Come Explore Your Faith Through Hymns 
with Our Own David Styers During
Vacation Bible School

Having grown up Southern Baptist, I joke that I learned to sing before I learned to talk!  We handled the white Broadman hymnals with gold lettering in the pews more than their neighboring Holy Bible counterpart.  And the Minister of Music was probably even more respected than the Senior Pastor!
 
Although there are some forms of worship (and whole denominations) that do not use music at all, words set to music can be a powerful teacher and reminder in the church of our theology and faith.  Even the Fonz understood the power of song when he helped Potsie not quit school but get an A+ in his college anatomy course on the TV show Happy Days with the song “Pumps Your Blood.”
 
The theme of our Vacation Bible School the end of the month is “I Love to Tell the Story,” and many of the faithful have for centuries loved to tell the story of God from Gregorian chant to contemporary gospel.  (Some even more than others – Fanny Crosby is credited with writing more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs alone!)  Just like the visual story told by stain glass windows, we sing the aural bible stories of old and what Jesus means to us today.  Personally, I know in some of my own darkest times that singing the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul” quietly to myself has provided the strength to face “whatever my lot.”
 
So as we prepare as a community of faith for you to share your story of how you’ve experienced Jesus’ love in your own life, think about the hymns and songs that have touched you, that you recall fondly from childhood, and bring them to our evening worship where we’ll take audience requests for the music.  And wherever you are, keep singing!