AWOL

Sorry to have been absent for so long. Things have been busy and, somehow, I misplaced my login. But now, I'm baaaack...

Off the general topic of prayer that I was following initially, an interesting thing happened in church yesterday. My 4-year old grandson (step-grandson, technically, but I never think of him that way) was in church for the 2nd time. The children sit thru the first part of the service until the children's sermon and then are dismissed down to the vestry of Sunday School.

We've been tinkering with the amount of time they spend upstairs in the main service. The object is to keep families together as much as possible and to expose the kids to corporate worship without overloading them with things they don't understand. It can be a delicate balance. Yesterday, the kids sat through the collect, the first hymn and our monthly praise and worship segment before being dismissed.

A note about Praise and Worship as we currently do it. We add this segment on the second Sunday of each month and I lead it, with my wife when she's not working and with other musicians when they're available. It's a 3-song set and two of the songs are contemporary, but I try to incorporate one older worship song or hymn that our congregation (aging, as are most rural Methodist congregations) is more likely to be familiar with.

Anyway, yesterday, my grandson and his parents came to the house after church. He and I played for a while, but after he'd expended some energy, we were sitting in the living room and he said something about the music he'd heard in church. He wanted to hear one of the songs again. Being new to church and only 4, he of course didn't know the name of the song, so my daughter and I sang our way thru all 4 that he had heard.

I expected that he would have liked either of the contemporary songs: 'Shout to the Lord' or 'Above All'. Nope. He wanted to hear the hymn, 'Draw Me Nearer'. We sang the first verse for him 3x accapela, then I pulled out my guitar and the lyrics and sang it all the way thru.

Okay, that was long-winded. But it told me something and reinforced my thinking on some others.

The first thing it told me was that you can't predict what will appeal or speak to the people in the congregation -- especially little kids. As a worship leader, I try to do that. I try to pick songs that are likely to communicate and involve my audience in support of the overall thrust of a particular service. I try to pick songs that will reinforce each other relative to a certain theme. I have no idea what it was about that hymn that captured his attention over the other songs. I doubt that he understood the words so it was probably something about the meter or the tune. Whatever. It's something he'll remember. It's an avenue for the Spirit into his young life. Praise God!

It also reemphasized to me the role of music in worship. I've always appreciated it, having been a Christian musician since I was in high school. Music -- especially music that we sing together -- has a power to convey ideas, concepts and emotion that the spoken word often does not. And now I find that music -- even the 'old stuff' -- speaks even to little children.

So, here's what I want to say...

If you're a Christian musician, don't be afraid to be a little eclectic, to maybe go outside your comfort zone as far as the type and style of music you play. You'll be a better musician for broadening your scope and only God knows who will be touched by it.

If you're a parent or a grandparent, sing with your kids. Even if you don't have much musical talent. At the very least, get some CDs of Christian music and play them in the quieter times. (And don't be afraid to sing along even if you can't carry a tune in a dump truck.) It's a very special and blessed experience when one of those songs takes root in the mind of a child.

Blessings, brothers and sisters.