Pastoral. Wide. Sweeping. Peaceful.

The world is full of chaos. There are dark spots throughout it.

But just as Elijah heard God’s still small voice after all the storms and noise, we can still hear Christ’s voice in the midst and after the storms.

Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

When I was creating this arrangement, I was thinking of a wide, sweeping peace that passes all understanding.

To me, John Barry is a film composer who captures the wide, sweeping feel so well. Think of ‘Dances With Wolves’ and ‘Out of Africa’ and you will know what I mean. These are two of his well admired film compositions. ‘What a Friend We Have In Jesus’ seemed to fit so well in this style.

One of my good friends, Jim Gray, asked me to create an arrangement for The Nashville Praise Symphony. The Nashville Praise Symphony (NPS) is an auditioned orchestral group under the excellent direction and baton of well respected arranger and orchestrator Camp Kirkland. This arrangement is what I came up with for last season of NPS. I am thrilled to now offer it for other orchestral groups that wish to perform it.

Special thanks to Jim for 20 years of friendship, asking me to contribute to the NPS repertoire and for ‘pushing back’ and helping me to make this arrangement even better.

To purchase this arrangement for your instrumental group, click here

I hope you enjoy the arrangement. Here is a portion of one of The Nashville Praise Symphony’s live performance last season of my arrangement.