Larry Marietta is the Music Program Director at FCCB. He includes notes about the music used in Sunday morning services in the Order of Worship.

The text of "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" was written in 1907 by Henry van Dyke while he was a guest preacher at Williams College, Williamstown, MA. Of his hymn writing Dr. van Dyke wrote: "These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time—hymns of today that may be sung together by people who know the thought of the age, and are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy religion, or any revolution on earth overthrow the kingdom of heaven. Therefore these are hymns of trust and joy and hope. (Albert Edward Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns, p, 554)" Tertius van Dyke tells that his father "came down to breakfast one morning and placed the manuscript before President James Garfield, saying, "Here is a hymn for you. Your mountains were my inspiration. It must be sung to the music of Beethoven's "Hymn to Joy"." These stanzas were subsequently published in Poems of Henry van Dyke, 1911. The adaptation of ODE TO JOY, Beethoven's 9^th Symphony final movement theme, was by Edward Hodges (1796-1867), and appeared as "Joy" in Trinity Collection of Church Music, 1864. The tune and text first appeared together in The Hymnal, 1933.

"Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit" was written by Howard (Rusty) Edwards, III (b. 1955) as a paraphrase of the Beatitudes. A native of Illinois, Edwards is an ordained Lutheran minister, most recently as senior pastor for the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church of Rockford, IL. ANNIKA'S DANCE was composed for this text in 1993 by Jane Manton Marshall (b. 1924), a celebrated Methodist educator, composer and conductor. The name is in honor of Annika Gustafson, a liturgical dancer who first interpreted the hymn in that art form. The New Century Hymnal is the first denominational hymnal to include this hymn.

"Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" was written in 1758 by Robert Robinson (1735-1790) for inclusion in A Collection of Hymns Used by the Church of Christ in Angel-Alley, Bishopsgate, 1759. It later appeared with the tune NETTLETON, an American folk hymn, in John Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813. Robinson was a barber by trade, but after attending an evangelistic service he began working in evangelical circles, becoming an ordained Baptist minister in 1758.