Singspiration

I don't know about the rest of you, but I grew up in a singing church. My father was the song leader at Frankfort (IN) Bible Holiness Church (http://www.fbhc.net/) for several years and one event that happened every other month or so was a singspiration. Now, for those of you who don't know what a singspiration is, it's a combination of special music brought by various members of the congregation and the singing of requested hymns and Gospel songs. Man, I remember looking forward with great anticipation to the last Sunday of the month when we would get together for some inspiring music. We also thought it was cool that there was no preaching (no reflection on the ministry of Bro. Mowery).

Well, I guess most of the music was inspiring. I do recall the Waggoner family quartet which consisted of myself singing tenor, Bobby singing the melody in the boy soprano range, Mom doing alto, and Dad cranking out the bass. For some reason, I don't recall that particular lineup being any too inspiring. Dad did sound a little bit better than Reuben Bean and/or Bill Gaither, but not much. Bobby and I had to sing even when our voices were going through the change? Remember those times? It seemed like Dad always got blessed on the songs that our voices cracked on the most. We would look at at him imploringly, our eyes saying, "Please don't repeat! Please don't repeat!" Invariably, Dad would lead right back into the chorus, Bobby and I would gasp out a few feeble phrases, praying that the congregation wasn't noticing the obvious breaks in our voices. Great times, but for our particular group anything but inspiring as any of my friends from Frankfort can attest to.

However, the singspiration was a great time to hear from combinations of groups that you might not normally hear from in any other service. Some of my earliest recollections of singing publicly date back to those 4th Sunday music service.

Last night we had a singspiration at our church. I had taken requests for a month and built the service around what specials our congregation wanted to hear and the songs they wanted to sing. I asked each person who requested a song to tell me why that song was special to them. The response I received was amazing! We had so many requests that I couldn't fit them all in. God came and met with us as we heard and sang several songs that had impacted the lives of those in attendance.

When we are going through a dark time in our life, God speaks to us in many different ways. Sometimes it will be a verse of Scripture, and maybe at other times a phrase from a book we have read. However, for me, it is often the lyrics from a God-inspired song that minister peace, comfort, and hope during those trying times. Last night, I was blessed as once again God used music to inspire and encourage our congregation.