Sunday in review...4 days later

Last Sunday I (Scott) was really nervous about how worship was going to go. I had no voice what-so-ever, I had an e-mail saying my only other male singer MAY not be there because he was sick, and we were trying to lead a new song to the church, "Greatly to be Praised" by Steve Fee, which is high pitched to say the least. I spent the night stressing over what to do and finally had to just throw my hands up and say, "Whatever God, Whatever". We rehearsed Sunday morning and it was rough. I had no time to change everything to be female lead, neither Paul nor I could hit anything in the keys we were in, and I was nervous. So nervously I sat the group down and told them that we always preach that worship "is not about the music, or the lights, or the sound" and this is where we practice what we preach. I had a short story about my week which added to the need to allow God to be our everything, and we set out to worship Him. So at the 9:30 service we got into the second verse of the first song and SOMETHING WAS DIFFERENT, in a good way. I was watching people who had barely paid attention before in worship crying, praying, raising hands, and even alittle dancing. By the time we hit the second song on the set list the whole church was erupting in pure worship, in spite of the sound. Don't get me wrong the band did an awesome job playing but did an even better job leading worship and not leading music. Pastor Chris brought a passionate Word to cap off what God was doing in our church. The first service ran over time and something weird happened, people stayed for another service. We had many many new faces come for second service, we had our second service regulars, and some even stayed from first service to worship again. Needless to say second service was slam packed. So, we allowed God to move freely among us again and the worship exploded. People were kneeling in praise, crying, jumping, applauding Him after songs, and being moved by the Spirit of God. We watched our church change over those 3 hours and I for one think it will never be the same again. I got home that afternoon and looked at my wife and could only ask, "what just happened?". It was a rhetorical question, but one that had to be said. The answer is that we as the body worshiped God Sunday and not the songs, or the sound, or the lights, or the Pastor, or the band, or the singing, or our building. I think people forgot all of that old church nonsense and passionately encountered God. People, and the band, got lost in worship and it was beautiful. I knew going into our Monday staff meeting that we were going to ask, "how do we do that again", but we didn't. We knew that it was not us, yes God allows us to put some details together and to plan our services, but when it comes to how it works, well He takes the reigns and we gladly give them up. So if you're reading this before Sunday February 14th be prepared, God will be meeting us again, God will be moving in our church, God will be praised, and He will direct our service and change our plans. And we will allow Him to do that by trying our best to stay out of His way.

Scott