Rook

I was twenty-six. Having recently moved cross-country, leaving the long summers of South Texas for the short ones of Pennsylvania, I was learning many new customs in this new culture.

Though I hadn’t grown up in Lancaster County, my new friends welcomed me in. It was such a gift!

One of the cultural delights they invited me into was hanging out for hours, playing a card game called Rook. I had never heard of it, but I quickly became addicted.

One summer afternoon, on our way home from church, Kyle, Nate, Anthony, Daryn, and I each picked up a medium pizza and headed for Nate’s. We spent the rest of the day playing Rook under the shade trees on an old, wooden picnic table.

But life moved on.

I remember leading a worship team retreat fifteen years later, where their team members pulled out some well-worn cards on one of the evenings and invited me to join them. “Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve played Rook, but sure!” I jumped in.

Fast-forward another ten years, and my kids, my very own flesh and blood, start asking me to teach them how to play Rook. Do you think I can remember? Nope. I read the instructions and heard foreign terms. The nest? A trick? I’m so lost.

Then this weekend, they asked me again. I watched a tutorial or two on YouTube, and we decided to jump in.

What happened next was extraordinary.

I began teaching them how to play. All this crazy energy welled up within me, accompanied by the know-how that had been escaping me. It was nothing short of thrilling! It was so much fun. The next night my kids began teaching the family visiting us how to play...in Spanish!

And the idea of spending quality time with my children, playing this game, calling partners, deciding to play the Rook high and wild or ten and a half, shooting the moon and laying all your cards down on your first turn…well, if you know, you know.

When was the last time you rediscovered something like this in worship? An old song you haven’t sung this decade (or century!) suddenly comes spilling out and you remember the words and chord. A spontaneous moment where you put the psalm you were reading to a melody. A sweet sense of intimacy and nearness with the LORD hits you as you sing one of today’s worship top ten.

You may have been involved in leading worship for three years already. Or thirty-three like I have. But is it new? Is it fresh? Are you learning?

We must! Too many Sundays in a row where we think, “I know how this works.” will kill us.

We must continue to discover and rediscover the beauty in what we do. As our curiosity about music expands, so does the artistry and quality of our expression. As our team grows into a true community, the shared delight strengthens. As our relationship with the LORD deepens, so will the depth of worship. As our understanding of how music fits together increases, so will our ability to make the tool do whatever we want it to. As we experiment with flow, highs and lows, our capacity to take our congregation to new places broadens. (Did you notice the Five Faders at work?)

If you’re a Coldplay fan, you may enjoy knowing that I was listening to this Salsa version of Clocks while writing this Fertilizer.

-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)

Rook (Nº 357)