A fellow pastor posted this anecdote online. “The mother of a four-year-old boy who attends worship virtually said she didn’t think he paid attention as he was usually playing with his trains and trucks during worship. She asked him what he knows about Jesus and he began singing (to the tune “We shall Overcome”): ‘Jesus Christ has died. Jesus Christ is risen. Jesus Christ will come again. Oh deep in my heart, I do believe, that Jesus Christ will come again.’ OK then.”

I can relate to that story. Years ago I was observing a congregation during worship. In the first row  a boy, maybe eight-years-old, was enthusiastically singing the service without a hymnal or bulletin (no screens in those days). In fact, he was singing the pastor’s parts as well as the congregation’s. That’s the power liturgical music has on young people. It gets in their heads and their hearts almost without effort.

Acts 16:25 reports that Paul and Silas sang hymns while they were in prison. Were there Christian hymns in those days? Most Biblical scholars think so. Philippians 2:5-11 probably was a hymn that Paul put into his letter. Maybe the Philippians sang it (from memory, of course). How could anyone sing that? Well, I sang part of it as a kid. Every Lent we sang “Christ hath humbled himself, and become obedient unto death: even the death of the cross.” I can still sing it from memory.

What church songs did you learn in your childhood that got inside you and are stuck in your memory?

Read Philippians 2:5-11 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne