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HymnCharts is 5 Years Old! >home
by Don Chapman
03.06.07 It's hard to believe that today, March 6
2007, HymnCharts is 5 years old! When I started
out in my first music director job 8 years
ago (I had always worked in a church as pianist
or assistant to the music director) I soon
discovered one of my biggest challenges was
trying to mix a hymn into my praise sets.
It just wouldn't work - hymns from hymnals
are meant to be played by piano and organ,
not guitars and drums. So I started to rearrange
them.
My first HymnChart re-arrangement, All Hail
the Power, which you can download for free, was a big hit at church. This really happened
- after church, a 25 year old guy in the
band asked "what was that cool song
we did today?" I said, "All Hail
the Power????" He had never heard
the hymn and thought we
were doing a new
praise song!
Then, after the same service,
an older lady
came up and said "Oh,
thank you so much
for doing that hymn! I
loved it!." Ding,
ding, ding, my worship
meter went off. I
knew I had hit the jackpot
if I made these
2 age extremes happy.
Yeah, I know, worship is
NOT about making
people happy. On the other
hand, those of
you in blended services
know that, well,
you had better make certain
people happy!
I started arranging my head off and thus
started HymnCharts.com. I now have almost
100 arrangements on the website. And what
an exciting way to celebrate the anniversary
- God blessed me by setting up circumstances
to have me meet and become friends with American Idol finalist Chris Sligh. He recorded several tracks for me in his
pre-fame phase : )
To the thousands of churches that have enjoyed
my music over these 5 years, I want to say
"thank you" for your business.
Your support has enabled me to do what I
love for a living -
writing and arranging music
for the Church...
for busy, overworked worship
leaders...
for people who haven't
been to a church in
years, visit and hear a
familiar tune from
their youth in an unexpected
way...
for new believers who learn
truths through
these timeless hymns...
I hope, with this humble website, my music
has helped worship leaders draw their congregations
into a deeper relationship with God.
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