WATCH NIGHT

MUSIC & WORSHIP RESOURCES

Friday, December 31, 2010

Rodney Teal, Guest Lectionary Liturgist
Minister of Music, Israel Baptist Church, Washington, D.C.

Worship Planning Notes

Modernly, Watch Night marks the end of the Church year for historically African American churches. It also marks the end of the calendar year. The role of the worship leaders for this service is to enable parishioners to assess (with thanksgiving) the year that has ended while looking forward to their journey with God in the year that is to come.

In designing this service, be aware of your context. If it has been a considerably bad financial year for the people in your congregation, be careful to avoid a Watch Night service that is filled with pageantry and pomp. Also avoid designing a service that makes people mournful and more likely to carry feelings of disappointment or dread into the new year.

This Watch Night, as with all others, God goes before us and stands with us against all things that we will have to face in the new year. This Watch Night, as with all others, the God who holds the future also holds our hand.

1. Litany, Responsive Reading, or Invocation
Litany

O God, as was customary of our parents and ancestors, we come to this Watch Night vigil to be with you, in your house, as we usher out the old year and welcome the dawning of a new year.

We come, thanking you for guidance and direction. Go before us, O God, and draw us into the future where you are.

Our slave ancestors watched that night long ago for the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Lord, keep us awake and alert as we follow in the light of your Word, searching for the good news of the gospel, and the comforting signs of your love in this world.

We thank you for watching over us and caring for us through the old year, as we walked in the light of your love. We thank you for promises of peace, healing, and justice.

We come, O God, with great expectations and great hopes. Keep these fires kindled within us that we may watch and wait, and once more feel your presence. Let us know your power as we embark upon this journey.

You have led us in the past. Guide us now and always that we might choose to do your will and follow your way. We are pilgrims in a barren land.

We give you praise, O God, for your goodness and mercy; for life, health, and friends, and for the many blessings you always send. Above all, we thank you for Jesus Christ, who lifts our hopes, and guides us in the Way, in this new year, and in years to come.

All praise, honor, glory, and thanks to you, our God, through Jesus Christ our risen Savior and Lord.

Responsive Reading

Hope

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.

For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth;

It was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.

Happy are those whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;

Who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!

My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And we want each of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

The mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,

What are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

2. Hymns and Congregational Songs
(a) The Solid Rock. By Edward Mote. Tune, (SOLID ROCK), by William B. Bradbury

(b) All the Way My Savior Leads Me. By Fanny J. Crosby. Tune, (ALL THE WAY).

(c) I Know Who Holds Tomorrow. By Ira Stamphill. Tune, (TOMORROW).

(d) O for a Faith That Will Not Shrink. By William H. Bath­urst. Music by John B. Dykes. Tune, (ST. AGNES).

(e) Just When I Need Him. By William Poole. Tune, (GABRIEL).

(f) I Know Whom I Have Believed. By Daniel W. Whittle. By James McGranahan. Tune, (EL NATHAN), Meter: CM with Refrain

3. Spirituals or Traditional Songs
(a) Give Me Jesus. Negro Spiritual

(b) Jesus Is Real to Me. Text and tune by Beatrice Brown

(c) Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. Negro Spiritual. Arr. By Nolan Williams, Jr.

(d) God Is a Good God. Text and tune by Keith Hunter. Arr. By Stephen Key and Nolan Williams, Jr.

4. Gospel Songs for Choirs, Ensembles, or Praise Teams
(a) You’re Mine. By Margaret Pleasant Douroux

(b) Everything I Need You Are. By Rodney Teal

(c) Standing in the Need of a Blessing. By Patrick D. Bradley

(d) I Will Do a New Thing. Text and tune by Audrey Byrd. Arr. By Nolan Williams, Jr.

5. Liturgical Dance Music               
(a) Never Would Have Made It. By Matthew Brownie and Marvin Sapp

(b) Come Ye Disconsolate. By Thomas Moore and Thomas Hastings

(c) He’s Preparing Me. By Carol Antrom

(d) The Vision. By Patrick Love

6. Anthems                                        
(a) Wait on the Lord. By Willis Barnett

(b) Dwell in the House. By Gale Murphy

7. Modern Songs (Songs Written after 1989)
(a) Already Done. By Margaret Pleasant Douroux

(b) Standing in the Need of a Blessing. By Patrick D. Bradley

(c) Faithful Is Our God. By Hezekiah Walker

8. Offertory Song or Instrumental             
(a) We’ve Come a Long Way. Anonymous

(b) Heaven’s Christmas Tree. By Charles A. Tindley

9. Song or Instrumental for the Period of Prayer                         
(a) The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow. By Thomas A. Dorsey

(b) Because He Lives. By Gloria Gaither and Bill Gaither

(c) Never Alone. Anonymous. Tune, (NEVER ALONE), arr. By Nolan Williams Jr.

(d) One More Day. Text and tune by Margaret Pleasant Douroux. Tune, (ONE MORE DAY).    

10. Sermonic Selection                                 
(a) The Reason Why We Sing. Text and tune by Kirk Franklin. Arr. By Evelyn Simpson-Curenton

(b) He’ll Come Through. By Cynthia Brewer

(c) Close to Thee (Master Let Me Walk with Thee). By Fanny J. Crosby. Tune, (CLOSE TO THEE), arr. By Nolan Williams Jr.

11. Invitational Song or Instrumental
(a) Encourage Yourself. By Donald Lawrence

(b) Give Yourself to Jesus. By Robert Fryson

(c) Leave It There. By Charles A. Tindley. Arr. By Nolan Williams Jr.

12. Benediction Song or Instrumental                    
(a) Be with Us All, Lord. Text and Tune by Uzee Brown, Jr.

(b) As You Go, Tell the World. Anonymous. Arr. By Valeria Foster

(c) Yesterday, Today, Forever. By Albert B. Simpson and J. H. Burke

Cites and Additional Information for Music and Material Listed