Good News Florida

LOCAL 30 NOVEMBER 2017 Good News • Broward Edition Imagine musicians from various denominations throughout South Florida join- ing together to spread the Gospel and glorify God through the gift of music. The Village Hymns fulfills this dream. They are a group local worship leaders and songwrit- ers who come together to write songs for the local churches and in November they will be releasing their first CD. In talk- ing to one of its founders, Josh Bramos, I learned about the vi- sion of the group. The Vision By using the creative tal- ents that God has given these songwriters and musicians, they hope to glorify God in a unique way. The Village Hymns recognizes that though the collective worship songs that we sing in church are good, there is a need to listen to the Spirit for each church’s individual needs and spiritual growth. For instance, worship could be in conjunc- tion with the current Bible se- ries a church is studying. The congregation may be going through a transitional time. Maybe they are mourning a loss or undergoing a revival. Shouldn’t the music, as well as the sermons, reflect that? And we Floridians are experi- encing a different season than our neighbors in the Northwest. With hurricanes come a range of emotional, physical and spiritual needs that are unique. Singing songs that address these cur- rent issues, topics that hit close to home, has a greater impact on us and, in essence, in our worship. What is worship? Josh brought to my atten- tion that worship is a sacrifice. I never really thought about it as such because I love music and singing. But the more we talked, I had to admit that sometimes I don’t feel like going to worship-only services and had to realize what I was doing: making my worship to please me, not God. So, yes, worship is a sacrifice. It may be even more so for those who don’t like to sing. Josh elabo- rated in describing what wor- ship should be: “Finding a truth in that song, putting it in your mind, praying over a scripture in your mind, and then engag- ing that in the song.” Worship nights Originally, The Village Hymns was created for having worship nights with the intent of having multiple worship lead- ers from different churches in- volved. Now, it is a nonprofit organization made up of wor- ship leaders and songwriters from various churches with the plan of having quarterly wor- ship nights. Dates TBA. Partic- ipating already have been members from Victory Life Church, Riverside Church, Coral Ridge Presbyterian, and New Life Baptist — just to name a few. The Village Hymns welcomes even more churches and denominations to take part in this wonderful journey in impacting our wor- ship to God. The three-fold purpose of this is “to bring awareness to local songwriters; writers that are aware of how God is mov- ing in His church, to bring awareness to songs written for the local church to sing, and to gather local writers and de- velop a community which would hopefully birth new songs and new relationships Worship Leaders Collaborate in The Village Hymns Christine Alexander Good News (Continued on page 31)