I've got that song stuck in my head again...

This morning as I was in the Doctor's office I was listening to the piped-in music on their sound system. Most of the music I have heard in the office I could not name because I have never heard it before. This morning was different, I recognized that one of the songs that they were playing was a recording of Timothy Seaman. You have heard his music too.

The Journey DVD (watch the video) that I helped Bill Jenner, Joanne Jenner, and Carole Newsome produce used three or four songs from a Timothy Seaman CD. Timothy had graciously agreed to allow us to use his music on our DVD. The song that I heard is the one that plays when Tony and Danner have completed their introduction and their are some still shots of the church at Jamestown.

I had another recent music deja-vu experience last week. I was walking to my car in the middle of the day to run an errand and I realized that I was whistling the melody to a recent choir anthem from last Sunday. "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord" is a song that I did not get a chance to sing with the choir because I was in the sound booth but I did get to practice it several times during choir practice.

I was drawn back to reality when as I was leaving the doctor's office I met a WHBC church member who knew me but I didn't quite remember her. I need to improve in the area of remembering names and faces. I'll have to look her up in the church directory and make it a point to say hello to her this weekend.

As I was thinking about my two music experiences it has caused me to think a little bit about a neglected topic on this blog: worship. Our time in worship should influence the rest of our week. We should be humming a hymn or a praise song that caught our attention. We might remember a good sermon illustration. Our time in worship should reverberate throughout the week.

This principle, to me, is a key part of our discussion on contemporary worship. If our worship is able to connect to us on many levels, using all of our senses, then Sunday morning can bridge into Wednesday afternoon or Friday night. We will be changed because worship that involves all that we are will help us to connect with Christ.

The other side of the same coin is that if we are not engaged in worship (and/or if our worship service does not engage us) we can leave worship unchanged and sink back into our normal default mode of existence. We end up with the same empty feeling I had today when I could not remember the name of a church member that I should have remembered.

Worship becomes relevant when it connects us to Christ and with one another. As we move through our faith journey: We'll be able to remember the names of church members, we'll have a new song in our heart, and most important of all we be connected to Christ. And that is all of the difference.