This weekend, our lead pastor, Joe Hishmeh, shared the the fifth and final message in our series, "Positive Identity," where he taught how we are significant in Christ. He shared how God has given us gifts and abilities for the purpose of advancing His kingdom, so we all have a part in God's mission here on earth. We grow in significance when we serve the King and His kingdom. You can listen to or watch the entire message and service here. Here's our service plan from this weekend:
"Kingdom" (A) [Kristian Stanfill] "Everlasting God" (Bb) [Brenton Brown, Ken Riley] Greeting Time/Announcements Message - "Positive Identity: Significant" [Joe Hishmeh] "Your Great Name" (Bb) [Michael Neale, Krissy Nordhoff] "How He Loves" (Bb) [John Mark McMillan] "Made Alive" (C) [Zach Bolen, Brian Eichelberger] Dismissal
Thoughts: This weekend was a great finish to a fantastic series for our church. We all need to be reminded how Jesus has changed our status. We are loved, forgiven, accepted, secure, and significant because of Jesus!
For our singing this weekend, we sang about being a part of the mission of the Church and the love of God which gives us value and purpose in life. We opened our services with "Kingdom," which declares in the chorus "We are the kingdom of God/ We are an army of love/ We carry truth to the world/ We are the kingdom of God." It was very fitting for Joe's message this weekend, and I thought it set the tone for what we were after in each of the services. We continued with "Everlasting God," which is one of our church's favorite big-picture songs, worshiping the everlasting God for His unchanging goodness and care for us. After the message, we responded first with "Your Great Name," which sings of how God reaches all of us in different places, and gives us a new identity in Him. For all He is and all He has done for us, He is worthy of all our worship! We then went immediately into "How He Loves," where we took the opportunity to acknowledge our struggles and weaknesses and to actively receive God's unfailing love for us. After we prayed, we finished our services with "Made Alive," which was an uplifting send-off for each of our services.
It was a fantastic weekend in all. Our team did a great job and worked hard to serve the congregation well. Also, Joe's message was a great call to service and significance because Christ. I am excited to see how our church responds in serving over time in response what Joe shared. It would be a life-changing experience for the individuals and for our church.
- Bill
What were your thoughts or experiences from your worship gathering this weekend?