So, last night our third Sunday Evening Connexion service.  Things seem to be falling into place quite nicely and we continue to tweak and adjust things.

It was World Communion Sunday so we had the opportunity to come together and celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  I also threw a curve ball at the team during our pre-service warm-up.  On Friday Pastor Chuck contacted me and said that he wanted a song done after his message as a response to it – “My Life Is In You”.  This song was NOT one of the ones that we had worked on but it was one that I was familiar with so I figured that I would just do it and the team would join me for the rest of the music.  I ran through it so that the vocalists could learn it and sing along and wouldn’t you know it – the team picked it up in about 30 seconds.  Granted – it’s not the most challenging song – but that they were able to pick it up as quickly as they did was another strong bit of encouragement for me that God has placed some great people on this team.

Our music for last night consisted of:

Gathering Song – “Mighty to Save” – Fielding\Morgan

“Love the Lord” – Brewster
“Holy Is The Lord” – Tomlin
“Holy, Holy, Holy” – Traditional Hymn, Hueber

Communion\Closing – “Jesus Paid It All” – Nifong\Hall\Grape
“You Are My King (Amazing Love)” – Foote

I love adding in traditional Hymns to a “contemporary” service.  This week we did “Holy, Holy, Holy”.   As we ended the song we just stayed on the D chord and made it a time of personal prayer and response to God.   This then lead us right into our pastoral prayer time very nicely.

While communion was being served we played through “Jesus Paid It All” (another hymn) instrumentally, sang the first verse\chorus and then went back to instrumental.  Once it was done we invited everyone to sing along as we did the whole song.  It was closed with a prayer and I had the congregation sing the chorus one last time acapella afterward.  Closing the evening after communion with two songs focusing on what our Savior had done for us worked very well.

The team continues to gel and as a service we are continuing to “find our identity” and tweak things so that the gospel message is clearly proclaimed each week and we meet the needs of those that walk through our doors through everything that happens on a Sunday evening.  One thing that I am encouraged by is that we continue to see new faces in the service each week.  I pray that they hear God speaking to them and calling them to Him.

Want to see what others are doing in their services?  Check out Fred McKinnon’s “Sunday Set List” post.