It takes courage to be a church pianist, with a willingness to just step right out there and do your thing. Playing with others is a little easier, as you can depend on others to fill in any gaps during page turns, or pages falling off the stand or, heaven forbid, total confusion about what song you’re even doing. But hesitations can be disastrous when you are the only musician accompanying the entire congregation.
One Sunday, a long time ago, in a fairly small church, with only me playing, we were singing a simple praise song that had two verses. We sang this song often: sometimes we would sing the whole song, and sometimes we wouldn’t. That particular day, I didn’t have any notes written down about what we had planned to do. But I just started out, played the intro, and we went into the first verse. The congregation sang along, and we got near the end, but the music minister gave me no indication of what to do next. I figured I’d just keep going and see what happened.
I had forgotten that there were two measures of solo accompaniment between the verses.
I started playing those measures, but nobody was singing. I glanced up at the music minister, but he was just looking out toward the congregation. I vaguely remembered discussing that we were only going to do one verse today? I felt a blush coming on, and decided I’d just pretend I had added a nice little ending, and stopped at an appropriate tonic chord. Then, finally, the music minister looked at me. His eyebrows were raised. I just stared back at him.
“Are we not doing the next verse?” he asked.
I told you this was a small church. We weren’t very formal most of the time. I returned a sheepish smile, snapped my hands back up to the piano, and resumed playing. There were a few giggles, but we finished the second verse and moved right along to the rest of the service.
The lesson I learned: don’t be afraid to step out first, by yourself, and do what must be done! You may be the only one taking action, but that doesn’t mean you’re wrong. Trust God, stand on the foundation you’ve built with Him, and let your light shine!
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16