Pondering Anew What the Almighty Can Do While at Church on Vacation

Hymn lyrics set to contemporary music, a flip flop wearing pastor, free bibles, the best donuts on 30A, and a fresh perspective on the love of God.

I don’t usually attend church on vacation. Sundays on vacation are among the few times that I am not teaching Sunday school. I usually use downtime sitting on the beach to plan and write future Sunday school lessons, so it is not as if spiritual things are not on my mind. Plus, I find that some of my most meaningful experiences occur while listening to the waves and watching storms or sunsets so attending a church service seems superfluous.

I’ve had to rethink my stance on attending church on vacation lately. Sara and I have a good friend from college who lives near the beach who has graciously welcomed us into her home the last few times we have journeyed to the beach. Since there are six of us, this is no small feat. When someone invites us to their house for the first time, I half-jokingly warn them that it’s like the circus coming to town complete with clowns and elephants. Even so and despite the disruption that we cause, our friend continues to invite us back.

She also has invited us to attend her church, Fellowship 30a Church, where she is the worship leader. If I’m being honest, the only reason why I attended the first time was because Sara was singing with the worship team and I never miss an opportunity to hear her sing. She and the worship team sang contemporary songs which is a big change for us since our church only sings hymns. The change, however, was refreshing and consistent with a beach vacation where everything is a bit more relaxed. I’m pretty sure all six of us were singing along and moved to joy by the worship team. The people were welcoming, the coffee was hot, and they had a selection of “the best donuts on 30A” according to the pastor. Given that the six of us ate around 15 of them, he was probably right. Speaking of the pastor, while wearing flip flops, he preached a sermon that held the attention of all my kids. After that first Sunday, we were all hooked and have attended the service every time we have visited the beach since. If you find yourself down there on a Sunday, give the service and the donuts a try.

We visited the beach for fall break last weekend and attended church with our friend. One of the contemporary songs combined lyrics from various hymns and set them to contemporary music. One of those lyrics was “Ponder anew what the almighty can do,” a line from Praise to the Lord the Almighty that I’ve heard played on organ and piano since I was a toddler. Hearing it played on a keyboard with a jazzier beat caught my attention to the point that I took out my phone and typed the line into my notes. Two of my kids saw me make the note and gave me a funny look when I showed it to them. I suspect that they did not hear the line like I did because I’ve heard it set to different music longer than they have been alive.

Finding fresh inspiration and invitation to a renewed relationship with God – this is what a mature and growing faith looks like. Faith is not about finding some unknown revelation of God or discovering an unknown truth that will change the world. Instead, our faith journey consists of continually deepening our understanding of the love of God expressed through Jesus and how we should live our lives in light of that love. Perhaps the best way to conceptualize this process is to think of God’s love expressed in Jesus as a musical theme that a divine composer develops and recapitulates in richer, deeper, and more complex ways over the course of our lives. The central melody never changes but a master composer highlights and embellishes it so that there is always something new to appreciate.

In this vein, Fellowship 30A gives away bibles freely to anyone who wants one based on the faith that God’s word never returns void. They give away two versions: one is a standard bible for adults and the other is the Jesus Storybook Bible for children. A friend of ours who was a chaplain told us about the Jesus Storybook Bible years ago and I have read it to all four of our kids. Each time I read it, I saw something new because it highlighted details, characters, and connections that children find memorable but adults often overlook or take for granted. Additionally, my kids offered their thoughts and impressions, as well as asked questions, which allowed for a shared experience that enriched all of our lives and allowed us to hear the same melody.

“Pondering anew what the almighty can do” sounds complicated and old fashioned, particularly if, like me, you hear organ music and see a choir dressed in robes. There’s nothing wrong with that vision but we must recognize it is not the only one, particularly if it stifles our spiritual growth and development. Try to hear it in your head, or use the internet to actually hear it, set to contemporary music or accompanied by a guitar. Try to hear it as a child would hear it or as you heard it when you were a child. Use it as an invitation to remember when you first experienced God’s love in a personally powerful way, as a jumping-off point to notice with fresh eyes how God continues to weave his love into your life, and as a challenge to consider how you can become an instrument of God’s love so that others can hear his melody through you.