WC – he hardly ever sings – 2.3.07
Worship Confessional
our congregation stemmed from a Ukrainian baptist church – in fact, we still share our building with that congregation. but a lot of the Ukrainian youth enjoy our “americanized” services. consequently, some of their parents (while holding membership in the Ukrainian congregation that meets after lunch) will attend our morning service as well.
the father of one such family blesses me each week that he attends, and this week i had the chance to tell him. his daughter has been a participant of our worship team, but about six months ago she stepped down from that role. now she sits in the pew with her family and translates the sermons to her father. as he exited the building today, he leaned in my direction, stuck out his hand, and said (in broken, thickly-accented english) that he enjoyed the music. i smiled and told him with the utmost sincerity that i am blessed to see his face during the music. he blessed me each week. he stood back and said very clearly, “well, praise the Lord.”
you see, he doesn’t sing with our church. usually i struggle when others don’t participate. and, i often fight against taking it personally – assuming that the music is bad, they don’t like the song, they don’t approve of my leadership.
but, with him, i’ve never been bothered.
i don’t remember ever having seen him join in the congregational singing, but his eyes tell me he is ALWAYS present. even when his daughter is not translating the songs to him, he looks intently at the lyrics of the overhead screen, or closely at the words in the hymnal, and often cries.
he may not sing, but he cries.
that’s good enough for me and i’m SURE its good enough for our God.
Song List:
Be Thou My Vision – Mary E. Byrne & Eleanor H. Hull
God is Great – Marty Sampson
Everlasting God – Brenton Brown & Ken Riley
More Love to Thee – Elizabeth Prentiss & William Howard Doane
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus – Helen H. Lemmel
Very cool. As worship leaders we focus so much on the music versus the worship don’t we? It’s good to hear that you recognize someone worshipping without singing.