Strumming In Church
Today in worship service we played a "special" in honor of our friend J who is leaving. He's leaving with his family in a couple of weeks, but D, or director will be out of town the next two weeks, so we did the special today. (A special is a song done during the offering, or communion, or just on it's own, but not part of the "regular" worship set). The song we did is "Who You Are" which is delightfully simple but greatly spiritual; a terrific tune to sing. We might bring it into the regular worship rotation, since it would be easy to teach.
Shine Your light into the dark Speak Your truth into my heart I wanna know who You are
That's the verse...
We did the song just us guys. On Tuesday night J, D, Dr. T and I practiced it and worked up a slightly-shorter arrangement than the album. D was on keys and J played guitar. Dr. T sang (he's a terrific singer by the way; we'll all be buying his album in 5 years or sooner). S the vocalist was on the team this week so this morning he sang along. Dr. Boots was on guitar and G was sitting in on bass. Shy the keyboardist played along as well; we made her an honorary man for the song but she's really too cute to pass as one for very long.
On drums was... not me! The album we learned this song from has a basic beat with just a bass drum, shaker, and a conga slap. I suggested we pass that work off to D's trusty drum machine, affectionately named "Gertie". We call her "Gert" for short. (I don't know how he came up with this name; I'll ask him one of these days.) With Gert's competent handling of the beat (programmed by yours truly), this left me free to sing and play guitar.
And what do you know? They let me!
You have to understand; it has been a dream of mine to play guitar and sing in church for a very long time. I came close last summer when we were doing an "unplugged" worship set with mostly acoustic instruments, but got sick before the weekend and stayed in bed all Sunday. Today was a total blast. I had tons of fun with it.
After services I was met with a lot of compliments and comments like, "I didn't know you played guitar," and, "You're multi-talented!" which is always nice to hear. God made me musical; praise Him! But, if you liked it, by all means, definitely tell me! :-)
I headed home this afternoon with a deep sense of gratitude for the place God has put me in. I also have a strong desire to make every week I have the chance to make music with these people really count. I want the music to be done well, and have fun, and I want God to be glorified. But selfishly, for me, I want to enjoy it; savor it if you will.
J is leaving, so that's going to change the line-up a bit. Other personnel changes are coming soon too, which will make things even more different (wildly so in some cases). I'm looking forward to what God will do at that time, but I really want to experience what we have in Him on this team now - this really special group of people - to the fullest. I'm really blessed to get to drum, strum and sing with people are extremely talented and who have become some of my dearest friends in the last year. Doing something you love for God is even more fun and fulfilling when you're doing it with people who you're really close to.
Did you know I play guitar and sing? What is in front of you this week that you can sink your teeth into and really savor?
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