"So that they are never forgotten!"
Thoughts
I have reached the age where I can no longer expect to continue to maintain this web ministry of songs much longer. I have been the sole musician, designer, and maintainer of the three websites. I have funded the entire cost out of my own pocket. The less than $200 in exterior donations received during the entire life of the ministry was used to partially fund the provision of free CD's to brothers that could not afford to buy them, and/or were not able to download and listen to the recordings, free, online. I ended the CD production in 2010. I will, more than likely, not renew the web hosting contract beyond September 2023.
We must do all that we can to try to ensure that the songs composed by brothers and sisters baptized in the Name of Jesus and full of the Holy Ghost are not forgotten. Many of these songs are being forgotten because they are no longer sung in our churches. We need to evaluate the impact that limiting our praise worship to one stanza, fast beat songs with limited spiritual substance has on our worship services. It is okay to sing these “coritos”, but we must ensure that we include songs that carry a message that nourishes our spiritual souls, as well as honor and praise the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4). The songs composed by the Patriarchs of our church such as Revs. Antonio C. Nava, Benjamin Cantú, Jose Ortega A., Maclovio Gaxiola L., E. M. Cota, Marcial De La Cruz, Lorenzo Salazar, as well as many other Brothers and Sisters, were inspired by the Holy Ghost and therefore can be said to have “come from the mouth of God”. That cannot be said of many of the modern day praise songs. Our church cannot afford to lose its rich song legacy. When that happens, we have lost our identity as a church based on Ephesians 2:20.
Consider this website as a tool for spreading the gospel through the message in these songs, as well as ensuring that our Apostolic songs are never forgotten. Based on comments received, these songs are having a tremendous impact on many individuals throughout Latin America and the U.S. Some churches, that do not have musicians, are using the tracks to assist in their congregational singing.
During a period in 2008 when I was about to abandon this ministry due to the absolute rejection of these recordings by the younger generation of ministers, Bishop Felix Gaxiola Inzunza, then president of the Apostolic Church in Mexico encouraged me to not give up. He told me that he directed that no less than 2 hymns from the Suprema Alabanza hymnal were to be sung in every service in Mexico. He inspired me to record the melody to 199 of the 537 songs in that hymnal. Thanks to Bro. Gaxiola I continued this ministry and we have had close to 13 million visits (excluding robots and other system generated hits) to this website, but I repeat, the time has come for me to retire from this ministry.
Larry C. Rios
Email: cantosapostolicos@yahoo.com
I have reached the age where I can no longer expect to continue to maintain this web ministry of songs much longer. I have been the sole musician, designer, and maintainer of the three websites. I have funded the entire cost out of my own pocket. The less than $200 in exterior donations received during the entire life of the ministry was used to partially fund the provision of free CD's to brothers that could not afford to buy them, and/or were not able to download and listen to the recordings, free, online. I ended the CD production in 2010. I will, more than likely, not renew the web hosting contract beyond September 2023.
We must do all that we can to try to ensure that the songs composed by brothers and sisters baptized in the Name of Jesus and full of the Holy Ghost are not forgotten. Many of these songs are being forgotten because they are no longer sung in our churches. We need to evaluate the impact that limiting our praise worship to one stanza, fast beat songs with limited spiritual substance has on our worship services. It is okay to sing these “coritos”, but we must ensure that we include songs that carry a message that nourishes our spiritual souls, as well as honor and praise the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4). The songs composed by the Patriarchs of our church such as Revs. Antonio C. Nava, Benjamin Cantú, Jose Ortega A., Maclovio Gaxiola L., E. M. Cota, Marcial De La Cruz, Lorenzo Salazar, as well as many other Brothers and Sisters, were inspired by the Holy Ghost and therefore can be said to have “come from the mouth of God”. That cannot be said of many of the modern day praise songs. Our church cannot afford to lose its rich song legacy. When that happens, we have lost our identity as a church based on Ephesians 2:20.
Consider this website as a tool for spreading the gospel through the message in these songs, as well as ensuring that our Apostolic songs are never forgotten. Based on comments received, these songs are having a tremendous impact on many individuals throughout Latin America and the U.S. Some churches, that do not have musicians, are using the tracks to assist in their congregational singing.
During a period in 2008 when I was about to abandon this ministry due to the absolute rejection of these recordings by the younger generation of ministers, Bishop Felix Gaxiola Inzunza, then president of the Apostolic Church in Mexico encouraged me to not give up. He told me that he directed that no less than 2 hymns from the Suprema Alabanza hymnal were to be sung in every service in Mexico. He inspired me to record the melody to 199 of the 537 songs in that hymnal. Thanks to Bro. Gaxiola I continued this ministry and we have had close to 13 million visits (excluding robots and other system generated hits) to this website, but I repeat, the time has come for me to retire from this ministry.
Larry C. Rios
Email: cantosapostolicos@yahoo.com