worship God Through Music

One of the greatest gifts God has given to us is the ability to worship together through music. We believe that music has been given to us to glorify God, and we follow the example in Scripture of using sacred music in our worship each week.

There are music and worship elements used in our services that have come forward from the early Christian Church. With creativity, we are intentional about incorporating music that is diverse, engaging and reminds us of God’s promises to us! Music in worship is planned to point our focus toward God! In worship, you’ll hear hymns, choruses, spirituals, gospel and modern worship songs from week to week. We believe variety allows us all a ‘place’ at the table to worship God together! We hope you’ll join us to experience it.

To contact our music staff, please email our Worship Team at worship@atlantafirstumc.org. Keep us in prayer as we plan, rehearse, and offer worship through music each week.

Atlanta First’s Pipe Organ

A central component of much of Atlanta First’s music ministry is our pipe organ, the third such instrument to exist in our 1903 sanctuary. This magnificent organ was built in 2007 by the A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company of Lithonia, Georgia. The organ façade fills the arch over the chancel, where once it was open above the pipes of the previous, smaller organ. The organ, containing 155 ranks (61 pipes per rank), along with hundreds of digital MIDI instruments, is controlled by a movable five manual console. There are three divisions in the gallery antiphonal organ and six divisions in the main organ. A Trompette en Chamade (horizontal brass trumpets) is displayed under the stained glass windows of the rear gallery. The organ includes pipes from the previous Roosevelt and Reuter organs with the addition of new pipes. The antiphonal organ also includes pipes from the 1926 E. M. Skinner organ, formerly in our neighbor, Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

The Trompette en Chamade in the rear gallery of the sanctuary.

Don Land, a former Atlanta First Organist and Director of Music, designed the initial specifications for the organ. Mr. Land also donated many vintage organ pipes from his personal collection to be installed in the instrument, including those from the 1926 E. M. Skinner organ. The final specifications are a result of collaboration with Tom Alderman, Organist at Roswell United Methodist Church, and Arthur Schleueter, III, Vice-President of A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company.

For more detailed specifications, or to arrange to play the organ, please contact worship@atlantafirstumc.org.