We Belong to God: An Improvised Affirmation of Faith
David Gambrell
David Gambrell is a parent, choir member, and occasional guitar player at Highland Presbyterian Church, Louisville, Kentucky.
Born out of an intergenerational exercise in improvisation, “We Belong to God” has become a beloved heart song for the people of Highland Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
Children’s Music Ministry, Highland Presbyterian Church, Louisville, Kentucky
It happened at a Wednesday evening children’s choir rehearsal, when church activities were just beginning to resume in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Martha Makela, coordinator of children’s music ministry and director of the Hallelujah Choir, remembers that three or four elementary-aged students were present that night, with as many adult mentors as children in the room.
Drawing on her training in the Orff Schulwerk approach to music education, Makela prepared xylophones with a simple C major pentatonic (five-note) scale. She invited the children to make up a set of five tones—starting wherever they chose, going high or low, repeating notes or adding rests. One child picked out a melody and the rest of the group played it back. It was a catchy tune. Makela had written the five-syllable phrase “we belong to God” in her planner, so she encouraged the group to sing those words to the newly created melody. It felt right. She exclaimed, “You just wrote a song!”
They decided to sing the five-note phrase twice, since church songs often feature a little repetition. That felt right too, but the song didn’t seem finished. Makela observed that songs often end on the lowest note of the scale, so they added a descending line to the melody. Then one of the adult mentors, an octogenarian, had the idea of conjugating the key phrase: “I belong, you belong, we belong to God.” And the song was complete.
Makela believes in making space for improvisation, creativity, and play in children’s music ministry—opportunities that can be scarce in other aspects of children’s educational experience. “When I do my best teaching,” she muses, “I make sure that each child has a chance to play around and be creative. It’s harder work because it looks messy. There’s always a little bit of chaos before the calm.”
Orff instruments, such as xylophones, glockenspiels, and unpitched percussion, are ideal for this kind of playful creativity. “Sometimes we overcomplicate things,” Makela notes. “The Orff instruments are easy to play, so the children can focus on melody and rhythm. It’s immediate gratification. You’re not concentrating so much on the instrument.”
Soon the children had an opportunity to share their new song in worship. Inspired by their confidence and creativity, the congregation embraced it with enthusiasm. The Wednesday evening improvisation quickly became a Sunday morning standard. Hand motions were added and, as the song was repeated over subsequent weeks, worshipers came to know the melody, words, and movement by heart. Led by its youngest members, the church learned a new way to sing a central affirmation of faith.
Belonging to God is, after all, the point. “My goal for the children is to have a positive musical experience in worship, where they feel valued and important,” Makela explains. “Children need to be heard and need to know that they matter and belong. When they can sing something that, in fact, they even wrote . . . that’s just beautiful to me.”
