In choosing an Easter musical I feel one of the important considerations is to choose one which will allow you to use as many songs as possible as pull-outs that your choir can sing effectively throughout the year other than your Easter performance. When I, along with the arranger, consider songs to include in an Easter musical, we are always keeping this consideration in mind. I am delighted that many of the songs in all three of the Lanny Wolfe Easter musicals are pull-outs and make sense to sing during any given Sunday service in which the choir sings.

From Jesus, We Crown You With Praise, pull-out songs include:

• Jesus, We Crown You With Praise (Opener)
• What Man Is This?
• There's Something That's Different About Him
• I've Just Got To Tell You
• Lord, We Remember You
• It Should Have Been Me
• To Christ Alone
• Finale (Jesus, We Crown You With Praise)

To give maximum flexibility to the song I've Just Got To Tell You I have penned optional lyrics for both verses so that you may choose which set of lyrics you like best for the Easter presentation and for non-seasonal use.

One of my favorite songs which God has inspired me to write in the last five years is It Should Have Been Me. Every time I hear the song, it's like I'm hearing it for the first time and I'm affected dramatically every time I hear it. In the musical, it is most ideal for a tenor to sing the lead and represent Barabbas. However, optional lyrics have been written so that someone else other than a Barabbas could singing the solo. This person could be a Biblical character or a contemporary. Also, to make the song most usable, I have written an optional melodic line so that a female could sing the solo. After you use this song in an Easter setting I'm sure that you will want to sing it more often than once a year. Even if it weren't my song, I could hear this song and arrangement once a month and it wouldn't be too often.

Both Love Found A Way and Praise The Lamb offer wonderful pull-out possibilities. You may want to consider after you have done one of the above three musicals in its entirety to piece together different songs and narrations from all three to personalize an Easter musical that would incorporate some of the songs that possibly your choir did the previous Easter with some new ones for this year. This would take some of the pressure off of learning an entire new musical

Whichever Easter musical you choose, the important consideration is that the story is told, and that hearts are touched and lives are changed. To do anything less is to merely put on a "performance" of nice music. With so many hurting, lonely, and lost, just a nice performance comes short of our responsibility to change the world.