciate the future." Who I am now has everything to do with who poured into my life in those early years. Whether it is music, or scripture, or service, or love that is poured in, it will come out.

"Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." Luke 6:45