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| Nave: Entering Cardiphonia | |
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Origins…
During my second year of seminary at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Fl a friend (in jest I should note!) suggested that I should try and put music to the shorter catechism questions to make them easier to learn. Evidently someone had tried this before but to little avail. So over the next 6 months I started writing little tunes to 35 of the 107 questions that we needed to memorize as part of our graduation requirements. I finished and put out a little CD shortly after Christmas 2001. Over the next 2 years I was amazed at how many copies of this little CD I was to make…and how many people were encouraged and edified by being able to memorize the shorter catechism with the help of devotional musings. To date I’ve made over 400 copies of that little CD.
After I graduated I was hired to be the worship and arts director at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana (www.redeemindy.org). One Sunday I put a little plastic bin in the back with 10 of the Catechism CD’s and they were gone the next week. A number of the families in the church would joke about how their children were now singing the catechism songs around the house. Later in the year a man from Redeemer started teaching the children the catechism songs during the Sunday school hour before church. The children have also done a wonderful job sharing the catechism with the congregation as both a prelude and offering. Through Redeemer’s support and encouragement I applied for a grant from the Calvin Institute of Worship in Feb, 2004 to further the ministries of worship with children at Redeemer (We have about 70 under the age of 12). The CiW was gracious enough to award Redeemer the grant and this website is a labor of love enabled by that gift.
Currently….
As the year progresses I am continuing to write music to the rest of the catechism questions and spending time in the studio recording the ones I have already written with a professional CD release due sometime in Summer ’05. This website is also in the process of growing into a broader reflection of the music and worship ministries of Redeemer.
The Future…
As Redeemer grows we hope this website will be a loci of communal interaction around the Lord’s work in our broken communities, especially as it pertains to music and worship. (See Links for news of other communities of worship) It has been a strange blessing how the Lord has profited the work with the catechism questions and we’re excited to see how the Lord will use it to further His Glory and Name in the World. |
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