Celestial Piano Lessons

As we wrap up Pastor Appreciation Month, this post honors the unsung heroes of many parsonages: the pastor's wife.

Excerpts taken from the book How to Pastor and Live to Tell About It, c. 2023, (Kindle version coming soon) https://www.amazon.com/How-Pastor-Live-Tell-About/dp/195530940X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=roberta+sarver&qid=1681164242&sr=8-1

Our church piano player was every song leader’s dream. Ron could play anything in any key, with or without written music. His complex chords and creative progressions set a worshipful tone for congregational singing. If someone suddenly broke into song, this virtuoso’s fingers instantly picked up the tune and provided heart-warming accompaniment.

Soloists appreciated Ron’s professional accompaniment. His unique method enhanced their sometimes-amateur voices and made a few seem several notches above their skill level.

As an accompanist on the church organ, I appreciated the privilege of lending my limited skill to Ron’s stellar technique. Perhaps if I kept the volume down, people scarcely would notice.

To our chagrin, this musical prodigy moved to another state, leaving a huge void in the worship services. The church board elected me to fill his place.

Sometimes the pastor’s wife is drafted to fill vacancies where she doesn’t feel comfortable. This was one of those places.

It was humiliating in the beginning. A year of secular college piano lessons hadn’t prepared me to arrange chords and progressions to lend dignity to majestic hymns and exuberance to lilting gospel tunes.

Though no one complained, I felt like a child playing “Chopsticks” for a crowd at Carnegie Hall.

This went on for some time. One day, sitting at the ebony grand piano in the empty sanctuary, I prayed a simple prayer.

“Lord, the worship service isn’t the same without Ron’s beautiful music. Could you teach me to play better than I know how, so the service will be a blessing?”

God answered my prayer progressively.

From that time onward, when I played hymns for worship, I noticed a gradual change. If I tried to play simple chords which I knew, my fingers hit more complex ones which I had previously struggled to locate. Then, I applied these to other songs. Over a span of months God changed my piano technique in answer to that simple prayer. We received a blessing as beautiful, anointed music filled the church once more.

Our youth leader approached me after several weeks and said, “I notice your piano playing is different than it used to be.” Yes, it was. Thank you, Lord!

 Roberta Sarver, “Celestial Piano Lessons,” Radical Abundance: More Than All We Can Ask or Imagine, edited by Teresa Janzen, (Kalamazoo, MI: Abundance Books, 2022), 24–26. Used by permission.

How about you? Have you experienced unusual answers to prayer? Feel free to use the comment box below to tell us.