IT'S ABOUT TIME FOR MY ARRIVAL

So I'm in church this past Sunday morning. We're singing songs. The music is good and creating what I would consider an atmosphere condusive to worship. And then all of a sudden one of the girls singing on stage goes all Christina Aguilera on us. My state of reverence quickly turns to me leaning over to my sister who is seated next to me and whispering, "since when does Christina go to this church?" It wasn't just once either. This girl went off. Up and down the scale on every note. Over and over ... and over. I'm all for using the talents God gives you but man, I thought we were going to go straight from "Amazing Grace" into the First Baptist version of "I Am Beautiful". It was a little over the top.

While I'm on it I'd like to make another point. First of all I'd like to say that I think way too much importance is put on music in most churches today. I don't mean the church spends too much time or resources on this. I just mean that more often than not a church is judged on the quality of their presentation and music is a large part of this. My point is that the quality and type of musical presentation has nothing to do with a church being a healthy body of believers. If you can show me otherwise somewhere in the Bible then so be it, but I'm pretty sure it's not there. I could go on and on about this but that's not the point I wanted to make. My point is much more light hearted and trivial. Music is obviously a large part of most worship services. Every church seems to have their own take on how this should be carried out. Some are very traditional and only sing hymns. Some are very contemporary and seem almost like going to a rock 'n roll show. Most however fall somewhere in between. At my church they have a band, sometimes a choir, a guy who leads the music and then 4 additional singers with microphones on stage to back up the main guy. This group usually consists of 3 women and 1 man. It cracks me up because they're really into it. I mean really, really into it. It's sometimes like they're trying to fill childhood dreams of being Michael W. Smith ... or whoever the female equivalent would be. (by the way, I know of a few but I won't make myself look any more foolish by actually naming their names). It just makes me laugh because they just try so hard sometimes. Like the aforementioned Christina Aguilera wannabe. The thing about being on stage is that it's hard to fool the people watching you. If you're genuine in your singing and worship I think that shows ... but the second you throw just a hint of showmanship in there ... trust me, we can tell. I really have no complaints about this. I just find it funny to see 40 something men and women on Sunday morning trying their best to someday grace the cover of CCM. And with that last comment it's official ... I spent too much time in youth group. It sure would have been funny if after the last song one of the singers finished with "what .....!"