I’m so sorry Mr. Gaither.
If I ever get a chance to talk to Bill Gaither in the future, I may tell him that.
I may tell him I really, really wanted to see him in concert and slip backstage and say hi.
I was planning to, but my plans were interrupted.
In fact, he helped interrupt them.
Here’s the thing: for one of my writing gigs I interviewed Bill Gaither over the phone. It was great. He is cool. He’s coming to town for a concert.
Gaither’s background is traditional gospel music. I can’t say that’s my very favorite style but I can say I’ve long admired Gaither. He’s a tremendously talented songwriter and fabulously gifted entrepreneur.
Along with his wife Gloria, he’s written and performed songs like “He Touched Me,” “There’s Something About That Name,” “Let’s Just Praise The Lord,” and “Because He Lives.”
The couple have musical chops, that’s for sure. Busy musical chops. There’s a chance I may have started to write 700 songs in my life, but the Gaithers have written 700 songs. Real songs. Songs that are out there that people actually like. Wow.
And come on, if you ever liked Elvis there’s got to be a spot in your heart where you can dig a little gospel music and if you ever swooned over The Beatles you’ve got to love guys singing tricky harmony and there’s nobody singing tricky harmony better than The Gaither Vocal Band.
So there I was, talking with ASCAP’s Christian Songwriter of the Century—yeah, he and his wife have that title: Century—and I was thinking, “Heck yeah, I’m going to his concert and I’m going to drop back stage and say hi like he asked me to do and rub shoulders a second with Bill Gaither.”
Because he’s cool.
Well partly because he’s cool. Mainly for the music and more mainly because talking with him convinced me he's the real deal: an honest-to-God, Jesus-loving Christ-follower who aims at doing what Jesus says as well as writing clever, heartfelt Jesus music for the biz.
But something changed my mind.
Something he talked about.
You see, there’s a church small group get-together at the same time as the concert. I started feeling I should go there instead.
I started feeling I should go there mainly because of stuff Gaither said on the phone about genuine Christianity and being connected to others. Real people you see all the time.
“Well big deal,” you may be thinking. “You can get together anytime.”
Thing is, maybe not.
I’ve been on the edge of this group that meets Sunday mornings for about a year. I’ve made some meetings, missed a lot of meetings. My bad.
Now my church is changing the way it does Sunday mornings and this group is going away.
I do believe in the sort of things Gaither talked about and that genuine relationships are a big deal to God. I have that with a couple of folks—but does God want to widen the circle? Is it something I need more of at this point in my life?
I could easily blow all that off and go to the concert because, you know, Gaither’s cool. And going to the get-together is a risk. I may just go and feel my usual awkward-social-self and leave bummed and lonely—through no fault of the good folks I’ll be with.
But I’m thinking God wants me there, risky or not. Maybe connect while we're still "a group" and enjoy it.
So, even though you can bet Gaither likes for people to come to his concerts, maybe he’d back my decision. Because he's cool.
If I ever get a chance to talk to Bill Gaither in the future, I may tell him that.
I may tell him I really, really wanted to see him in concert and slip backstage and say hi.
I was planning to, but my plans were interrupted.
In fact, he helped interrupt them.
Here’s the thing: for one of my writing gigs I interviewed Bill Gaither over the phone. It was great. He is cool. He’s coming to town for a concert.
Gaither’s background is traditional gospel music. I can’t say that’s my very favorite style but I can say I’ve long admired Gaither. He’s a tremendously talented songwriter and fabulously gifted entrepreneur.
Along with his wife Gloria, he’s written and performed songs like “He Touched Me,” “There’s Something About That Name,” “Let’s Just Praise The Lord,” and “Because He Lives.”
The couple have musical chops, that’s for sure. Busy musical chops. There’s a chance I may have started to write 700 songs in my life, but the Gaithers have written 700 songs. Real songs. Songs that are out there that people actually like. Wow.
And come on, if you ever liked Elvis there’s got to be a spot in your heart where you can dig a little gospel music and if you ever swooned over The Beatles you’ve got to love guys singing tricky harmony and there’s nobody singing tricky harmony better than The Gaither Vocal Band.
So there I was, talking with ASCAP’s Christian Songwriter of the Century—yeah, he and his wife have that title: Century—and I was thinking, “Heck yeah, I’m going to his concert and I’m going to drop back stage and say hi like he asked me to do and rub shoulders a second with Bill Gaither.”
Because he’s cool.
Well partly because he’s cool. Mainly for the music and more mainly because talking with him convinced me he's the real deal: an honest-to-God, Jesus-loving Christ-follower who aims at doing what Jesus says as well as writing clever, heartfelt Jesus music for the biz.
But something changed my mind.
Something he talked about.
You see, there’s a church small group get-together at the same time as the concert. I started feeling I should go there instead.
I started feeling I should go there mainly because of stuff Gaither said on the phone about genuine Christianity and being connected to others. Real people you see all the time.
“Well big deal,” you may be thinking. “You can get together anytime.”
Thing is, maybe not.
I’ve been on the edge of this group that meets Sunday mornings for about a year. I’ve made some meetings, missed a lot of meetings. My bad.
Now my church is changing the way it does Sunday mornings and this group is going away.
I do believe in the sort of things Gaither talked about and that genuine relationships are a big deal to God. I have that with a couple of folks—but does God want to widen the circle? Is it something I need more of at this point in my life?
I could easily blow all that off and go to the concert because, you know, Gaither’s cool. And going to the get-together is a risk. I may just go and feel my usual awkward-social-self and leave bummed and lonely—through no fault of the good folks I’ll be with.
But I’m thinking God wants me there, risky or not. Maybe connect while we're still "a group" and enjoy it.
So, even though you can bet Gaither likes for people to come to his concerts, maybe he’d back my decision. Because he's cool.
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