EMANCIPATION BY THOMAS NAST

WATCH NIGHT

MUSIC & WORSHIP RESOURCES

Saturday, December 31, 2011

The African American Lectionary Liturgists

Worship Planning Notes

Watch Night took on greater meaning in the 1800s as African American-led congregations of enslaved persons in slave-holding states awaited the declaration that they had been declared legally free by the Emancipation Proclamation, which was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

Though long legally free, African Americans in America are still faced with so many inequitably applied laws that seek to quench their freedom to own homes, gain a good education, gain decent employment, and live unfettered from unwarranted and illegal arrests, searches, and seizures. As the country counts down to 2012, the outlook is bleak for too many. From poverty to violence to massive incarceration, to medical conditions that have reached staggering numbers, the African American community sits this year awaiting freedom again. However, no proclamation is being declared that legally or personally will grant it.

With such dire circumstances as our worship backdrop for this Watch Night, the task of worship leaders is critical. Yes, as always, we are to offer thanks and praise to God for life because where there is life there is always hope. That said, this year we need to lead worshippers in a service that will do more than allow them cathartic release from the hellish moments of 2011, although the importance of doing this is not to be underestimated. However, now more than ever we need to provide worship services that help our people return in robust ways to the God of our fore parents and the resolve of our fore parents who longed not only for physical freedom but for the right to live healthy, safe, and economically dignified lives.

They fought through prayer, through singing Zion’s songs as they lived through hell, and through forming organizations and making commitments to living as the free creatures that they knew God created them to be. Let us not design weak services that lose their power as our people exit our sanctuaries at 12:01 a.m.; instead, we must design services that will allow commitments to total freedom to linger long into the difficult days ahead.

Setting a Mood of Hopefulness and Resolve

• As persons enter your service, make sure that there is music playing, and perhaps a video if possible, that speaks to our people being “overcomers.” You know the issues that are currently affecting your congregation. Choose music and videos accordingly.
  
  
• Throughout the worship service, have persons who are participating in it give testimonies of overcoming.
  
  
• Include all age groups and the disabled in your Watch Night services.
  
  
• If your pastor and church agree, this night would be a good night to announce a major church initiative such as an employment bank, a food bank, a rent or mortgage assistance program, a home-work tutoring program, a college tuition assistance program, a program to assist seniors in purchasing medicine, or a program to assist those who are newly released from jail or prison. Remember, you can always do programs in collaboration with other churches and/or social service agencies in your community. Begin planning early to make this initiative a reality. Even if you do not have all the details thoroughly worked out before Watch Night, make the commitment and the announcement anyway and be BIG and BOLD about it. Print the information in the order of worship. Have announcement cards and even a prayer to bless the initiative, and announce it on the Facebook page of all the members of your church and ask them to tweet about it.

1. Litany

Watch Night

2. Hymns and Congregational Songs
(a) O For a Faith That Will Not Shrink. By William H. Bathurst. Arr. by Nathan Carter. Tune, (MONOAH).

(b) Standing on the Promises. Text and Tune, (PROMISES), by E. Kelso Carter

(c) I Know Who Holds Tomorrow. Text and Tune, (TOMORROW), by Ira Stamphill

3. Spirituals or Traditional Songs
(a) Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around. Arr. by Lena I. McLin

(b) Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning. Arr. by Andrae Thomas

(c) Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen. Spiritual

(d) There’s a Bright Side Somewhere. By Margaret Jenkins

4. Songs for Praise Teams
(a) Watch Ye Therefore. By Wanda Nero Butler

(b) Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand. Text and Tune, (UNCHANGING HAND), by Jennie Wilson

(c) When I Rose This Morning. Traditional

5. Modern Songs
(a) There’s a King in You. By Donald Lawrence See Video

(b) Broken but I’m Healed. By Byron Cage

(c) He’s Preparing Me. By Darryl Coley

(d) I’ve Seen Him Work. By Virgil Straford and Benita Washington

6. Liturgical Dance and Mime Ministry Music
(a) Dance, Dance, Dance. By Sharon Queen Campbell, Marva Green, and Virgil Straford

(b) Dream. By Patricia Cathcart Andress

(c) Stand. By Donnie McClurkin

7. Offertory Song or Instrumental
(a) I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired. By Curtis Burrell

(b) For Every Mountain. By Kurt Carr

(c) Grateful. By Percy Brady

8. Song or Instrumental for the Period of Prayer
(a) Things Will Be Better Next Year. By Eddie A. Robinson

(b) Surely the Presence of the Lord Is in This Place. By Lanny Wolfe

(c) Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah (Bread of Heaven). Traditional

(d) I Repent. By S. Green, P. Nash, and D. Noel

9. Sermonic Selection
(a) I Need Thee Every Hour. By Annie Hawkes. Tune by Robert Lowry

(b) In the Waiting. By Dave Clark, Don Koch, and Greg Long

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

10. Invitational Song or Instrumental
(a) Yesterday, Today, Forever. By Albert B. Simpson and J.H. Burke

(b) Power of a Dream. By Wintley Phipps

(c) It’s Time to Make a Change. By Jay Terrell and Maurice Watson

11. Benediction Song
(a) We Shall Overcome. Traditional. Tune, (WE SHALL OVERCOME).

(b) God Be with You ‘Til We Meet Again. By Jeremiah E. Rankin and William Tomer

(c) Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand. By Jennie Wilson; refrain by F.I. Eiland

12. Other Recommendations
At some point during your service use the Lectionary Year One Watch Night worship video, which is downloadable. This will remind your congregation that we have faced hardships before and overcome. Go the Lectionary archive and type in the words Watch Night.

Cites and Additional Information for Music and Material Listed

1. Litany – “Watch Night” by Karen Hurst, Philadelphia, PA. Used with permission.