Choral Music | A Mission to Compel
Choral Music Highlights
I’ve decided to revisit several of my popular mission songs with what I call, “choral music highlights.” So, let’s begin with this sacred choir arrangement for choir and piano. Presented in an easy to listen and follow format. I believe this will give choir directors a quick way of reviewing music for their choir without spend their music budget on choral clubs.
As we all know, music particularly written for missions, is hard to find. We need music that reminds us of the importance of reaching souls, for Christ. This song is a great choice for a mission’s conference theme or missions emphasis service.
Background:
For this song I was requested to write a chorus for our upcoming mission’s conference. The text I was given was from Luke 14:23, “And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”
It’s helpful, before attempting to write a song based upon a passage of scripture, to study the text. In this case we new the direction we wanted to go with our people was centered around the word “compel.”
There are several passages of in the Bible that use the word compel. So, what does that word mean? Well I found that the word literally means to drive, constrain or even force someone to do something. Yet I knew that wasn’t the case here. I remembered the words of a my first pastor, Ron Blackburn, who said;
The Lord is a gentlemen who would not face Himself upon you.
Here is a perfect example. The word compel does not mean forcefully bring people against their will. Rather, it refers to strongly urging and persuading them to accept the invitation. That’s when I knew we had our theme, “A Mission to Compel.” Throughout our meetings we sang theses words;
“A mission to compel ’til all have heard. Boldly go, proclaim the Word. Tell to sinners far and wide how on the cross the Savior died. The story of His love, an echo of His grace resound to all. A mission to compel.”
Our missions conference was a blessing and our people left a renewed desire to support missions both here at home and abroad.
This is a SATB version of “A Mission to Compel” arranged by Brent Karding. A downloadable sheet music version is available. If you would like to order copies go here.
Let me know if you like this form of viewing our music. I would love to get your feedback!