Sunday at Ihop KC is unlike any other day of the week.
Sunday is amateur day. And by amateur I mean all those on worship teams who
rarely get a chance to lead. Now let’s be clear: An amateur at IHOP is probably
more talented than most worship leaders around the country. At IHOP one could
be sitting back row as the back up singer and still have led worship at their
home church for several years. If you spend enough time here you will see a
drummer who plays bass, then guitar, then piano and eventually they will be
leading worship. This is just how it goes. The talent pool in this place is
insane.
So Sunday is my favorite because anything can happen. And it
usually does. I have a favorite drummer here. I first noticed him two years ago
beating the drums, wearing a John Deere hat. I began to refer to him as
“trucker drummer.” He honestly looks like Dave Grohl and just might be related.
When I did sound at Southlands it was Trucker Drummer who taught me how to make
a drum kit pop. I watched him and learned his set up and his sound settings. So
if you liked my sound it was trucker drummer who gets the credit. And if you
didn’t like it: still trucker drummer.
Last night trucker drummer got one hour, in front, on
acoustic. Now this is not the first time he has done this. But last night, oh
last night he played his acoustic with a twang and he sang old time hymns and I
worshipped before my God who used to pursue me every Sunday morning as we sang
these songs.
Church: three songs, announcements, sermon, alter call for
the lost, exit song, shake the preacher’s hand on the way out the door. I look back now and just smile, just
think about how much He loved me, even then, when I was young and stupid and didn’t know much
about anything, including Him.
Oh but He is like this in that He is so kind to have trucker
drummer sing, “To God be the Glory.” Hymn 33 for those of you with a 1970’s
Baptist hymnal lying around. I sang it every Sunday for the better part of my
young life. It was Levi Price Jr’s favorite song and we sang it every week
before we went out to shake his hand. This God who loves me so much that He
reminds me that He was faithful, even then, even when I was lost, in church, in
the third row. Even then He knew. Even then He knew who I would be now so He
taught me a song so that I could hear it one day at IHOP KC on a Sunday night.
All that detail so I could look back and know He was always there, always
wooing me, always after my heart.
“To God be the
glory, great things he hath done! So loved he the world that he gave us his
Son, who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the lifegate that
all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice! Praise
the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice! O come to the Father thru Jesus
the Son, and give him the glory, great things he hath done!” Amen.
