Preparing for Worship: January 10th, 2010

I received lots of positive feedback from doing a more acoustic, "unplugged" vibe this past Sunday during our worship singing; thank you! That was a planned for a while beforehand, but it ended up being part of God's perfect plan.

Friday evening I came down with a dreaded stomach flu; something that prior to last weekend, I can't ever really remember having, which made it worse. I spent all of Friday night waking up every hour as my body wrenched itself of all water. I spent Saturday sleeping and recovering but by Sunday morning I was still really weak so a mellow worship set while I sat on a stool was an example of God's kindness to me! :)

I also really enjoyed teaching you our new song "All I Have is Christ" and everyone seemed grateful for its truth and power. Looking forward to incorporating that song again often in the coming weeks!

So I feel almost 100% percent again, and am excited to worship with you guys again this weekend!

Here's what's happening:

We'll call our souls to worship with an old faithful: "Open the Eyes of my Heart" and corporately ask God to allow us to experience himself high and lifted up, shining in the light of his glory! Next we'll obediently and joyfully ascribe to the Lord glory and strength (Psalm 29:1) by singing the hymn "To God be the Glory."

Pastor Todd will lead us in prayer for the morning, that it would be done in the power of the Spirit, through the blood of Christ, for the glory of the Father. Then we have a bittersweet portion of morning to share together.

The Penberthy family (Jon, our 1st-6th grade coordinator; his wife Kerri; and their 4 girls) have received the call to a youth pastor position in Washington! We want to take some time as a church to pray for them, and commission them to the work the Lord's calling them to. We'll miss them!

Then we'll have a chance to meet Jon's replacement: Kari Pendleton (who knew there were so many ways to spell that first name??). She'll share her heart for children's ministry with us, and give us a face to go with the name. She's already been very active in our kids ministry by coordinating and directing our kids Christmas program.

Next we'll have a short group announcement for our Life Stage Groups that will be launching/resuming next Sunday, January 17th. Some of these ministries have already been established, but they are moving their meeting time to Sunday morning at our North campus to expand our "Church" experience. Corporate worship is a good and necessary part of the life of the believer, but it's not intensely personal, and you can't minister very much to your brothers and sisters in the Lord just by singing with them and listening to a sermon with them.

These groups will help make our church a little smaller (when do ever hear THAT as a desire of a church?? It SHOULD be!). They are structured to general age demographics, and for more information, you can check out the "Ministries" page of our website. (Click HERE to go there)

Then we'll have a short greeting time, and jump back into worship singing as we continue to reflect on God's glory with "Glorious and Mighty" and then meditate on the profound truth that a glorious and mighty God, whose judgments reign over all nations, would exercise his Kingship not by sentencing us to our just punishment for sin, but by substituting his Son in our place: "You Are My King." What a King he is!

Pastor Todd will then preach God's Word from Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Click HERE to read this week's passage where Paul prays for the Ephesian church. Come with soft hearts, ready to apply God's unchanging word to your own life for his glory!

We'll respond with "From the Inside Out" as we process and internalize what it means to be strengthened in the "inner being" Paul talks about in his prayer.

That's what's happening; see you Sunday!