At age seven, I began singing in the Junior Choir of the same Atlanta church where my Great-great grandmother Clifford sang in the adult choir many years before.  We were traditional.  The choristers wore black robes with white “angel wing” overlays.  Like all the other little girls, I had to wear a small yarmulke-like black “cap” on my head and I can still remember how many bobby pins were squished into my scalp to hold it on!  The 1940 Hymnal was our only resource for songs and I can count on two hands the number of hymns that our church sang on a regular basis.  Whether it was “Holy, holy, holy,” “The Church’s One Foundation,” “Fairest Lord Jesus,” or any of the others, I could (and still can) sing all the verses of these familiar favorites without even looking at the book.

My congregation hired a young priest named Charlie Sumner, who ushered in the 1970s by introducing a “folk mass” (with a blue jean dress code) as a once a month alternative worship experience for the youth of our multi-generational, inner city, traditional congregation.  Charlie wanted us to stay connected to the church and he knew that music was a key way to keep that connection.  “They’ll know we are Christians by our Love” and “Pass it On” were mainstays of this liturgy that always ended with a live performance of Neil Diamond’s “Brother Love,” complete with a faithful rendering of the evangelistic preacher’s fervor.

I was exposed to a new genre of music when I arrived as a freshman at Furman University in Greenville, SC.  Called “Christian” music, everyone on my hall was captivated by one particular album’s uplifting lyrics and “be bop” tunes.  A girl who lived in our dorm had recorded it in Nashville, and it was sometimes all you heard through the un-air conditioned, open dorm windows on the women’s end of campus.  She would attend classes with us during the week and often would fly back to Nashville accompanied by her Dorm Mother chaperone on the weekends and other times would sing in Student Union sponsored Talent Shows and Coffee Houses.  We never missed an opportunity to hear her, always spiritually moved by her music and firmly believing that someday she would become famous.  That she did.  Two weeks ago, I sat in Ovens Auditorium and listened to Amy Grant perform once again.  With tears coursing down my cheeks, pondering all that has happened in my life and in the life of the church in my years since college, I heard her once again sing the refrain from the title song on her second album that literally changed my spiritual life forever:  “She's got her Father's eyes, her Father's eyes; eyes that find the good in things, when good is not around….”

“Good church music” leads to an experience and encounter with the risen Jesus.  Because of this, and because Church of the Beloved believes that we are called to imitate Jesus by meeting people in their cultural contexts, we choose whatever musical selection, no matter the style, genre or century written, that will draw people closer to God.  This freedom, and the talent of Beloved’s musicians, allows our Worship Team to select music from literally anywhere, utilizing a range of music from ancient and traditional hymns to postmodern secular compositions.  The goal of the music selected for worship is always to move us spiritually closer to Jesus; to help us each see and love the world with our Father’s eyes.

This Sunday, we will host the Beloved Band’s first CD release party after the 9:30am worship celebration; Looking Through Windows will be available for purchase from our enthusiastic band members, who I’m sure will even add their autographs to the cover if you desire!  Dan Hood, Shana Blake, Scott McCloud, Scotti Montagnino and Anne Schmidt gave of their time and energy and sacrificially poured out their hearts and souls into this project, that includes both traditional hymns and new compositions from Beloved’s repertoire, with an inspirational result that can only be described as “good church music.”  My journey was changed forever by the music of My Father’s Eyes.  May our band’s musical gift be a window that leads many more to gaze into the Beloved’s loving eyes.