For Love of the Game

written by Chuck Gartman
(excerpt from Devotions for Guys Who Like Movies)

Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Billy Chapel is an All-Star pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, and is headed for Baseball’s Hall of Fame in the movie, For Love of the Game. On the day of the game of his life, his coach tells him that he is selling the team and that he will probably be traded after 19 seasons with the Tigers. His decision is whether or not to keep playing even if it’s for another team. Also on that day, his girlfriend decides to leave him, so he heads to the pitching mound with some overwhelming odds against him, not to mention the fact that his team is playing the league-leading Yankees.

The phrase “clear the mechanism” is used several times during the movie while he is on the mound. In essence, he shuts out all of Yankee Stadium with all its distractions as well as anything else that may keep him from concentrating on the task at hand, winning the game.

The lesson for us as Christians is easy; the practice of it is hard. God desires that we shut out all the distractions of our lives and keep our focus on His kingdom. While that is easy to think about, it is extremely difficult to do. Maybe the key is that we need to commit to keep our focus on the Lord and His kingdom, and ask Him to live His life out through us. As we do this, His kingdom stays in proper focus.

The word for us today is to “clear the mechanism” of all the distractions that keep us from living as a fully devoted follower of Christ.

this devotional taken from Devotions for Guys Who Like Movies

AnderKamp Music provides world-class music for churches by creating accessible arrangements,

giving instrumentalists the opportunity to use their gifts to glorify God.

So many churches across the United States and literally around the world are going through transitions of musical styles. They call them ‘worship wars’ for a reason. There is often times a large amount of carnage that happens. Many churches were started with a contemporary worship style based music. Meaning, rhythm section and a few singers. That’s how the church began and that’s how it is today. Other churches began as a more traditional style of music (choir, orchestra, organ, piano etc) and are moving/have moved to a contemporary worship style.

My goal with AnderKamp Music is to try and create music for where you are right now and where you are wanting to go with one specific goal:DON’T DISPLACE MUSICIANS USING THEIR GIFTS. Plain and simple.

I believe my job as an arranger/creator/publisher is to create music that allows you to use more musicians in worship in a way that makes sense! That is a critical piece. It does need to make sense. If it’s Southern Gospel Sunday, then maybe your Uilleann Pipe player should take that day off. (just sayin’) But there are many creative ways to include brass, woodwinds, strings and percussion in a contemporary worship service. And if we (the arrangers) do a good job, you will have allowed more people to use their gifts in worship, giving them a stronger sense of community and loyalty to your church AND you will have created a fresh, unique sound that is unlike the ‘typcial’ worship sound you may hear in other churches.

That really is my goal. I want people to be able to enjoy using their gifts to glorify God as often as possible.

I grew up in playing trumpet in my church orchestra at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola. I was in 8th grade (28 years ago) when I sat down and played for the first time. The feeling of playing in a group worshiping God with their instrumental gifts is hard to describe. But I know what it feels like. I truly love it. It’s how I’ve lived my life. It is a tithe of my life to be able to play trumpet in church. I am truly at peace sitting in church playing my trumpet.

Any time I have the opportunity through AnderKamp Music to help churches INCLUDE more people in worship and not DISPLACE them, I truly (to quote Chariots of Fire) ‘feel God’s pleasure’.

That’s what I am all about here at AnderKamp Music. How about you?

Special Offer for the complete set of Retro Hymns arrangements

expires May 9th, 2012

Purchase the complete set and make up to 40 copies of the recordings for your players ($279 value)

The responses to the Retro Hymns series have been overwhelming. Fresh. Exciting. Different. Retro.

You can hear all of the arrangements below.

We now have written out piano parts and electric bass parts included with every arrangement (and we redid the artwork to go a little more ‘retro’).

INSTRUMENTATION:2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 2 saxes and rhythm

ADDITIONAL INSTRUMENTATION:Flute 1 & 2, Oboe, Clarinet 1 & 2, Violin 1 & 2, Viola, Cello and Bass

Some tutorial videos for your drummer are available on our YouTube channel. We also have written out suggested solos for any of the ad lib solo sections in case your players can’t improvise.

Purchase the complete set by May 9th, 2012 and you can make up to 40 copies of the recordings/mp3s for your players. Order today!

If you want to hear the arrangements, click on them below:

Amazing Grace

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

I Stand Amazed In the Presence

All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name

Crown Him With Many Crowns

Old-Time Religion

Leaning On the Everlasting Arms

‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Do Lord

Fairest Lord Jesus

My Jesus I Love Thee

Here are audio samples of both Volumes 1 & 2

Jericho Horns Volume 1<click here for more information>

Jesus Loves Me

(Walkin’) In the Garden

Softly and Tenderly

This Little Light of Mine/Oil In My Lamp

To God Be the Glory

Doxology

I Have Decided To Follow Jesus

I’m In the Lord’s Army

Swing Low

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

God of Grace and God of Glory

Jericho Horns Volume 2 <click here for more information>

Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho

When the Saints Go Marching In

Amen

All Creatures of Our God and King

Jesus Shall Reign (Ballad on Duke Street)

Amazing Grace

Rock of Ages

What a Friend We Have In Jesus

At Calvary

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

<Insert ‘Field of Dreams’ analogy here>

I was right and with the tremendous response with the praise band version (Volume 1), I decided to do Volume 2 with full big band but it could work with a small praise band and any size group in between. At that point, Brentwood Benson offered to buy the series from us and it really made great sense for us. They had the ability and desire to help reach many more churches than we could have at the time and they did just that. I remember the call from Johnathan Crumpton over at BB when he said, “Let’s do a Christmas version!” No twisting my arm there. I loved that idea.

Fast forward to today and I am happy to announce that we are now able to sell the Jericho Horns series here at AnderKamp Music as DOWNLOADABLE FILES!

If you are looking for praise band or big band or anything in between, this is the series for you!

You can listen to audio samples of all the arrangements and you can download the arrangements as soon as you place your order.  You can be swinging out with a big band this Wednesday night!

Just for fun, I’ve put up the original cover (and back cover) of the Jericho Horns Volume 1 CD below that a friend of a friend illustrated for me back in 1999.

Here are audio samples of both Volumes 1 & 2

Jericho Horns Volume 1

Jesus Loves Me

(Walkin’) In the Garden

Softly and Tenderly

This Little Light of Mine/Oil In My Lamp

To God Be the Glory

Doxology

I Have Decided To Follow Jesus

I’m In the Lord’s Army

Swing Low

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

God of Grace and God of Glory

Jericho Horns Volume 2

Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho

When the Saints Go Marching In

Amen

All Creatures of Our God and King

Jesus Shall Reign (Ballad on Duke Street)

Amazing Grace

Rock of Ages

What a Friend We Have In Jesus

At Calvary

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

If you want to bill the church, simply send me an email jeff@anderkampmusic.com and tell me what you want to purchase. I will email you the PDFs (probably through a dropbox link depending on file size) and I will include an invoice that the church can pay by check. This way you can have the music (even for tomorrow nights rehearsal) and you don’t have to go through the process of reimbursement if you have to use your own credit card.

I am happy to bill the church for any projects that I can email you the files. If I need to ship you actual music/cds, then you can go through the paypal/credit card process.

Ready to get going on the Retro Hymns Complete Set? Send me an email today and you’ll have the music right away!

You can listen to a couple of the Retro Hymns below:

Go ahead, listen to the intro and then say, “More cowbell!”

Old-Time Religion

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

But sometimes, you know in advance that they are coming.

Yesterday, Dana and I had the awesome privilege of baptizing Dakota, our youngest daughter/middle child.

Awhile back, one of our girls’ best friends, Ruby, was being baptized at church. Dakota had been talking to us a lot and asking questions about Jesus and baptism. I got one of those ‘nudges’ and I told Dana that I thought I should stay home with Dawson (1.5 years old) so Dana and the girls could have lunch and talk after the baptism. It was hard to have a conversation with 1.5 year old at the table. Dakota came home from lunch and said, “I want to ask Jesus in my heart.” She and I walked into her bedroom, talked about it and I made sure she knew what she was saying and doing. She prayed right then.

The best way to describe that day would be that, “I skipped church and the angels rejoiced!” Without a lot of warning, that was one of the most amazing moments in my life.

As we were getting ready to baptize Dakota yesterday and were sitting backstage, Dana and I were talking to her about the fact that she asked Jesus in her heart the day Ruby was baptized. Without even pausing, she said, “I hope someone asks Jesus’ in their heart today.”

My Dad told me a long time ago that there comes a point in time that you realize that God speaks directly to your children. As I stood backstage waiting for my wife and I to get to baptize her, I realized that the Holy Spirit was already speaking to my child.

I knew yesterday was going to be an amazing moment in my life. I just didn’t realize how truly incredible of a day it would be as I was able to watch God speak to and through my little girl.

For more information about the series and to order the complete set as a download and have the music immediately, click here

In the ‘old days’, you could purchase a score or possibly listen to a recording and if you liked it, you could purchase the music and it would be shipped to you. MANY arrangements didn’t have recordings, so you were left to look at the score and imagine (hear in your head or at the piano) what the arrangement sounded like.

Even from when I began my company, things have changed. I started AnderKamp Music in 1998 and we began right away to offer our arrangements with 3 options:1 ship the music 2 download the music 3 email the music.

Back then, it cost a lot of money and I had a web coding guru design my website so churches, schools and individuals could order music and immediately be able to download it or have it emailed to them. It was a major deal at the time. Today, if you choose to add a shopping cart to your website, you can simply add a ‘download’ option and there you go.

The same is true about listening to music on a website. I vividly remember uploading both RealAudio and mp3 files back in the day and typing code/hyperlinks to link them. Today, WordPress sites have a ‘Media’ button where you simply click to upload mp3s. Simple as that.

I remember when I began offering conductor’s scores for FREE as PDFs (the print function was disabled) so folks could download the scores to take a look at them.

The concept of video on a website? I couldn’t even fathom that back then. Today, you simply copy the link from YouTube and most all websites will now embed the video on your site but it’s on Youtube (or Vimeo) so you don’t pay some huge fee for data hosting. Let alone the fact that you can record moderately high def video ’1080p’ on $100 camera and edit for free with amazing plugins in iMovie and make your own video and upload on YouTube/Vimeo.

In my mind, this is an exciting time for publishers. I can now offer a conductor’s score, stream an mp3 and even show a link of someone playing the arrangment on YouTube all in an effort to let you make better choices about the music you wish to purchase.

What’s your method of choice or is it a combination of all of them? Let me know

As an example of where we are, here is my arrangement of What a Friend We Have In Jesus from our Strings & Things – Volume 1 series.

You can download the conductor’s score by clicking here

 
You can hear the arrangement by clicking play below

You can watch and listen as McLean Bible Church under the direction of Ben Roundtree plays the arrangement live one of their worship services below

 
What is most helpful to you when making decisions about purchasing music. I’d love to know!

We now have audio samples of some of the arrangements below:

Amazing Grace

Double click below to hear the full orchestra recording of this arrangement:

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

Double click below to hear the full orchestra recording of this arrangement:

Are You Washed In the Blood Medley

Double click below to hear the full orchestra recording of this arrangement:

Double click below to hear the 8 Core version of this arrangement:
(This version only contains Flute 1, Clarinet 1, Trumpet 1 & 2, Horn 1, Trombone 1 & 2 and Tuba(Bass Trombone)

How Firm A Foundation

Double click below to hear the full orchestra recording of this arrangement:

I Surrender All

Double click below to hear the full orchestra recording of this arrangement:

Lead On O King Eternal

Double click below to hear the full orchestra recording of this arrangement:

Double click below to hear the 8 Core version of this arrangement:
(This version only contains Flute 1, Clarinet 1, Trumpet 1 & 2, Horn 1, Trombone 1 & 2 and Tuba(Bass Trombone)

Rejoice the Lord Is King

Double click below to hear the full orchestra recording of this arrangement:

Softly and Tenderly

Double click below to hear the full orchestra recording of this arrangement:

Revive Us Again

Double click below to hear the full orchestra recording of this arrangement:

Trust and Obey

Double click below to hear the full orchestra recording of this arrangement:

For more information or if you are ready to order the complete set of 10 arrangements for only $400(saves you $100), click here.