When worship is fun

O
n Sunday night, the Church on the Hill hosted a concert event by The Ferguson Family. With parents Jim and Deanna Ferguson heading up the beautiful musical family, they and their seven kids brought us to worship and give glory to God. The atmosphere was perfect for this type of concert. However, I don’t feel I can get away with calling them kids. These seven young men and women were professional, as well as talented, and most of them are already adults. Jim and Deanna did not sing any solos, but they did give time for each of their children to be featured. To a person, they had terrific musical talent, as well as great respect for why they were there and for whom they were there. Musical instruments were in constant use from upright bass to mandolin to banjo and even a ukulele. I don’t want to try and pick out a weak link in this family, because that would not be possible. This family was talented with beautiful voices and sang with pleasant and, at times, intricate harmonies. For the most part, the concert consisted of old standard hymns, which I adore. You can’t top the message and music of those songs. However, there was nothing old about their arrangements. The Fergusons put their unique and skillful spin on each number. 
At times, the people in the congregations quietly sang along with them as they cherished these well-loved songs. I know I couldn’t help myself. Many times, I found myself singing along with the bass parts. I’m going out on a limb here because I do have something in the negative to say about the average gospel event. But, a contrast is easy between this family and other groups I’ve heard in the past. You see, when I lived in Texas, I was a member of a couple of gospel music associations. As such, I often went to lengthy gospel events all over South Texas and along the coastal bend. Some of these events lasted hours, and a couple of times a year they went on for more than one day. By the end of these events, I was exhausted. This exhaustion is not just because of length or miles driven either. Some of the groups involved, while great people with lots of love for God and their fellow musicians, were frankly not very good. I’m sorry to say that this was often the norm. It was rare that a group or solo act was skilled in music. Please understand, I’m not trying to put anyone down. It’s just that over the past 10 or 12 years I’ve developed a lack of enthusiasm for most gospel events and secular garage bands as well. Many of them are just not musicians or singers. I can’t help my attitude here. I went to college to study music, and both of my parents were highly trained musicians. It was part of my family and who I am as an individual. So forgive me for saying this, but most gospel music needs to be performed a lot better than it currently is. I don’t know why, but I’m going to take a guess. I think it’s because many who get into gospel music feel it’s just making a joyful noise to the Lord, and you don’t need anything else. The general feeling I get is that often groups show up to a concert event, and then they decide what they are going to sing that night.  I’m sorry if I’m stepping on toes, but that is not good enough. If we want to attract people to God and the things of God, then I think they should be attractive to begin with, and that takes practice. None of these problems were evident in any way with The Ferguson Family. They were professional down the line, and it was clear that they spent hours practicing each song. This group is a standard by which others should look to and learn from, and I include myself. I was thoroughly impressed with each performance. On the instruments, they were not just competent but precise. With one song, the seven kids split into two groups, each with a stringed instrument in hand. They somehow tangled into each other so that they were fingering another instrument while still plucking and strumming the one they held, and it was fantastic. The skill this takes is beyond most musicians, for you not only had to have one hand doing the rhythms and patterns of the instrument you were holding onto, but you also had to have your other hand fingering the notes and chords of somebody else’s instrument. They also had to maintain balance and poise while wrapped around a sibling to reach the other’s instrument. This performance was fun, as well as worship. And I think it is that aspect of this concert I’ll be able to take with me for a long time. I’ve always thought worship should be fun. All too often, we go to church and go through the traditions involved and not much more. This same way of doing things ends up feeling dry and stiff. If that’s what a person needs to worship, I’ll not knock that. But for me, I’ve never understood why worship and fun seem to be mutually exclusive ideas for a lot of people. They don’t need to be, just like gospel music and excellent musicianship can be right partners as well. 
The Ferguson Family is a name I’ll be looking for in the future. Because they ticked off all my boxes with big, bold checkmarks for what I want to see and hear at these types of events. One other thing. This concert lasted for about an hour and a half. After that amount of time, I often find myself looking at the time and wondering how much longer we have to sit here and put up with this. There is a humble and attractive quality about a group or an individual who reasons that 90 minutes is just about the right time at most concerts of this type. Leave the audience wanting more. That’s how I view it. The Fergusons did just that. After the concert, the church held a pie social, with pies lined up for what seemed like miles. And everyone who came must have been famished because I saw very little left after it was over. The Ferguson Family also had a couple of tables where they displayed and sold some of the crafts the family makes, and even here you could see a vast amount of care and skill in the offering. Connie and I had a great night. This event is what these concerts should be. The Fergusons are going into the studio in the future. They will record their first CD, and I, for one, am going to be on the lookout. I don’t buy many CDs, but I will buy this one. I want to end this column with an appeal to groups and soloists in the area. One of the reasons this concert was a complete success, in my opinion, is the preparation that went into it. It takes effort and practice to be competent in any endeavor we do. I’m as lazy as they come in a lot of ways. But not with music, and especially not when it comes to music that is meant to honor Jesus Christ, my lord and savior. I’m thinking of a verse in Psalm 81:2, where it says, “Take a psalm and bring hither the timbrel the pleasant harp with the psaltery.” The keyword here, for me, is “pleasant.” The Fergusons made the worship service pleasant. There is no denying this, and it does not happen by accident. They worked at it. How about the rest of us? Can we also work and practice hard to make other events as pleasant? I hope so.