This weekend, our pastor Joe Hishmeh began a new series on Worship with a message about suffering and worship from the life of Job. You can listen to the message or the entire service here.

Here's our order from this weekend:

Pre-Service - "In Exile" (Am) [Thrice]
Call to Worship
"Rejoice" (Bb) [Dustin Kensrue, Stuart Townend]
Greeting Time/Announcements
Message - "Worship: Suffering" [Joe Hishmeh]
Communion - "Suffering Servant" (G–A) [Dustin Kensrue]
"It Is Well" (Bb) [Horatio G. Spafford, Todd Fields]
"Blessed Be Your Name" (Bb) [Matt Redman, Beth Redman]
Dismissal

Thoughts: This was a great (but cold) weekend. It was one of those weekends where all of the pieces seemed to fit together even better than planned. For instance, our pre-service song, Thrice's "In Exile," used phrases and words from a verse that Joe referenced in his message. "Rejoice" was a great fit for the start of our services, calling us to worship and rejoice in the Lord even in the midst of suffering. During communion, we sang a toned-down version of "Suffering Servant," a song that we have been singing before our services for the past few weeks. I love this song, and it was perfect for celebrating communion, as it reflects so powerfully on Jesus' sacrifice for us. We concluded our services with Todd Fields' rewrite of "It Is Well" and the Matt and Beth Redman's "Blessed Be Your Name." Together, these final two songs called us to trust in the faithfulness and goodness of God in every circumstance, good or bad. The takeaway from this weekend was essentially this: He will never leave us or forsake us, He is trustworthy and true, and He is always worthy of our worship.

Our team did an fantastic job leading this weekend, especially on the two newer songs, "In Exile" and "Suffering Servant." We had a really enjoyable time making music for the church together throughout the weekend.

Your turn: what were your experiences, observations, or take-aways from this weekend?

- Bill