Real Worship

Well… this is the second week (of four) that there is no whole church gathering in Stevenage; so, I’ll be posting about Exeter only.

From what I’ve heard so far, the small groups that are meeting in Stevenage are going really well.  Here’s a quote from one of the hosts:

We had dinner with God.  What a glorious night… God manifested His presence in a powerful way.

I like it!

Exeter (pm)

We certainly met with God in Exeter this week also (of course we did – otherwise, why else keep doing it…?).

The evening began with Mark leading us in prayer while I played the chords to the first song.  It sounds so formal when I write it down, but the reality was we were all praying, “Your kingdom come…”.

All the songs were in the key of G this week, so we flowed easily from one to the other.  It also meant that it was easier for worship to continue “between” the songs.

The songs we sang were:

• Hallelujah/Your Love Is Amazing (Brian Doerksen/Brenton Brown)
• Forever (Chris Tomlin)
• For Who You Are (Marty Sampson)
• More Than Life (Reuben Morgan)
• Oh How He Loves You An Me (Kurt Kaiser)
• Take All Of Me (Marty Sampson)

At the end of the first song, we were applauding God & speaking / singing our own thanks for His love.  The next two songs worked like a medley; both being played with the same rhythm & tempo.

“More Than Life” was powerful.  Mark had just talked about all of God’s promises being yes & amen; he wasn’t aware that the next song began “…stand by the promises…”.  We repeated the chorus for a short while; as that came to an end, one of the ladies prayed thanking God for His love & puting her confidence in that (not knowing that Mark was preaching on confidence).

At that point, I replaced the song we were due to sing with one that wasn’t originally in the set list.  In my worship time on the Saturday evening, the old hymn, “Oh How He Loves You And Me” flashed into my mind.  It seemed to fit with what was being prayed, so I started it up, the band picked it up & everyone joined in.

The last song was an appropriate, passionate response to His love, “… love that’s stronger, love that covers (we sing conquered) sin and takes the weight of the world” as with our whole hearts we sang:

I love You

All of my hope is in You

Jesus Christ, take my life

Take all of me

Links:
#sundaysetlists

This post can also be found in the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com

It’s been a very interesting few weeks.  Things have been quite busy lately and I’ve not managed to post. I must admit to getting withdrawal symptoms.

There’s an expression that comes to mind, “Constant change is here to stay”;  I’m not sure where I first heard this, but it has certainly been my experience.

As a church, we’ve been on a voyage of discovery.  Along the journey, God has been reminding us of the vast richness of His great grace; He’s been revealing His heart for relationships and delivering us from the obligations of religious performance.  We’ve been reminded that we are the church (the people) – not the building and not the Sunday service.  Church isn’t somewhere we go, or something we do – it’s who we are.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve always had a heart after God (I’m not the only one that God has told to move half way across the country to be involved with what He is doing here).  As a group of believers, we’ve always sought to be real & passionate – in our worship and in our study & application of His word.  It’s been good.  We’ve operated to the best of our ability with the knowledge we’ve had.  Yet still, we somehow missed the mark.  We’d built an organisation… not a community.

God has been deconstructing the organisation and is now in the process of building the community.  As part of the next step in the journey, we’re changing the way we meet together (in the Stevenage congregation – initially).  From the Sunday just past (13th September) and for a period of 4 weeks, we’re not meeting together in one large gathering; rather, we’re meeting in smaller gatherings in homes.  The main proviso being that we break bread together.  Thereafter, we will alternate our large, “whole family” celebration & the smaller home-based meetings each week.

Will these changes bring about community?  No (certainly not if all that happens is reproducing the larger meeting in smaller venues).  That’s not the intention in doing this.  Rather than being a cause, the changes in the way we meet together are an effect, a consequence; a means of expressing the life & love of God in community.

As an aside, I’ve heard reports back from several of the smaller groups which met Sunday.  All have been positive.  It did feel surprisingly bizzarre for me, however, not “going to church” Sunday morning & leading worship.  Whether or not that says something about any addiction I may have to church attendance I don’t know (I guess doing something differently after 27 years will feel strange).

One of the upshots of what’s happening right now is that from the end of this month I will no longer be employed by Redemption Church. I believe that I should still continue with as much as possible of what I do here; so the challenge is to find a suitably flexible means of generating an income that allows me to do that.

I am genuinely excited about what is happening.  I feel as though I’ve stepped over a threshold into a place I’ve never been; a much bigger place with no familiar landmarks.  If you feel so inclined, please pray for me to have clarity & courage at this time.

Credits:

The title of this post is credited to Mark & Sandra Neale.  The phrase came up in on one of our conversations on our Journey to Exeter.  We were talking about what God is doing with His church; they said that if ever they were to write a book, it would make a great title.

The picture at the top of the post is from ASBO Jesus – cool site!