Following Jesus

The day so many of us have been praying for and planning for finally came.  We did something that most church growth experts and consultants say should never be done.  With what we did today, we should have had a church split or people walking out in disapproval.

Instead, we worshiped as one family.

Today, North Side united 3 services into 2.  We got rid of 2 styles and united under the heading of “worship.”  We united families instead of segregating them.  And while I believe that God has been honored with our church before, I think this was another level of obedience and worship that we engaged into today.  I’ve heard plenty of encouraging words from this morning, but even if those weren’t there, God was honored and our church worshiped today in spirit and in truth.

Today, we worshiped to:

We had a huge, great crew on stage today from band, singers, choir, and a ton of musicians.  Sounded great, but loved their heart more!  After an intro video displaying the diversity and unity of our church, we started with Amazing Grace and had different generations leading different verses (senior adult on verse 1, child on verse 2, teenager verse 3, and John verse 4 – I’ll let John tell you what he is 😉 ).  It showed who we were, reminded us of who our church is, and then we just got after it!

In addition to some great worship time, we got to partake in a wonderful family dedication time, a wonderful testimony from our viola player, Rachel Eckard, as she shared about all where God has taken her, and a wonderful message to remind us of following Jesus in discipleship.  We also had great children’s worship times, and I heard we had a bunch of new people join groups today.  We also had a huge crew of college students hang around for lunch afterwards!

I love having to sing through other songs during an invitation because God kept showing up.  It was a wonderful time!

Someone asked me today, “So is that what worship will look like every week?”  Nope.  If you mean by style and layout, no it won’t.  If you mean by focus of worship, yes, it will.  It will be God’s people giving God worship he’s deserving of every week!

Can’t wait to join with my C-Group tonight, then hangout with the church tonight at a Dodgeball Tournament @ 7:30.

“O God, unite us together, your church living as one.”