The making of a music minister

I've always been proud of my family. I think I was brought up in the best home a person would ever dream of being brought up in. We weren't wealthy by any means, in fact, we were always barely scraping by. If there is one thing I've learned in this old world it is that money and riches aren't worth a hill of beans if you ain't got love. We had plenty of love in my family. We weren't big on hugging or kissing or even saying I love you when I was growing up but there was never any question that we loved each other. I didn't realize it back then but I know it now, the reason we had such love was because we had Jesus in our lives.

We are "church people" through and through. I don't mean that we are religious zealots but that we are people that love God and love the things of God. We love going to His church, we love reading and preaching His Word, and we love singing songs about Him. I come from a long line of great singers. Both of my grandfathers were excellent bass singers. Both of my grandmothers could sing. Granny Spencer played the piano better than anybody you'd ever want to hear and never had a lesson in her life. Both of my parents sing and both of my sisters were blessed with great singing voices and piano playing skills. I've got aunts and uncles stretched across the entire United States and the whole bunch of us can sing or play instruments. I'm proud of that.

I was thinking today about all of the wonderful singing I grew up with. Our home was always filled with music. We had one of those big console RCA stereos with AM/FM and record player. My parents had a huge collection of 33 RPM records, everything from the Chuck Wagon Gang, The Carter Family, Naomi and the Segos, to Hank Snow, Michael Parks, and Johnny Cash. We would sit in our tiny living room and listen to those records and sing along with them. My dad would play the guitar and my sisters would play the piano. As my sisters and I grew older and developed voices that were able to sing parts, we each would learn a part and sing together. My mother had some old song books and we would sing those old Chuck Wagon Gang songs and try our best to imitate them.

Back in the mid-late 1990's, my family all got together and gathered around the piano with the old red back Church Hymnal and a tape recorder. We sang for hours and recorded some of our favorite songs. I uploaded them all today to the Internet (listen to them here) so I could share them with others. I love listening to those old songs. It makes me feel young again and makes me appreciate the great family I was blessed with. My older sister, Pam, is no longer with us and my mother no longer has a piano in her house either. I still have the old memories in my head though and no one can take them away from me.

I never intended on being a "Minister of Music," I was sorta volunteered into the position one time and it just stuck with me. I'm a bass singer and cannot sing very high at all. My aunt Barbara plays the piano for me and lowers all of the songs so I can lead them. I often have people tell me that I do a wonderful job leading. It always embarrasses me because I feel that I do terrible. I hate to hear myself sing when I'm leading. One thing I do love about leading the music though is seeing how God's Spirit moves among the people during Worship. There's not a better feeling in the world.