I first attended Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa in March of 1970. That first night, a Friday night, I bowed my knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in my life. Without much of an understanding of what was going on, or of what was to come, I began to read the Bible, to pray, to fellowship and.....to sing worship songs. At that time, there weren't very many contemporary Christian albums available. In fact, you could probably count them on two hands - actully, one hand. The corporate worship songs that we sang were mostly scripture songs, song hymns, and some 20-30 year old camp-type choruses. These same songs are mostly sung in kindergarten to third grade classes today. But I have to tell you, it was awesome. Seriously. Words cannot express the beauty and presence of our Savior that filled our hearts when we lifted our voices to Him.

Now, everyone has their opinions of what was cool musically (no different than today) - everyone. And I want to tell you, these songs were far from being cool musically. But it didn't matter - at all. The beauty of the songs, their life changing power and the desire to sing them came from the One they were about - JESUS! There is nothing more cool, more beautiful than He. Nothing is deeper, wider, higher, more eternal than the Lord Jesus Christ. How incredible it is that He even lets us speak His name! That He lets us come before Him! And that He listens to our prayers and our singing!

Most of us appreciate good, creative new songs. But these songs, who sings them or what style they are, should not be the focus. The abundance of worship albums and songs today is a tremendous blessing. And as this blessing continues, may we be taken with the One who makes them worthy of singing.

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:23-24

God bless you and yours.

John Wickham