Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Elder Class of 2011 Farewell Song (with footnotes)

Monday evening was the last session meeting for the elder class of 2011 at our church. As Clerk, it was my duty to organize the traditional class farewell, so with the help of our brilliant organist, Kathryn White, I composed a farewell song for the class set to the tune of one of my favorite hymns, "For All the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest." 

I'm sharing the song with all my Gentle Readers, complete with footnotes that explain the insider references. Picture twenty elders singing it and on the refrain, randomly wandering around the front of the room!

For All The Elders

This class of elders now our labors rest.
Relief and joy, we must now confess.
We hand off our duties, hope we've done our best!
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.*

Three years ago when we were all installed
To serve the church, each one of us was called.
With energy and hope we were enthralled.
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.

Dollar for Dollar* kept us on our toes,
Its counting brought us many highs and lows.
But to the challenge everyone arose!
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.

In twenty ten--well, now what can we say?
Big changes were adopted by GA,
P-C-U-S-A is now in disarray.
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.

In these three years, we've seen exciting change.
Fuente* to Next Gen Minister* they range.
We even survived the crazy stock exchange!
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.

The Fellowship brought us a great surprise!
Our Dave became a "dwarf" before our eyes.*
Who knew anyone could cut him down to size?*
In decent order, we sing our farewell song.

And to our fellow elders now we bring,
Our prayers and blessings as an offering.
In decent order, let us together sing
Al-le-lu-ia, Al-le-lu-ia!
Al-le-lu-ia, Al-le-lu-ia!
________________________________________________

* We Presbyterians like to do things "decently and in order."

* Dollar for Dollar is one of the founding principles of MDPC. For every dollar we spend on operating expenses, we contribute a dollar to partners in mission outside of the church. Last year that meant over $5 million was spent in mission.

* Fuente is our Hispanic ministry. There are now about 120 people attending our Spanish language service.

* Next Gen Minister heads up our Next Generation Ministry to twenty and thirty-somethings. It's growing fast!

* Dave Peterson, our Senior Pastor, is one of the organizers of The Fellowship. The group is called "the 7 dwarfs".

* Dave is VERY tall.

5 comments:

Mac said...

How large is your session? If twenty are departing, it must be the size of some state legislatures.

Love the song.

PS Word verification is "depart". Wow.

Jody Harrington said...

"depart"???? Hmmm.

No comment.

We have about 45 elders: the result of eliminating the diaconate and rolling the deacons into the session in the past. We do have about 4300 members. It IS Texas after all!

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Goodluck to your future endeavors Elders.

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That's an incredible farewell song. You write so well.