"When I Was A Little Boy, They Took Me To A Place"

Nothing worse than unwanted preaching. The kind that you do when you're trying to change someone into your own image. Like your children. Or your wife. It's hard for them to get away from it too.

Preaching is definitely a no-no in songs. Not if you want people to like them anyway. Songs are for letting people know that we're all in this together, whatever the "this" happens to be. 

But to be honest, preaching should be about letting people know that we're all in this together too. I grew up  listening to preachers. My Dad was a preacher. As well as an accountant. I've heard hundreds of sermons over the years including some really good ones. I even preached some myself back in the day.

Mostly, these days, I try very hard to avoid getting caught in a situation when I have to listen to one. But I think I've learnt a thing or two about the subject. And I can tell you that the best, the very best preaches, don't instruct, or pass on information, or tell you what you're doing wrong. The very best ones light a fire. 

One of the best Preaches I heard was actually a description of another fella's sermon. It was by a fiery italian/american guy called Tony Campolo. And he was describing a sermon by a black pentecostal preacher he'd heard which was based around one line. And that one line was repeated over and over: 

It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming. 

The sermon was based on the Christian belief that though Jesus was crucified on the friday, he rose again on the Sunday. And the whole message, and you don't need to be a believer to get a little bit of the impact, was simply, and I'm paraphrasing:

Shit might be happening to you right now, but, HALLELUJAH, that shit will pass. A new Day, SUNDAY, is just around the corner! 

It was about hope. 

So that was a really fiery sermon. More recently I heard one just as powerful, but  given by a quiet Church of Scotland fella at the grammar school prize giving. He bravely talked past the heads of teachers and parents and right to the hearts of the children, or at least to the heart of this particular child, about the value of "looking out the window and daydreaming" at school. About education being to do with far more than filling a head with knowledge of the way things are, but  instead allowing ourselves "wasted time" imagining how things could be. Word on the street was that he wouldn't be getting invited back. But I thought he was superb. 

No one needs to be TOLD stuff anymore. If we want information, we can Google it. But we could all do with a bit of inspiration. We could all do with being fired up to start wondering what Sunday might look like. 

                                           

The line "When I was a little boy, they took me to a place" is from an unreleased song called Believe. 

Nearly all my released songs can be found at Fee Comes Fourth