Welcome To The Vandalia Church of God!

Recently, I went for semi-annual labs to measure the sludgy nature of my blood and why my A1c results keep reading “frosted flakes” instead of a number (because, they’re grrrreat, of course). The very gentle phlebotomist asked if I’d like a warning before she jabbed me to extract blood. I grunted. Having had those-super fun, multi-pronged jabs one gets in the service, I was not concerned. The heads up was a new element to the poking, however, and it made me hyper aware and vigilant. Now, I knew the sharp stick was coming and I was going to tense up and fight. This is the point in the analogy where you might be tempted to ask how I draw a parallel between church life and a lab draw, but here it comes. New things in the church are not always welcome. Telling people you’re going to do new things is often when fences are built and sides are taken. When we here of new ideas and programs in the church, we tense our shoulders and the temptation may be to declare “you’re not going to stick me with that!”

Our church multi-instrumentalist worship leader is a champion for modern worship music. Honestly, as a 20-something graduate student and musical prodigy, I wouldn’t blame him for frustration with us. We work from the Baptist National Hymnal, singing the songs we’ve all cherished for 50+ years. The hymns are comfort food for the soul, speaking of Jesus’ sacrifice, faithfulness to God and personal relationship with Him. Good, sturdy songs written prior to 1980. Working with our young and gifted song leader, I snuck in a hymn of the month section of worship for him each week and we’ve spent three weeks learning and enjoying Matt Redman’s “Heart of Worship.” We tensed up, dug in, did our best…and didn’t die. In fact, it’s been fun. It’s a beautiful song, written with a depth of feeling uncommon in this world’s time of being Spiritually bereft. Next month we might try some Maverick City songs. Just kidding. Baby steps.

The point (yes, there is one) is that it’s not only okay, but good to loosen your shoulders, unclench and allow God to work through your life and church in new and profound ways. That doesn’t mean that let false doctrine or the theology of cheap grace in and hug it. No, this is being worshipful to God in ways that please Him, but also that wake you up and refresh your soul as you profess your love and faithfulness to Him. Songs wake us to the fact that we need to confess and repent of the sin that’s bound us and a new song will often raise those questions in the soul where the mumbled words of our favorites may have dulled and been blunted by repetition. I will always go to the old hymns for wisdom, guidance, comfort and the truth of Christian tradition, but new worship is a good as running through the sprinkler when our church lives are sluggish and we worship by rote. I, for one, can’t wait for next month’s worship song and am no longer even sneaking it in.

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. -Psalm 96: 1-6