I’ve been in church my whole life.  For the past three years I have traveled the country, finding myself in several different types of churches and along with that, been involved several different musical styles of worship.  But there’s still one thing that stands out to me every time it happens.

Now, I’m not sure if you are one of these people, and if you are I’m hoping that you can explain something to me.  If not, maybe you can see where I am coming from.  What I’m talking about is the congregational background singer.  You’ve hear of them?  Or maybe you’ve heard them?

I don’t know what goes on inside these people but they are the ones that are singing words that aren’t on the screen.  They aren’t what the worship leader is singing, but it sounds suspiciously like something you might hear a background vocal singer bust out on a Tomlin record.

Now this is beyond the occasional harmony.  This is the full on “singing other words that lead up to a chorus” or something like that.  Maybe singing the chorus while everyone else is singing the verse, or adding words to the end of a verse or something.  You know what I mean don’t you?  Now, I’m not saying that this person isn’t worshiping, and I’m not saying that everyone needs to sing the same exact thing and leave no room for God and all that.  I’m just simply asking is where does that come from?  

Now I might offend someone with this, but I personally can’t help but feel like a lot of that is simply to draw attention to ones self rather than join in with the congregational singing.  Am I wrong?  It just seems like there’s no reason for the added lyrics or the over singing that goes on most of the time.  

What do you think?   Do you know the folks?  Am I off here?

Last night Phil and I met about internet stuff for a while and after were able to catch another Leeland show at the Mercy Lounge.  And once again they blew the place up.  Up until this week I hadn’t seen them live at all and over the past few days I have not only seen them play, but gotten to hang out quite a bit with the guys, and it’s been cool to get to know them and their family.  Last night I was introduced to Leeland and Jack’s parents right before they went on to play.  In the short time that I talked to them, they were exactly what you would expect them to be like.  Because my memory is garbage their names escape me, but they were absolutely some of the nicest people I have met all week.  

What was really neat to see was during the show both of them stood side stage and watched intently on every word and every note that their sons were singing and playing.  I noticed their mom, with her hands in the air worshiping, and occasionally wiping tears away while Leeland spoke between songs.  It was a neat moment, and no wonder they are such neat guys.  It’s obvious that they would be proud, but it was a cool thing to see.

After the show we hung out a bit more and at that point I was re-introduced to Leeland and Jack’s mom as “the blog guy”.  She mentioned that they had been talking about me for a couple days and then called me a geek.  ”I never would have thought by looking at you that you were a geek, but you are.” she told me.  How do you respond to that?  ”I guess I am a little”, I said.  Then she said she liked my hair.  I said I liked hers and realized that I was probably too tired to be talking out loud.

Anyway, we had a great time.  Got home later than I intended again and now I’ve got one more day.  After that I will try to reintroduce myself to my wife, and get back to normal.  Whatever that is.