December 15, 2004
Music with a message
Church praise teams record and release CD 'Holy Night' this month
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Offering their music to the community during the Christmas season, members of the First Congregational Church's praise teams released "Holy Night" this month.
Featuring 17 musicians and vocalists from their Saturday evening and Sunday morning praise teams, the compact disc features Christmas classics, including Silent Night, Little Drummer Boy, What Child is This and Oh, Holy Night. Members of the team arranged the music to give it their own interpretation.
The project is the third release by praise musicians from the church. As with previous releases, all proceeds from sales will benefit the church's music ministries.
The groups began recording the numbers together in late August and early September, finishing production by Thanksgiving weekend. All involved gave up extra time on evenings and weekends to participate.
"The work on the CDs is really a labor of love from the people involved," said Marci Berry, a member of the Saturday evening praise team. "It's a way to spread the word and celebrate Christmas with people in the community."
In a church bursting with musical talent, Holy Night was an in-house project from start to finish. Berry created the cover artwork, the music was recorded on-site and two members of the church engineered it. The church owns a multi-track digital recorder as well as a compact disc reproducer, among other things, easing their publishing process.
"It's not like having a professional recording studio, but we have some really good sound and recording equipment here," noted Karen Hogue, communications secretary for the church and wife of the senior pastor, Dr. Gary Hogue.
The Internet lent a hand as one of the sound engineers, Christopher Law, is studying at a recording arts school in Ontario, Canada. With each song including between three and 26 tracks, the result is a step above the normal amateur release.
"He has most of the set up on his computer at school and we recorded off of our recording gear, as individual tracks," said Gregg Law, a member of the Sunday praise team and Christopher's father. "He was able to mix them down and send them back to us, where it was reassembled on this end."
The praise teams at First Congregational Church have been playing at contemporary services since 1997, when Dr. Hogue decided to offer an alternative worship style.
A group of eight musicians, Light my Fire, performs during a Saturday evening service, while six musicians perform during a Sunday morning service. The church also offers two traditional services in its sanctuary, featuring organ music accompanying a large choir.
"What's really nice is that the congregation can get the same message in the setting that they prefer," Berry said. "So Mike can rock out on his guitar on Saturday but Sunday at 11 there is a traditional setting and choir."
The praise teams include members from all walks of life: a doctor, homemakers, contractors, a social worker and students.
"All of us at one point or another came from secular music," said Gregg Law, who plays acoustic guitar and sings. "Some came up from doing things in bars or just playing in general. Then it all came together at church, a lot had hung up their guitars for years."
"Holy Night" is available at Border's Books, Horizon Boos, Lemstone Books and Rainbow Book Store.