Real Worship

I love what God is doing in our midst lately.  He’s beginning to train us to consistently expect and move in the demonstration of His miracle working power (and not just on Sundays either); and for that to become a natural and ordinary part of our normal Christian lives.

As part of that training, this weeks service began with Pastor Mark asking who needed healing.  There was no hype; no music playing; the hall was cold (the heating didn’t appear to be working); and numbers were down on normal.  Despite not having any of the normal “crutches” (please forgive the pun) to lean on, God still healed (for example, one lady who was struggling with asthma could breathe normally).

As you may imagine, it was easy and natural to launch into praise off the back of that.

Ali had prepared the set list this week and had chosen 8 songs with a view to select from the list as appropriate, depending on what which way the service went.  The songs we actually got to sing were:

• Set Me Free (Mike Ellis) Mike
• Lord You Are Good (Israel Houghton) Mike
• Be Thou My Vision (Eleanor Hull & Mary E. Byrne) Ali
• Be Lifted Up (Paul Oakley) Ali
• I Run to You (Ali Loaker) Teash

All of the songs were sung in the key of E, which meant that flowing from one to the other was easy.  I’ve said before that I find it seems to provide a far more stable platform for worship when songs are grouped together in the same key (where possible).

Both “Set Me Free” and “Lord You Are Good” are similar in feel and style; and both were sung with equal fervour and energy.

During “Be Thou My Vision”, Ali was operating in his “sweet spot” when part way through he began to  encourage the congregation to battle against the things that were opposing them.  It was like when General Maximus, William Wallace, or Aragorn gave those rousing speeches to their men just before leading them onto the field of battle.

“Be Lifted Up” was both intimate and passionate.  Teash (Leticia) sang Ali’s “I Run To You” really well; she led with confidence and it was probably the best I have heard her.