I can’t believe how tired I am today. I must be getting old. Mind you, it’s probably because I haven’t had as much fun as I did on Saturday in a very long time.
Saturday, Dec 4th, was our church’s 30th Anniversary. A dinner had been planned (yummy roast beef with all the trimmings) and it was planned that at 7:30pm we would move upstairs into our sanctuary for a celebration of “Leaning Back, and Kicking Forward”. During the night we had various people talk about the past — how the church was formed; the years surrounding each of our Sr. Pastors (The “So-and-so Era”); and we had some special music. The speeches were great, the food was wonderful and the special music was fun. But the worship was incredible!!
Now, I have to stop and say, that I don’t think it was incredible just because I was involved (coordinating and leading), but because God truly showed up in the midst of all our fun.
I had been asked to put together a Worship Team made up from the members of our various Teams. Some couldn’t help due to other committments and other reasons, but we ended up with 11 folks who wanted to participate — 6 vocalists (including myself also on acoustic guitar), and a band of 2 electric guitars, drums, bass, keyboard (and myself on acoustic guitar).
We started setup at about 12:30pm on Saturday and rehearsals at 2:00pm. From the time we hit the first note it was incredible. Sure we weren’t perfect, but you could tell that God was there amongst us. There we no arguments about arrangements, keys, tempos, or anything. There were no “suprises” technically (as far as I know). Everything went off without a hitch.
When it came time to start the night (we had an opening set of 4 songs, and then a closing set of 5 at the end of the night) the energy level in the congregation was second only to the energy in the Team. Oh sure, the rehearsal was better the “performance” in some spots, but the congregation was on their feet (mostly) with hands raised and hearts (and feet) “dancing before the Lord”. What a joy to look out and see His people worshipping Him.
By the end of the night we were all exhausted (we’d only been going for 7 or 9 hours!), but it was ALL worth every ounce of energy. I’ve never had so many people comment after about how wonderful the Team was and many wondering when we were going to do it again :).
I’m not sure my heart could take it every week, but if it would lift God’s people into worship like that every Sunday… I’m in!!
TTFN
Oh, and for the record, here’s the list of songs we did…
Opening Set
- Everlasting God
- Blessed Be Your Name
- Amazed
- The Power of Your Love
Closing Set
- Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
- In Christ Alone
- Mighty to Save
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- Joy To The World (Unspeakable Joy)
TTFN (again)