God experienced the praise of heaven’s creation, long before His plan for humanity unfolded. Harmonics of His worship flowed in some form even before He spoke into being the very vibrations and physics needed for audible sound. The three persons of God glorified one another and the heavenly hosts sang an eternally resounding, “Hallelujah.” If that doesn’t blow your mind a bit, then take another moment to try and process it. The hugeness of Almighty God is eternally, all consuming. Every facet of His being demands response and respect. Yet, He came as a poor, humble child, that all would know Him.
As Family Church Worship has been working on our Christmas project this year, I’ve been reminded of God’s constant goodness and fullness, outlined by His humility. Those who have ever journeyed through a creative process understand the weight of the intangibles; those external forces that inevitably keep us focused and bring us back around to our starting point of inspiration. For us, those externals came in the usual forms of restraints of time, scheduling conflicts, editing delays, and a consortium of copyright considerations. But together, our team spent days and nights lovingly pouring ourselves out, as God refilled us with His presence, with the good company of each other doing what we love… music, for Him. We felt full in Christ, encouraged by the way He helped the necessary tensions to be managed, for His glory, and for His renown.
Dave Cornett recording vocals
One early fond memory I have from the recording of this project was sitting in my office with Winner Olmann and Tyler Sherrod and discussing, “O Come O Come Emmanuel.” I said, “The original version always felt so sad to me. Lets do something different here.” Then, Mark Warnock was classic after he heard that we had done it in a major key. Yes, we are all admittedly just a twinge nerdy, and proud of it. Another great memory was sitting in the Family Church Gardens conference room previewing each other’s demos. Winner was up, and we started playing the song he was solely responsible for, “Go Tell It.” Nobody had a single significant critique. We were all immediately blown away by his vision and ability to communicate both musically and production-wise what he was feeling. I think I can speak accurately for the others that we were all just completely floored. God is so God!! Go tell it! None of us could get that groove out of our head for the rest of the week. There are many other wonderful memories we’ve collected along the way through the recording of our choir, brass, various vocal ensembles, rhythm section musicians, and string capturing endeavors.
My hope for you as the listener is that the great joy that God has put in each of us, translates and helps you to transcend the busy rush between each of the precious moments you have, no matter the season. Thank you for your support and commitment for our continued mission to go and “Tell the Story” through the gift of music. Be blessed!
Dave Cornett is the Worship Pastor for Family Church Gardens.