The Living Room Sessions

By Chris Rice

Subjects:

Description: There's something about those old hymns we used to sing in church when I was growing up. I don't hear them much anymore, but when I do, it takes me back. Back to more innocent days, when we (my brothers and my friends and I) would sit in a pew on Sunday morning, trying with everything in us not to snicker or snort during the prayer. I can still hear the offering plates being passed, and the sound of a congregation rising to their feet and sliding hymnals out of the backs of pews. I remember the secret race I had with everyone in the congregation to be the first to fumble my way to the right hymn. Then straining out the melody, or some harmony part, I never realized that week after week I was repeating and rehearsing such great theology, and it never dawned on me that these hymns were at work in my heart, shaping how I now understand God. I would love to hit rewind on life, and peek in at myself on one of those Sunday mornings. Remembering warmly those days, I have recorded some of my favorite hymns on my piano at home. I left a few notes in that don't quite belong, and you might hear the piano bench creak every now and then, but I decided to keep the humanness in, like I found it in my church growing up. Theology happens best in real life. I hope that as you spend some quiet time, or while the kids are napping, or even while welcoming your friends around your dinner table, that these piano hymns will help you rewind to more innocent days, and renew your spirit with the memories and thoughts of God that molded your own heart along the way. - Chris - Container booklet.