Preparing For Easter Sunday, 4/24/11!

I hope you're looking forward to Easter Sunday tomorrow - I am. We had a great music rehearsal on Thursday night, that went for a good 2 hours. Should be an exciting morning of singing and preaching. We'll be having 2 services, at 9:00 and 10:45, and Pastor John will be preaching from Matthew 28:1-10, unpacking the glory of the resurrection for us. Check out our song list below!

1. Happy Day
The kick-off for our morning of worship. It's a punchy, up-tempo song that exults in the resurrection as "the greatest day in history," when "death was beaten" and Christ rescued us from sin! By the way, I love how the music compliments the lyrics of this tune.

2. Joy to the World (Unspeakable Joy) Interesting fact: there isn't anything that's necessarily Christmasy about this hymn, other than that's when we usually sing it. It was written by Isaac Watts as a hymn of the church in praise to Christ. So we're going to sing it tomorrow, because Christmas and Easter are two key points in the same good news of the Gospel.

3. Sunday School special music: The Gospel Song
We'll worship by listening to this song, sung by our Sunday School kids. Give it a listen - super powerful and worshipful!

5. How Deep the Father's Love for Us
We're playing this song the fast way, and I think the only "recorded" version of it around is the one I recorded for our band, linked above. Please excuse any lameness. :)

6. You Are My King
A familiar tune, with a them of confidence in our risen King, and the amazing love He has given us on the cross and in the resurrection. A Christian is eternally alive because Jesus Christ is alive!

7. Closing song: The Love of God
God's love for us is most clearly displayed in the death and resurrection of His Son. God did not spare His own Son to raise our souls from darkness and death and make us worshipers of Him - "O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong; it shall forevermore endure, the saints' and angels' song!" If you haven't listened to the version at the link above, do it - it's MercyMe, playing (in my opinion) the best version of this hymn ever.

Christ is risen indeed! We'll see you tomorrow morning.

Josh

A GREAT post about why we sing in church!

Stephen Altrogge says the following in a blog post, reflecting on this coming Sunday (and any given Sunday's) corporate time of singing in church. His post is about how we often let our emotions control us, and determine how we engage with the time of singing on Sunday. He says:

Feelings are essential in worship. Worship without feeling doesn’t honor God. But feelings aren’t the starting place for worship. Glorious truth about God is the starting place for worship, and is what creates true feeling in our heart.

Read the whole post here - it's really good! And lets engage with the truths of God this Good Friday and Easter, and let the truth guide how we feel.

"Preparing for Communion/Sunday" posts on their way!

Josh

Easter: Start Preparing!

Hey everyone,
The older I get and the more I grow in my faith, I grow to appreciate the richness of our sacred holidays more and more. By these I really mean Christmas and Easter first and foremost. Easter's 2 weeks away, and it's going to be weighing heavy on my mind starting this week.

I would encourage you, whether you're going to be serving at church in an "official" way on Good Friday or Easter (singing on stage, running sound/tech, helping with setup/teardown, ushering, etc), or whether you're just planning on attending and being a part of corporate worship this year, start preparing your heart now.

On Good Friday we reflect on, and remember the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins; and on Easter we rejoice and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the grave, whereby we obtain eternal life in Christ, and victory over sin and death.

So what should you do over the next 2 weeks? Here's what I'm committing to: pick a Gospel (or more than one if you can manage) and read it over the next couple weeks. Get out your theology books and look into what was accomplished on the cross, and in the resurrection of Christ. Lets prepare to sing with informed hearts and minds over Easter weekend!

And don't let these couple of weeks go by, when even unbelievers have a holiday on their minds that is completely and totally about the glory of the Gospel of Jesus (and not the Easter Bunny, contrary to popular belief). Engage the people in your life with this hope, who don't have it. You can even invite those individuals to church on Easter Sunday, as the service will have an extra evangelistic aspect to it. Most importantly, don't neglect to pray that God will cause life to spring up in the hearts of unbelievers this Easter.

Romans 6:5
For if we have been united with [Christ] in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Out Sick

To reflect a little bit on last weekend, I have to say that I was overwhelmed by how our church steps up and cares for one another when things don't go so easy. I was all prepped for Sunday's music, and the stomach bug knocked me right out late Saturday night.

Tim Plaster graciously made other arrangements for the music he was planning on leading for the elementary-age kids, and stepped up to the plate for main service music. Even though I called Tim at 11:00, he was ready and willing to try to make arrangements to fill in. And he did it with obvious joy and excitement. I can't say enough how much I appreciate Tim's heart for serving the Church and worshiping God through music.

I also can't say how much I appreciate our band - they're great musicians who made all the music happen, and (I hope) enabled Tim to lead our church with joy. Sorry guys, for causing you extra stress this past weekend!

The music team lead our church family in congregational singing of God's praise, which was a huge blessing for our church on Sunday. We often take those things for granted, but God always proves he has just the right group lined up at times like that. He proves that he provides; that His Spirit is the one that facilitates our corporate worship on Sunday mornings. Praise God we don't have to rely on ourselves.

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Preparing for Sunday post goin' to the presses. Stay tuned!

Preparing for Sunday, 4/3/11

Hey guys,
The sermon text for tomorrow is Colossians 2:18-19, and Pastor John will be preaching to us again after taking a couple of months off! We'll also be concluding the service with the Right Hand of Fellowship, with some new members of our church. It's always great to welcome new people into our church family, so I would really encourage you to make sure you're there as we sing, hear good preaching, and fellowship together.

Our list of songs will go like this:
1. Your Grace is Enough
A declaration that God's grace, that has come to his church in and through Jesus, is always enough for us. In Jesus we possess every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3,4).

2. Blessed Be Your Name
I feel songs like this one are important to sing fairly regularly, because life is so full of difficulties. As we go through our trials week-by-week, we need to remind ourselves by reading Scripture, and by singing, that God is good, and He is sovereign. He "gives and takes away," and through everything, we can bless and worship God because he has the best in mind for his children.

3. The Wonderful Cross
We'll transition into singing about the sacrifice for sin that God has made in Jesus. We can only praise God as His children, because on the Cross He satisfied His own wrath toward our sins. (Don't know if you've ever thought about it, but calling the cross "wonderful" is a weird contradiction. The only reason something so terrible can be called wonderful, is because of what our great God has accomplished on that cross!)

4. Come Thou Fount
The key line in this song for us tomorrow morning will be in the last verse: "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love! Here's my heart, Lord take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above." Our faith is secure because, as Colossians continues to talk about, it is rooted in Jesus and all that He has accomplished.

Hope you'll be there to worship with us tomorrow!