Pilgrim of Worship 4: Awesome God

When I realized that Awesome God was not a "camp song," but a worship song, one that could be sung not only by teenagers, but college students, I was stoked. Again, Peak of the Week at Harding was transformational. By my sophomore year at Harding, Peak of the Week had outgrown it's location on campus and required the Benson Auditorium just to fit all 2000 of us.

Wednesday nights were electric. Each Wednesday evening there was an expectancy that built starting at about 4PM and climaxed when the praise team belted out the first song - not a hymn, but a song. Sometimes "special" songs and sometimes worship songs. I didn't know what to do with these new songs but sing them like I was at camp.

Ah yes, I learned about praise teams at Harding. My home church back in Minnesota had never heard about praise teams and therefore I had never heard that they should be condemned until it was far, far too late.

Later, drama was added to Peak of the Week along side the praise team. Oh man, I was hooked. I tolerated Sunday morning high church, but I longed for those Wednesday evening times. Mike Cope would bring it week after week. Relevant preaching. Who knew?

It was about this time that Free Indeed hooked up with Jerome Williams and launched the Sing a New Song series of praise and worship songs. "Hail Jesus You're My King." Couldn't get enough of it. Acappella and AVB were just launching into their newer and hip (less like the Oak Ridge Boys) format. (Believe it or not, Keith Lancaster's newest CD is titled none other than Awesome God.)

I think it was my sophomore year when my non-Church of Christ friend, Mike Foster, told me that the song Awesome God was written by a guy named Rich Mullins, and he wasn't from the Church of Christ. Not only that, but there was more to the song, the best part in fact. And when the song is sung with instruments, like it was originally meant to be sung, it is so much better.

Disillusionment dogged me badly. How could someone bound for Hell write such a great song? It was like he knew a truth about God, but was lost at the same time. I wondered what this "one song wonder", Rich Mullins was all about. I figured he got lucky.

By the end of my senior year, uhm, my first senior year, I was heavily questioning the mandatory prohibition on the use of instruments in worship. Eddie Veddar had just unleashed Pearl Jam on us and someone handed me a bootleg cassette with Christian music on it - instrumental Christian music. And wouldn't you know that it was Rich Mullins Awesome God.

It was the summer of 1991 when I switched sides. I went from acappella only to instrumental is OK. Oh, and I kept reading that one verse over and over, the one about how evil instruments are and realized that it really didn't say it. In fact, I came out of the fog and realized that every single reference to instruments (except I cor 13 clanging cymbal) in the Bible was affirmative.

What a loving and patient and Awesome God that gently released me from a ridiculous bondage. Oh, if I had only known how many layers of bandage there were. More to come.