In talking with men and women who are more experienced than me in singing the hymns of the faith in the context of a covenant renewal worship service, you hear the term “warfare” and “militant” arise in the conversation. The Church is, of course, the Lord’s Army and whether we fully understand it or not, we gather each Lord’s day to gather in the Lord’s presence and renew our commitment and vigor for kingdom work and service. We proclaim his praise, confess our sin, hear His Word preached to us and then are fed at his table. This army ritual is being fleshed out in my mind gradually as I learn more and more.

So, of course, music should be warlike in some ways or battle tune-esque. Our Hymns and Psalms should be our war tunes that we sing to honor our King and call each other to renewed service in the week after we worship. So, we must rethink the tradition of playing the piano/organ and singing in the style of ragtime, durge, liberace or any other style that would detract from this genre of worship as warfare.

So, we need to think more “March” when we play or sing through hymns. Is this too slow for a march? Is this too fast? Is this too soft and timid for a march to war? Is it too weak? These are things that we need to rethink as we mature in our understanding of worship and worship music. This can and is done well. It just doesn’t happen on accident. It also doesn’t happen in a year either. It has to be a goal. As a musician, who plays and accompanies for worship sometimes, this “on the march” is what I try to call to mind just before I downbeat the hymn or the song.

Sarah and I were looking forward to going to Florida to the 19th Annual Trinity Presbyterian Family Advance Conference in Destin, FL last week. We were getting packed and ready when Solomon got sick the day before with the stomach virus. Then, the next day, Arthur got the bug about an hour before we were scheduled to drive to Alexandria to drop the kids of with my parents. Arthur was sick on the drive down. Then, Sarah got the bug in the middle of the night and we wondered what to do about the trip. We ended up leaving late from Alexandria and headed to the conference. The conference went well and a good time was had by all. Then Saturday evening, our last night in town, we were headed to have dinner with some friends and our van was rear ended by a Cadillac Escalade and it ended up totaling our vehicle. We were stuck in Florida for an additional 2 days trying to get that sorted. During this time there was a tropical storm, Ida headed right toward the coast and that only made things more eventful. We did finally make it back to Monroe on Wednesday night. It was a fun and challenging weekend. When it rains, it pours. I wonder what the Lord was trying to teach us during this whole weekend. Glad we went, even though things didn’t come close to going like we imagined they would. Sarah and I are okay from the wreck and are still scratching our heads over the craziness of the whole weekend.

I have jury duty here in Monroe next week. So, I’m preparing myself in case I need to use one of these Dave Letterman’s past Top 10 zingers:

of how we Christians get all up in arms over the policies and happenings of the current administration. We act as if the election of Barack Obama has sent this country into a tailspin that we’ll never recover from. We puff our chests up and forget those eight years of big government with George W. Bush. We make claims that the end is near and that this is a “sign of the times.”

Yes, that is what lower tier schools in my state and others do when they go play the likes of Texas, Florida, LSU, USC and other Top 10 Division I schools. We prepare ourselves to get whooped and get a handsome check of half a million dollars or more just to get waxed. Of course there are exceptions, but those prove the rule.