The Lord Is Risen To Life

“The Lord is Risen to Life.
The Lord is Risen to life. . .”

I’ve been singing this song a lot
these past few days.
It’s an older song
and I don’t even remember who wrote it.
I couldn’t even remember all of the verses,
so I looked it up on youtube
hoping I would find it.
And sure enough, I did!

But this song is just on my mind. . . .

Anyone who knows me well
knows that I often cite a statistic.
I remember the statistic very well,
though I can’t remember
who said it
or where it came from,
who did the study to get said info.

Once upon a time,
a very long time ago,
I was a pastoral musician newbie.
My pastor at the time
sent me to an NPM conference
(National Association of Pastoral Musicians).
One of the speakers at that event
gave the following statistic:
“Eighty percent of people
who sing in choirs as adults
sang in a choir as a child.”

I was floored.
That lone little statement
was probably the only real, tangible thing
I took home from that conference
and I can’t even remember who said it.
Since then,
I have tried to make working with children
a top priority.

But
what does this have to do with
the song “The Lord Is Risen to Life???”

I am living proof of that statistic.
I sang in the choir,
the children’s choir more specifically,
at St. Francis Xavier Parish.
When I was in the sixth grade,
the music director at the time
even let me play the organ.
What song did I play?
“The Lord is Risen to life.
The Lord is Risen to life.
The Lord has conquered sin and death. .. .”

And so,
I'm organizing a choir festival
to celebrate my 30 years in the music ministry.
But the fact of the matter is,
the seed was planted many years before that,
many years before I officially became
a pastoral musician, choir director,
parish music director.

And,
if I am perfectly honest with myself,
the seed was planted
long before that sixth grader
sat behind the organ.
You see,
in order to be able to sit behind that organ
numerous music lessons had to take place.
Yeah,
we never know when
that little seed is being planted.

“Eighty percent of people
who sing in choirs as adults
sang in a choir as a child.”

.. .and one of those children
might just end up
as your parish music director!


I don't know the people in this video.
I just looked it up on youtube.
But, nonetheless,
this is the actual song
a sixth grader got to play on the church organ
a very long time ago!!!