All Church Worship

We just gathered our three morning services together into one worship celebration for the reopening of our renovated sanctuary. This includes asking folks who like to go to church at 8:30 to wait until 10:30. For contemporary folks and traditional folks to join together, oh my!
When I arrived at Spring Valley "combined" worship didn't have the best reputation with a lot of folks. In what I find to be the unfortunately typically experience with combined worship everyone compromises and no one is fulfilled. My goal has been to find 1) appropriate reasons to bring the whole church together and when not to. 2) how to combine worship where everyone feels uplifted and renewed. I think we succeeded this week in 1, and made progress in 2 but could still do better. We succeeded in goal 1 because the whole church was invested in the sanctuary renovation; because the Bishop was preaching and because everyone changed a little. The order was unique, there were songs from both and neither musical styles we're use to, the time was unique to everyone. So many people were involved in the endeavor that it really felt like our church service -no matter who you are. Woohoo!
Just as type the last line, I remember my 2nd goal. Was our all church worship really fully uplifting to everyone? Did traditional folks tolerate the praise songs or were they uplifted by them? Did contemporary folks really embrace the traditional closing hymn or where they just ready to sing it and get on to lunch? Did the anthem from neither the stylings of our choir nor our band really bring us together? (God definitely moved through it, but could it have been better?) I wonder if we should take more teaching moments in a service like this (or in all services). How many times do we assume everyone in the room knows what is going on and what is expected of them. Or if they don't they'll figure it out once they've come to worship several times, cause it is always the same. What happens if we assume there is someone completely new to worship in the room every time we gather? Is there a way to truly have occasional blended worship experiences that are uplifting to everyone and glorifying to God?
We are testing out another manner of All Church Worship during the holidays this year. We're going to have one All Church Service on Christmas morning (Christmas is a Sunday this year) in our contemporary worship venue and style. Then, the next Sunday, on New Year's Day we'll have All Church worship in the traditional style in our Sanctuary. I hope that we come out of those two weeks feeling like we achieved holistic worship experiences that honored both styles, celebrated major holydays and brought us to worship worship all together. How is your church approaching the Christmas and New Year's Day are on Sunday challenge?

Music, new and old.

Here is some music for you to enjoy. It's a list of good congregational songs to do in worship. Some are very popular, some are not as much, but they all have youtube videos with them so you can see/hear what they are like. Some videos are amazing, some are just the recording with the lyrics on the screen. I hope you enjoy them.

1) "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan
This is by far my favorite right now. David Crowder does a version, but John Mark wrote the song and does it much better, in my opinion. The video is almost as amazing as the song. This one also has an incredible story. The first link is the song, the second link is John Mark explaining the meaning behind the song. Watch them both, they are good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk48HYAQmdI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NXWE6AC8ao&feature=related

2) "Hosanna" by Brooke Frasier (of Hillsong United)
I've done this song for years. You've heard it on Christian radio no doubt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQGJdTpMUcU

3) "Shine Your Light On Us" by Robbie Seay
Great song. Amazing dynamics, and a great song for prayer time or any slower song you want. The video is just some junk a fan put together, but it's a good recording of the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jib8_vjLvmY&feature=related

4) "Found" by Aaron Ivey
This is one of the guys who leads worship at Austin Stone Church now. This one would be great for a piano lead instrument, since that's what Aaron plays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TwHUU-OzOY

5) "Stronger" this is another Hillsong jam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZBPD-T20t0

6) "With Everything" by Hillsong united
This is my absolute favorite Hillsong number, but it's tricky and requires some audience participation to reach its potential. Have to have a group that knows how to worship with hearts abandoned. The video will show you what I mean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSjNod4LXFE

7) "From The Inside Out" by Hillsong United
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhdIONeEVI4&feature=related

8) "I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous)" by Chris Tomlin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7QuZ4wo1X4

9) "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAQJKZJB-kE

10) "Majesty" by Delirious?
The question mark is intentional. That's how they spell their band name.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNjH8QDpBFY

Worship Curator

Often I'm asked what I do. This is one of the better descriptions of my intended purpose of my work. Does your worshiping community have a curator? What would change if someone were serving in this role?

my hope is found.

Hello readers.

My name is Alex and I am another family member that has decided to write about worship, because I too have become enthralled in it. I am Evelyn's son and Kelly's younger brother. I live in Temple, Texas and work at First United Methodist Church directing contemporary worship and a couple other ministries.

Something was shared with me a few weeks ago and I thought I would begin my contributions by passing along a great song to you. Owl City is a fairly new band that I hope you have heard of. They are difficult to describe except as "electronic". I was shown this post in their blog which features a beautiful arrangement of "In Christ Alone". It is performed by Owl City's lead singer. I hope you enjoy.

"In Christ Alone"