The worship band is often considered hot stuff at church.  Visible, performing, talented.  I played on several, but haven’t for decades, decided that I no longer wanted to be on stage.

Memorably, however, I did coach a bunch of junior high kids to form one.  All wanted to play on the varsity version, but they were too inexperienced.  So having some formal band experience, I got voluntold to mentor them.

We were awful at the start.  Barely passable at each instrument, we were so out of tune and sync.  At times. someone would play a different section of a song when the rest was playing another.  Once, half the band was playing a completely different song than the other half.  There was anger, tears, and frustration.  Some were mine.  One time, I got so upset, I wanted to quit on the spot.

Then we got good. I still remember the night when we led worship, it all clicked.  Even I was surprised.  I taught them what my band teacher taught me – the band is as strong as its weakest member (that was once me).

One of the guitar players ended up making an album.  The other became a pastor.  The pianist went to MIT – I went to her wedding.

To this day, one of my sign-in names is jhdogz (the underdogs), in memory of them.