I’m a little jealous right now, but not really in a bad way. Let me explain. A few years back I was a little too vocal with my feelings about the way the song leading was going at church. I am a firm believer that the song service sets the tone for the rest of the service, and if the worship in song is bad, it can be a real downer for me personally. I think most pulpit preachers will agree with me on this because it is much easier to preach after a well sang, uplifting song service than after a song service that has been more like a death march. 

Anyway, I voiced my opinion that we should only use our very best song leaders during our worship service, knowing all the while that I might not be one of the very best song leaders. I have always said that I want to know when my time is up in terms of being a good worship leader, and I mean it. I don’t want to be a drag on anyone’s worship. Having said that I was also guilty of thinking more highly of my ability than I should have. (Don’t ya hate it when that happens?) I know you can see where this is headed. I was one of the…not very best song leaders, and was cut from the regular song leading rotation. I was told that I would be the fill-in guy when one of the four very best song leaders was unavailable. 

A lot of folks didn’t understand my reaction when I was told I would be a fill-in. You see, I told them that I didn’t want to lead singing if I wasn’t one of the best we had to offer. It seems to me that out of four men someone should always be available. I don’t think we should use our best on Sunday morning, and then just anyone who can sing on Sunday evening and Wednesday night. I think a lot of folks thought I just had my feeling hurt so I was taking my toys and going home. I promise that is not the case, as I said before, I have always wanted to know when my time was up. 

Here’s the deal friends, and even though it hurts, I agree with the decision that was made about our song leaders. We are using more and more new songs in our worship these days, and I can’t read music. Well, I know the do-ra-me, and I can keep time, most of the time. What I can’t do is make a note translate to the proper pitch in my head. In other words, I have to sit and listen to a song several times before I get it, and even then I am not comfortable leading it. I just don’t want to stumble through an effort to “lead.” There were a couple of other things that were pointed out about my song leading that I had a little harder time agreeing with, but I knew, for me, at the time, the decision was right. 

So, why am I a little jealous? Well, Sunday morning we had a combined worship service. We normally have two services on a Sunday morning because our auditorium will only hold around five hundred people, and we generally have around nine hundred attend worship on Sunday morning. This past Sunday, we rearranged the seating and added some chairs, and ended up with around seven hundred people in the main auditorium. We then had another four hundred, give or take a few, in three other locations in the building. They had video monitors set up so they could worship with the main auditorium group. I would have given my thirty-five year old false teeth to lead singing Sunday morning. If you have never had the privilege to lead singing you can’t really understand how good it sounds to be standing facing the assembly. Believe me when I say, it is awesome! 

So yes, I am a little jealous, but I am happy that we had one of our very best leading singing Sunday morning. I intended for this note to take a different direction than it ended up taking, because I did lead two songs after we had lunch, and that’s what I intended to talk about, so I promise I’ll do that in tomorrow’s blog. 

Till next time,

Grump