"Stronger than an army is a quotation whose time has come."

I captured this shot yesterday in Valdosta of this famous house.

How well is your congregation utilizing technology to enhance worship?
What are your thoughts?

A return visit to the Central Avenue Church finds them growing and seeking excellence in worship.


We enjoyed a great turn out from worship leaders this afternoon and an inspiring session of four-part singing this evening.

I don't know how much relevance this information has upon deciding who will become the commander in chief of the United States, but here are their ten favorite songs:

Barack Obama's top 10:

1. Fugees - Ready Or Not
2. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
3. Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire
4. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
5. Nina Simone - Sinnerman
6. Kanye West - Touch The Sky
7. Frank Sinatra - You'd Be So Easy To Love
8. Aretha Franklin - Think
9. U2 - City of Blinding Lights
10. will.i.am - Yes We Can

John McCain's top 10:

1. ABBA - Dancing Queen
2. Roy Orbison - Blue Bayou
3. ABBA - Take A Chance On Me
4. Merle Haggard - If We Make It Through December
5. Dooley Wilson - As Time Goes By
6. The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
7. Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World
8. Frank Sinatra - I've Got You Under My Skin
9. Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline
10. The Platters - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Abba made it twice on John McCain's list.
Where's the Acappella representation?

Picking my all-time favorite songs would be really difficult for me.  Can you name even your top THREE all-time favorite songs?

I received a newsletter from John Staiger, the minister for the Morning Side congregation in Auckland, New Zealand.  Here is an excerpt from his message:

"Keith Lancaster’s Singing Workshop/Worship. When receiving an Email from Keith to be with us, I put it to the church (and beyond) and they came back with a resounding ‘YES!’ It was a good day. The man can certainly sing. You can’t help but be impressed at his ability to bring the best out of the congregation. Since I don’t have space to go into the whole story, I will sum up by saying that we were completely satisfied with the workshop and worship service. We are a better church for the experience. Check him out if you haven't already."

We praise God for these positive reports as we make plans to minister to other churches around the world.  We are striving to provide practical training that allows churches to sustain the positive things they learn.  Thank you for your prayers for this ministry of singing and worship.

We enjoyed an evening of spirited singing at White House Sunday night, including some time with their song leaders afterwards.  Yet again, we were able to introduce shaped notes to some people who had never noticed the different shapes nor understood what they represent.

While in Texarkana, we were treated to a tour of this lovely theater, across the street from the Scott Joplin Museum.


The Perot Theater was originally called the Saenger Theater and has hosted a wide range of celebrities.  Cary Grant's final public performance was in this theater.  We saw Tim Conway's autograph on items backstage. 


The acoustics are wonderful in this venue, leading me to think that this would be a great recording site for a future Praise & Harmony album.  The decor is classy and the ambiance is very special.  There's a lot of interesting history in this place.

If there is one thing you'd most like to see changed regarding your Sunday worship assembly, it would be __________ ?

We finally saw the march of the ducks at the famous Peabody hotel of Memphis.
At 11:00 A.M. sharp, the elevator door opens and the ducks march out onto the red carpet.







. . . Up the steps and into the pool.  It's quite a ceremony!

I was snapping shots as quickly as I could set them up.  . .

In the South, we'll fry almost anything.  I caught this sign in Ashdown, Arkansas on Saturday.



By the way, the temperature topped 108 degrees by the afternoon!

The book, Why Men Hate Going To Church has opened many eyes to the growing spiritual disparity between the sexes.  A few days ago, an article appeared in the USA Today, highlighting the statistics which indicate that more women take active roles in churches than do men.  Multiple reasons are given, including the songs we sing (a host of men don't even like to sing.)

Do you feel like some of the songs we sing tilt more toward the feminine perspective than a masculine one?  A song comes to mind - "Arms Of Love."  I'm sure this line would make many men very uncomfortable while singing to Jesus (a male), "Holding me close, holding me near in your arms of love."

On the other hand, it's easy to see how men might prefer "The Battle Belongs To The Lord" or "Onward Christian Soldiers."  Have you ever thought about this topic?  On second consideration, do you think some of our songs and even our approach is geared more for women than men?  If there is truth in this notion, we must reconsider some of our approaches so we don't lose the powerful influence of men on their families.  Your thoughts?

Another mountain top experience in Ashdown, Arkansas encouraged everyone who attended.  Talk about a full day!  We started at 9:30 A.M. and finished up around 8:00 P.M. tonight.  It seemed that people were still not ready to leave.  The singing was fabulous, the studies and discussions were encouraging and the fellowship was precious. . . just a foretaste of glory divine.

Yesterday afternoon, as the temperature topped 102 degrees, I hopped out of the truck and stood in the middle of the road, effectively straddling Texas and Arkansas.  Here's my view of the Texarkana Post Office:

We had just finished the first invitation song when Arnelious Crenshaw Jr. broadened the invitation and asked me to lead "Just A Little Talk."


Forrest Doddington captured this fun moment at the Spiritual Growth Workshop last week.

Back in May, we experienced New Zealand for the very first time.  I believe that God focused a little extra attention on New Zealand during His creation.  As we drove toward the mountains, it seemed that everywhere was a scenic view.

People find it unusual how I go about singing spontaneously on a daily basis.  Victor Knowles doesn't.  Check out this article from a wonderful man.