Preparing for Worship: August 8th, 2010

Hello friends!

This is going to be a great weekend; I can feel it! This Summer has been full of vacations, and I think that many are finally back in Valencia, anxiously awaiting the start of school.

I hope to see all of you this weekend as we come together to obediently offer corporate worship to our God! I think it's great that there are so many ways that we're able to do this faithfully: singing together; studying God's Word together; giving of our money, skills and time; and seeking to encourage one another as the day of Christ's return approaches!

This Sunday has some exciting things in store, and around the Crossroads office, we've starting calling it "Announcement Sunday, with a few minutes left over for Worship and Teaching." Seriously, there is so much cool stuff coming up in the next few weeks that you need to know about. Ministry launches, exciting events and service opportunities all over the place, so I don't want to hear anything about you "not knowing how to get involved!"

I think we're going to have a good time worshiping through song this week, as some of our worship song arrangements actually tie into Pastor Todd's sermon this week. Pastor Todd will be preaching out of Nehemiah 7-8, where the Israelites gather to celebrate the completion of the wall by...listening to a scribe read out of the Law for several hours. (??????)

Seems like a funny way to say "hooray, we're finished building the wall!" This passage is really making a strong statement about the way that the Lord builds up his people. There is a strong emphasis on declaring his Word to the people, so that they understand his commands, and that they know him. God's Word must be the highest priority of his gathered people; not worship music, not lights or videos, not a really cool building. While all of those things are helpful and can God-honoring in their own rights, God desires us to KNOW HIM, and he has revealed everything he wants us to know about him in his Word.

Pastor Todd will be talking about this as he teaches from this passage, so we're changing up the music on some of the tunes we're doing, just to practically remind us that how we dress the words to the songs is of little lasting value; it's the content that matters more than the sound or style.

We'll start the morning with classic rock version of "The Solid Rock," the old hymn that helps give us a foundation for the morning, and really for our lives; that everything we are and do, is founded on what Christ has done for us. Then we'll sing the new tune we learned last week, "Our God," which is a country-crossover declaration of the awesome power and greatness of God that is meant to remind us that if our God is for us, who can be against us?

Then we'll have a couple of minutes to highlight some really important announcements for our Legacy class, Student Ministries, and Children's Ministry.

After a time for greeting, we'll sing a bit more with "All I Have is Christ" which we're going to do in a bluegrass style! Followed by a mellow blues rendition of "Before the Throne of God Above."

Then Pastor Todd will come and teach us, and we pray that God's Holy Spirit would be working mightily to illuminate our hearts to the power of the truth of Scripture, and teaching us to apply it in our lives that we might live in the light.

We'll finish with the song "Breathe," which we're doing in an ethereal, post-rock style, that reminds us that God's Word is to us as the very air we breathe in its importance.

Gotta cut this post a little short, time to run and get ready to setup for tonight's Kidz Kamp-In!