Worship

It was the late 1980's. Carla and I were musicians on the "worship team" of a Vineyard church. Vineyard worship music was still pretty cutting-edge in those days and our worship band was hot. The pastor of our church had been invited to speak at a small mainline denomination church in a neighboring city. He decided to bring his worship team along with him.

We arrived at the church well before the service so that we could set up our equipment. The building was as I expected: Old, stale, musty, dead. We would kick some life back into them! We finished setting up and had a soundcheck, then the parishioners began to arrive. Many were older than I was used to seeing at our suburban Vineyard.

We played our worship set and it went over pretty well as I recall. But what happened next I will never forget. The pastor of the church we were visiting came up to the podium and thanked us for the music. He then said, "Before I introduce our guest speaker, sister Edith is going to come and sing "Since Jesus Came Into My Heart". A little old lady sat down at the church's upright piano and shuffled some sheet music while sister Edith, no spring chicken herself, stood meekly in front.

The piano was out of tune. Sister Edith's voice was shakey and tended to drift off-key. But as she continued to sing, the Presence of God began to fill the room. It came in like a wave--a powerful breaker--and I swear I could almost see it rolling in before it hit us. Never before or since have I experienced God's tangible Presence in such a powerful way.

I learned that day that with God it's not about the talent or the trendiness or the professionalism. It's about the heart.