Step Sing, Worship, and How You Really Just Had to Be There

If you’re in Birmingham this month, you might be wondering why all Samford students look like they haven’t slept in days, have hoarse voices, and seemingly forgot the meaning of the word hygiene.  The answer is simple – a university-wide singing and dancing competition has taken over their lives and become their sole passion for these three weeks. 

Photo by: Sarah Waller

This is my second year participating in step sing, and it’s also my second year trying to explain logically to outsiders how over 1,000 students look forward to these three weeks of singing and dancing more than they anticipate their Birthdays, or Christmas, or possibly even spring break.  When I attempted to explain step sing to the high school students I work with, or to my middle aged boss in a town thirty minutes from Samford, I found that step sing is one of those “You really just had to be there” moments.  We give up on explaining ourselves because we don’t think it’s possible for others to understand this level of passion for something like step sing.  And then I realized that this isn’t the only time that we allow this to happen.

Every Sunday morning of my college career, I see the 10am mass-exodus of Samford students as they leave to attend their respective churches.  After the service, they return to the caf where all that they can tell me about their morning is “There was a really moving moment” or “the music chosen this week really captured the message” or even “the pastor’s message was really good.”  Later in the week, I’m reminded constantly by classmates and friends of how awesome their small groups and disciple groups are, but the description of these groups ends there.  “They just really get it,” or “I just feel really called to love on (only) this group of girls right now.”  If it was so moving, so accurate, so good – why can’t you share it with me?  Every Sunday, I would come back from mass to hear about how I missed out on all these “You had to be there” moments.

If the divinely inspired authors of the Gospel just wrote “Jesus did some great stuff, but you really just had to be there” where would we be today?  What would Christianity be?  Would it even exist?

We, as Samford students, get so wrapped up in our own personal experiences and in the memories we’ve made with our own respective Step Sing groups that we think it would be impossible for an outsider to understand.  We, as church members, or small group members, or even as ministry teams get so wrapped up in what happened in our own communities that we can’t share this with the outside community.  “You had to be there” - but we’re called as a body to spread these moments outside of the communities that were already there.

How does your greater surrounding community know your church?  The same way that our surrounding community knows step sing.  Our neighbors know us by our traffic.  Charities we’ve chosen to work with know us by our service.  Our friends and co-workers know the gist of what we do - but they don’t understand the enthusiasm.  They know that in step sing, we sing and dance and compete for an otherwise meaningless title.  They know that in our churches/small groups/ministries that we sit around and talk about God, or sing about God, or paint, or dance, or serve, or drink about God – but they don’t understand the message of God that we’ve been equipped to spread.

Staying tied to a community is important, but what we learn in these communities is more important, and sharing what we’ve learned in a sense of love and communion with those outside our comfort zones is most necessary. In step sing, I’m learning how to spend three weeks supporting a random group of girls, many that I’ve never met before, knowing that many will graduate in a few months.  I’m also learning some pretty sick dance moves.  These relationships are important, and so are these dance moves, but these lessons in teamwork, patience, and grace that we unknowingly learn during this time will last longer than this season of song and dance, and will better all of my future relationships and team efforts.  I’ll be sharing these lessons of teamwork and patience with everyone I meet for the rest of my life.  I’ve pulled out the dance moves and songs from previous shows as party tricks and ice breakers more times than I can count.  These lessons are nothing unless we share them.

 Likewise, our church/small group/ministry’s purpose should be to support and equip us to go out to those who don’t already understand God’s story, and our story, and any story, rather than encouraging us to only meet with each other.  If we’re speaking with people inside our churches about the Gospel more often than we’re bringing the Gospel to those outside of ourselves, then we’re not succeeding in our mission to advance the Kingdom.  Our Christian walk leads nowhere until we share it.

So go.  Go in peace.  Go in peace to love and to serve.  To love and to share.  To spread the Kingdom of God to all the ends of the earth.