My
dad, 82, is going back to work this Sunday on Father’s Day. Apparently, you
never outlive your calling and Bill Colle was called many years ago to bring
people to Jesus through song.
It is a calling that has been a binding bridge for many to the throne room of grace and mercy. It is a calling that has gotten him fired from churches.
Father’s Day is a fitting day to launch a new vision at his current church, First Baptist Church of Tellico Village in Tennessee. He is a father to many. There are three of us that call him dad by blood and countless others that call him a spiritual father. I remember our doorbell rang at night many times with people looking for his father’s heart. They always found a soft place to land.
On Sunday, he will begin to lead a new congregation through praise and worship. It’s a traditional Baptist Church, so for many, this will be a new concept as they put down the hymnals and sing choruses. He may get some pushback. That doesn’t scare him because he knows he is called to do it. Why else would he choose to return to leadership in a church when he is enjoying retirement and the fruits of a 60-plus year career in ministry?
He will begin by teaching about the Old Testament temple. He will lead them with joyful songs of thanksgiving as they think about the courtyard of the temple. Then he will lead them to where the teaching took place, The Holy Place. Eventually, the end goal will be entering into the Holy of Holies, where the focus will be resting with the Lord in awe and reverence.
I was just into double digits as his daughter when the 70s Jesus movement swept through Houston, Texas. Friday nights, my parents’ version of date night was attending services at Redeemer Lutheran Church. There, they learned how to worship and lose themselves in abandon to their Lord. There, they could fearlessly praise Him without fear of standing out or repercussions.
Once you’ve been there, in His presence, you are never the same. But it is a learned gift – moving beyond tradition to abandonment. Worship is relational not ritual.
It is also fitting that my daddy will begin on Father’s Day because he taught his family first how to worship. Then, as doors opened to churches that welcomed this style of worship, he taught many others about the Father’s heart and the need for us all to reach it through worship. His legacy, long after he retires again, will live on in two of his grandsons that also lead praise and worship at their churches.
I pray for open hearts to the gift he will bring this Sunday. To all who have been in a pew and wondered if there is more to church, I’m here to tell you that there is. I’ve seen it manifested in my father, my chief musician here on earth. I’m grateful for having a father who taught me to worship and led me there with a father’s heart.
