A Mighty Fortress is Our God

Oct

A Mighty Fortress is Our God

Posted on October 7th, 2009 in Church Life, Faith, Worship Leadership by Fred McKinnon

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Several months ago, my pastor, David Yarborough (blog | twitter) started asking me about this new Christy Nockels song, “A Mighty Fortress”. We have an incredibly talented (and I’d add anointed!) vocalist, musician, worship leader in our church, Ms. Kim Dixon who could cover this song perfectly.

If you haven’t heard this wonderful anthem, check it out on iTunes.
(and yes … the link is an affiliate link. Your purchase of this tune will add somewhere around a nickel to our bank account. My kids say thank you!)

While I was at the National Worship Leader Conference in Kansas City this summer I had the pleasure of hearing Christy lead this song. It was powerful – and I couldn’t help myself, I slipped to the back of the room and dialed Pastor David and said “listen what I’m experiencing LIVE”.

Kim is on the praise team this week and I’ve decided to bring in this song as a special. It’s gorgeous! I’d call it an anthem, and it gets bigger and bigger in the middle with full orchestral parts and some driving electric guitars.

With a bit more planning, I would’ve scored out the string parts and given one of our other keyboardist the job of playing these parts live. With our Tech Director, Travis Paulding (blog | twitter) on vacation and the Yamaha M7CL console already setup (and limited time to arrange) I’m going to attempt a click track and loop today. I hope to add a rhythmic loop, perhaps some percussion and some big string arrangements.

I LOVE STUDIO DAYS.

http://mandythompson.com mandythompson

I saw this in your twitter feed and thought “Please oh please let this be about Christy Nockels.”

Fred, she has some REAL gems in that album. A number of songs that are very fitting for corporate worship. I’m glad you plucked that one up!
http://www.chrisfromcanada.com Chris from Canada

Hey Fred – if you get the click done, will you share? Or sell?
http://www.jasonmdurham.com Jason Durham

Fred, A Might Fortress is our God is an old reformation hymn. I’ve been singing the original for years, and even more recently rewrote it for worship. The lyrics are truly theology on fire!
http://www.betheljanesville.org Barry Westman

Fred, It is a great song!!It’s #7 on Praise Charts User Request Forum, so maybe they’ll come out with an orchestration for those string parts. But, if you get it done first, I’d be interested in it as well.
http://www.ericfrisch.com Eric Frisch

This whole record is solid. That song is great… I’m also a big fan of “You Are Able”.
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http://coolcalvary.com Randy

Yes, great song. I heard it on Worshiptogether.com and started using in our church a few weeks ago. Fred, I just heard the roundtable about “manly worship” at AllAboutWorship.com Very educational. So many great things going on that really benefit those of us out in the rural trenches. Thanks !!
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http://www.journeyofworship.com Chris Gambill

Fred,

Glad to hear you guys are doing this song. I had my wife do it after getting back from the conference. She loved the song, and it was a great moment. My favorite part is coming out of the bridge when the music stops and the vocal rings out before the music crashes back in. Awesome!
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http://travispaulding.com Travis

Sure, its all my fault you can’t do it with two keyboards.

I can’t remember who around the office always complains about us not having songs picked further ahead. Oh wait, it’s ME! Haha. (Yes I know its not your fault.)

Well, regardless, I’m sorry I’ll miss the debut at SSCC this weekend. I’m sure I’ll have more opportunities.