The gift of the holy ghost is a rare gift. I believe I received it a time or 2 ... but not in the sense of having an out of body experience and speaking in tongues (because that has NEVER happened to me). No, I think my gifts have been from music. I've always been musically inclined; I was a band geek in middle and high school, and I was in formal dance lessons from age 2 and on. I met my husband in a country line dancing bar on "family night" for crying out loud! Music is a part of my soul; it can serve to help me along when I'm feeling sorry for myself, or serve as a booster to make me feel good. When Whitney Houston's "I wanna dance with somebody" comes on, I smile ALWAYS 100% of the time.
Some of my early criteria for attending church has been the music program. I've always loved theatrical/dramatic music productions. Sadly, picking a church based upon it's music has ended up back firing every single time. We get a nice 45-50 minutes of singing and worship, then 20 minutes of a mind numbing message, DONE. Church over. Obligation done for the week. It's left me feeling somewhat hypocritical of myself, and led to our lackadaisical church attendance over the years. I'm sensitive enough that if I'm in the right frame of mind, and a certain Christian song comes through the speakers, I'm in tears. DONE! There's the moving of my spirit, no church needed.
Fast forward to a few years ago, when David and I found Truthway. David became fast and instant friends with the pastor, and I found a message that I actually enjoyed. The music was pretty good; most weekends I could really get into the spirit because he would sing modern, relevant music from my faves like Jeremy Camp, Kutless, Casting Crowns, Mercy Me ... all was well. Then, the pastor's life changed when he had an opportunity to move to a much bigger church as an associate pastor and we followed him, and our church experience turned into a great big Christian Rock concert. It was great! Soul stirring! Dramatic! I loved the head pastor (until I saw his true personality on the reality TV series he starred in). Then, his preaching became hypocritical and melodramatic, and we were done with church again for awhile.
Fast forward to NOW. No more musical requirements, just quality of preaching and a genuine spirit. We found it in the first church we attended, Verity Baptist Church. Small, mixed congregation (around 40 people, average). Small building, young pastor with a wonderful wife and 3 small kids. Personal attention ... and a message STRAIGHT from the bible. No rabbit holes, no screaming of hellfire and brimstone, no "name it and claim it", just the cold, hard truth. He LIVES the life he preaches about. He has no TV, he doesn't do facebook, his wife homeschools the kids, they have daily family bible study, they sing together, and he has no idea who Jeremy Camp is. What?
Pastor says if you want a rock concert, there's churches for that. We sing hymns, and that isn't going to change, ever. I don't mind. I sing them. Have I ever been moved to tears by a hymn? Well, this one moved me to tears!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMUplV73baA#t=323 But I don't think we're going to be having a performance like that at Verity, EVER. Is wanting/needing that type of performance in my life every now and then wrong? Pastor's music selection is hymns, that's it. Mostly piano renditions of them. I understand that modern Christian music is sometimes put out there by singers that couldn't make it in the Pop industry, so they changed to the Christian genre. I like to believe I can FEEL when a song/singer is genuine. When they're just singing the words, or when they FEEL and BELIEVE the words. I like to think that all my favorites are genuine Christians that love God and live their life right. The songs I DON'T like are the cutesy, pop sounding ones (Jamie Grace ... Imma 'bout to get my worship on? UGH!).
Our church is moving to a bigger building ... attendance is up from the 40 or so, to regularly 70+, so we're outgrowing our space. I guess someone had made a suggestion to "update" the music, because that's when he stood up and assured us that Verity is NOT changing, we will sing hymns, and if you want a rock concert, there's a church for that. I appreciate the words. I love having 20 minutes of singing (sitting down!) and an hour of feverish note taking. But my soul HUNGERS for that amazing music. I've never particularly loved "How Great Thou Art", because I've always found it to be somewhat repetitive and awkward, but the above listed Youtube video moved me to tears. MORE tears the 2nd time I watched it! It was incredible. I wish there could be a happy medium between amazing, soul stirring worship, AND the truth straight from the bible. I understand how Pastor can be somewhat "against" modern Christian recording artists; it's all about the all mighty dollar, just like any other recording artist. BUT! They're getting music out there that worships God, quotes the bible, and makes OLD hymns relevant to the masses. Is that a bad thing? I think there's room to modernize the music selection ... every once in awhile ... selectively ... right? Or is there NO room for that in strict, traditional religious services? Regardless, we're not changing. We may just have to branch out once in awhile to take in some of that musical awesomeness. :)
