We are working on a recording of gospel favorites and we need your help! This project will include classic gospel songs, hymns and even a few a cappella tunes done “Talley” style.

We’ll be asking for your suggestions on several different aspects of the recording in the next few weeks, so let’s try our best to stick to the topic as specifically as possible.

Right now we want to know: What are your favorite CLASSIC gospel songs?

01-god-is-great

(You may want to have some cotton handy.)

Congratulations to Mark, the very first to guess the answer to my
trivia question! He correctly guessed that the lyrics in the last post
come from the song “I Can Still Celebrate Christmas,” from the
Talleys’ “A Family Christmas” recording released exactly 20 years ago.
A T-shirt is finding its way to Mark as we speak.

And no, my mother has never received a chainsaw for Christmas,
although I’m sure she’d like one.

After the morning service was over, most grabbed their potluck dishes and dashed out the door while some lingered behind to browse at the product table. I greeted a lady who had picked up our “Stages” CD and asked if I could help her. She asked, “Well, is this the one with the song about Maggie on it?” I said, “Yes, the song is called ‘The Broken Ones.’” She said, “Oh, there it is. I really loved that song.”  She purchased the CD and as she started to walk away, she turned to me with a pensive look. She said, “I’m not a member of this church. I heard about the concert  from a friend who invited me to come. When my friend told me about it, I had already planned to do something else today.” She continued, “But when I got up this morning, the Lord spoke to me and told me to come to hear the Talleys sing this morning.”

I was quite surprised and immediately thought, “Well Lord, thanks for one more person in the seats!” But her story wasn’t finished. She shared, “For the past few months God has been sending me on assignments. He will tell me to go somewhere and there will be an opportunity for me to minister. I don’t usually know exactly what I’ll be doing until He shows me. I’ve planned to visit a homeless shelter this afternoon. I’m going to serve them lunch and just talk to the people there. But today, when I heard your song, ‘The Broken Ones,’ then I fully understood why God sent me here to this service this morning. I am supposed to take that song to that homeless shelter and share it with them. I am supposed to tell them that even though their lives may be broken, they are loved and Jesus wants to put their lives back together.”

How many opportunities does God have for us that we miss?
What could God do through us if we were willing to follow Him?

I suspect that most of us, myself included, are too wrapped up in our own plans, our own lives, and our own circumstances. We, in our flesh, have cast ourselves in the starring roles of our lives, behaving as if life were all about us. But God does not see it that way. In Matthew 16:24,  Jesus tells his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

We must learn to deny our flesh and submit ourselves to God before we can be used to serve Him. God has a rewarding, victorious, powerful Christian life waiting for each one of us that has accepted Jesus, if we will humble ourselves enough to listen to what He has to say.

What’s your next assignment?

If anyone has a story of how God placed an assignment in your path, we’d love for you to share it with us!

In just a few moments, a lady began to tell me about her church, located in Oxford, Mississippi.  In a few weeks there will be a Presidential debate at ‘Ole Miss and the world will be converging on that small southern town.  A few people in her church decided they would use that event to reach people for Christ by renting every billboard in and out of the city with a gospel message without political or denominational connection.  They have had other signs made to put in people’s yards and businesses all over the city.  She was telling me about how God was providing finances to fund this project.  She also said that two days after they had secured the billboards all over town, both political parties had called the sign company to rent them for the event, but God had already given them to their church for His purpose.  She was requesting prayer for their church and their city that God would honor their efforts and use them for His glory.

A few months ago, I posted a story on this site about a little girl named Angel that was saved after a concert.   I was helping some people last night with some product and I looked up from signing a picture and there was Angel smiling as if to say, “here I am, you know me”!  Of course I did!   I went around the table to give her and her mom a hug and to meet her little sister Dakota.  Her mom told me that Angel has been listening to the entire new project on the website.  I asked Angel what her favorite was and she said very enthusiastically Jesus You Are.  We had not sung it since recording it, but we sang it last night since the author, Jarred Myers, was there.  I noticed that Angel sang every word with us.  What a sight to see a little girl that God saved at one of our concerts singing “Jesus you are, you are our Lord, you are our King, the One we adore!”

Only moments later, another lady came to me and said that a group of young girls from the French Camp Academy, a children’s home, were there and these girls ages 12 to 14 had adopted Orphans of God as their song.  As I was sitting up in the seats of the arena listening to the other groups, a couple of the girls found me. One of them knelt beside me and said that she had written me a letter, but never mailed it.  At 13, she had been abandoned by her parents and had come to live at the academy and Orphans of God had meant so much to her.  I told her we would sing the song especially for them that night.  On the second half, as Lauren introduced the song, fifteen young girls left their seats in the back and stood at the edge of the stage and sang it with us.  What a moment, I couldn’t even sing on the first chorus. To see those precious young girls standing in front of us weeping and singing, there are no strangers, there are no outcasts, there are no Orphans of God, was more than I could bear.   Before the night was over we had met each of the girls, hugged several times, took pictures and met the house parents.  I asked for a list of their names and ages so I could pray for them.

Another lady told me that the Broken Ones had meant so much to her after losing her brother and his entire family in a house fire and then within two weeks of that, losing two more family members.

After I had talked about Roger’s mom having Alzhiemer’s a man came up with tears in his eyes and told me he had lost both of his parents to the same disease. He said he was uneducated and couldn’t read or write, but he was a multimillionaire and God had blessed him and given him a wonderful life even though he now has Alzheimer’s disease.  These were only a few of the stories shared with us last night.

After the concert, Lauren and I were in the back of the bus talking about all of the things that had just taken place.  There were so many stories and requests we spent about an hour just talking, sharing the things we had heard and witnessed.  What did it all mean?  Why that place, that night? Why so many in one night?  I’m not sure, but I know that what started out to be another concert turned into, as Gloria Gaither puts it, a divine interruption.   God used every one of those people last night to sharpen my focus.  It’s not us, but Him.  He is constantly at work all around us and we can be a part or we can stand by and miss it.  Ministry doesn’t just happen on a stage or pulpit.  There are opportunities in the moments of our lives.  We can prepare to sing and deliver a song, but are we prepared to listen and respond when God whispers through the people we encounter?  My prayer is, as Samuel said,” Lord, here am I, send me.”

Thanks to all of you who post on this site and pray for all of the needs that are presented here.  You are a part of this ministry and God is answering prayers because of you.  Whether you are at home, work, or school as you read this, look around,  God is giving you opportunities today to minister to someone that is hurting or in need.  Don’t miss it!  If you have a story to share of an opportunity that God has given you, please share it with all of us and please remember to pray for all of these needs.

Thank you for checking out our new site! We hope you’ll come back again and again and become part of the family Tree.

We’ve just begun working on a brand new Talley Trio recording! Our first studio dates for tracking are in June and so we are hard at work choosing songs and arranging them, and we need your help. Now obviously, there are too many songs that come in for you to listen to and review all of them with us, so we want you to give us an idea of the types of songs you like to hear us perform best.

We’d like you to tell us which Talley song is your favorite and what makes it your favorite. Is it the lyric? Is it the style of music? Is it the featured singer? We want to know what you like the most and why. If you have a special story or testimony associated with that song, we’d love to hear that too! You are welcome to share about whatever Talley song you like, be it on a Trio recording or solo recording by one of the Talleys.

Those whose comments are posted will receive a FREE mp3 download of a limited-release Talley Trio song! You will be asked to provide your email address, and an email will be sent to you with a link and password through which you will receive the free download.

Tell us what you love about Talley music and help us record an album that you will love!

Thank you for your input! We’ll be waiting to hear from you…….

Lauren Talley