I know so much more, than back when I knew it all...

The only station I can get in my shop is a country station, and I just got done listening to a song that had the title of this blog post in it's lyrics. I like it.

Before I even begin this post, it must be said, that I am open to other ideas, and even to those who are in complete disagreement with me on the subject.

Ted and I spent the better part of our marriage bouncing from church to church. Each time we got comfortable something happened that we didn't like. The minute we didn't like something we would use it as an excuse to not attend a church regularly. We were slackers, and we thought church should be all about us.

I know so much more, than back when I knew it all.

Finally God began to take over our selfish hearts, and as we continue to mature spiritually, we are realizing more and more that "church" is not about us at all, it is about God and God alone.

Every church has it's style, and many churches are adopting "mission statements". At Community, we've chosen "Celebrating Christ, Restoring Community" as our "tagline" or our mission statement. To my understanding,even as Community church was conceived the goal was to reach out to the Roselawn community, to those who do not know God.

So what does that mean to those of us who choose to worship regularly in an outreach minded church?

So often worship style and music is at the center of controversy. I remember my parents having discussions about the new Psalter vs the old, and back even further than that, I know that some folks from the "Old Country" were upset when the church started to sing songs in English instead of the familiar Dutch they were used to.

On Sunday we Celebrated Christ with "New music Sunday". We were finishing up our "Live Like You Were Dying" small group series. Our young director of arts and worship explained that the praise group that would be singing, was a small group that met out of a common love for God and music.

The group had lots of guitars and played a much louder and rock and roll version of praise music than most of us are used to hearing in church. These young people are very gifted musically, and for me, it was great to see them praising God in thier style of music. I did realize that I am getting old, because the volume did seem loud to me...when did that happen?!

Anyway, maybe it's because I have a twenty something and teenaged children that I understand how, what seems like loud screeching noise to some people, can be a beautiful expression of praise for a different age group.

Interestingly enough at our small group meeting Sunday evening, there were two families that absolutely LOVED the music of the morning service, and both were families that are fairly new to Community Church, and both were from the Roselawn area.

One thing I love about Community Church is that the goal is to blend the best of the old with the best of the new in regards to worship style, the goal I would guess is to give everyone in such a diverse group of people the opportunity to praise God in their own style. That didn't happen on this particular Sunday, there were no hymns sung, I get why people who are comfortable praising God thru hymns would have been disappointed.

Since we claim to be a church whose purpose is to reach out to the unsaved community, is it possible to see that no, maybe it wasn't everyone's choice of music, but if the loud rock and roll style of music reaches new families, and a younger generation that maybe it could be part of worship services in the future?

I praise God that my 20 yr old daughter has found a contemporary worship service at Moody Bible Church in Chicago, where she feels comfortable praising God in her style of worship. I don't want her to attend a church out of obligation, I want her to feel the Spirit move in her heart as she praises her God. I thank God that Kyle took a chance and introduced a different style of praising God to our church and I thank God that some of our new families really loved it.

You may not agree, but I've decided once and for all that church is not all about me...yes, I need to be fed, I want to be comfortable, and I do enjoy praising God in my chosen style of worship music on Sundays. But the goal is to reach those who do not know God, and since I know our director of arts and worship, and I know that his relationship with God is strong and that he walks close to God, I trust that his heart was in the right place when he chose the music for Sunday's worship service.

In our study of week 5 we learned about worshipping in Spirit and in Truth. In our discussion we talked about how any expression of praise should be a stirring of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. It was said that we should neither raise our hand in praise because everyone else is doing it, nor should we be afraid to raise our hand because no one else is doing it.

Father God may Community Church continue to worship You in Spirit and in Truth. I ask that you move our wants and desires out of the way, and keep our hearts and minds open to the expressions of praise in styles that we are not familiar with. You are the reason we come to church on Sunday, it's not about us, but only about you our God and Savior. Thank you for allowing us to worship with such a diverse group of believers at Community Church, where we can share and learn more about you from eachother's experiences. Continue to use us to reach out to the lost and hopeless who do not yet believe in You. In Your Son Amen.