John VanLeeuwen

So what is worshipping in spirit and thruth? obviously not at the church visited in the article above! Our church SINGS, but as mentioned above, if it is unfamiliar, not so much. Some contemporary songs are obviously written for performance and commercial reasons, the words can be just fine, but singing these songs can be problematic for all and especially for the "older" generation. So, since the words may be right and fitting the theme of the service, but many mumble along or just wait out the song are we worshipping in spirit and thruth? Or are we doing it when the songs, old and new alike, are well known, singable etc. and the roof shingles of the church are ratteling from the pure joy of it rising up to the heavens? God has given us things of any kind to enjoy and to worship Him with them, my thinking is that when the congregation "likes" that service He is frowning on the offering to Him because, heavens forbid, they do it because THEY like these songs, I presume that that "worship offering" sent up is probably pretty fragant to Him.

Alright already, the organ, in it's most primitive form was around for a few hundred years before Jesus walked on earth, Hydraulus, the guitar as it is today was not around when the organ developed into the equivalent of the industrial revolution a hundred or so years before Bach. This whole discussion is discounting the abilities of a good pipe organ played by a good organist. (and I am not such a good one) A celtic feel needs a flute, it's got it, granted even though it is real wind blowing in the pipe, besides including the vibrato it can not emulate a live flute player who can go louder or softer, but it has the swell pedals to do a bit of it. So our technical electronic marvels of to day can fake it pretty good, and I am actually enjoying it too. I get the distinct feeling that like some years ago, the idea that the organ is the fault of declining membership, never mind that no matter what music we play, in the hall after church with coffee in hand no one speaks to strangers that have entered, specially when they look or smell different. Lately our minister has preached the fact that the building is not the church, the members are, so give me a church that only sings the 150 Genevan Psalms, with that dreadful organ, (of course you have already figured out that i am an organ enthusiast)  and have people greet and accept me, compare it to the church with the greatest band and people of the opposite attitude, dudes, people love, not being relevant, is what it's at, so work together in church, there are plenty of organ loving congregants left who will accept the new, don't dump on the traditional, meet and live God's love together would you! Sorry, I do get exited about this sometimes, hope you have some calming words for me.

How about asking us oldies (I am almost 65) what games we played when we were young, at the same time we, old and young can connect with each other, I am pretty sure that many a church has this "condition" of being disconnected. The medical industry is pretty good at developing designer drugs for any phantom disease imaginable, maybe we can develop or reintroduce old games for new people, keep in mind that there might be the possibility that it is going to be physical since we didn't have electronic stuff around. How about running a string across the canal, tie a button to it, pin it to the window frame of a living room window, go lay behind the dike and nock, lot's of fun. (You would think that I grew up in Holland). Oh my, a SAINT like me wouldn't have done something like that would I, let's go!

Hi Marcel, sorry for the delay, I am getting lost on the website and it takes some time to find what I am looking for. So, this string across the canal?, I was afraid you were going to ask, mischief in our younger days, pestering the town folks a bit, the good thing was that we never damaged property or injured anyone. The button on the end would tick on the window when we pulled the string and the person in the house would come and see, nothing and again, he came after us but he had to walk to the bridge up the road to get at us, we were long gone, so, not a good game for the church I guess. A physical game we played in school we called "scissors" would work for 8 - 10 year old kids, we did it in the town square, no cars around in those days, all the kids are in the square, one is "it" and tries to touch another kid, now there are two, holding hands. They try to catch some one else who is than added to the scissor which is getting longer each time someone is caught, every one is running around trying to avoid the scissor which eventually starts to encircle groups of kids (depending on how many are playing of course), we had lots of fun doing that                                                                                                                                                

Another favourite was I'll put it in Dutch, you have to find a way to put it in English "Bok, Bok, hoeveel horens op je kop?", the bok being a male goat or deer, the question being asked from the goat is how many horns there are on it's head (kop).  The game starts with one boy or girl being the goat, they are standing bend over by a railing or table and someone jumps on it's back sticks up a number of fingers and asks the goat how many horns it has on it's head, if guessed wrong the next person jumps on and asks the same, untill the goat guesses the right number, the one sitting on its back now stands behind the goat, bend over, holding on to the goat. The next person now has to jump on the second goat and must try to climb to the first one, again asking the question, if guessed right, on to the line he or she goes. The longer the line the more difficult it is to get to the front to ask the question, the boys even had the opportunity to wiggle and shake in order to try to throw off the one climbing over them, pretty interesting to see what everyone tries to do to reach or prevent someone from reaching the front goat.

Then one we did in the gym, I have done it with the kids at the Christian school here is called "Raisins in the pan, any number can play, the big circle in the middle, which most gymnasiums have I think would be the pan, one part of the middle line would be the handle of the pan, this line can not be crossed going either way. One kid is chosen to be the baker, he/she is allowed to run everywhere in the gymnasium, all the others are the raisins, they can run everywhere except over the pan's handle and in the pan. The baker touches  a raisin, and it goes in the pan for the remainder of the game which ends when all raisins are caught.

There you have three Dutch games I played during the mid 1950s, ready for one more mischief story?

My parents ad a grocery/fabric store, through our village runs a canal and there are three bridges, two pedestrian on for traffic which was a draw bridge. When we sold enough fabric we would have an empty cardboard tube about 3 feet long, 2" in diameter, now the bridge keeper, hired by the town would sit at home about 250 feet or so away from the bridge and if a boat would come by they would blow their horn and he would come out, go to the bridge, lower the boom to stop traffic and manually wind up the road bed of the bridge, the boat would go trough, put money in the little bag on a pole. like the collection bags we used to have, the bridge comes down, pole goes up and life goes on, he returns to his house and waits for the next boat, this happened frequently. We would go to the next bridge, use the tube as a horn, since this man was so accustomed to doing it, he wouldn't even look, go through the motions up to and including putting the collection bag out, no boat! How come they let me still play the organ in church? I don't know, all the best with the games.

Marcel, two more indoor ones, one is about trust I would think.

Have a strong board about 3 feet long, put it on two hymnbooks or bibles (for a strong foundation!) so that two strong boys one on each side can lift it. Another kid stands in front of it, facing the board then bring in someone who has not seen what is going on and tell them that they have to stand on the board, put their hands on the shoulder of the boy standing in front of him/her and tell her that she will be lifted up until she touches the ceiling with her head, then she has to jump of, oh, and she/he has to do that blindfolded. Than the two boys on the sides will lift the board a couple of inches, shaking the board a bit like it is a heavy lift, the one standing in front with the girl's/boy's hands on his shoulder starts to go through his knees at the same time the board is lifted, giving the impression that the board is getting lifted high. Some one tall enough holding a heavy book will touch the top of the head of the one standing of the board, who is then told to jump of, it's scary! even though they are only a few inches from the floor.

Another favourite birthday game was, to have some people out of the room, put up some bottles in a row, far enough apart so that you can step over and in between them, then bring one of the kids from the other room and tell them that they have to step over the bottles without knocking them down, they can have a practice run, after which of course they will be blind folded, put in front of the bottles, who are now taken away, then watch them carefully step over nothing.

Oh boy!, is that old lady right or what, being an always been a Christian guy, having doubts along the way of course, if not, does one really search for truth? Now, finally getting to be mature,(even though I have trouble convincing any one I know), you know, have a grand child, almost of retirement age, involved in several things in the church, I consider myself to be a Microburst Christian. From my early school days in Holland where we had to remember the words of a Psalm every week, which was agony to me, and was forgotten as soon as class was done, save for another week, knowing the order of all the books in the Bible, learned them several times, but like the main roads in the city I visit sometimes, the rest does not stay with me. So was remembering names, other that those of the village people, then I began playing the organ and for about 48 years I have been behind the console accompanying the hymns, no multi tasking, play, don't sing along, so I know a lot of first lines, of the first stanzas, the tune that goes with. The Bible? yes I know quite a bit of what the Bible says, but it is mostly, it says somewhere in the Bible........ I believe in my Saviour, His word and try to live by it, but despite that and being reformed, knowing about Grace, do I know Him, really? That question is my biggest hang up I think.