“I didn’t know you could sing!”

It was a refrain I heard quite a bit Saturday morning at ABCNJ’s ¹ annual spring training event. I heard it because we ended up hosting the event at the church where ABCNJ has its offices, and I requested the opportunity for my church to lead the singing ². I sing with the band.

Aside from it being an opportunity to serve the region away from my computer, I also wanted to show a bit of myself to the wider family. After over a decade on region staff, and almost sixteen years as a pastor in the region, it amazes me how few people actually know me. I’m the “computer guy,” I make digital things look nice and project snarky comments on the screen during our Annual Session ³. As that’s how most people encounter me, it’s no wonder it’s how I tend to be seen. I grow tired when I meet people who are surprised I’m a pastor ⁴, or who talk to me about worship music like I’ve never explored a theology of worship ⁵. So when the opportunity came available to let people see a bit more deeply into my faith, I took it.

Singing brings me joy.

Not music in and of itself, which I like but tend to find distracting, singing. I want to participate in the music and make my voice part of the great cloud of witnesses. And I’m not drawn to mindless singing, songs with no depth ⁶ give me a headache. I want what I sing to mean something.

And that’s what I go to show the folks gathered from the ABCNJ Saturday morning ⁷. They got to see me joyful, lost in the transcendence of song and calling others to join in. They didn’t know I could be like that, and it was nice to let them see.