10th Anniversary at The Brook

Once again, I am including this post as a part of "Sunday Setlists" over at www.fredmckinnon.com. Worship leaders from all over post their services so you can see what's up around the world of worship! 

Today was a HUGE day at The Brook. We celebrated our 10th Birthday - ten wonderful years of ministry! It was so exciting. Check back every day this week for more details, thoughts and videos on what this day meant for our church family because it's just too much to cover in one post. Today we gathered in one service only and even brought the children in with us so that our childrens ministry workers could join us. One thing I noticed today that made a huge difference was that people came with great excitement and expectation that God would move and touch. We came ANTICIPATING what God would do - we were looking forward to it! And God moved in a mighty way. I don't know that I have ever had a time of celebratory worship like we experienced today. People were dancing, raising their hands, shouting, and singing at the top of their lungs. All along there were tears, but they were tears of joy, tears of thanksgiving, tears of remembrance. I'll write more about this later, but today I felt God put a period on this chapter of pain in our church's life - today I felt like God said "that chapter is over, and the next chapter has begun." It was healing. And we needed it.

So here's what we did:
 - Welcome and intro of service - Jan
 - Happy Birthday Video - filmed and produced by Gregory Jones (up later this week)
 - "Happy Birthday" - the band played and then when it got to "dear The Brook!" we shot off confetti cannons and streamers and confetti rained down on the stage and our people. It was A MOMENT! When it was over people were jumping out of their seats to worship together!
 - Worship
    1) You, You Are God (Lincoln Brewster)
    2) How Awesome is the Lord Most High (Tomlin)
    3) Sing to the King (Billy James Foote

Looking Back and Thanking God - Richard Buckley, Interim Pastor (check out his post as well!)

Cardboard Testimonies set to "How He Loves" - vocals by Michelle Britt and Sheila Pierce - we had 27 people that participated to tell their stories. I am so proud of their courage and openness - this is the group who TRULY preached the sermon this morning. Check back tomorrow night for this video! Here's one shot of Bill and Melodie Schroder, who recently brought their daughters home from Guatamala!

Coming to God and Moving with Him - Josh Britt, Student Minister

Communion with one another and with God - Jan Owen (that's me) - we did something a big different with communion. I used excerpts from Lee Eclov's "The Sinners Feast" and Dietrech Boenhoffers "Life Together" as I led into us participating together. I talked about how just participating in this meal defines us. We make a statement when we drink the cup and eat the bread. We say more than "I remember", we say "This is who I am". I led it as a time of celebration and we stood to our feet with our little cups and our little squares of bread-like substance held high in thanksgiving and we declared with loud voices the following statement:

"This is who we are – recipients of the mercy and love of Jesus Christ. We once were lost, but now are found. We once were far away, but now live near to God. We once were dead but now are alive in Christ. We don’t deserve it, but Jesus Christ has saved us. Thank God, we belong to Christ!". (we shouted this at the end!)

Then we ended with a time of really rockin' worship! We threw down!
1) I Am Free (Jon Egan I think)
2) Say So - (Israel Houghton)

I did learn one thing. I cannot dance and jump and actually sing at the same time. I can do one or the other but not both! I was torn! At one point almost all of the vocalists were holding their mics up in the air and they were just dancing and praising God. I even lost my shoes somewhere along the way. I felt free-er this morning than I have in a long time and it was obvious that our congregation did as well.

There was a healing in that joy, and hope and a longing to move with God instead of staying stuck in the mire of the pain, hurt and despair of the past.

This morning I felt like God released us to move ahead with Him.

I am so thankful for the work God did today at The Brook.

So what did God do in your heart and in the midst of your church family today?

Comments

[steve]

Great stuff, glad to hear your day was a great celebration. Cool to see y'all took of communion together. Logistically how did that work? I've wanted to do that with our people but fear the extra time it might take to get everyone a cup and bread thingy. What did you do that helped ease the waiting of others?

[Christie]

God showed up and showed off...from the cardboard testimonies of changed lives, rockin' praise & worship and powerful messages from Richard, Josh and Jan!

Two of my neighbors came and both said that they had never been to a church where they felt so loved. That was great to hear. It is so evident that God is at work in The Brook. He has great and mighty things planned for this church. I am honored to be a part of His work here at The Brook.

Thank you, Jan, for working so hard with your team to put together a most unforgettable service!

[jan owen]

thank you Christie! God did a great work indeed.

@Steve - I had the ushers pass the elements all at once and then I spoke while they did it. We moved VERY quickly.....it worked well.