Right after the service this past Sunday night…I noticed my oldest grandson sitting on the front pew with an open hymnal in his lap wearing a perplexed expression.

“Whatcha doing?” I asked.   He points to the hymn title “Doxology” and says to me with a concerned look, “Grandma, this is a weird word and it’s not even one of the words in this hymn!”

Trying not to show my amusement, I explained to him what the word “Doxology” meant and how not all hymn titles are found in the lyrics but how the title will in most cases reflect the main topic of the hymn.

Across the page I noticed the hymn title “Security” and asked him what he thought that hymn was about.  He wrinkled up his face in thought and replied, “Security has to do with policemen.”    I explained it was about feeling secure in God’s arms; God’s protection.

My grandson has had such a fascination with our church hymnal since he was very young.  (He’s now almost nine and hasn’t lost interest in the hymns.)

He actually learned to read by singing through the hymns he knew from the hymnal on their 40 minute commute to church!

On Sunday afternoons, you can usually find him singing through the hymnal as his repertoire has greatly increased!

I LOVE the hymns too!  Sometimes I join in and sing along with him on Sunday afternoons.

I think I just had my most embarrassing moment as a church pianist during the morning service today!

After the music portion of the service….I usually have to make a bathroom stop and then back into the auditorium for the preaching.

The morning service had flowed a little different since it was Pastor’s anniversary Sunday.

As I was coming out of the bathroom it hit me….oh no!  I forgot to accompany the vocal special which comes right after the offertory.

I almost ran into the female vocalist who was heading to the bathroom to check on me.  I confessed my memory lapse 😉

I felt like crying…feeling so bad for the singer.  She said she had gone up to the pulpit and waited for me a few seconds.  Poor girl!

She was SO sweet and understanding!

Her vocal special would have gone SO well with the Pastor’s message too!   I was happy when Pastor had her sing at the end of the service.  The timing actually worked out because the song just re-emphasized what Pastor had preached!  Hmm…maybe I’ve started a new order of service!

Anyone else have a humorous story to share? (Of course I wasn’t feeling too humorous this morning!)

LOL!  Funniest thing happened this past Sunday morning during choir rehearsal.

This past week was a very challenging week and I wasn’t in a stable frame of mind evidently.

My son, who is our choir leader, had the choir practice “Till the Storm” from the church hymnal.   We rehearsed the middle verse…ladies would sing first half and men would join on last half of verse.  It was time for the men to join in and all singing stopped.  Something wasn’t right.  All eyes on me. Oh no!  One of the ladies looked at me with a smirk on her face and said, “You’re playing Little is Much!”  I was SO embarrassed but couldn’t resist joining in the laughter of the whole choir….including my son.

How in the world does “Little is Much” work for the melody of “Till the Storm”!?   I made it happen! 😉  Why “Little is Much”?  It was my offertory that morning and I guess the melody was on my mind. 😉

Generally on Sunday nights…Pastor has the church sing two choruses or hymns from the hymnal right before his sermon. (We don’t have a special every Sunday night).

This particular Sunday night he started talking about something else and so I thought maybe he wasn’t going to do the extra songs.

So…I began to prep my orchestra for a last minute offertory because the person lined up for offertory wasn’t able to play. (I had forgotten to check my texts or I would have seen the offertory cancellation. I had told the person they could just text me yes or no and I would fill-in if needed)

The orchestra sits right beside me so it was easy to be discreet.

All of a sudden it grew quiet…I looked up to see all eyes looking my way. “Uh oh,” I humbly replied. “What song?”

I had missed hearing Pastor call out the song for the church to sing and they were waiting on an introduction.

Needless to say, everyone laughed! How embarrassing!  My husband who does the sound…thought it was hilarious!

He later told me, “Oh well…maybe everyone needed a good laugh!”

I’ll try to do better! 😉 I’m sure other church pianists have humorous stories to tell!  Please feel free to share your stories below!

What a blooper I made today in the Sunday morning service!

I prefer (congregation included) to play short and sweet arrangements which don’t last much longer than the offering.  Occasionally I’ll play a longer offertory for extra special events.

I had a longer than normal offertory special  this morning and decided at last minute (like right before offertory prayer)…to play a different arrangement…something shorter… since the preliminaries had lasted longer than usual.

So…right before prayer I  dreamed up a home-spun offertory which worked out great since it was the same length as the offering 🙂

But….one major problem!  I forgot all about accompanying my son and his wife to sing after the offertory.  I was SO wrapped in the change of plans that I totally forgot them!  After playing the offertory, I went out back to the restroom like normal and then to slip in quietly for the preaching portion.

As I came out of the restroom my husband was waiting for me in the foyer with a concerned look on his face.  “Are you ok?” he said.   “Weird!” I thought, “he’s never done this before.”   “Well….yeah…why?”

He quickly replied, “David and Jenny were up on the platform waiting for you to play for them.”   “Oh my goodness! I forgot all about them!”  I quickly tried to explain myself away to him and one of the deacons who had come out back too.   Both of them got this funny smirk on their face but also relieved at the same time that I was “Ok”.

Being transparent here…. Ever have those days as a church pianist where you wondered, “What was I thinking?!” Got back late Friday from a conference and was just extra tired on Sunday and boy did it show!

Got to choir practice 15 minutes early to copy a two sided arrangement for a ladies’ ensemble rehearsal… and wound up copying the same page on both sides…ever done that? Don’t ask me WHY I didn’t notice BEFORE singing it in practice….(laughs for everyone) Just one of the many crazy things I did that day 🙂

After ensemble practice, one of the ladies approached me and I just KNEW she was going to give me a lashing (lol…just kidding) She handed me a homemade loaf of pound cake and said she just wanted to express her gratitude for my time spent working in the music ministry.

That act of encouragement could not have come at a better time. Isn’t God good how he works through people?!

Just thought I’d share an incident that happened last night at church…

I’m surprised my church hasn’t fired me from being one of their pianists!   😉
I’m SO forgetful! ….like playing the wrong song intro for choir opener….and then my son, David, (who happens to be the choir director) looks at me with a big smirky smile and says for all to hear….”that’s the choir special.”
“Oh yeah…” I say.

Oh well…at least we could laugh about it… (including the whole congregation)   🙂

                            Anybody else have a similar experience?