This festive, celebratory anthem is especially effective at dedication services or September “new program” Sundays, and is really perfect for the entire month of January when we “begin again” in so many ways. It contains a newly-created scriptural text exuberantly set with a familiar hymn tune.

This piece was commissioned by Central Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, where the church members were in a new facility in a new location with a new pastor. Church members contributed ideas and phrases for some of the text, and one former pastor (my husband, Bill Turner!) wrote the last verse of the hymn. The congregation “sang their socks off” the day the church dedicated the new sanctuary and other facilities. Bill’s words, “Make this church a living witness, sign of heaven here below,” serve as the ending to this joyful compilation of text. Listen to your congregation SING!