Michael Row

So Sunday is tomorrow and I, like most of my pastor friends, have had to become an expert on virtual church.  Sadly, I am not sure that I have reached the "expert" level.  For the most part, it is just me and a camera.  We also got started late, which was my fault.  I really wanted to have church in person and began climbing the ol' learning curve on Thursday.  The lifeblood of a small church and a small church pastor is being together in 3D, able to look each other in the eye and talk over paper cups of bad coffee.  Man, I miss that.  Yet it hasn't even been a week.

This Sunday I pre-recorded a "sermon" and a "service".  The whole arrangement is under 30 minutes.  I am using the "premier" function so that--if I set it up right--I can sit and watch the sermon with my virtual congregation. There is a comment function that I plan to use for that purpose. Then to Zoom.  As many of you know, that is a meeting app being re-purposed for pretty much everything by pretty much everybody. We are going to attempt a "virtual coffee hour". It is the part I am looking forward to. It could also be chaos. It is a first attempt.  There will be more attempts in the future.

I hope it goes well. As I look at the service, I can see a dozen things that I could do differently and better if I had the time. This is a trying and weird period in church life  It feels like each small congregation is its own tough rock in the midst of the storm.  I hope that we weather it well.

Our hymn is "Michael Row the Boat Ashore."  It fits with the Bible reading, which is about Jesus calming the storm.  Here are the words to the hymn.  When it is all over, maybe I will post an update here and a video of me and my son Eamon playing it, hoping that somewhere someone is singing.

If you would like to sing with us, the short and no doubt "not quite as good as it could be" service can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkeY1iSCFMM.  We are starting at 10am sharp.  It is in Youtube's hands now

Michael Row

Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah!
​Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah!

The river Jordan is chilly and cold, hallelujah!
Chills the body but not the soul, hallelujah!

Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah!
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah!

The river Jordan is deep and wide, hallelujah!
Milk and honey on the other side, hallelujah!

Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah!
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah!

Sister help to trim the sails, hallelujah!
Sister help to trim the sails, hallelujah!

Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah!
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah!

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