Worship Bloopers

I'm sure you have seen "America's Funniest Home Videos on the ABC network.  Crazy things can happen when the video cam is switched on.  The same goes for worship services with special needs children but without the video cams.  We expect bloopers to occur and many times they do.    Bloopers help us remember that the children are always listening.  They are very aware of what we are saying.  They don't always share their thoughts with us.  When they do, their sudden bursts of interaction are relished.  Here are a few that come to mind:

We had spent a few hours planning and transforming our chapel room so that it looked like a 1st century boat on the Sea of Galilee.  We were going to story one of Jesus' miracles where the disciples filled their nets and 2 boats with an amazing catch of fish.  The very first boy who came in to see the converted chapel enthusastically exclaimed "I want to walk the plank!".  "Hmmmm", I thought.  Maybe our Bible story was supposed to be about Jonah.  He kind of walked the plank, didn't he?

Some of the children of Intellectual Disabilities who attend our worship services have spectacular understandings of encyclopedias!  A few months back one teenage boy decided to help us worship by mentioning the exact distance between the earth and the moon.  As a worship leader for disabled children, I am always willing to meet the children where they are interacting.  I stopped what I was talking about and informed the young lad, on my left, that coincidentally, in two days an asteroid was going to pass safely between the earth and the moon.  To begin his calculations on the subject, he naturally asked for the exact time that this was going to happen.  Not having his power of recall, I replied   "Sometime around dinner time on Tuesday".  Meanwhile, to my right side, I noticed a small-sized girl of 8 or so raise her hand.  Meekly, and in a quiet voice, she said "I want to be an astronaut".   "Good for you!" I softly cheered as we moved on with our worship service.

In our worship services, sometimes the children praise their Lord with random thoughts aloud!. Bloopers are the verses to our new songs of worship.


I was first exposed to the power of worship creativity by Herb Brokering while I attended Lutheran Theological Seminary in Columbus, Ohio.  His non-traditional thinking welcomed me to seminary.  I thrived in his classes and we shared an ability to find God's truth in the most basic of objects.   He taught me the importance of communicating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in common words, even words like "Hello", "Welcome", "Don't be worried", "It's okay" and "I'm glad you are here".   These are the transformative and redemptive words for the disabled community.  (Thanks, Herb.)

Rev. Dr. Herbert Brokering (1926-2009) also wrote the words to the following song "Earth and All Stars".  Our special needs children are not able to sing like the children in this YouTube selection.  I suspect, however, that the noises and words of my co-worshippers still reach far into the heavens. 

This is the "Worship For All" blog.   It has a heavenly ending.

Tomorrow:  "Bloop Happens"