The Living Water Composition Project
Living Water is the choir which I directed, first at Valley Church (Cupertino, California), and later First Presbyterian Church (Mountain View, California). When we used big words, we called ourselves a “multigenerational, non-audition, creative arts outreach ministry”. In real-people words, that means anyone can join us, that they don’t need any experience, and that with us they’ll be using music, drama, and other ministry tools to touch lives for Jesus Christ.
Some people claim that this sort of age-mixing can’t/shouldn’t be done, but in our case God has used it to produce a rich synergy between older and younger members, and to provide those with less experience with the benefit of years of training. The cooperative and loving atmosphere which the Lord has brought to our rehearsals and performances, and the feeling of family is truly wonderful. But enough philosophical discourse and digs at segments of the establishment…
It all started back in 1989 when I was attempting a songwriting project on behalf of “Seasons of Heart”, the Valley senior high ensemble. Part of the motivation was that foot surgery was going to have me less-than -normally-active for about three months, so I knew I’d need something to do. The original idea was to dedicate a song to each of the SoH members. Unfortunately, SoH rode off into the setting sun before I could give them any of the then-intended pieces.
However, the music ministry at Valley had been set up so that the SoH members were required to be part of Living Water, and so the project went live with LW that fall. It was a fantastic feeling to find that LW didn’t just like, but loved their new repertoire, the “Living Water Composition Project”.
Just so you know a bit more, there was an in-house game tied to the LWCP. I wrote the dedicatee for each song into the score in some way. When I’d give LW a new song, I would tell them whether the clue was in the words, the music, or both. If the members couldn’t figure out whose song it was by the first time we performed it, I was to reveal the answer and explain way. Sometimes they got the answer very quickly… but other times we got to that first performance. No matter how the game went, though, they learned the music and knew it was very specially theirs.
The LWCP was, theoretically, destined to be a “forever project”. That idea, however, would have assumed that I’d be directing Living Water for… well, forever. And God had other plans, so in 2003 the last of the eighty-plus songs was completed. They’re all here, waiting for some intrepid director with a group of enthusiastic singers to take them on and have fun with them. Let me know if you do!
