This semester, I am completing a music ministry internship at a large church. I am serving as an assistant to the Director of Instrumental Music and Children's Choirs. I will be assisting in planning and organizing church music ministries, services, and special events. I will be aiding in the recruitment and payment of personnel needed for worship services and events and will be assisting the volunteer Children's Choir Directors in planning and organization as needed. I will be attending the worship planning meetings and will be observing the adult choir, orchestra, and worship team rehearsals.
Over the past two weeks I have already been stretched a lot and have discovered that there is so much that I have yet to learn in tis field. Our worship pastor and instrumental music director have strongly recommended that in addition to my required classes for my major, I sit in on the instrumental technique classes so that I can learn as much as possible about how to play every instrument. I do not have to reach an advanced level in each of the instruments, but I do need to be able to play simple songs and sight read simple music. This will help me be:
One of the largest misconceptions about worship today is that it something that only takes place at church, but this could not be further from the truth. Worship can and should be done everywhere – not just within the church building. The tabernacle and temple of Israel were designed to be symbols that reminded the Israelites of God’s presence among them – not the sole places of worship. This concerned the Samaritan woman who asked Jesus where the acceptable place to worship was: Israel or the mountains of Samaria. Jesus responded by declaring “Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:20-24). 1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that the Christian’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in us, and Romans 12:1 tells us that we are to present our bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual worship.” Continue Reading "What is Worship - Part 4" »
In a previous blog post, I discussed the importance of having a God-centered worship. A God-centered worship should then take time to reflect, not only on the person of God, but also on the works of God. God actually commanded the Israelites to include reflection in their special feasts of worship. During the Feast of Booths, the Israelites were commanded to live in tents to remember that “the sons of Israel live in booths when [God] brought them out from the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 23:43). The Feast of Unleavened Bread was created to celebrate the day God brought out the Israelites from the land of Egypt (Exodus 13:9) because this feast would “serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder to you on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt. The Passover was designed to be a “night to be observed for the Lord for having brought them out from the land of Egypt; this night is for the Lord, to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.” (Exodus 12:42). The temple and Ark of the Covenant were filled with symbols that reminded the Israelites of their history and dependence on God for salvation.
In the previous post, we discussed the fact that worship is first knowledgeable: you must know something about the One you are worshipping so that you are not worshipping blindly. Knowledge alone, however, is not enough to give us the right focus for worship. The Bible tells us that even the demons have knowledge of and believe in God, but this does not save them (James 2:19). We must choose to make God the focus of our worship: we cannot worship God and something else simultaneously (Matthew 6:24). When we try to worship God in our own way we are actually worshipping ourselves: this is false worship and not pleasing to God. In Matthew 15:7-9, God tells us that “this people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”
In a class at The Master's College, we studied the history of the Christian church and the development of hymns and worship. While we read several good books on worship including John MacArthur's book "Worship: The Ultimate Priority" and David Peterson's "Engaging with God", we also were required to develop our own philosophy of worship based on the Bible and personal experience. I wanted share my philosophy on my blog.
I have broken down my philosophy into five separate parts and I will be highlighting each point of worship in the following blog posts. Worship is:
Last spring, I took a course in Event Planning, and for my final project, I had to coordinate either a real or imaginary event. I chose to coordinate The Master's College Spring Handbell Concert and learned a lot about planning an event from start to finish, managing a group of people, and creating a logical flow that engaged the audience. I will be posting several videos from that concert over the next few days. Video credit goes to Peter Johnson for spending several hours taking and editing the video.
The first song I wanted to share was actually the finale of the concert. It is an arrangement of "Take Me Out to the 'Bell' Game" in the style of a cheesy waltz, Pink Panther, and Magnificent 7. It was arranged by myself and a fellow student, Morgan Ruthard, as a final project for our Handbell Directing course. We really enjoyed adding a bit of drama to this song and I hope you enjoy it.
In a previous post, I mentioned that my employer at Computer Services was allowing me to use a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2 for both work and personal use. This tablet has greatly changed how I use technology on a daily basis, however I found that I was still limited do to the flimsiness of the tablet. In fact, I even had to send two tablets back to Lenovo as they developed hardware problems from just normal use.
I finally decided to spend some of my own money to purchase a case for the Lenovo to see if that would help make the tablet more durable. I was primarily concerned with finding a case that was lightweight, but still protected the screen and weak back. I also was curious to see if any of the cases I found would help me get a better screen angle as I was not pleased with the angle the Thinkpad Bluetooth Keyboard provided.
This past school year, I took both Beginning and Advanced Conducting classes at The Master’s College. While these classes were required for my major, I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy conducting. After all, it’s much more fun to play an instrument than to stand up there waving your arms to keep the beat, right? And who watches the conductor anyway?
I had no idea how wrong I was. After the very first class period, I realized that conducting is so much more than being a metronome. It’s about creating music, much like the way an artist creates a painting. As the conductor, I can “play” all of the instruments in the orchestra, or all of the voices in the choir. I am not limited to one instrument and I have the ability to fine tune every sound of every instrument. Through these classes, I not only grew to appreciate my conductors more, but I also realized how much I loved conducting.
Shortly before beginning the Orchestral Conducting segment of my Advanced Conducting course, I met with my orchestra conductor at Grace Baptist, Lisa Hernacki. Every two weeks our orchestra prepares several songs for the Sunday Services in addition to our Christmas, Easter, and special concerts, and I wanted to understand how she could get to know all of the scores that well in such a short amount of time. Mrs. Hernacki’s advice was so helpful that I thought I would share her steps with any other interested musician.
This past spring, I took a class in Event Planning which was a complete learning experience for me. I took the class both because it fulfilled a GE requirement for me and because I thought that it would be a good skill for someone in ministry, or in life in general, to have.
On the first night, I realized that I had completely underestimated the class. The professor, Sam Neylan, was not only going to teach us how to coordinate weddings and baby showers, but was also planning to teach us how to become more organized in our own lives, pay attention to detail, begin with the end in mind, become more professional in our writing and communication, be creative in everything we do, and coordinate events so that every moment is intentional.
This past Christmas, The Fellowship of the Ring had the incredible privilege of performing in The Master's College 2011 Come Christmas Sing. Our quartet, which consisted of Lindsay Christoph, Wendy Mack, Amy Mack, and Morgan Ruthardt performed both outside as the audience was standing in line waiting to enter and inside during the concert. The theme of this year's concert was the 1920's, so during the prelude our quartet dressed in fur coats and top hats and stood in front of the building. We performed numerous four-in-hand pieces that Amy arranged for our group.
As part of a class project, Morgan Ruthardt and I edited a handbell piece arranged by Paul Ellsworth. We auditioned the piece and were accepted into the concert. We had a wonderful time being a part of Come Christmas Sing in this way and we are looking forward to hopefully doing it again in the future.
It has been quite a while since I have been able to blog as I have been incredibly busy preparing for and going through my first semester of college. I thought I would share a little bit about what that has been like for me:
My first semester in college has been a dream-come-true! I am a double major in Worship Music Ministries and Liberal Arts and it has been amazing to be able to focus on areas that I really love. I have just finished taking twenty units which has been intense but incredibly worth it. This first semester I mostly took general education classes and a few of the basic classes required for my major and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Continue Reading "Mack Family Update: First Semester Completed!" »
I have been working very hard to raise the money that I need to attend The Master's College through scholarships. My goal is to double major in Worship Music Ministries and Liberal Arts.
I recently applied for a $3,000 scholarship through WyzAnt, where I write an essay about who is my most important teacher and receive votes on my essay. I need to make it into the top 10 to be considered for the scholarship. Will you please help me earn this scholarship?
Just go to this site and vote for my essay entitled "Dr. Englin - Bringing the spark back into learning".
This Christmas was full of music for Wendy and I as we performed with seven different groups over the holiday season. All but one of the groups were in handbells - the most handbells groups we have ever been in at one time. Through The Master's College handbell groups, we had the privilege of playing in the annual Come Christmas Sing concerts - a week long concert series put on by the college and featuring a wide variety of music and instruments. We were also able to expand our musical abilities under the direction of Professor Claire Blackwell and enjoyed playing songs such as, "Angels We Have Heard on High", "The First Noel", "Joy to the World", and even a funky version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".
This past semester, our handbell trio The Fellowship of the Ring had the opportunity to perform in the prelude of The Master's College annual Come Christmas Sing Christmas Concerts. We performed Wendy's and my arrangement of "What Child is This".
This particular song really stretched the three of us as we had to come up with creative ways to cover as many bells as possible while still making the piece look easy and sound good to the audience. The song included everything from the very lowest bells (weighing nearly sixteen pounds apiece!) to some of the highest and each of us covered over an octave of bells.
Through this semester we have been able to expand our repertoire as well as enjoy practicing challenging pieces together. This next semester we are looking forward to playing a Lord of the Rings medley (since our group is named after it) and to pulling off another fun song!
This month, my sisters and I participated in the 12th annual Master's College Bellfest, a fun listening and learning opportunity for handbell ringers and lovers. We had over ten choirs and small ensembles from all over southern California share their works, including a special mini-concert by renowned solo ringer Christine Anderson. While there, each choir was able to sight read through a new piece while learning many new and fun techniques as well as participate in a mass ring of Joel Raney's arrangement of "We Three Kings".
We'd like to thank Claire Blackwell for coordinating the event and Christine Anderson for directing and teaching us. We all learned a lot and really appreciated all the hard work that was put into this.
This year, Wendy and I have had the opportunity to experience small ensemble ringing through our group - The Fellowship of the Ring. We started this trio last year with our friend Morgan Ruthardt and enjoyed it so much that we decided to continue this semester. At the beginning of the semester, the three of us made the decision that the trio would only play music that was either written or arranged by someone in the group, allowing us the freedom to play whatever song we want in whatever way we want to play it. Because we are all either music majors or music lovers, writing our own music has been great and has helped us all grow in our music abilities. It has given us a better understanding of the pieces we are playing (how they work and fit together) and has also been a lot of fun!
Last semester we started our first performance off with a comedy skit on "I've got the Joy". In the skit, Morgan is trying to be very professional and solemn while playing this Sunday school song - without the joy. The other two players (Wendy and I) aren't exactly thrilled with that and keep trying to take over the song to "liven" it up a bit - much to Morgan's frustration . Throughout the song the three of us constantly go back and forth - each one trying to take control of the song and play as they think it should be played until the climax, where the three ringers finally all agree on the best way to play the song.
This semester we decided to do two new songs. Over the summer, Wendy and I arranged "What Child is This" for the trio while Morgan worked on arranging the song "Andantino". We have really enjoyed playing both of these beautiful pieces and have had the opportunity to play in the annual Master's College Bellfest and are looking forward to performing in the Master's College Come Christmas Sing this year. Below is a video of our trio performing "Andantino" at Bellfest.
We have really enjoyed this special opportunity both in increasing our skill with the bells and in building friendships and have already started planning some very special (and fun) pieces for next year!
What do you get when you combine three timpanis, several percussion instruments, a synthesizer, and several full bell choirs? Some great music and a lot of fun!
This fall The Master's College held their 12th annual Bell festival (Bellfest) which we had the opportunity to participate in. Each of the several choirs and small ensembles performed their works and there were some amazing pieces! We even got to hear a small mini concert by Christine Anderson, a renowned solo ringer who wowed us all with her quick playing and juggling bells!
The concert ended with a mass ring where all the participating choirs played together along with the percussion and synth. Under the conducting of Christine Anderson, we played Joel Raney's mystical arrangement of "We Three Kings" which uses a variety of techniques and sounds to make you feel as if you were on the journey with the wise men.
At the beginning of this semester an interesting problem arose for Master's College Jubilation Handbell Choir. While the group was scheduled to meet twice a week, class conflicts prevented all but four of us to meet for the second rehearsal. Our handbell director Claire Blackwell decided to use the time instead to help the four members who could make practice learn how to do four-in-hand ringing. The result? The Jubilant Four was formed.
The four of us (Wendy Mack, Amy Mack, Steffie Hydanus, and Hannah Knapp) decided that we would become a four-in-hand quartet. Four-in-hand ringing is a special technique where each person holds four bells (two in each hand) and keeps holding them for the entire song. While only sixteen bells can be played per song, we are able to use those bells in combinations to make the sound lively and full. Unlike most choirs, we do not use tables, allowing us the freedom to walk around and stand with the audience. We have all enjoyed learning this new technique from Mrs. Blackwell and have had a lot of fun getting to know each other better!
This summer, my sisters and I decided to prepare a special piece to perform at the Master's College annual Bellfest and chose the song "O Holy Night". While Wendy and I have been ringing bells for a long time, this was Emily and Kelly's first time to ring handbells and they were very eager to learn. We had a lot of fun practicing together and filling the house with music (although I think Mom and Dad may have gotten a little tired of the same song being played over and over) and were able to pull it off. It was amazing to see how quickly the piece came together and how smoothy it went.
We were able to perform our song in the Master's college Bellfest and really enjoyed it! Below is the video of us all playing this piece.
Playing this song was a lot of fun and the four of us are looking forward to doing more together soon!
This semester, I am completing a music ministry internship at a large church. I am serving as an assistant to the Director of Instrumental Music and Children's Choirs. I will be assisting in planning and organizing church music ministries, services, and special events. I will be aiding in the recruitment and payment of personnel needed for worship services and events and will be assisting the volunteer Children's Choir Directors in planning and organization as needed. I will be attending the worship planning meetings and will be observing the adult choir, orchestra, and worship team rehearsals. 
Over the past two weeks I have already been stretched a lot and have discovered that there is so much that I have yet to learn in tis field. Our worship pastor and instrumental music director have strongly recommended that in addition to my required classes for my major, I sit in on the instrumental technique classes so that I can learn as much as possible about how to play every instrument. I do not have to reach an advanced level in each of the instruments, but I do need to be able to play simple songs and sight read simple music. This will help me be: 
One of the largest misconceptions about worship today is that it something that only takes place at church, but this could not be further from the truth. Worship can and should be done everywhere – not just within the church building. The tabernacle and temple of Israel were designed to be symbols that reminded the Israelites of God’s presence among them – not the sole places of worship. This concerned the Samaritan woman who asked Jesus where the acceptable place to worship was: Israel or the mountains of Samaria. Jesus responded by declaring “Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:20-24). 1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that the Christian’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in us, and Romans 12:1 tells us that we are to present our bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual worship.” 
In a 
The Passover was designed to be a “night to be observed for the Lord for having brought them out from the land of Egypt; this night is for the Lord, to be observed by all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.” (Exodus 12:42). The temple and Ark of the Covenant were filled with symbols that reminded the Israelites of their history and dependence on God for salvation. 
In the 
