New Song #1 for 2012: Father Forgive Us

“You will be the same person tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and in 5, 10, 20 years except for three things – the people you meet, the books you read, and the songs you sing.”

My update to the quote by Charlie TREMENDOUS Jones

I recently drafted my new songs plan for 2012, so it's time to get started.

The first song for 2012: Father Forgive Us

Here are the lyrics:

Father, forgive us when we fail to hear your call
to share your perfect love with those outside these walls.
We have the greatest gift, the truth of Jesus Christ;
we're sent to go and tell the world.

   We believe in God the Father,
   we believe he sent his Son,
   we believe that Jesus died and rose again.
   We believe he brings forgiveness
   and his Spirit changes lives.
   We will live this gospel in his name.

Faith without action is as lifeless as the grave,
so may our lives proclaim that Jesus Christ can save.
We are your hands and feet, your workers on the earth,
we'll show our faith by what we do.

CCLI# 5531497 © Andy Irons / RESOUNDworship.org, Admin by The Jubilate Group 4
Thorne Park Road, Torquay TQ2 6RX, UK copyrightmanager@jubilate.co.uk

Here is the story on the find:

I decided to start with the tough finds first: Closer - Evangelism/Missions songs. I don't have a single one on my new songs practice list. Experience tells me if I passively wait and see if Worship Leader Song Discovery includes a keeper, I may be waiting a long time.

ResoundWorship has been sending emails lately, and I haven't checked out their website for quite awhile, so I decided to start there.

Several of my favorite songs, What Kind of Throne? and Who is This?, I found at ResoundWorship. It is a great site because I can freely and easily check out and test all their songs without having to buy anything. Since all their songs are on CCLI, their remuneration happens when their songs are used in worship and reported by licensed churches like ours. It’s simple and easy. They truly get it; I wish other organizations would follow their lead.

I had not been their website for awhile, but found their redesigned website made it easy for me. Since they have an option to view the songs in an ordered list from newest to oldest, it was easy for me to check out the new songs since my last visit. I click on each title to bring up the page for the song which shows the lyrics and gives me the option to start playing the song as well as download a .mp3 and a chord chart. I like being able to quickly read the lyrics of each new song first to help me decide whether or not to listen to the song.

I worked my way down the list until I found Father Forgive Us. It had lyrics with a strong Evangelism/Missions theme, so I begin playing the song. The musical intro is not my style, but I ignored it because I wanted to hear how the melody works with the engaging words that got my attention to begin with. I liked what I heard. I decided the song has potential, so I downloaded the .mp3 and a chord chart and transferred them to my iPad (since I had forgotten the password, I had to get a new one first - It had been awhile!).

The chart had the song in two keys. I chose the capo 3 chart for guitar players and begin playing and finally singing along with the song. I liked it, so I tried it alone. It didn't sound so good with me singing alone. The song was too high for me to sing comfortably. I tried capo 2, better; then capo 1, better still; no capo, that's more like it! I went back and practiced it some more with the .mp3 to tighten up some fuzzy spots with the melody. Now I am working on how I will play the song.

I'm well on my way and looking forward to leading this outstanding new song!