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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: HARMONY (11/03/22)
Do you remember how the early church was born? Acts 2:42, 47 says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship….praising God.” It seems the early church had one thing in common. Learning all they could about this new Jesus Peter was preaching about, and praising God together. Peter birthed the church but Paul added instructions to it when he wrote in Ephesians 5:15, 18, 19, “So be careful how you live…be filled with the Spirit, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts.”

The early church worshiped God together, harmoniously, by listening to the Word and praising through song. I wonder what would have happened if that early church acted like some of our church congregations do today. Would the story go something like this……..

“Wow Peter! That was a powerful sermon you just preached. We have enough new converts to start a church,” Matthias said.

All the believers agreed.

“Yes, they said in unison. Let’s start a church. Peter, you can be our preacher. You can teach us all about Jesus. We can praise God together through our singing too.”

And so the first church was birthed.

But it didn’t go quite the way Peter envisioned it would go. After a little while dissension grew within the church family. The people began to disagree over what kind of songs should be sung. Some wanted praise songs. Some only wanted to sing hymns. Others wanted a combination of both.

And so the church was divided.

Peter spent much time in prayer trying to figure this all out. “God what am I to do with these people. They all want to sing “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”, but no-one wants to do so in harmony with each other. We can’t have half the church singing a peppy praise tune and the other half singing a slow version of this song. There is no harmony in that. What am I to do? I can’t let your church fail and the message of Jesus the Messiah be destroyed just because the congregation can’t agree on songs to sing.”

Peter cried out to his Father.

He wept.

He pleaded.

Yet he didn’t seem to get a definitive answer from God.

One day as he was walking through the church building he heard a new member of his congregation singing. He thought her name was Lauren Daigle. She was singing the most beautiful rendition of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” A combination of praise tune and old-fashioned hymn. It was beautiful. He quietly listened as she continued singing and playing her harp.

“This is what I’m talking about,” whispered Peter. “The old mixed in with the new. Now this is harmony.”

When she finished her song Peter approached her. “Hi Lauren. That song was absolutely beautiful.”

“Thank you Pastor Peter. I wrote it myself.”

“Lauren, do you think you could help our congregation integrate these two styles of music into our worship? I’m sure you are aware of the disagreement among the mass when it comes to style of music.”

“Yes,” laughed Lauren. “It’s pretty evident. I’d be happy to help you. Would you mind if I selected a few from the congregation to form a praise team? I think having a praise team leading the congregation would be of great help.”

“You go girl!” Replied Peter.

Lauren asked a dozen people if they would join her in this effort. They all agreed heartily. She scheduled a night for practice. They showed up excited to see what a new song, combining two styles of music, would sound like and how it might work in their new church.

They all loved it.

Sunday morning Peter opened the service with prayer. “Father we gather to worship you today and share the Good News about Jesus. We offer our praise to you. Receive it with joy. In the name of your Son I pray, amen.”

Peter continued, “We have a new song for you this morning. I think you will like it. It combines an old hymn with a more modern praise tune.

Peter could hear some groans in the congregation, but he ignored them.

“Lauren, please come and introduce the song to us.”

As the song unfolded, Peter could sense the church singing in harmony with one another, truly praising the Lord. Indeed, their hearts were crying “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” the only place where true harmony exists.

You can hear this song by Lauren by going to
Lauren Daigle ~ Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Philippa Geaney 
11/11/22
Interesting piece. And it is a beautiful worship song.
But how clearly we unhamonious Christian's attitudes can be. Don't we have all week to worship the Lord in the melody we prefer and then cherish being a part of the body of Spirit led believers on Sunday- no matter the choice of melody?
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
11/15/22
This is an interesting take on the topic. It's definitely thought-provoking, which I think is always good. I think you could expand even more on how Peter would handle a modern church. Music differences is the least problem I see in modern churches. It was hard to follow at times because you were speaking of present church but used a past tense. Perhaps a future or present tense might've made it easier to follow. Also be careful when using ellipses. There should only be three dots with no spaces except when it's at end of sentence, then it could have 4 with one space like this... .) Overall, I think you did a nice job writing on topic, delivering a clear message, and writing an interesting story.