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Welcome to the 15th Family Worship Newsletter, 31 March 2000
http://www.familyworship.org.uk
Previous newsletters are available on the website archives at
http://www.familyworship.org.uk/newslett.htm#archive
Contents
========
With relentless "Humour spots" between every item...
FW Site stats
Recent site additions
Coming soon
Story behind the song
Worship and evangelism
Songwriters' encouragement
Check out...
Newsletter information
FW Site Stats
-------------
Visitors to the site have increased to around 400 a day through March - welcome
to new subscribers.
The most popular pages in March were the Songs page, the KidsZone, the Showcase,
and a seasonal favourite right now is the Easter page.
Recent site additions
---------------------
EASTER PAGE
Still time to check out this new page, with suggestions for Easter services,
including songs, drama, creative ideas with links to relevant sites. Also featured
is the song "If we were to keep quiet" which is an ideal song to use
for Palm Sunday.
http://www.familyworship.org.uk/easter.htm
LULLABIES
Most of the Family Worship songs are aimed to be accessible for all ages, but
we often get requests for songs for very small children. With this in mind,
we have added two brand new lullabies to the site. In fact, the tunes are two
of the best-known melodies in the world, but the words are new, and make the
songs perfect for the under-fives.
http://www.familyworship.org.uk/kidszone/lullabies.htm
SONGWRITERS' SHOWCASE
The showcase has been updated with the next batch of writers, so now features
16 songwriters, from the UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand. There is a great
range of songs and styles, and the pages are well worth checking out. More writers
are added each month.
http://www.familyworship.org.uk/showcase.htm
Humour spot
===========
Words of wisdom from children...
Never trust a dog to watch your food.
- Patrick, age 10
When your dad is mad and asks you, "Do I look stupid?"
don't answer him.
- Michael, 14
Never tell your mom her diet's not working.
- Michael, 14
You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
- Armir, 9
If you want a kitten, start out by asking for a horse.
-Naomi, 15
Felt markers are not good to use as lipstick.
- Lauren, 9
Never try to baptize a cat.
- Eileen, 8
Coming soon
-----------
The drama scripts on the Easter page have proved very popular, and we will be
adding a number of scripts on various themes over the coming months. All are
royalty free for use in church services or children's work.
Humour spot
===========
Church bulletin bloopers:
Announcement in a bulletin for a National Prayer & Fasting Conference
"The cost for attending the conference includes meals"
Barbara remains in the hospital will need more transfusions. She is also having
trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons...
Story behind the song...
------------------------
This month, the new lullaby, "Jesus, you're the morning star"
Jesus, you're the morning star
Oh how beautiful you are
You came down from heaven above
Died to show the Father's love
Jesus, you're the morning star
Oh how beautiful you are
Words, Mike Burn, Copyright 1999 Daybreak Music
Tune - Mozart
One of the reasons I started writing songs was that I had been observing my
own children in the context of worship in our church, and realised that many
of the adult songs we used were inaccessible to them. At the same time, I realised
that many of the children's songs that we used were considered by some of the
adults to be inappropriate for them, so we were in a no-win situation.
One aim of the Family Worship recordings was to find songs that were acceptable
to adults and accessible for children. It's been suggested that you can't please
all of the people all of the time, and in worship, there's an element of truth
in that. However, the whole aim of worship is not to please ourselves anyway,
but to please God, and so if we can use songs that the whole church family can
enjoy, then there's a good prospect of God enjoying the worship too!
So, normally, I try to avoid writing songs that could be labelled overtly as
being children's songs. However, I make the odd exception, and while my youngest
daughter was still small enough to enjoy lullabies, I decided to write one for
her. From the time she was able to sit on my lap at the piano, her favourite
song had always been "Twinkle twinkle little star", so it was the
natural choice for the tune, and the lyrics are a simple expression of thanks
for who Jesus is and what he's done.
If you have small children or grandchildren of your own, or if you work with
under-fives, then I hope this song will be a blessing to you.
You can listen to this song at
http://www.familyworship.org.uk/kidszone/lullabies.htm
It will be on the Spring Harvest Little Kids Praise 2000 this year, as well
as the FW song "When you pray" (available in May from http://www.iccrecords.com)
and also it has been the featured song at mp3.com in the children's spiritual
category
http://www.mp3.com/familyworship
Humour spot
===========
A boy was watching his father, a pastor, write a sermon. "How do
you know what to say?" he asked.
"Well, God tells me."
"Oh, then why do you keep crossing things out?"
Worship and evangelism
----------------------
There was a question posed on a worship email discussion list recently as to
what was the primary calling of the church: was it to worship, to evangelise,
or to fellowship. Answers that were suggested would often be a reflection of
the ministry emphasis of the individual responding, and there were compelling
arguments as to why one should be considered as more important than the other.
One criticism that is often levelled at the church, particularly in the UK,
where attendance has been in decline in most denominations and movements over
the past several decades, is that the church is too inward looking. The words
of Jesus' great commission to "Go and make disciples" should ring
in our ears as a continual directive.
However, it is also true that we were created to worship, and so it would not
be right to abandon our corporate worship activities and only hold evangelistic
activities - the right balance needs to be found. In fact, the two often go
hand in hand, in the sense that the more one worships, the closer one gets to
the heart of God, which is always reaching out to the world.
Many churches have found that taking worship out into the open, whether as part
of a static event or as part of a march or procession, has had an impact in
the spiritual atmosphere, and evangelism has followed on naturally. My view
is that church is far too good to keep hidden away inside 4 walls, so the more
we can do in the public eye, the better.
During this millennium year, many churches are taking the opportunity to focus
their evangelistic efforts, and the more we worship, the more effective they
efforts will be. Many nations are joining with each other on June 10 for "Jesus
Day", initiated by March for Jesus, and you can find details at
http://www.gmfj.org/
Humour spot
===========
Any accordion players out there? Sorry - nothing personal...
What's the difference between an accordion and a lawnmower?
You can tune a lawnmower
What's the difference between an accordion and an onion?
People cry when you chop up an onion.
What's the difference between an accordion and a trampoline?
You take your shoes off to jump on the trampoline.
Songwriter's encouragement
--------------------------
As illustrated by the lullabies that we've recently added to the songs available
from FW Resources, it is not always necessary to write a new tune in order to
create a new song! There are many people who feel that they would like to write
songs, but feel that they are not musical, or don't play an instrument, so struggle
to compose a melody to accompany their lyrics.
If this applies to you, then don't hesitate to take an existing melody and write
new lyrics to it. Particularly if the tune is over 70 years old, then there
is no restriction from a copyright point of view in using and recording it.
(If it's a more recent song that is still in copyright then to publish the music
or record the song you would need permission for what is an adaptation of an
existing work)
So, if you feel the urge to write songs but have been put off by the musical
side of writing, just find a tune that you like, and borrow it!
Don't forget that we are keen to feature songs from all kinds of writers in
the Showcase, so whether you have one, two or a hundred songs, do consider submitting
them for consideration at
http://www.familyworship.org.uk/showcase.htm
Humour spot
===========
A woman was in the car with her husband when suddenly she turned and said: "Stop!
I'm sure I left the iron on - turn the car round or the house will burn down"
"The house won't burn down, dear" said the husband, and kept on driving
"No, I'm really sure this time that I left it on - the house will burn
down!"
"No it won't", he insisted, refusing to turn around
"But how can you be so sure?"
"Because I left the bath running"
Check out...
------------
David Lyle Morris, who has sung backing vocals for worship leaders including
Darlene Zschech, Graham Kendrick, Noel Richards and Robin Mark, is recording
a new live worship album, "Jesus, King of the Ages" this month, which
will be released by Kingsway in the Summer. In the meanwhile, you can hear a
great studio version of the title track at
http://www.mp3.com/davidlylemorris
Last month's article on creativity in worship prompted much interest, and we
have now posted a full article from Marie Bensley on the website at
http://www.familyworship.org.uk/HowtoCW2.htm
and Marie's own website is at
http://www.bensley.clara.co.uk
For UK christians, a new site is gearing up to offer free Internet access, with
a proportion of revenue going to support churches and charities. Should be a
good alternative to Freeserve and the other free providers, and you can register
for details at
http://www.solidrock.uk.net
The whole of the New Testament and Psalms is now available in MP3 format for
free download. The version is the World English Bible.
http://www.audiotreasure.com
If you are interested in justice and alieviating poverty and hunger, check out
Food for the Poor's (FFP) redesigned Web site at
http://www.foodforthepoor.org
FFP is an organization working to eliminate poverty in Latin America & the
Carribean
If you have a website that you would like us to cover in future newsletters,
please email
newsletter@familyworship.org.uk
Don't forget that Family Worship, as well as loads of other "grass roots
level" ministries are featured in the christian sections of mp3.com
http://www.mp3.com/familyworship
and new this month, http://www.mp3.com/davebankhead
Newsletter information
----------------------
This newsletter is written by Mike Burn and is published by Family Worship Resources,
part of Ichthus Christian Fellowship, London, UK Copyright 2000, Mike Burn.
Inclusion of links and quotations does not imply full endorsement of the
contents. The newsletter may be forwarded or reproduced in full or in part providing
that the source is acknowledged.
To subscribe, send an e-mail to
newsletter-subscribe@familyworship.org.uk
with subject blank, and subscribe in the content, or go to
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To unsubscribe send a blank e-mail to
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Send comments or queries, or suggested articles or links for inclusion in future
newsletters to
MikeBurn@familyworship.org.uk
Thanks for reading, and if you've made it this far, or even if you just skipped
to the end before hitting delete, blessings to you in Jesus' name
Mike