We have the most wonderful gatherings at Memorial Drive on Sundays! In years gone by we would hit an occasional WOW! But, they seemed far and few between. I'd make every effort to duplicate an awesome format and it wouldn't show. Nowadays, we see such intense majesty and glory of God show up Sunday upon Sunday. What changed?
Several factors have greatly improved. The study of "Experiencing God" awakened us to get on board with God instead of begging Him to endorse our imagined programs. The determination to no longer preach about brotherhood issues and only preach about the hope of Christ, I believe has had its favorable effect.
The one thing from all of it that I observe as major is we have learned to praise God. We have learned by two outstanding workship leaders (Allen French and Shane Coffman) to truly capture the accapella thrill of connecting with Him. And, we've become a church more open; even expecting, to speak of the "God-things" going on in our midst.
The more we praise Him it seems we have more to praise Him about. It's like having good things happen backed by compound interest.
3 comments:
You are so right. We experience that at Highland Oaks as well. Praising God is such an important part of not only our worship on Sunday's but our worship all through the week. Praising God just makes everything sweeter. "Experiencing God" is also a wonderful thing. We when start watching to see where God is working, we find there are a whole lot of things we should be praising Him for. Great post! love you!
"The determination to no longer preach about brotherhood issues and only preach about the hope of Christ, I believe has had its favorable effect."
I think that's huge. A lot of places would do well to adopt this idea.
I agree, the WOW Sundays are more often than not now. We expect such great things, and God does not disappoint. And even the days that aren't a WOW to me I later find were a WOW to someone else in the family.
I have longed for years to be a part of a church of Christ that was more about Christ than about church and I have found it at Memorial Drive. I love the fact that we no longer view the way to experience God through our plan, but by being open to experiencing Him however He chooses to reveal Himself. With that kind of focus and the awesome praise that brings us in step with His heartbeat, it is always a WOW whether it is as quiet as a baby’s sigh or as loud as a sonic boom!
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