The latest book from revered church musician Paul Westermeyer offers insight and perspective applicable to anyone working in a church or church music setting. This volume contains collected reflections, essays, and articles previously published in journals such as The Hymn and CrossAccent, along with entirely new chapters. To quote the foreword by Zebulon Highben: This is Westermeyer at his most pastoral, offering a word of solace, support, and inspiration.

Assembly Song Companion to All Creation Sings will be an essential reference resource for church musicians, pastors, and others who help plan assembly song. This accessible manual gives the context, origins, and character of the texts and tunes in All Creation Sings as well as practical guidance for musical leaders. It is especially useful when paired with the Hymnal Companion to ELW and the Musicians Guide to ELW.

The work of the church musician has always been challenging. In today's climate, there is a need to find new and effective ways to clearly articulate this calling to clergy, congregations, and choir members. This book of lectures examines their work and craft from a historical perspective through current practices. Paul Westermeyer's position as clergyman, musician, historian, and musicologist makes him uniquely qualified to give the reader a bird's eye view of the church musicians' vocati...

A concise overview of USMC history from an award-winning author, including photos and a timeline: "Educational and enjoyable." — BooklistMany think of the United States Marine Corps as a second land army, and while it has been employed in that capacity, it is foremost a naval expeditionary force able to seize, secure, and defend advanced naval bases in support of major campaigns.The Corps dates back to the Revolutionary War, but while they served i...

This powerful collection of essays by Paul Westermeyer is both prophetic and pastoral. Dr. Westermeyer pulls themes from Susan Cherwien's marvelous hymn "Rise, O Church" and challenges and encourages worship leaders to examine the influences on the church that come from modern day outside sources. Through the study of hymns both modern and historical, the author calls us back to a biblical perspective of worship. A "must read" for musicians and clergy.

Since time immemorial, the response of the living to death has been to commemorate the life of the departed through ceremonies and rituals. For nearly two millennia, the Christian quest for eternal peace has been expressed in a poetic-musical structure known as the requiem.Traditional requiem texts, among them the anonymous medieval Latin poem Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath"), have inspired an untold number of composers in different ages and serving different religions, Western ...

Three days later a Japanese force landed at night. They ambushed a 26-man patrol, cutting the Marines down with hidden machine guns. The three survivors who made it back told their fellow Marines that the wounded had been hacked to death with sabres. From then on, the Marines decided they would be every bit as brutal...Read about the US Marine Landings on Guadalcanal; the desperate fight to take and defend Henderson Field; and the long bloody Final Assaults in this 3 in 1 True Comb...

The Battle of Midway is traditionally held as the point when Allied forces gained advantage over the Japanese. In Islands of Destiny, acclaimed historian and military intelligence expert John Prados points out that the Japanese forces quickly regained strength after Midway and continued their assault undaunted.Taking this surprising fact as the start of his inquiry, he began to investigate how and when the Pacific tide turned in the Allies’ favor. Using ar...

In his brilliant, bestselling novels, Tom Clancy has explored the most timely military and security issues of our generation. Now he takes readers deep into the operational art of war with this insightful look at one of the greatest American military triumphs since World War II: the Gulf War.

This award–winning "powerful narrative history" presents a vividly detailed chronicle of grueling combat operations in Fallujah during the Iraq War ( Midwest Book Review).Few places are as closely associated with blood, sacrifice, and valor as the ancient city Fallujah, forty miles west of Baghdad. This sprawling concrete jungle was the scene of two major U.S. combat operations in 2004. The first, Operation Vigilant Resolve, was an aborted effort by U.S. Ma...

18 November, 1741. George Frideric Handel, one of the world's greatest composers, arrives in Dublin – the second city of the Empire – to prepare his masterpiece, Messiah, for its maiden performance the following spring …In Hallelujah, Jonathan Bardon, one of Ireland's leading historians, explores the remarkable circumstances surrounding the first performance of Handel's now iconic oratorio in Dublin, providing a panoramic view of a city in flux – at once struggling to contain the chaos unl...

On 26 February 1991, cavalry troops of “Cougar Squadron,” the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, charged out of a sandstorm during Operation Desert Storm and caught Iraq’s Republican Guard Corps in the open desert along the North-South grid line of a military map referred to as the “73 Easting.” Taken by surprise, the defending Iraqi armor brigade was swept away in salvos of American tank and missile fire in what became the U.S. Army’s largest tank battle since World War II....