Lest We Forget

Last night we held an event to thank all of the volunteers of @V21Church. The staff set up and took care of parking, greeting, serving food, childcare, tech responsibilities, and more. We took this approach not only so volunteers wouldn’t have to serve at an event designed to thank them, but also so they would see how desperately we need them. No more was our need exhibited than the time of worship through singing.

The entire afternoon was spent setting up and preparing for the event, and in the end I didn’t get my gear or the sound system set up entirely. The details aren’t important, but I ended up on stage with an acoustic sans strap, a borrowed pedal board, no guitar in the house and nothing in the monitors. Playing/leading while sitting down is frustrating in itself, and without the guitar in the house we were singing almost entirely acapella. As we worshiped together, however, frustration grew into thankfulness that it ended up this way. Our voices were projecting in unison and harmony from our hearts as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12). The entire night was to thank volunteers for stewarding their part in the Body, and in the end there was no better way to illustrate our privileged state than singing and hearing only the body.

For seven years now I’ve dreaded a @V21Church service where all electronics fail and we have to sing without words and instruments. As much as we love instrumentation and production I now look forward to that time, trusting that the Spirit of God will do a powerful work and we will again be reminded that the collective voice of Christ’s body is the most beautiful sound and goal of our gathered time of worship.