When God speaks through music

Guest column by Verne Windham 

Every month the worship team, comprised of the ministers and some of the music people, gets together to plan our worship services at Westminster United Church of Christ. We use all the available resources we can think of to create meaningful and diverse worship experiences.  Every now and then we re-discover that one of our strongest and most essential resources is the people of Westminster.

Our recent Hymn Sing Sunday on April 17 profoundly proved that.  Not only did they suggest favorite hymns, but started giving wonderful testimony about their meaning.  The energy and focus grew and grew as we went along.  Before we knew it, an hour had passed.

Then we had the happening which was the end of the service.  I thought we were at just the right end when someone suggested “In the Bulb there is a Flower.”  This perfectly tied together the beautiful spring day and the essence of our spiritual growth.  Then there was another man…

He gently raised his hand and recounted the tale of an 18-year-old scared Second Lieutenant in Korea preparing his platoon to take out, by any means, the enemy.  He spoke of nervously approaching the hut to discern the movement in it and hearing, sung in Korean, the universally favorite children’s hymn, “Jesus Loves Me.” The Korean children’s lives and the American Soldiers’ souls were all saved by that song.

So we sang it, ending in Korean.

We are assured that “God will Provide.”  God spoke through the extraordinary people of Westminster.  As always.

Join SpokaneFAVS for a Coffee Talk forum on “Faith and Music” at 10 a.m., May at The Community Building, 35 W. Main Ave. Windham is a guest panelist.

Verne Windham

Verne Windham got his start at Spokane Public Radio 20 years ago. “I came in to complain and they hired me.” He’s now the program director, as well as the host of Morning Classical and Concert of the Week. When choosing music for Morning Classical, he likes to keep the agenda as broadly defined as possible. For Concert of the Week, he focuses on the best of recent local performances, mostly classical in nature. For many years, Windham was also the conductor of the Spokane Youth Orchestra. He enjoys gardening, his vintage car and playing French horn. He is also the choir director at Westminster United Church of Christ and is the former principal horn of the Spokane Symphony.