Friday, May 30, 2008

Unexpected Worship

I had a pretty cool experience last Sunday. I was speaking at a small church in Seattle that had two services - a "traditional" service, and a "contemporary" service. I've found that generally means that there is more gray hair at one than the other. My cynical hat was on nice and tight as - sure enough - I turned out to be one of the youngest people in the first service. The only people younger were the youth pastor and two boys (probably 8-12 years old) that were there with their parents.

We got a couple songs...er...I mean hymns...into the service when they took their take-a-moment-and-greet-each-other break. Being the only person in the front row, I turned around and greeted...nobody. Which was good, because it gave me time to witness something truly wonderful. As I stood there, two or three of the gray-haired worshippers made beelines to the young boys and hugged them, greeted them, and made them feel like the two most valuable people in the room. Being young boys, they tried to play it "cool," but I could see the grins (albeit cool grins) on their faces.

My cynical hat fell to the floor and my spirit lifted. The rest of the morning I sincerely and thoroughly enjoyed belting out some hymns - most of which I didn't recognize - and gazing around at people twice my age, truly enjoying each other the presence of God.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Deacon & Usher were here...

Dan Carollo said...

Yes -- God does show up in unexpected places! (remember the stable?). My most unexpected worship moment happened at this Worship Together Conference, where there was a worship service lead by Techno-beat D.J. Andy Hunter. It was one of the most worshipful moments for me!

Keith Ferrin said...

I was at that WorshipTogether conference. Ended up telling my sister - who loves techno - about Andy Hunter. Very, very cool.