In 2015 I was honored to be the first Composer-in-Residence for the historic Washington Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Washington was founded in 1923 as the first public African American Graded and High School in Raleigh. The school is now a diverse "gifted and talented" elementary magnet school in the Wake County Public School System. In 2023 and 2025, Washington was named top magnet elementary school in the country by the Magnet Schools of America. My friend, Bo Reece, was the school's long-time and beloved music teacher. ​

​I was commissioned to compose a flexibly-voiced school song with piano accompaniment and accessible parts for student orchestra and band. I began by getting to know the school through conversation with the students and faculty, asking them what makes their school special. I received hundreds of index cards on which they provided their responses. After reading them all, three things were clear: Washington Elementary, (and "school" in general) could be thought of as a place to be honored, a people who make a difference, and a time that's meaningful. These ideas gave form to the lyrics and inspired the music for the resulting piece: Sing of Our School. 

Because the song offers alternative lyrics and a creative opportunity to include any school's name in the piece, it may be effectively expressed by any school. ​​

Following our first publication, Paul sent me other texts to set musically. One day I received a call from him asking me to write music for a piece to be included in the Houston Children's Choir Series published by Fred Bock Music. Paul was writing all of the texts for this series, asking a variety of composers to collaborate. I was thrilled to be a part, and I understood completely why Paul thought of me when he sent his text: ​​Santa Claus Is Busy! With the success of "Busy Bethlehem," Paul decided to replicate the experience with his new lyrics about Santa Claus. We decided the new piece could also contain a choral chant/rap in the middle of the vocal sections. I included various percussion instruments to mimic the sounds of Santa's workshop as the children simultaneously chant two ostinato lines: 

​"Busy, busy, Santa Claus is
busy, busy, Santa Claus..."
​
"Santa Claus is busy!
Tell me, just how busy is he?"

Above the ostinati, soloists exclaim: 
"He's got to feed the reindeer
and hitch them to his sleigh.
He's got to get the map out
so he will know the way. 
He's got to file a flight plan
with the F.A.A.! 
Santa Claus is busy!
Busy night and day!"
​
 -Words by J. Paul Williams
© 1997 Fred Bock Music Company

Inspired by Paul's humor, my comical contribution to the piece was the suggestion that an audience member interrupts the seemingly endless cacophony by standing, raising their hand, clearing their throat, and asking: "Excuse me, just how busy is he?" -- to which the entire puzzled choir shouts back loudly: "He's BUSY!" 

Paul's fun lyrics and my music for two-part (or unison) voices with sleigh bells, misc. percussion, choral chant/rap, and audience member part, is published by Fred Bock Music. Santa Claus Is Busy! was recorded by the Houston Children's Chorus on it's live album: ​Christmas Is Here. I treasure a letter from Fred Bock himself who wrote: "I really like the piece!" ​

School or community children's choirs who wish to sing Santa Claus is Busy! this Christmas may find it through the Fred Bock Music Company or other music distributor. 

Though Paul passed in 2010, his inspirational and joyful life continues through  school, community, and church choirs that sing his words.​

A choral piece for churches 
​by J. Paul Williams & Larry E. Schultz:
The Sea of Galilee
(available on this site)

This church choir anthem for SATB voices and piano is a choral narrative of Mark 4:35-41. The introductory “soundscape” heard in the piano and voices aurally sets the scene for the dramatic story of Jesus and his disciples on the sea. ​

I enjoy the craft of music notation and find it a valuable tool in Music Ministry. Throughout history, various systems of symbols representing musical sound were developed to help music be experienced and expressed. Interestingly, it was a medieval Italian Benedictine monk that is credited among others in establishing the western system of music notation. As a child I became intrigued with the writing of music when a visiting evangelist at my church inscribed a song on paper during the Sunday school hour and sang it the same day in worship! The tool of music notation not only allowed his song to be expressed on that day, but also to be published (and years later, sung by me in the same church for my ordination). When arriving at Oklahoma Baptist University, I found displayed in the music school the handwritten manuscripts of B.B. McKinney, a hymnwriter whose texts and music greatly influenced my childhood. I was amazed to see the original copies of his hymns, and couldn’t pass them in the hallway without stopping and studying them in wonder. One of my courses as a university composition major was on the art of music notation where I learned its intricate skills using a calligraphy pen, pencil, ruler and staff paper. I now use knowledge from that course to digitally notate music with a Microsoft pen on a computer pad, or with a Midi keyboard and notation software. Like a message sent out to sea in the proverbial bottle, music notated by hand or with computer preserves and passes down composers’ creations to many places and to future generations. 

Music notation has sent out meaningful music and words from Pullen, extending our ministry through time and space. Former Pullen Pastor, Edwin McNeill Poteat, Jr., is perhaps the first example of this through the writing and publishing of his hymn, “Eternal God, Whose Searching Eye Doth Scan.” Often referred to as the “Pullen Hymn,” the words and music of the hymn were created by Poteat and sung by church leaders from around the world at the first gathering of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam in 1948. Through the communicative notation of music, the World Council of Churches was instructed and inspired by this Pullen hymn’s text as it boldly called the universal Church to be “wide as the world and broad as humankind.” ​

[Find out more about Edwin McNeill Poteat, Jr., and his compositions on the NC PEDIA site of the State Library of North Carolina]

For many years, Pullen member, Pat Long, has expressed poetic theology and harmonic music through the creation of hymns. Her tune, “PULLEN,” is paired with her text, “Beloved God,” expressing an expansive view of the Divine as it encourages care for the earth and all of its creatures. In 1995, former Pullen Minister of Music, Michael Hawn, included “Beloved God” in a book of worship resources collected from a wide stream of Baptists (For the Living of These Days: Resources for Enriching Worship, Smyth & Helwys Publishing). It was this publication that first introduced me to Pat and other Pullen folk included in the book, and in 2009, I included Pat’s hymn in Pullen’s 125th anniversary collection, In Our Own Voice. But these are not the only books in which you’ll find it. Thanks to notation and publication, the Chinese Christian Literature Council in Hong Kong discovered “Beloved God,” and printed it in both Chinese and English in their hymnal (Hymns of Universal Praise, 2006). This hymn-prayer of Pat’s, inspired by her experience at Pullen, offers worshipers in Asia important words to sing.  ​

In January 2022 I received an email from hymn writer and editor, Laurence Waring, who introduced himself as the compiler of an online hymnal, “Singing the Faith Plus,” offered by United Methodists in the UK.  This progressive European denomination was preparing to launch an initiative called “Walking with Micah,” and was searching for worship songs to help congregations seek and do justice. Finding Pullen’s In Our Own Voice hymnal online, he discovered Sally Buckner’s refrain, “We Shall Seek Justice,” (based on Micah 6:8), and was eager to gain permission to include it in the resource. Sally, a beloved Pullen saint and gifted poet, asked me years ago to arrange her tune, and through this distribution her creative legacy continues to be shared with the world and among Methodists in the UK. 

[“We Shall Seek Justice” in print and recorded versions, along with articles about Sally, Larry, and Pullen Church are included on the Singing the Faith Plus site. It is available on this site.]

Pullen’s worldwide influence through song must also highlight the instructive work and world music arrangements of Michael Hawn. Michael was part-time Minister of Music at Pullen when he was a professor at Southeastern Seminary in the 1980’s/early 90’s. Michael once told me that he was grateful to Pullen for allowing him time for a study leave to learn from and bring back a variety of global worship music. With this beginning, his scholarship and leadership as a world music student and teacher grew to inspire countless church musicians, and his global music arrangements provide worshipers around the planet with resources from many cultures. 

[Find out more about Michael Hawn through his bio on the site of Choristers Guild, one of many organizations and publishers in which he contributes his expertise.]

I never cease to be amazed when a musical creation of mine or someone I know is transmitted through notation to the other side of the globe. Years ago, I serendipitously discovered on YouTube a Taiwanese Children’s Choir singing one of my anthems. Though I composed the piece while living in Greenwood, South Carolina, the inscribed language of music transported it to children a world away! It’s amazing to think that a child may be humming one’s tune while playing on a distant playground. And, as a Minister of Music, it’s fulfilling to provide the global Church with words and music to expand thinking and experience. A baptism hymn of mine seeks to do that as it separates harmful substitutionary atonement theology from the ritual. Informed by Pullen’s baptismal liturgy and practice, the words sing of fear being washed away in the waters of full acceptance. Several denominations have included this hymn and others inspired by Pullen in their congregational hymnals. 

Fascinated by indeterminate music, I wondered how I might one day make use of it in my work as a Minister of Music. When the 2020 pandemic silenced worshipers from singing and playing wind instruments in person, it was necessary to provide new and safe modes of music-making for congregational worship. During the pandemic, I led my gathered congregation to drum on the wood of pews, play body and rhythm instruments, hum in masks, and express worship through sign language. Remembering the indeterminate and electronic music I was exposed to in college, I created a congregational “Digital Gathering Song” with parts played by worshipers through their mobile phones. Offering the song in worship during the pandemic provided a safe way for worshipers to make music together. It also offers a means of congregational music-making for individuals reluctant to sing or who do not play an instrument.
 
Five different music files form the Digital Gathering Song and tonally complement each other. Fragments of the pentatonic tune, “HOLY MANNA,” associated with the text: “Brethren We Have Met to Worship,” are heard in a few of the files. As individual worshipers select specific files and play them simultaneously (pressing “play” at close yet random intervals), a unique indeterminate musical composition is heard resulting from various choices and chance as well as the particular acoustic environment. The digital music files can be placed on a page of the church or other website and accessed via Wi-Fi in the worship space. The webpage's URL and/or a QR code printed in a worship guide will provide worshipers easy connection to the files. A time of preparation is helpful to assist each congregant in pre-selecting a file with a title and mood that most closely represents how they are entering worship: with "joy," "concern," or a "mixture of feelings." 
 
Preceding the playing of the Digital Gathering Song, a Call to Worship exclaims that many different individuals from a variety of life-experiences gather to form one congregation. The Digital Gathering Song responds and musically expresses this reality as it combines the diverse sounds into one unique musical offering. As the digital song is played, individual worshipers hear how the music of others around them is either the same or different from their music, raising an important awareness that can provide an empathic and meaningful worship experience.   ​

Who Has Gathered? includes the Call to Worship and the five music files that create the Digital Gathering Song. It is available from LarryESchultz.com ​and may be effectively experienced in worship spaces, retreat settings, concert halls, and anywhere Wi-Fi is accessible.

On a late evening in 2022 when my cellphone’s caller ID displayed: “New Zealand,” I decided to answer, wondering if it could possibly be my new Facebook friend, William Livingstone Wallace. “’Hello, Larry?’  this is Bill Wallace" (It was!). I had recently written Bill a note expressing my appreciation for his prolific and progressive hymn writing, and he was calling to ask a favor.

After discovering my similar creative work, he asked if I would be interested in harmonizing “a hymn tune or two” for some of his texts. Bill quickly revealed: “I have Stage 4 Cancer, and along with finishing a book, I am trying to complete my body of hymns.” He was a gifted poet and tune writer but needed a composer to harmonize and typeset his work. With gratitude for what his thought-provoking words offered the world, I was honored to assist. When his first hymn arrived by email, the time constraint of our project was evident as I emotionally read his hymn text: “As Life Approaches Ending.”  In the months that followed, other late-night phone calls arrived from “New Zealand,” with the familiar “Hello, Larry?,” and my initial assistance with “one or two” hymns turned into ten.

The hymns poems of William Livingstone Wallace are cutting-edge, exploring themes of justice and peace, science and the cosmos, art and spirituality, the ecosystem, human society and more. A Methodist Pastor, charged with the responsibility of weekly sermons, Bill felt that hymns were the best way to present his radical thoughts as they allowed new ideas to “slide into the mind on the back of music!”

Bill joins other hymn writers who embrace the wonders and reality of science. At a time when science is revealing the significance of dark matter/energy, Bill’s hymn below expresses darkness as the place where truth, wisdom and the oneness of all reside. In a society whose metaphors harmfully inform our psyche that darkness is “bad” and light is “good,” Bill’s words instruct otherwise:

In the darkness lies the whole
For the parts all disappear.
In the darkness dwells the truth
Of the wisdom all can share.
 
All the lines merge into one,
All the colours quickly fade,
All the sounds to silence change,
All the dreams can be remade.
 
When the light and darkness join
We find all the parts belong
In the fullness myst’ry holds
Till our hearts are filled with song.
 
If in darkness we abide
With a heart devoid of fear
Each of us discovers then
God is present everywhere.
 
-Words © 2022 William Livingstone Wallace. Used by permission. Permission is granted by the author to freely reproduce and use (citing copyright information).

The calls from Bill eventually ended and, exploring the internet, I read of his death on February 26, 2024. His lifetime of work will continue to inspire, engage, and expand the minds of worshipers for years to come.

A Theological Statement

​And Jesus says:
"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
so, wherever you will go, I will be;
and, whatever you look like, 
​I will look like, too;
I will speak in your words 
and in everything you do.
Whenever – my advent is whenever –
my advent is whenever
you discover I am in you;
when you discover I AM in you!"

​​Though retired by the time I arrived at his namesake, “Warren M. Angell College of Fine Arts" at OBU, I was overjoyed during those years to develop a relationship with "Dean" Angell (as he was called even past retirement). In college I sang in the university's Bison Glee Club he founded, and was selected by him to sing in the Club's "Fallen Angells" Quartet which rehearsed in his home. I gleaned from his work by attending local choral workshops he led, and reveled in his storytelling during several dinner opportunities together. During a Bison Glee Club alumni tour to Hawaii, I was fortunate to be his roommate, providing an extended opportunity to pick his brain on all things church music. He attended my senior composition recital, and while in seminary, I was delighted to attend the university's celebration of his 50th year since arriving at OBU. When serving as a Minister of Music in South Carolina, I was thrilled to host him in concert and worship at two churches and visit him in his Black Mountain, North Carolina, home. Through the years we corresponded through postal mail where he continued to offer his advice and encouragement.

As a music theory and composition major I was keenly interested in Dean Angell's compositions, and we had discussions on the compositional process. He was a prolific composer and arranger of choral, congregational and keyboard music, and was known to dedicate some of his works to friends and students. In 1999, preparing to depart Greenwood, South Carolina, after visiting my family for what would be the last time, he said to me: "If there's anything I can ever do for you...." and, leaving his statement open-ended, I responded: "Just 16 bars!” Though the conversation went no further, he knew exactly what I meant, and several days later I received in the mail a composition for piano! The title was also the dedication:"16 Bars for Larry, Cindy, Kelly & Ryan." In addition to all I had learned and received from him since I was eleven, I was filled with gratitude that the 92-year-old composer had granted my wish!

​The piano piece (exactly 16 bars) is "classic Angell" in its melodic and harmonic expression. Knowing a bit about his creative process, it seems he conceived the rhythmic motion of the melody by mimicking the two-syllable names of each person in my family. Ever the educator, the final chord of the composition is indicated on the score by him as a "chime,” calling attention to the keyboard properties and harmonic structure he used to produce that particular effect. At the end of the hand-written manuscript dated 9-11-99, is a personal message, revealing the Dean’s characteristic sense of humor. The composition’s tempo marking includes the added instruction: “with feeling” - indicative of how Warren Angell approached music and life.

​Many individuals, including myself, consider Warren Angell a mentor. His legacy continues in ministers of music, church musicians, educators, choral conductors, composers, and in persons in professions other than music. I'm thankful for his long and productive life (1907-2006) that brought instruction and inspiration to many!
​
In 2012, a text by my collaborator, Jann Aldredge-Clanton, seemed especially appropriate for me to compose as a choral anthem in memory of Dean Angell.​ Gathered Here to Share Our Music celebrates diverse humanity and the power of music that Warren Angell knew could transform the world.

Years after being influenced and inspired by the work of hymn poet, Brian Wren (see previous blog post), I met Jann Aldredge-Clanton with whom I enjoyed a 23-year collaboration. Jann was a minister, author, English professor, lyricist, hymn poet, hospital chaplain and feminist theologian (quite qualified to write effective and prophetic words for the church!). In the spring of 2001, I heard Jann offer the Covenant Address for the Alliance of Baptists Convocation. She powerfully encouraged congregations to discover and reclaim images of the Divine Feminine – and to sing them in worship. She underscored the biblical foundations and the many reasons to sing of God as “She” and “Her” – not the least of which was to liberate all from oppressive patriarchy and to exclaim the truth that females are in the Divine Image.

Several months after hearing Jann’s address, I became Minister of Music for Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, NC. With her words still ringing in my ears and a congregation eager to sing of the Divine Feminine, I reached out to introduce myself to Jann. Revealing I was a composer, I asked if she had any texts I could set to music. On September 11, 2001 (a morning that was met with unspeakable tragedy), I discovered an email from Jann that included a hymn text for me to set. The text she sent, “Are You Good and Are You Strong?” was a theodicy (questioning the presence of goodness in midst of evil). The words were unbelievably timely and cathartic for the particular day on which I received them.

Our 23-year creative partnership resulted in a musical, curriculum, anthems, 6 song collections, and 450 hymns. Though I have provided new tunes and arrangements for many of Jann’s hymns, I have typeset all of them for our collections, and in doing so, have been a student of her ministry.  

On September 20, 2024, days after completing our sixth song collection, Jann died of ovarian cancer. Healing Streams: Inclusive Songs, Prayers, and Readings for All Ages, is now published and available to the world. Because Jann's prolific work has left a treasury of lyrics yet to be musically set, our creative work will continue. Jann will continue to speak through the vibrant voices of congregations and choirs.

Dr. Wren inscribed the book’s flyleaf for me and my wife: “Signed on a night of good news! Cindy & Larry Schultz, Shalom! Brian Wren 22/9/89.” His inscription details memorable things about that night. The date commemorates that my wife and I had been married for just over 3 months, and this was the first professional event we eagerly attended as a married couple. An added joy for us was that the conference was held in the school’s music building connected to the seminary chapel where we had met three years earlier and where our wedding service had recently taken place. Wren’s “night of good news” inscription refers to the fact that when walking into the reception, my hymnology professor, Dr. Hugh McElrath, came to me to shake my hand and say: “Congratulations on your hymn making it into The Baptist Hymnal (1991)!” "What!" I joyfully exclaimed. (Dr. McElrath, who was on the hymnal’s committee, did not realize I had not yet heard that a hymn text I had written for his class[3] was going to be included.) Still on an emotional high from singing the hymns of Brian Wren, I was overjoyed to hear that my first hymn would be published. As news of this surprise spread around the room, the congratulations of many friends grew to become a large group hug that moved around the room reminding us of the last scene of The Mary Tyler Moore Show! With his congratulations, Dr. Wren also asked me to send him a copy of the hymn for review. As he traveled home following the conference, he kindly composed a letter of suggestions and encouragement regarding the hymn and my writing.

Everything about that evening was exciting and memorable. It was indeed a “night of good news” in many respects, including my awakening to the good news of feminist and intersecting theologies in my own ministry. This experience was foundational to my creative work that would follow, including my connection and collaboration with feminist theologian, Dr. Jann Aldredge-Clanton, which I celebrate in the next blog post.

Epilogue:
After my initial introduction to Brian Wren at the Southern Seminary conference, I was fortunate to learn from him at two other conferences during my early years in church music ministry.

In 2003 it was a dream-come-true to have the opportunity to compose music for one of Brian Wren's hymn poems, "The Name We Have Begun to Know." My congregation, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, NC, hosted Dr. Wren for a weekend conference and commissioned from him this interfaith text for which I provided the tune, LOVE-SONG. It is published by Hope Publishing in Wren's hymnal, Christ Our Hope, and was included in a recording of selected hymns from the collection.[4]

Many strands of one’s life experience are woven together in the writing of a hymn. An example is my hymn text, Come and Feast, for All Are Welcomed, that was informed by experiences from my childhood and beyond.

A hymn is a poem of faith that succinctly and creatively expresses the author’s theologies and ideas. When sung by a congregation, a hymn provides worshipers an expression for praise, contemplation, prayer or proclamation. As an invitation to and a calling from the table, Come and Feast is a proclamation. It offers my words for worshipers to collectively preach. I find fulfillment in this mode of prophetic ministry – of creating sermons in hymn-form that congregations amplify through their singing at various times and in many different places. The video above presents an exclamation of the hymn by South Main Baptist Church, Houston, Texas.

Below are the four stanzas of the hymn with information on the personal experiences that inspired them.

Stanza 1:
Come and feast, for all are welcomed
at God's table spread with love.
Come proclaim God's grace and goodness
in, around us, and above.
Come and feast, for all are welcomed
at God's table spread with love.

In my childhood church the “Candy Lady” would often pass me a peppermint during worship though the communion elements were always passed by me until after the time I was baptized. This practice of offering the bread and cup only to the initiated was an unfortunate practice that is continued by some churches today. (Considering the very tiny “chiclet” of bread and “thimble” of juice that was offered, the Candy Lady’s peppermint was a much tastier communion anyway!) The exclusion of individuals from the Lord’s Supper as it was called, was also practiced by the church I attended as a teenager. Not only were the unbaptized excluded, but, propagating ideas of “Landmarkism,” only the baptized members of our local church could partake. I was grateful to learn from my mother that my maternal grandmother did not agree with this exclusion from the table. Fast-forward to the church I presently serve, and communion looks very different. Young children, the unbaptized, first-time visitors are all welcomed to the table along with persons of other faiths or no faith, and of every description. These varied experiences are the reason Stanza 1 proclaims the welcome of all.

Stanza 2:
Here we nurture and encourage
as we share this common meal,
while we foster deep communion
and our inner-selves reveal.
Here we nurture and encourage
as we share this common meal.

In seminary I became aware of the Christian “Love Feast” – a communal meal where early followers of Christ would combine their food as an offering and freely share it. From my experience as a churchgoer, I envisioned these ancient Love Feasts to be like potluck dinners-on-the-ground. Or perhaps they were like the first fellowship meal my wife and I attended at our church in Walterboro, South Carolina, where we sat around newspaper-topped picnic tables on which a “Beaufort Boil” would be dumped, and we’d eat with our hands. At the same congregation, I instituted periodic Love Feasts when the congregation would gather on a Sunday night in the fellowship hall for a simple meal. Tables were connected and set up in a long rectangle, and participants sat around the outside so that everyone could see each other. Those who came to the feast brought all kinds of delicious finger foods to share family style as we reconstructed the Love Feast tradition. Together we ate, conversed with those beside us, sang simple refrains, and viewed the entire experience as communion. These Love Feasts provided the imagery conveyed in Stanza 2.

Stanza 3:
See the chalice lifted upward;
smell the fragrant, broken bread;
taste the gifts from field and vineyard;
hear the words that Jesus said:
"Eat and drink, and in remembrance
touch your souls with wine and bread."

I am among many ministers who were privileged to study worship with Dr. Donald Hustad at Southern Seminary. He taught that “full-orbed” worship included a “Service of the Word,” a “Service of the Table” and engaged all of the human senses. Stanza 3 is a direct result of his teaching as I included the five senses in the text. In liturgical practice, this stanza also offers the “words of institution.” It can be sung freely by a choir or soloist while those serving communion lift the chalice and break the bread at appropriate points in the stanza. (Having this stanza sung by a choir or soloist allows the congregation to view the action.)

Stanza 4:
With the Spirit-blessed commission:
"Go and serve this meal to all,”
take its love and peaceful vision
into every banquet hall.
Go and serve as nourished people,
gladly feeding one and all!

Stanzas 1-3 can be meaningfully sung as a Call to the Table with Stanza 4 reserved for a Sending Out. As seen in the video below, First Baptist Church, Asheville, North Carolina, has dramatized this final stanza in a magnificent way. During the singing of Stanza 4, a family comes to the sanctuary communion table, places upon it a checkered cloth and replaces the communion set with an open picnic basket and ice chest with water. Then, as the congregation sings “Go and serve…feeding one and all,” the family rushes down the central aisle, leading the worshipers out to minister. This dramatization transforming “formal” communion into a “common” experience offers the perfect visualization of this stanza. I’ve heard hymn poet, Brian Wren, tell the story of serving communion to a young person who, being literally hungry, broke off a large chunk of the communion loaf to eat. This story forever changed the way I think of communion and inspired me to include the “feeding of all” in this final stanza. It presents communion as a justice-call to feed the hungry and as a vision of peace to be replicated wherever we go.​

In 2008, I created a hymn text on baptism to submit to a Methodist church’s hymn search, and am grateful that the hymn has found use in a variety of denominations. Published in the Celebrating Grace, Community of Christ Sings, and Voices Together hymnals, “With Water Freely Flowing” expresses a progressive and ecumenical view of the ritual of baptism.
 
Stanza 1:
With water freely flowing
we celebrate new birth,        
in sacred sign expressing              
God’s love for all on earth.                                        
The Well of Living Water
springs up for us this day;
engulfed by love’s acceptance,
our fears are washed away.
 
Stanza 1 is about water. The opening phrase can refer to the “first baptism” of all humanity in the water of the womb that “freely flows” as it breaks and the labor of “new birth” begins. Water also flows in a baptismal river or immersing baptistery, or, it flows from a pitcher with water poured over or sprinkled upon the head. It flows in the rain that baptizes and nurtures the earth. The idea of “freely flowing water” also references my own baptism, before which the baptistery actually overflowed and flooded the church building!
 
Adding to the ecumenical nature of the hymn, the idea of baptism as a sacrament and “sign” of love is sung in Stanza 1. But perhaps most importantly, this stanza separates itself from other baptismal hymns by removing the act of baptism from harmful atonement theology as it expresses the washing away of “fears” instead of “sin.” As such, baptism becomes a celebratory welcome into a loving community.
 
Stanza 2:
The Spirit, swiftly soaring,
descending as a dove,
conveys the startling Presence                 
on all whose vow is love.
​The Breath of God within us                                     
enlivens and sustains,
beyond this rite of passage         
with us always remains.               
 
Stanza 2 focuses on the Spirit. It sings of the Spirit as a “descending dove” and “startling Presence” (from the gospel narrative of Jesus’ baptism), as well as “The Breath of God.” When sung by a congregation, the sibilant sounds created by the alliterative opening lines of this stanza create the effect of the Spirit’s breath or wind.
​
This stanza also connects with the liturgical practice of spoken vows accompanying baptism.

Stanza 3:
By water and the Spirit
baptized in Christ, we rise
to walk new paths unfolding
before our opened eyes.
We journey from this moment,
faith’s pilgrimage embrace.                                      
By Spirit and by water                                                
we feel and sense God’s grace.
 
Stanza 3 brings both water and Spirit together in an effort to respond to my experience with another hymn. The Baptist hymnals of my childhood included “The Church’s One Foundation” by Samuel John Stone. In those hymnals we sang of the church: “She is his new creation by Spirit and the Word.” I first became aware of the practice of altering hymn texts when I discovered that other hymnals used Stone’s original words: “She is his new creation by water and the Word.” This hymn text alteration called to my attention a “baptismal dichotomy” – an ecclesiastical difference of opinion over the most important components in the act of baptism. “With Water Freely Flowing” reunites these dissected elements, exclaiming: "By Spirit and  by water!" (echoing Jesus' words to Nicodemus in John 3:5). 

In the Celebrating Grace and Community of Christ Sings hymnals, “With Water Freely Flowing” is effectively paired with “MERLE’S TUNE” by Hal H. Hopson, and in the Voices Together hymnal it has been given a beautiful setting with Amanda Husberg’s tune, “OPEN HEART.” Churches who do not use the hymnals in which “With Water Freely Flowing” is included may reprint and broadcast the hymn via licenses through ONE LICENSE or CCLI.