This past summer provided a unique worship experience. I had the privilege of attending a family reunion in the Dallas area. We spent the weekend doing family stuff and had a reasonably enjoyable time. My family is rather interesting so any time we get together you never know what might happen. A weekend of visiting, eating and generally catching up with one another gave way to Sunday.

Sundays are important in this family. We are church people. Sunday is the day for church so preparations were made for us to worship. Personally I was hoping for an upper room but that didn’t happen. My family gathered in the Bluebonnet Room of the Holiday Inn where we were staying. Shortly after nine-thirty in the morning we were all set to begin singing when an oriental voice from the room on our right started a chant accompanied by a tambourine. It seemed we would have competition this morning.

You need to know that my family can sing. Thirty to forty of us sound better then most churches over 200. So sing we did and easily over came the chanting Christians next door. Somewhere in the middle of our second song I heard the band crank up on our right. By the time we finished that song we were covered in contemporary praise music accompanied by very enthusiastic band. Again our accapella prowess had been challenged and we sang all the louder. No band would drown us out.

So dueling worship lasted for over an hour. As I sat trying to worship a mental picture kept coming to mind. It was an unbeliever walking down the hall that was outside these three rooms wondering what in the world all this meant. What were we “Christians” teaching with our dueling worship?

Now I believe in Accapella music but I also believe we need to live good theology as well as think it and the theology we Christian lived that morning was no so good. I wonder when the unity of the Body will really start to matter?