Crown & Covenant Blog

When I was young, my worship song came from the 1950 blue psalter. My parents had joined the Reformed Presbyterian church just before I was born. The congregation was aging and they were, I’ve been told, a bit shocked at my dancing on the pews to the singing.

But I always loved the psalms: the first tunes, the word pictures that were dear to me, even the smell of the books. I’m not sure if the aroma was from the glue, the paper or the blue-dye edging on the pages, but today if I pick up one of those books, it still smells like the 1960s worship service.

In 1973, the words and tunes changed with the publication of The Book of Psalms for Singing. It wasn’t blue and it had more tunes. Worst of all, some of my childhood favorites—“The Birds of Heaven” and “The Lord Will Light My Candle” were gone. I was a teenager during the transition and found that the losses were more than compensated by the rewards. There were new tunes, less archaic language, and no page numbers. The new psalter was organized by the number of the actual psalm of the Bible. My mind became even more attuned to the scriptural origin of what I was singing.

To this day, I still sing some “blue psalter” words by mistake (when everyone else is singing a 1973 edition psalm.) It is a minor jolt that makes me think about meaning and context and purpose. The disparate words make me more aware of the original Spirit-inspired text.

This week, the Reformed Presbyterian Synod approved the work of a committee for a 2009 psalter. Once again, I will be learning new settings, singing wrong words, and exploring a new book of worship song.

I look forward to the learning curve because I know what will come of it: a deeper understanding and appreciation of God’s Word.

While psalm singing isn’t new to many who read this blog, it is still a newly-rediscovered practice for many. There is a great blog entry on the reformation21 blog that covers the topic very well. 

Head on over to read this great post, and you can pick up copies of the psalters mentioned in the post —two of which are published by Crown & Covenant —The Book of Psalms for Singing and the Trinity Psalter.

If you are looking for a good book on the topic of psalmody, we recommend Sing the Lord’s Song by John Keddie.

It’s that time again… a new psalm of the month on Crown & Covenant’s website.

This month the psalm is 29A from the recording O Lord, I’ll Sing to Thee.

Head on over to get your free download!

There’s something very different about the May 2008 issue of our monthly magazine, the Reformed Presbyterian Witness. But you’d never know unless I told you.

That issue is the first one of our magazines to ever be produced without leaving the digital world until it was put on the printing press.

Most of the magazine’s production has been digital since 1987, when we first purchased a computer and layout software. Over time, even our articles and photos were submitted in all-digital form.

Always, though, at some point the magazine had to be printed out before it went to press. We would receive this final proof copy (sometimes called a blueline or blueprint, since all the type appeared blue) to check for mistakes that we or the printer had made. This final proof was made in such a way that it was an exact representation of the plate that would go onto the presses.

Technology has advanced to the point that making such hard-copy proofs is no longer necessary. When the magazine is ready for the printer, I simply upload the layout file to a web site that belongs to our printing company. There, its software automatically processes the job, and, almost immediately, I am able to see on my computer an exact representation of what will go onto the presses. This new technology saves at least 1/3 the time of our normal printing process, and saves a bit of money as well.

Have you ever started packing over two months before taking a trip? Well, that’s what we are doing here at Crown & Covenant. Yes, we are excited about the upcoming RP International Conference at Calvin College! Are you planning to attend and have you sent in your registration? It is a terrific experience to meet with many Christians of the denomination from all over the US as well as other countries. You will not want to miss conference lectures, sectionals, and worship. Meeting old friends and making new friends adds to the enjoyment of the conference.

So here at the office, books are arriving, and we are pricing and packing them. We are going to have a huge book table—a whole room just for Crown & Covenant products. It would be great to see you there.

We just received boxes and boxes of our newly revamped Psalm Settings booklet. We updated this booklet four years ago to fix a number of musical and layout issues found in the original “green” booklet. However, there were still some things that were less-than-ideal, especially the size of the type. 

In this new version, we have standardized the type-size making for a more readable and singable book. We have also fixed some of the lingering musical issues. 

If you would like a copy, you can get one from our website.

We had a minor office tragedy a couple weeks ago. Quite unexpectedly, our coffee maker quit making coffee. It looked fine—the lights were on, the buttons worked, but the machine wouldn’t brew the coffee. As the coffee maker’s primary responsibility in this office is to propel all of us to new heights of motivation and innovation, there was understandable dismay at its passing.

After a few days surviving on coffee brought from home or the various coffee shops/gas stations on all our various routes to work, a shiny new coffee maker took center stage on the counter in the kitchen. 

I love a happy ending.

In the past several months we have transitioned at Crown & Covenant from using the traditional Pitney-Bowes postage machine to the new Online Postage system called Endicia. It’s exciting to be able to print postage stamps in whatever amount we need. No more running to the post office for stamps or waiting for them to arrive when purchased Online. Be aware that postage costs are going to increase again on May 1st! Crown & Covenant tries to keep apace of and implement the most modern methods of shipping so that your orders arrive in good order and as quickly as possible.

“Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” was April 24. In the U.S., this official day began about 15 years ago. At Crown & Covenant, there are many days through the year when you can see the bright face of a child in our offices. That tradition goes back at least 20 years. My wife and I, sharing one job, had times when we  needed to be working together. There were even a couple of board meetings where we had a playpen nearby!

Most recently, it is the shining face of three-year-old Alexa that we see from time to time. She is the daughter of our business manager, Josh. Sometimes she is here for just a few minutes, sometimes a few hours. But always she is a refreshing addition to the workplace.

Recently a former employee came back to work temporarily for us. We encouraged her to bring her child Kinsey with her if it meant that working for us would be more feasible. We’d rather have valuable employees working with restrictions than not working at all!

Besides, God has placed us in families–a critical part of, and reflection of, His promises to us. We are missing something, and making our children miss something, if we strictly forbid them from the workplace. It’s good for them to see us going about our day’s business (Deuteronomy 6:5-9).

It’s easier in a small office environment to allow this kind of flexibility. Someone who works at a nuclear power plant or who digs ditches can’t include children often. But for those who are able, it’s much more of a blessing than a hassle.

You may or may not be familiar with Johannes Geerhardus Vos, but we can all still learn a lot from his writings. For 33 years, J. G. wrote a quarterly magazine called Blue Banner Faith and Life. Some of the studies from this magazine have been compiled into books already, and others are in the works.

One of the most beneficial things Vos did in his magazine was define theological terms in a succinct manner. Crown & Covenant has compiled all of these definitions (nearly 400 of them), and created a widget for you to use on your website or blog. It updates itself everyday and will add great content to your site!

You can see what it looks like in the right-hand column here on our blog.