Worship

you know we all have different worship styles and preferences. Tonight is one of my favorite nights of the year and one I will sorely miss whenever we move away. Perimeter has a fantastic worship team. Yes we have people like Aaron Shust and Laura Story who are use to touring and have many CDs out but we also have people like Eric, our choir, and the others who play backup and other instruments. I know many people come to worship at Perimeter, who are use to smaller churches and may look down on the style we use. Almost every Sunday to be honest I try to understand those perspectives but I have really yet to. You see, even though many Saturday nights/Sunday mornings we have a full band, some use of lights and what might feel like to some too loud of music, I have always been impressed with the heart of worship that Perimeter does. Perimeter is not like most big churches in the sense that their worship is mostly fluffy, every song we sing is either a hymn or a deep praise song. Many of my favorite songs right now have come from the worship service and almost all of them have gotten me through the last couple of weeks.

Anyways back to tonight, last year Perimeter started what they call Night of Worship. Last year we recorded a great CD to worship with at home. This year to my knowledge we did not do a CD. It is held once a year and if it is possible in anyway, shape or form I plan or weekend around the event. Basically it is about 1.5 hours of pure praise, confession, and more praise. Some of it is concertish but most of it is deep heartfelt praise. We were singing Might to Save by Hillsong towards the end and I was so taken by awe that the building was almost full of people who took time out of their night to come and just sing praises to God, to plead with him and to confess to him. It was an experience that left me with a little piece of Heaven.

I was greatful for Randy S's encouragement as we went to leave tonight. He said this years theme for the night was that we are the sounds of God's glory here on earth(well not quite the right wording but the point is made, the opening slides for the night talked about the relations b/t sound and movement and came to that thought basically). Anyways he talked about the fact that this is not something you just leave at the door but that we should leave continuing to sing and make the sounds of God's glory here on earth. To make the point they had the choir leave still singing through the doors.

Caleb and I talked in the car on the way home about the fact that it is so easy to come to something like this without having prepared your hearts for it and leave it all at the door when you go. It is so easy to have that camp like experience, a high for a week or so and then you forget again. I made the effort this year, knowing what to expect to take part of the weekend and prepare for the worship and I hope that I will stay in it for years to come. I make an effort to download new songs that we sing in church and add them to my IPod, so far my folder has about 61 songs and I need to add a handful more from this weekend. I try to listen to it in the car or when I'm at home to uplift me and bring me closer to God. A couple of the songs have brought me closer to realizing how big God is, how powerful he is and how worthy of my praise and time he is. They have made me realize my sin in not always making him the center of my day or thinking something else is more imp than spending the time with him. I'll post some of those songs in separate posts...

I still feel like all i have done is ramble and i just haven't made my point. My heart is so full of how amazing God is (not just b/c of tonight, the worship service Sat night was very very good and the walk i have been having with him has taught me some truths as well) and I wish everyone could be in the same place I am right now...