A couple of years ago, our youth group started youth singings. Most Amish and Mennonite churches have youth singings. In the Amish church we came from, services were held every other Sunday at one of the members’ homes. The family hosting church that day also welcomed the youth back that evening for youth singing.
Amish churches don’t use instruments, and although West Salem Mission does use and appreciate instruments, we also enjoy the special sound of hearing just voices singing together. For a long time we had been wanting to do something to help improve our singing, and a get-together to sing without instruments seemed like the perfect thing. We do it every other Sabbath evening, meeting at different church members’ houses each time and singing hymns and spiritual songs. We sing for an hour, then eat a light meal and do some activities.
Amish Seventh-day Adventist youth continue the tradition of gathering to sing sacred songs.
Last summer our youth group got invited to join an Amish singing. It was an amazing experience. They were part of a more progressive group, so they did four-part harmonies, which sounded heavenly. The girls from our group and some of their girls got to go on a walk that evening and connected more. One of the girls was asking about our singings, and was intrigued that we do them Saturday evenings instead of Sundays. I hope those seeds will spring up sometime. We made some good friendships, and even planned to have a girls’ get together and play volleyball. However, with the busyness of summer, it fell through the cracks.
Recently we got invited to have our youth singing at the same Amish family’s house. This time, it was just our youth group and the Amish family who was hosting it. The family joined us in singing, and had some of their cousins come afterwards to play volleyball with us. There were some spiritual conversations that evening, so we will see where those lead to! A few months after that singing, we accidentally bumped into one of those girls out in a public place and she sat with our youth group for a while. She always seems genuinely happy to see us.
Recently, we were asked to sing at a local Seventh-day Adventist Church one Sabbath evening. It’s amazing how God opens doors when you just do your best at what He puts in front of you!
Because of our singings, the ones that couldn’t sing on key before, are able to sing on key now! And we are learning four-part harmonies, which is something we’ve always wanted to do! It has proved to be a great way to connect with church members in their homes, as well as make our youth group more tightly knit, as we spend more time together trying to sing better.
Singing is a wonderful way to show our gratitude and adoration to God! David wrote many a song when he felt like he had reached the end of his rope. We still read many of those songs, and glean blessings from them. One day soon we will be in God’s presence and have one big singing with everyone that is faithful! We will sing, “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!” Revelation 15:3. What a day that will be!
