Church!

Our church is like a big family reunion at every service! We leave there feeling refreshed spiritually and emotionally (and physically, especially since the Bible says a merry heart does good like a medicine)! Take yesterday. An older gentleman got up to sing a solo, an old familiar hymn, and invited the congregation to sing along. It was a little hard to do, though. He must have learned it to a different tune, I thought. Then when it was over, he deadpanned, “I guess you noticed everyone was off key but me,” getting an appreciative laugh from the audience.

Then in the evening service last night, a tender mood hung over the crowd, owing to the unexpected passing of a church member. “Bill,” the pastor said, “would you favor us with a song tonight?” He was speaking to one of the church’s favorite singers, and he continued, “How many would like him to bless us with two or three numbers?” All applauded politely, but enthusiastically.

He began by doing a speaking part of the song, “Just What Heaven Means to Me,” in honor of the departed, a longtime friend of his. The rest of the eye-moistening song moved several to reach for tissues. “This song has been going through my mind ever since a Brother sang it a few weeks ago,” he said of his next number. “But I know you won’t expect me to sing it with this thing,” he said as he attached a harmonica holder around his neck. He then played a plaintive version of “Hallelujah Square”, accompanying himself on the guitar.

“That was so good, I think we ought to have Mollie sing it!” the pastor’s wife suggested. After a rocky start, the spunky singer found her key, and we were treated to a rambunctious rendering of the emotion-filled song. Arms waved and hands clapped in joyous participation. The hour was growing late, and I think the pastor was wondering when he had lost control (as he often jokingly says), putting his sermon on hold and inviting everyone down to the altar. What a time of refreshing as we were swept up in waves of glory in old-fashioned worship.

The service ended with a heart-rending testimony of an older saint who said she was never taken to church as a child, only met with a harsh “No!” whenever she asked to go. “What did I ever do to make Daddy not want me?” she asked an older sister, who told her she had done nothing but be born a girl. He father was so angry she was not a boy he wouldn’t look at the newborn for a week. In a soft voice,the lady told of a feeling of rejection throughout her growing up years, finally meeting the Lord as a young married woman. She prayed her first prayer over her seriously ill child, to see 105 degree temperature in the baby drop instantly to a normal 98 reading. Still yearning to be filled with the Holy Spirit, she at last was gloriously baptized. She said from that day on she has not felt unwanted. I think that holds true for all who were in attendance last night.