C. Michael Pilato's Blog

Number Our Days

My family recently had the pleasure of taking a vacation to the beach with some dear friends.  It was especially meaningful because these days, with both our sons working and doing the college thing, it can be hard to get us all in to the same place for 30 minutes, much more so for several days.  I'm grateful for every such opportunity we have.

Because our trip spanned a Sunday, we did as we've done for years in such situations and planned to have our own Sunday worship session.  Usually one of us Dads will prepare and share a devotion, and we spend a little time in prayer and musical worship.  This time around, I volunteered the lead the devotion, and set about praying and considering what might be of particular relevance to our families in this season.  And "this season" is more than just another milestone along the course of our collecting aging this year.  We've recently endured quite a bit of heaviness between our families, include the death of a mother/grandmother and the wildly destructive Hurricane Helene (which is what brought us to the beach in the first place, since the mountain vacation we'd already planned became a non-option).

It's a bit challenging to convey all the things that went into my consideration of a text to focus on, but there were several key things.  It started, of course, with the weight and near reminder of how close death can be.  But beyond that, I'd had recent conversations about how the more melancholy worship songs (some of which are musically lovely!) always feel out of place on a Sunday morning.  The book of Psalms has such songs, so they are completely relevant for worship.  And then I recalled that the church has had for many years a mechanism for touching on all the various valid emotions of the Christian life:  cyclic, planned liturgies.  On a whim, I looked up the Anglican liturgical calendar to see what readings were scheduled for our Sunday away.  Almost unsurprisingly, they were all readings focused on sorrow.

Two other things happened while at the beach that narrowed my search into a decision.  While walking in a beach souvenir shop, the overhead radio program (featuring John Tesh) was musing about midlife crises.  I was only half paying attention, but I heard him saying something about age 40 being the halfway point of the average lifespan.  The following day, I took a solo side quest up to Southport, where I spent some time poking around an interesting cemetery.  In a fun plot twist, I later went off to find a geocache that led me around town picking up clues, and the final destination turned out to be none other than that same cemetery.  There I noted the ages on many of the headstones — people dying at age 60. 40. 21. 18. 7. 1. Even a mere 3 months old.  My thoughts kept returning to just how fleeting life is for us.  And that was all I needed to secure a text for our Sunday morning devotion.  Without yet knowing where the study would lead, I chose Psalm 90.

I won't attempt to recount the whole devotion here, but as I studied the text over the next half-day, I couldn't avoid seeing phrases and themes that reminded me of the Genesis accounts of Creation and the Fall.  Themes of toiling, day after day; literary hints such as the morning and evening cycle; an eventual return to dust — all point to Genesis 1-3.  A Psalm that at first read might appear to picture an arbitrarily wrath-filled God is reminding us that because of the first sin, the earth and its inhabitants are under a curse.  God hates sin.  It was sin that introduced death into Creation in the first place.  And the Psalm (with a bit more authority than Mr. Tesh) reminds us that life is roughly 70 years long — 80 if you're lucky.

After reading and commenting a bit on the Psalm that Sunday morning, I employed an unconventional analogy in order to help our families consider what "80 years" looks like.  If life is a pizza with eight slices, our family members' ages fell pretty neatly into clean "slice counts".  My daughter is 10 — one of her slices is already gone.  The older boys' ages hover around 20 — two slices gone.  Jason and Cassandra (the parents in the other family) have consumed half of their pizza.  And Amy and I are down to just three slices left.  This is a sobering thought, and is surely why the Psalm's final section asks of God, "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom."

Father in Heaven, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.  Have pity on us.  Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.  Amen.

Ten Commandments of Dating

Some years ago, as my sons were approaching the age at which words like "girlfriend" and "dating" were being used more often, I began thinking through what a biblical framework for dating might look like. This is not the most obvious enterprise because the Bible was written to a culture wildly different than our modern western society, with patterns and norms for establishing relationships of this sort that look nothing like those we experience today. Still, I was convinced that the Bible carried principles that reflect the character of God and His intention for all people across all of time, so I turned to what I felt was the most obvious place – the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments are of course pretty widely known, and are both respected and recognized for what they are: brief summary statements that encapsulate many deep layers of thought and consideration.  From these ten basic commandments would flow another 600+ more detailed laws given to the Israelites through Moses, which would then give way to countless codified interpretations and applications over the years as the nuance and complexity of society would give rise to such a need.

What follows here is my attempt to apply the basic principles of the Ten Commandment to the realm of pre-marital romance.  The document carries a heavy Christian slant (for which I make absolutely no apology) and is written from a first-person perspective, as if each party in the relationship was speaking his or her commitment to these principles to the other party.

The Ten Commandments of Dating

1. I am the Lord thy God; You shall not have any gods before me.

I will honor the Lord my God in all aspects of my relationship with you and our respective families.  My worship belongs to God alone.

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything.

I will not permit you or the relationship we have to become an idol.  I will strive to point you towards Christ in our relationship, not allowing you to occupy the place in my mind and affections which is reserved only for the Lord.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.

I will bear the name of Christ with honor and integrity, and will represent Him and His holy name well in all aspects of our relationship.  I will strive to make our relationship a model of such relationships, praying that through our example other unmarried couples will come to understand both the importance of a relationship with Christ and the value of His perfect plan for human relationships.

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

I will not allow our relationship to interfere with my assembly with the Lord's people, in the Lord's house, on the Lord's day, for the Lord's glory.  Moreover, I will consciously work to encourage regular sabbath – periods of peaceful rest – in our relationship, for its health and for devoted seasons of faithful attention to God alone.

5. Honor your father and your mother.

I will honor and obey my parents and yours – as well as other authority figures God has placed into our lives – in all aspects of our relationship.  My relationship with you will carry a biblical priority, which means that I will not allow it to negatively affect my relationship with, and responsibilities to, my own family.

6. You shall not murder.

I will do nothing to hurt you physically, emotionally, socially, or spiritually. Rather, I will treat you with dignity and respect as a sibling in Christ.  As a fellow image-bearer of God, an attack on you is an attack on His image, and is therefore unconscionable.  Moreover, there are no term limits on this – should our romantic relationship dissolve, I will continue to treat you in this fashion.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

I believe that marriage is God’s gift to humans and a means of grace by which we get to experience a relationship with our spouse that reflects Christ’s relationship with His Church.  Therefore, I will honor God's perfect plan for human sexuality, keeping myself pure in thought and deed, and striving to present my future spouse – whether that be you or someone else – the spotless gift of myself in that God-ordained union.

8. You shall not steal.

I will not take from you anything that isn't both mine to take and yours to give.  This includes, but is not limited to, sexual purity, time, attention, and affection.

9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

I will act with honesty and integrity in all aspects of our relationship, encouraging others to see you and I clearly for who we are:  children of the most high God, and bearers of His holy image.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, wife, or property.

I will put aside foolish jealousy, encouraging and facilitating your healthy friendship with others regardless of their gender.  You are not mine; I am not yours.  We both belong to God, and His righteous jealousy burns over our relationship with Him alone.

Hammock Camping With Aidan

This past weekend, I was able to bring to completion some plans long held.  Looooong held.

With this being the first weekend after the completion of the Spring soccer season, I found on my hands a rare substance — free time.  Saturday morning I woke early, grabbed my hiking pack, and headed out to the Uwharrie National Forest.  I picked a trailhead that I'd visited once before (for just long enough to eat a granola bar and before making the return hike) but had never started at.  From the Tot Hill Farm Trailhead, I marched south on the Birkhead Mountain Trail toward Hannah's Creek.  But I made a last-minute decision to veer off and take a loop side-trail which was marked only as "Camp 3".  I'd not hiked this segment before.

It was a pleasant hike on a clearly less-traveled trail, but the most interesting bit for me was actually finding the camp site(s, plural, as there were two).  One particular site stood out immediately as the perfect spot for a hammock camping stay.  It featured a nice-sized clearing with an established fire pit just yards away from a natural creek (water means fire safety!) and with several mature trees perfectly spaced for at least six hammocks.  I popped up my own hammock and enjoyed the breezy day for a while before continuing my hike.  When it was all told, I'd hiked over 7 miles and felt like I'd found the hammock camping spot for which I'd been searching since Fall 2021.

And that's (at least in part) what I mean by "plans long held".  Nine months ago, my son Aidan and I started talking about camping somewhere with hammocks.  We bought the gear we needed and started scoping out locations.  But life got super busy with Fall soccer.  Then life got super chilly with Winter.  Then Spring soccer, and now AJ has his first job, and the world is rushing to fill everyone's time as an over-response to a slow pandemic year, and....  So the story of over-committed lives seems to go.  We had the gear and the inclination, but no time.

After Saturday's hike, I came home with a renewed sense of possibility.  Sunday was Father's Day, and I had intended to drive out to Denver, NC to hang out with my own dad after church.  But my girls both tested positive for COVID-19, which meant that it wasn't such a good idea to interact in person with my parents.  I enjoyed a 3-mile light local hike immediately after church with a friend.  But the timing seemed right (my company gave me Monday off in recognition of the Juneteenth holiday) and the weather was great, so I asked Aidan if he'd be okay with trying the hammock camping thing that evening.  And to my surprise, he was all in.

We packed up our gear and by 6pm were parked at the Tot Hill Farm Trailhead.  We repeated the hike I'd made the day prior, except we went clockwise around the camp loop instead of counter-clockwise.  By 7:15pm we'd reached the site (which I was thrilled to find empty) and started setting up camp — hanging the hammocks, gathering firewood, etc.  To my wonder, my fire started effortlessly, and as darkness started to close around us we sat by the fire and talked about a variety of things.  One feature of the site I'd noticed the previous day was that there was zero cellphone signal availability.  So in an age where we are constantly interrupted by technology, we found ourselves truly alone together.

It was about 10:30pm when we doused our fire and climbed into our hammocks.  We learned first-hand how challenging it is to wrestle with sleeping bags when trying to sleep on a curved surface.  (There's probably some trick to it; we just didn't know it!)  We learned how exposed one can feel sleeping in a hammock versus inside a tent — how you can hear absolutely everything yet see almost nothing.  We were super grateful for the built-in bug nets our hammocks offered.  We were amazed at how incredibly bright fireflies appear in the dark woods.  And eventually, we drifted off to sleep despite being hyper-aware and over-stimulated.

We woke early (as tends to happen outdoors), having each stirred multiple times through the night to adjust a sleeping bag or shift positions.  The sun had not yet lighted on our location when we climbed out of our packs, munched on Pop-Tarts and reflected on the evening.  But as we started packing things up again, the daylight intensified and aided visibility.  We hit the trail again around 6:30am, and arrived back at the trailhead around 8am, having successfully completed the mission we'd set for ourselves some nine months prior.

Long held plans.  But longer still for me.  This weekend brought parity that I needed to assuage a bit of parenting guilt.  You see, I'd taken AJ's older brother camping at Pilot Mountain a decade prior, and ever since that time it had bothered me that I wasn't able to offer the same one-on-one experience with Aidan.  This year — on Father's Day even — the combination of a lovely day, available time, a global pandemic, and an adventurous son resulted in some personal achievement, imbalances balanced, and valuable memories made.

"Gracious and Holy"

Over the past month, the Student Pastor at our church (and a dear friend) Evan Smith has been filling the pulpit on Sunday mornings as our senior pastor enjoys some much-deserved vacation time. (You might have noticed, but 2020 was a rather hard year for folks, and perhaps especially pastors.) Evan chose to deliver a cohesive, four-part sermon series, and settled a couple of months ago on the theme of God's presence. Over the four weeks, he planned to illuminate the thread of God's desire to dwell with His people that runs through the whole of Scripture: from Eden (where God walked with Adam and Eve), through the Exodus (where God "tabernacled" with the Israelites), to the Embodiment (or Incarnation, where Jesus — the Word who both was with God and was God — became flesh and dwelt among us), and into the promise of Eternity (where the people of God will enjoy the immediate presence of God forever). And if you were paying close attention, you noticed that those four waypoints were alliterative — such a good Baptist pastor! But between the lines of this story runs the equally deep and powerful truth of God's nature as both perfectly holy — such that imperfection in His presence runs the risk of eradication — and immensely gracious.

These were some of the many thoughts swimming around in my head on July 4, 2021. I was hiking alone the Robbins Branch Loop Trail in the Uwharrie National Forest, and trying to enjoy a calmness of mind. Irritatingly, though, my brain just seemed frantic — jumping from thought to thought across all the various roles I play (husband, parent, employee, worship leader, etc.). At one point, I actually yelled aloud in the forest in frustration, "Why is it so noisy in here?!" And then a strange thing happened. In what seemed like no time at all, the melody and opening words of the chorus of a new song were in my head, coalescing around the themes of Evan's sermon series. I spent the next several hours (and about 8 miles of hiking) developing the skeleton of the song. I was super-grateful to be alone in the woods, not least because it's really embarrassing to be tripping over tree roots whenever I turned my attention to my phone's voice recorder app or tried to type into it some lyric ideas!

Once home, I spent the next week or so putting meat on the song skeleton. Friends I shared the concept with seemed more supportive of this song than usual, so it felt like effort well-invested. And this past Sunday, Amy and I — along with other members of our church's worship team — shared the song with our church family. God be praised for using such an unworthy vessel to encourage His Church in song. Gracious and holy He truly is.

"Gracious and Holy" You made the Earth and the heavens.Spoke words to form them and fill them.So all that we have is by Your hand.Gracious and holy You are.You gave us freedom and purpose.We chose rebellion and curses.But hope lingered under the surface.Gracious and holy You are.Gracious and holy You are.You are here, always with me,Nearer than sacred to naked should be.You speak promises over my shame.I know that I'll never be the same.You came to dwell with Your people;Strengthen the downcast and feeble;And rescue us from every evil.Gracious and holy You are.Humbly you gave Your life for us.Hope is reversing our curses,Restoring our freedom and purpose.Gracious and holy You are.Gracious and holy You are.You are here, always with me.Nearer than righteous to wretched should be.You speak promises over my shame.I know that I'll never be the same.Now you are seated in Heaven,So, by the Spirit You've given,We will proclaim, "Christ is risen!"Gracious and holy You are.Gracious and holy You are.You are here, always with me,Nearer forever than failure could be.You poured righteousness over my shame.Called me Your child and then gave me Your name.You are here, always with me,Nearer forever than failure could be.You poured righteousness over my shame.I know that I'll never be the same.I know that I'll never be the same.©2021 C. Michael Pilato; License: CC-BY-3.0

Here also is a demo recording that I made as a reference for our worship team (with many thanks to my son Aidan for lending his percussive skills):

C. Michael Pilato · Pilato - Gracious And Holy (demo)

Finally, you can get lead sheets (including the source MuseScore file) for the song from my GitHub repository.

My custom Planning Center Services plan report. You're welcome.

To all my fellow Planning Center Services jockeys out there, I thought I'd share with you a custom Plan report that I created (using one of the built-in reports as a baseline, mind you) and have been using for years now. Now, before you assume that all I've done here is fiddle with colors and fonts and page layout, hear me out. There are some features of this template that I want you to know about.

First—and the primary reason that I love this template so much—is that it handles Plan and Item Note categories dynamically. Unlike the built-in templates, this report template doesn't have to be modified just because you use different Notes categories than the default Planning Center ones. In fact, it doesn't care what specific Notes categories you have at all. Rather, it examines the Plan and its Items and dynamically determines which Note types are actually employed. This means two things: that it doesn't waste any page/screen real estate on unused Note categories, and you can use the same template for entirely different Service Types with entirely different categories defined!

The second, admittedly minor, thing that I like about this template is that it adds a column for icons that appear next to certain Item types. So Songs show up with a music notes icon (♫) next to them; Media items show a "play" triangle (⏵). It's a little thing, but it draws the eye to certain Item types quickly.

Finally, the template itself allows some quick customization of the features it employs via a collection of boolean variables at the top.  This allows you to use the same basic template for multiple custom Reports, but with little easy tweaks to goven the feature set for each one.  So, for example, I have a Report that shows everything that I distribute to my A/V operators and band members.  But I have another one using this same template that I use for our Ushers and Greeters where the variables show_plan_people, show_plan_notes, and show_item_notes have been set to false.

So, without further ado, my template. Please feel free to copy, use, and modify this thing to better suit your church's needs!

<!--QUICK CUSTOMIZATION:{% assign show_plan_notes = true %}{% assign show_plan_people = true %}{% assign show_item_times = true %}{% assign show_item_length = true %}{% assign show_item_description = true %}{% assign show_item_notes = true %}--><html><head><title>{{ plan.ministry.name }}:: {{ plan.dates }}</title><link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?fam..." rel="stylesheet"><style>body { padding: 0; margin: 5px; color: #222; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;}h1 { font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: normal; text-shadow: 0 -1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9);}h2 { font-size: 1.1em; font-weight: normal; padding: 20px 35px; margin: 0; line-height: 1em; text-shadow: 0 1px 0 white;}h3 { font-size: 0.9em; text-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);}pre { margin: 0; padding: 0; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: .9em;}table#plan { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom: 15px; font-size: 10pt;}table#plan tr { border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd;}table#plan thead { display: table-header-group;}table#plan th { color: white; background: #444; font-weight: bold; padding: 0.5em 1em; vertical-align: middle;}table#plan td { text-align: center; padding: 0.5em 1em;}table#plan .icon { padding: 0;}table#plan .preservice .time, table#plan .preservice .length { color: #aaa;}table#plan .time { width: 3em; text-align: center;}table#plan .length { width: 3em; text-align: center;}table#plan .note_column { text-align: left; background: #f8f8f8; border-left: 2px solid white;}table#plan .header { text-align: left; font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #ddd;}table#plan .note { font-weight: bold; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle; min-width: 1in;}table#plan .element { min-width: 3in; text-align: left;}table#plan .element .description { font-size: 0.86em; color: #444; font-style: italic;}table#header { width: 100%; border: none; padding: 0; border-collapse: collapse;}table#header td { padding: 2px; vertical-align: top;}.artwork { float: left; margin-right: 15px; height: 40px;}.note_content { background: yellow; padding: 4px 8px 0; border-radius: 0.3em;}#header { padding: 5px 20px; background: #000; color: white; line-height: .8em; margin: 0;}#header img { float: right; height: 60px; margin-right: -15px;}#titles { color: #333; font-size: 1.1em; font-weight: normal; padding: 10px 20px; margin: 0; line-height: 1.1em; text-shadow: 0 1px 0 white; min-height: 45px;}#plan_title { font-style: normal; font-size: 0.8em; display: block; color: #666; margin: 4px 0 0 0;}#plan_notes, #plan_people { background: #f8f8f8; margin: 1em 0; border-left: 4px solid black; padding: 0.5em 0 1em 2em;}#plan_notes { font-size: 0.8em; background: #ffffd0;}#plan_notes .plan_note { margin-top: 1em;}#plan_notes .plan_note_category { font-weight: bold;}#plan_people { font-size: 0.9em;}#plan_people .person { font-size: 0.7em; margin-right: 15px; display: inline-block;}#plan_people .person_status_U { opacity: 0.5;}#plan_people .person_category { clear: both; padding-top: 1em;}#plan_people .person_category p { font-size: 0.8em; margin: 0;}#plan_people .person_position { font-style: italic;}#plan_people .position { font-weight: bold;}</style></head><body><!-- If showing item notes, first build a list of item note categories in use. -->{% if show_item_notes %}{% assign used_item_note_categories = '' | split: '' %}{% for item in plan.items %} {% for note in item.notes %} {% assign category = note.category.name | split: '|' %} {% assign used_item_note_categories = used_item_note_categories | concat: category %} {% endfor %}{% endfor %}{% assign used_item_note_categories = used_item_note_categories | uniq | sort %}{% endif %}<div id="header"> <h1>{{ plan.ministry.name }} - {{ plan.dates }}</h1></div><div id="titles"> <img class="artwork" onerror="this.style.display='none'" src="https://cmpilato.blogspot.com/2021/03...{{ plan.series_artwork_url }}" /> <div id="series_title">{{ plan.series_title }}</div> <div id="plan_title">{{ plan.plan_title }}</div> </div><!-- If showing plan notes, first build a list of plan note categories in use, then iterate. -->{% if show_plan_notes %}{% assign used_plan_note_categories = '' | split: '' %}{% for note in plan.notes %} {% assign category = note.category.name | split: '|' %} {% assign used_plan_note_categories = used_plan_note_categories | concat: category %}{% endfor %}{% assign used_plan_note_categories = used_plan_note_categories | uniq | sort %}{% unless used_plan_note_categories == empty %}<div id="plan_notes">{% for plan_note_category in used_plan_note_categories %} <div class="plan_note"> <div class="plan_note_category">{{plan_note_category}}</div> {% for note in plan.notes %} {% if note.category_name == plan_note_category %} <div>{{note.note}}</div> {% endif %} {% endfor %} </div>{% endfor %}</div>{% endunless %}{% endif %} <table id="plan"><thead><tr> {% if show_item_times %} {% for time in plan.plan_times %} <th class="time">@{{ time.starts_at | date: '%I:%M' }}</th> <!-- {% increment colspan %} --> {% endfor %} {% endif %} <th class="icon"></th> <!-- {% increment colspan %} --> <th align="left">Element</th> <!-- {% increment colspan %} --> {% if show_item_notes %} {% for category in used_item_note_categories %} <th class="note">{{ category }}</th> <!-- {% increment colspan %} --> {% endfor %} {% endif %} {% if show_item_length %} <th class="length">Length</th> <!-- {% increment colspan %} --> {% endif %}</tr></thead> <tbody> {% for item in plan.items %} {% case item.item_type %} {% when 'Header' %} <!-- Header rows --> <tr> <td colspan="{{ colspan }}" class="header">{{ item.title }}</td> </tr> {% else %} <!-- Non-header rows --> {% assign item_class = ''%} {% if item.is_preservice or item.is_postservice %} {% assign item_class = 'preservice ' %} {% endif %} <tr class="{{ item_class }}"> {% if show_item_times %} {% for time in plan.plan_times %} <td class="time item {{ item_class }} {{ item.item_type }}"> {% for item_time in item.times %} {% if item_time.time_id == time.id %} {{ item_time.actual_time | date: '%I:%M' | downcase }} {% endif %} {% endfor %} </td> {% endfor %} {% endif %} <td class="item icon"> {% if item.item_type == "Song" %}&#9835;{% endif %} {% if item.item_type == "Media" %}&#9205;{% endif %} </td> <td class="item element {{ item_class }} {{ item.item_type }}"> {{ item.title }}{% if item.song %} [{{ item.arrangement.music_key }}]{% endif %} {% if show_item_description %}<div class="description">{{ item.description }}</div>{% endif %} </td> {% if show_item_notes %} {% for category in used_item_note_categories %} <td class="item note note_column {{ item_class }} {{ item.item_type }}"> {% for note in item.notes %} {% if note.category_name == category %} {{ note.note }} {% endif %} {% endfor %} </td> {% endfor %} {% endif %} {% if show_item_length %} <td class="item length {{ item_class }} {{ item.item_type }}">{{ item.length }}</td> {% endif %} </tr> {% endcase %} {% endfor %}</tbody></table>{% if show_plan_people %}<!-- If showing plan people, first build a list of person categories in use, then iterate. -->{% assign used_person_categories = '' | split: '' %}{% for plan_person in plan.plan_people_not_declined %} {% assign category = plan_person.category.name | split: '|' %} {% assign used_person_categories = used_person_categories | concat: category %}{% endfor %}{% assign used_person_categories = used_person_categories | uniq | sort %}{% unless used_person_categories == empty %} <div id="plan_people">{% for plan_person_category in used_person_categories %}<div class="person_category"> <p><strong>{{ plan_person_category }}</strong></p> {% for plan_person in plan.plan_people_not_declined %} {% if plan_person.person.name != null %}{% if plan_person.category.name == plan_person_category %} <div class="person person_status_{{ plan_person.status }}"> &bull; <span class="person_name">{{ plan_person.person.name }}</span> <span class="person_position">({{ plan_person.position }})</span> </div> {% endif %}{% endif %} {% endfor %}</div>{% endfor %}</div>{% endunless %}{% endif %}</body></html>

As of a few minutes ago, I've submitted this report template back to the fine folks that develop Planning Center Services so that they may consider integrating its enhancements into the core product itself.

"O For a Thousand Tongues"

Way back in January 2016, I was working to create a modernized arrangement of the Public Domain hymn, "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" by Charles Wesley.  I'd hope to preserve the original melody and lyrics, and maybe just add a bridge or something.  I ended up adding a sort of bridge for each stanza.  Unfortunately, while I was really happy with my additions, they never really paired well with the feel of the original hymn.  So I shelved the idea, revisiting it from time to time over the years in further failed attempts to shoehorn together two incompatible ideas.

On June 30, 2020, however, I gave up trying to make fit what never would, and instead restructured the whole song around my additions.  I heavily edited the original hymn lyric and melody while still trying to preserve the essence of what it said.  After all, to wish that one had a thousand tongues to sing God's praise all the louder is a beautiful sentiment!  So that, as well as the general message of the hymn's stanzas, remain the core of what is now essentially a brand new song.

As I intend to share the song with my local church, I needed to whip up a demo of it.  Last night I spent about an hour tracking acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and bass guitar.  After my son Aidan finished watching a movie with his friends, I asked him to come upstairs and lay down a drum track.  Then this morning, I was able to get my wife Amy in front of a microphone to track the lead vocals, with me laying down some harmonies immediately thereafter.

The result of those three-and-a-half hours of recording and mixing are available on my SoundCloud page:

C. Michael Pilato · O For a Thousand Tongues (demo)

I've licensed the song under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  And as part of my commitment to reducing barriers to adoption for music truly written for the church (rather than for a paycheck), I've posted the sheet music for the song to my GitHub repository.

And here are the lyrics for the song:

O For a Thousand TonguesAll-gracious Master, glorious God,Give me the words to proclaim.Spread thru the whole earth, here and abroad,The honor of Your holy name.Father, You give me the choice,But Your grace compels me to lift up my voice.If I was mute, I'd still make joyful noise to Thee.O, for a thousand tongues to sing!Jesus, your name calms the deepest of fears.You bid every sorrow to cease.Your mercy is music in this sinner's ears—Your love is the source of my peace.Savior, You knew all alongThat you'd trade perfection for all I'd do wrong.Lord, may my life make a beautiful song to Thee.O, for a thousand tongues to sing!O, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise!Sing of the glories of my King; the triumph of His grace!Jesus you've broken the power of sin.Your blood sets the prisoners free.Dying you saved us, then rising againAccomplished supreme victory!O, for a thousand tongues to sing our great Redeemer's praise!Sing of the glories of our King; the triumph of His grace!Your church in heav'n and earth below, this sacrifice we bring!O, for a thousand tongues to sing.O, for a thousand tongues to sing.O, for a thousand tongues to sing.Spirit of God, fill this place.Write on our hearts songs of mercy and grace.Oh, God, we're desperate to give every praise to Thee.O, for a thousand tongues to sing!O, for a thousand tongues to sing!O, for a thousand tongues to sing!

Ambassadors for Christ?

Ugh. Today, besides feeling physically subpar (hello, tick bite!), I feel spiritually defiled. In a moment of weakness and morbid curiosity, I made the mistake of reading some of the Facebook feeds of a handful of people in my church. I think we might have a problem.

The Word of God tells Christians that they are citizens of a new kind of Kingdom. This Kingdom is not one with physical, geographical boundaries, a two-party political system, checks and balances, and a (merely) 200-year-old governing document. It's God's Kingdom, existing outside the physical Universe and governed by God Himself:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. [Phillippians 3:20-21 ESV]

One cool thing is that when we become citizens of that Kingdom, God leaves us in place, planted in the physical realm to serve His purposes. Our job? To be His ambassadors:

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [2 Corinthians 5:20 ESV]

But as I read post after hate-filled post on Facebook, it became crystal clear to me that either the Kingdom has fewer citizens than I'd hoped, or those citizens grossly misunderstand their roles as ambassadors. Were I to judge by what I saw (and have heard), I would calculate that "ambassador for Christ" has come to mean "culture warrior". We Christians line up on political, sociological, idealogical, racial, or any other "-al" line we can find, dig in our heels, crane our necks and bend our ears for the sound of the charge!

What if we revisit the idea of ambassador-ship with a new objective: to make—by our every word, thought, and deed—the Kingdom of heaven and the God who governs it so glorious and attractive that its opponents simply emigrate to it. No need for blood shed. No anger. No insults. Just love and faithful representation—ambassadorship—of the King of Kings.

Oreos and Milk Done Right

For far too long, I've held an absolutely essential piece of knowledge—a life skill that every person should have—and I've failed to share it with the world.  Today I repent of that, beg your forgiveness, and offer reparation by sharing with you now this critical information.  Today, I want to tell you the proper way to eat Oreos with milk.

It goes without saying that in order to accomplish this, you'll need Oreos, milk, and a cup or mug to contain the milk.  But lest we assume too much, let me clarify some things.
These instructions assume you can eat an entire Oreo in one mouthful.  If you can't, you're clearly not built for eating Oreos and should probably take up Veggie Straws or something else instead.Don't use a cup or mug that's too small.  You need at least a depth of milk sufficient to completely submerge the cookie.  And you need enough width in your container to do the same.Don't use skim milk.  The higher the fat content of the milk, the better.  I strongly suggest whole milk.  And don't use warm milk.  You want your milk as cold as possible.  If, when you pour your milk, it looks like Elmer's white glue and chills the hand that holds your cup or mug, that's a good sign.Don't use fake Oreos.  Seriously.  I'm all for generic brands of most things, but ... no.Okay, on to the life-changing instructions.

First, grasp an Oreo cookie between your thumb and forefinger, with each making contact on one of the Oreo logos on either side of the cookie.  (If you don't see an Oreo logo, you're using fake Oreos.  And I literally just told you not to do that.)  Put some real pressure on the cookie with your fingers—not enough to crush it, but pretty close to it.  Now, submerge the Oreo completely in the milk while maintaining this pressure.  Yes, your fingers are going to get wet—deal with it.

All this might sound pretty obvious, but as any seasoned Oreo-milk-dunker knows, the trick is figuring out how long to keep the cookie submerged.  And you might be wondering why must we maintain this solid finger pressure on the cookie.  After all, they hardly weigh anything and are unlikely to attempt to escape our grasp on their own.

The answer lies in the sheer importance of getting these two seemingly incompatible foods—one a natural byproduct by which nearly all mammals are initially nursed; the other a completely unnatural, highly processed junk food—to unite properly at or near the molecular level[*].  If your Oreo is in the milk for too short a time, then what was the point?  You're merely eating a damp Oreo.  But to linger for too long will have you watching your disintegrating cookie's disparate parts sinking out of sight into the milky white abyss.

As it turns out, the pressure you're putting on those Oreo logos gives you all the tactile feedback you need to know exactly when to remove the cookie from the milk.  As soon as that logo begins a crush a bit under your firm-but-non-damaging bit of finger pressure, the time is right.  Remove the cookie from the milk, shove it into your awaiting mouth, and rejoice as you've never rejoiced before.

Once again, this is not for those who lack a certain degree of fortitude.  Your thumb and forefinger will get wet with milk.  They will also pick up the debris of the crushed Oreo logos.  You'll have to open your mouth a bit wider than high society might advise.  Sometimes, doing things properly involves some risk-taking.  This is such a time.

Now, there's no need to e-mail me your thanks.  It's my great pleasure to serve my fellow man in this way, sharing the results of my years of experimentation in this field.  My hope is simply that you'll do the same.

Oh!  But I nearly forgot the final step in the instructions:  grab another cookie and repeat!
[*] No real scientists were consulted while authoring this article.

Self-publishing my worship songs

I've talked about it forever, but this past weekend I decided to finally act.  I've setup a GitHub repository to which I intend to commit sheet music for the various Christian worship songs that I compose.  You can visit the project at:

https://github.com/cmpilato/worship-music

I've added the music from my recent "Shepherd of My Soul" composition (which my worship team at Providence introduced to our congregation brilliantly this past weekend, I might add!), plus a few other songs.  I also have placeholders for several other tunes that I'm committing to self-publish here, too.

Those who know me well know that I can be pretty outspoken about copyrights and licensing and such, especially as regards music written (at least ostensibly) "for God" or "for the Church".  This is why every worship song I've written carries a Creative Commons license.  But while it's all well and good to say, "My songs I offer without restrictive licensing," it matters little if there are other barriers to sharing and re-use.  This self-publishing effort is a way for me to remove some more of those barriers.  I genuinely want folks to take and use these songs with minimal impediment if they find them worth taking and using, and I'm willing to put in the extra effort to encourage as much.

My goal is to keep for each song MuseScore files with—at a minimum—lead sheets for the songs, plus MusicXML and PDF exports of the same.  I could, of course, just use PDFs, but that would discourage getting corrections submitted by folks who are far better at musical transcription than I am.  It would also prevent easy transposition of the songs into alternate keys.  At the moment, you can load the score into MuseScore, select the whole score (Control-A), and then use the Notes > Transpose... menu to put the song in whatever key you wish.  It's that simple!  Someday I may also include links to recorded demos of the songs, specific hints for individual instruments, etc.

May God bless this tiny little human's effort to make His praise even more widespread.

"Feel Just Fine"

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable musical recording experiences I've ever been a part of began in June 2009, when friend and former bandmate Christopher Bunn emailed me to say that he had an opportunity to contribute a song for an independent film project to which he had personal connections and wanted to rope me into the process.  Naturally, I was all in!

We started with his demo of a song he'd written called "Feel Just Fine", and then iterated lyrically and musically across the miles (me in North Carolina, he in California, and the Internet in between) for about three months, passing around emailed suggestions and audio files and such.  I held the master recordings (as a Cakewalk Sonar project), and tracked all the instruments plus my own and my wife's background vocals.  Christopher was taking drops of the backing stuff from me, tracking his own lead vocals atop them, and then sending me back the vocal tracks.  All in all, the process ran incredibly smoothly, even for a time when "broadband Internet" wasn't anything like the blazing speeds we enjoy today.  We ended up keeping most of Christopher's original song, but dropped a verse that didn't fit as well thematically with the film and introduced a new bridge section that I wrote.

As I review my email history, it looks like it was December 2009 when we learned that the filmmakers were interested in our song, but it wouldn't be until several years later that we finally got to see the finished film, Rise of the Fellowship , and hear our song playing in full during the credit roll.  Some time after the film itself released, the producers released the film's soundtrack, and now you, too, can hear "Feel Just Fine".

Rise of the Fellowship Original Soundtrack by Rise of the Fellowship

Credits:
Christopher Bunn - original song concept, lead vocals
C. Michael Pilato - arrangement, all instruments, background vocals
Amy Pilato - angelic background vocals

Christopher has his original demo of the song posted online, too.  Check it out at http://christopherbunn.com/my-music/feel-just-fine/.