NEW HOPE MUSIC - "He Shall Be Called", by Ralph Merrifield

This carol has been sung by choirs, worship teams and soloists
around the world since 1991, with music requests coming from:

Guatemala, New Zealand (Hamilton, Dunedin and Timaru), Massachusetts,
Canada (Ontario, Quebec, Calgary, Saskatchewan and rural Alberta), Pakistan,
India, Washington, Bahrain, Georgia, Delaware, Michigan, Virginia, Indiana,
Australia (Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania), North Carolina, Florida,
Indonesia, Nevada, England, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Texas, Colorado, Missouri, South Africa,
New Mexico, West Virginia, Alabama, California, Finland, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Ohio...
Praise God!!!!

I have translated and recorded one of the most beautiful songs of Christmas.
God prophesized through the mouth of His chosen prophet, Isaiah the birth of our
Savior Lord Jesus Christ. So beautifully written. I loved listening to
Bangalore Church choir and Bro. Samson and choir.
(Daisy, from California)

A Children's Choir in Pakistan
sings "He Shall Be Called" in the Urdu language
(yellow sign in the center displays the lyrics)

I found your site last year in looking for songs to use for our Sunday
School Christmas Program. It is hard to find programs that require little
group practice and ones the classes can practice in their openings and
still have time for the regular Sunday School class.

I wrote this for our last year's Christmas program and I should have sent it sooner, but I am a teacher and
just didn't get around to it. Attached are the two pages for the bulletin and the other is the complete program
if someone else wants to use it; it just has all our peoples' names in it. I wrote it
using your song, He Shall Be Called as the central song and picked the
scripture to go with the different namings that occur in Luke.

Our church is Loudonville Community Church in Loudonville, NY and is part of the Albany area.
I am Supt. at our church for the Beginner Dept. which
is children Kindergarten to 2 years old. We have the children from 2
years through Grade 6 take part and then ask Jr and Sr. High students to
volunteer for the acting and narration. It is very simple to practice for
and we have some costumes we use year to year. I wanted to thank you for
your site and your making these songs available. Our 5/6th grade teachers
are still humming He Shall Be Called and want to sing it again in this
year's program. (Sandy, from New York)

I found New Hope Music while looking for Advent and Christmas music on CyberHymnal 2 years ago. My 3 kids, Sarah, Jacob
and Hannah have been a big hit at church, singing "He Shall Be Called" for Advent programs the last 2 years.
(Lars, from Pennsylvania)

I am so happy to tell you that our church choir, consisting of 70 members, is singing your composition “He Shall Be Called”. What a lovely song!
Let Immanuel give you more blessings this Christmas time. I am sure that this tiny Baby born in your
heart can recharge your talent for composing more and more songs for His praises.
(Mathew, from New Delhi, India)

Thank you so very much! I printed the SATB sheet music, as well as copying the music to a disc to play for my choir. I live in
Angleton, TX, and sing with 6-7 others in a very small Missouri Synod Lutheran church. We make the most of everyone's talents, however, and a
large part of the church is involved in the Christmas musical/play that is originally written each year by one of the members. We are always looking
for new music to complement or accentuate the text and Scripture. "He Shall Be Called" is beautiful,
and I pray that it will really be effective in the hearts of those who hear it.
(Ouita, from Texas)

I have just been listening to HE SHALL BE CALLED... it is so anointed!
I am a British missionary in Guatemala and would love to teach the locals
this both in English and Spanish. May I have your permission to translate this into Spanish?
Wow I could just imagine our children's choir singing this!
(Jeff - Final Harvest Ministries in Guatemala)

Wow! I really love this song... you have a fantastic beat and
sense of joy that is wonderful for the Christmas season!
This song would be wonderful for our candle lighting each week.
You have really made my day...
(Judi)

We sang your carol ...
at choir rehearsal last night and they just loved it!
(from Hamilton, New Zealand)

"I have been listening to your songs for some time now.
They are all terrific... but (He Shall Be Called) really shines."
(Shirley in New Zealand)

"I really love... 'He Shall Be Called'.
It's such a happy, upbeat song."
(Carol in California)

I just fell in love with the music and words, which are from the Bible and lift Jesus up. ... We sang "He Shall Be Called" in our
Christmas meeting last Sunday and it was great! Our pastor spoke in our morning meeting about Immanuel, God with us, how God wants to
communicate with us from face to face. And in the Christmas meeting he spoke about the Blood and the cross, how Jesus
was born to die for us. So your song and the words were in the same anointing as the Christmas messages...
(Lea, from Finland)

I got to know about your website through the Internet when searching for Christmas songs...
My choir really likes "He Shall Be Called". I want to use more (of your) songs with my choir.
(Sola Adetutu, from Nigeria)

Here's a picture of our children singing your song
("He Shall Be Called")
(Janet, from New Boston, Ohio)

"I am interested in 'He Shall Be Called'
for our church Christmas program..."
(Gwen in Wisconsin)

"There seems to be a lack of good Christmas music
for congregational singing other than the old carols
and your song would work well
for a fairly contemporary service."
(Marlene)

"I want to use 'He Shall Be Called'
in a Christmas play I've written..."
(Pam in Mississippi)

I am the choir director of Millennium Methodist Church, Secunderabad, India.
I used your song 'He Shall Be Called' two years back in our Christmas program
and I am planning to use some for this upcoming
Palm Sunday/Good Friday/Easter Season. (Sunil, from India)

"The children loved singing 'He Shall Be Called'.
I am a member of Grace Lutheran Church in Melbourne Beach, Florida.
Thank you ... for writing music that is easy to learn
and appeals to all generations...
Even some of the teenagers like it!!"
(Cindy in Florida)
Read the rest of Cindy's e-mail

"I would like to have your permission to translate
and sing your song into Indonesian."
(Peggy in Indonesia)

"...oh what a song this is
...sure to be a blessing to all who hear and sing it"
(Steve & Lynn in Alabama)

"It is sooooo uplifting... we can use it as a recessional"
(Gil in Colorado)

I would like to teach my Youth Group at Southwest Baptist Church
"He Shall Be Called" (Pamela, from Missouri)

This morning was the 4th week of our new fellowship. We had 21 in the service
and a multi-cultural environment once again. The VIBF Jr. ensemble
sang "He Shall Be Called" and did a marvelous job with the music...

The congregation sang, "Splendor and Majesty" at the beginning of the service
with yours truly singing the verse as a solo... I played the original recording
throughout the 15 minutes prior to the beginning of the service so the congregation
would be familiar, then on cue we began singing the song with prayerful worship
and even I was shocked as to the reception of this song. (Jean-Claude, from Florida)

I originally wrote "He Shall Be Called" in December 1988
(based on the nativity accounts in Isaiah 9:6 and Matthew 1:21-23)
while sitting at my kitchen table in our small 5 room house.

In 1990 (in the back room of Dave Wells' mobile home ! ),
we included it on our first recording "In The Knowledge Of Him".
I sang and played guitar, while my friend, Bob Nute,
accompanied with electronic percussion.
You can hear this recording by clicking on the MP3 link above.

Our home church has been using this
song as a public worship chorus for a dozen years.

Encouraging people around the world since 1991 !!

"HE SHALL BE CALLED"