Blogust & Everything After

I wanted to Blog really badly last night but I was just too tired. As I mentioned a few Blogs back, this week I was in charge of church. In Lakeview terms you could say I was the program director and the preacher. I put together a very Worship Freehousestyle service that allowed us as a congregation to explore some new and different ways to worship. The first big change I thru at them was the physical set up in the room. We usually have a handful of tables set up in the front that are sort of coffee house style and then at the back of the room are several rows of chairs. Well I changed it to an amphitheatre seating arrangement and I got rid of the tables. I scrapped the usual lightning and went with a dim candlelight atmosphere which was enhanced by the glowing cross that is always in the center of our stage. I took the band off the stage and did an MTV Unplugged type stage. (Guitar stools and the band at the same level as the people). I also put out two art tables for people that wanted to worship God through their artistic creations. So when people walked in they knew something was different. Then I overhauled the usual service order. We usually do 30 min worship, 5 min prayer, 45 min talk and then 5 min announcements. This week I spoke first right off the top and played a couple songs. It was cool to play for people but also very nerve wracking. I was happy to share a Northern Irish tune with everyone. (For those of you that may be my buddies from NI…I played Breathe by The Maroons) Then I had a few people come up and share why they met God with different styles of worship. Our church is very diverse so there were many people willing to share about different things. Chucked shared his love for Acappela music, Mari blessed us with one of her original songs, Elizabeth belted out an ol’school hymn, Eric got us dancing and Kristin enlightened us on giving as worship. The moments that stuck out for me were singing the campfire acappela tune that Chuck led, I love seeing people joined in one cause and losing their inhibitions because everyone joins in. And the second big moment was when we explored some more charismatic worship under Eric’s lead. I felt more free than I have in a long time and the Holy spirit definitely filled me. Once this learning segment was over the worship band came up and played a set. It was awesome. People were free and were exploring new things. The freedom I felt brought me to my knees and to tears at one point, which hasn’t happened in awhile. It was so cool. I guess there are several reasons that I’m sharing this all with you. The first is that I was so encouraged by the fact that everything worked out and that God used me to do a big thing in our church. I also thought that it might encourage some of you to know that God is working around the world in the hearts of many people. And lastly I wanted to thank those of you that prayed for me and for the service. Ok thanks for reading...