Lessons in Worship...

I make a mental note to explore the possibility with God whether, next time he wants to get creative and teach the congregation a lesson, if he could humiliate someone else!

There is not an easy way of saying this: I broke my G string in public worship this week. As the guitar started to lose its tuning I looked at the running order of worship with relief - next up, the singing group, enough time to restring my G string. My heart sank as our officer leading worship mentioned that the group would not be singing and that we would continue in singing Holy Holy (incidentally how many songs are there in your part of the world with holy, holy ad infinitum in the title? In the UK we have one with at least five holy’s!!). Before I played the necessary D chord I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, and it wasn’t.

Not wanting to let the side down I start to bellow out the Holy, Holy song acapella, the congregation join gamefully in. Two lines in and the mix of my holy with their holy wasn’t happening. You see I was singing Holy, Holy, but they were singing Holy, Holy, Holy - I’m not sure but there might even have been a strain of Holy, Holy, Holy (Holy, Holy). Whatever, the creativity of the moment was lost on everyone and it all collapsed and I slink off in a way that makes sure everyone knows I have a broken string!

The sermon - basically a challenge to our congregation to move beyond a consumerism of worship and to discover the heart of worship. I smile as our officer speaks about worship as more than a song, and wonder if anyone else has caught the creativity of the out-of-tune worship.

I make a mental note to explore the possibility with God whether, next time he wants to get creative and teach the congregation a lesson, if he could humiliate someone else!

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I used this on theRubicon this week with a different ending (here)

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