bloggedy blog: the personal weblog of a music lover and aging punk wannabe

:: Thursday, May 02, 2002 ::

Prayer time. Today is the National Day of Prayer in the USA. Please take a minute today to say a prayer for your nation, wherever you may happen to live. One recent prayer, which may not pass muster with the NDP organizers, is U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich's prayer for America, which he read on February 17. Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. It gets better. Read also this commentary by the Rev. Charles Henderson.

While we're on the subject of prayer, you might want to go to the Passion Prayer Network and download the prayer guide for Monday, May 6.

Party time. Last night, church turned into a party. Warning: touchy-feely charismatic babble ahead. We were going through the motions of our normal praise and worship service. I was on bass, Joe was playing guitar, Dyann was on keyboards, Curtis was on drums, and Helen was leading the singing. We'd finished the faster songs and had transitioned into the slower worship songs, and were playing along softly when I felt that God was giving me a word (there's your charismatic spiritual-babble). The word was this: party. The verb. As in, party down, people! And then I was reminded of Jesus' story of the prodigal son, and how the son's father threw him a party. So I shared these thoughts with the congregation, while Dyann continued to play melodiously on the keys, Joe backing her up with a quiet strumming of the guitar, and Curtis gently brushing the cymbals. It was all very subdued. Then Dyann turned to Curtis and said, "Curtis, I'm still waiting for you to let loose. Who cares if it shakes some people up. Some of us need to be shaken!" And with that, Curtis started hammering on the drums. I caught up with him on the bass, and Joe, who usually plays a bluegrassy style on his Gibson, started in on some power chords. The music crescendoed, and Helen started singing praises, louder and louder. Then a young woman named Cheryl stepped out of the congregation, grabbed a tambouring in one hand and a mic in the other, and shouted out to the congregation: Come on, people! Let's par-tay!.

We cut loose. People were dancing in the aisles. I was hopping around, playing the bass -- playing music like I hadn't played it since I tried to be in a punk band in college. The teens sort of looked around at their elders, scratching their heads, but then Cheryl got them into it more, and they started clapping and dancing too. We jammed like this for a good 15-20 minutes, then settled back and played an old gospel tune -- "Power in the Blood" -- with renewed vigor. A guy named Terry, who has a great voice but doesn't sing enough, in my opinion, got in on the act and led us in singing that song. We finished with a rousing rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In." I felt as though we were "having church" in the AME or old-line pentecostal style. It was fun. Definitely undignified (RealAudio file), but fun. I believe God was having fun, too.

Blogroll time. I've added Martin Roth to the blogroll. Martin has written a good article about Christian bloggers, called Blogging for the Lord. Martin also has a fairly good list of Christian bloggers started.

Prime time? Ginkworld features yours truly in its latest 7q. Hope it won't go to my head.

:: Andrew 07:46 + ::
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