The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
It took several years, but the debut CD of the Zarephath Christian Church’s worship team will be unveiled in a release party on Nov. 15.
Titled simply, “Zarephath Worship,” the 10-track disc includes originals written by members of the worship team as well as a hymn and contemporary Christian songs that don’t get a lot of play.
In addition to answering a long-held desire of the worship team to get some of the songs they perform recorded, the CD will also serve a more immediate need, according to Pastor Raphael Giglio.
The CD is also being used as a fundraising tool to help complete the construction of the church’s 50,000-square-foot multipurpose building on Weston Canal Road, he said.
“We’ll take occupancy of the new building on Christmas Eve,” said Giglio, who is also the church’s worship pastor. “There were some needs for music and audio and video that were not able to be part of the first phase. We hope that some of the proceeds of this CD meet the needs of the worship and praise efforts of the building.”
About 20 of the worship team’s 40 members appear on the disc, Giglio said.
Recording the CD caps the team’s desire to professionally memorialize some of the songs that they’ve done and which have shown up in informal videos on Web channel such as YouTube, he said.
Seven of the CD’s songs are originals, one is an old hymn and two others are Contemporary Christian songs the group licensed, Giglio said.
The hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” is a nod to the century old church’s history, Giglio said.
“Our church was founded on hymns,” he said. “We wanted to include at least one hymn.”
The other non-originals are songs that are not regularly heard in Christian churches, Giglio said,.
“There were two that were favorites of ours but were not found in many other church repertoires,” he said.
“We had a lot of songs to choose from, but there were definitely some that had established themselves as favorites within the congregation,” he said. “We tried to find songs that were not overplayed, but were favorites of the congregation.”
Giglio’s brother, Plink – an established recording engineer and music producer – donated his time to the effort.
“He gave us time between other projects,” Giglio said. “If we were able to hire a professional studio, we probably could have finished it in six months.”
Reaction to the collection “has been overwhelming,” Giglio said.
“There’s just been overwhelming excitement about it,” he said.
This may not be the only CD recorded by Zarephath Worship, Giglio said.
“If it’s met with a lot of success, we’re going to keep going,” he said. “That’s the plan right now.”
Giglio said the CD will initially be sold after church services, but will be available online after the new year.
The CD release party is set for 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15 at the church Life Center.
“Zarephath Worship” track listing:
1 – I’m Amazed
2 – Hear Our Praises
3 – Sar Shalom
4 – Faithful
5 – You Are My Hope
6 – Come Thou Fount
7 – The King Has Come
8 – Baruch a ta Adonai
9 – There’s a Place
10 – Broken Bread and Poured out Wine
