Just an Update

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything so I figured I'd just take a couple of minutes tonight to do a quick update of what's been going on to keep me from making some posts over the past 30 days. My last post mentioned that I was elected to the deacon board and my 3-year term began with the church year that started on Oct 1. Also, last weekend and this the church is putting on a Judgement House which is taking up a lot of my time. Well, those are pretty much the main things that have kept me from making more updates recently. Other than not really much else is happening in my life or has struck me as particularly newsworthy.

Whirlwind Weekend

This was certainly an exciting weekend in the life of our church. Yesterday, a large group of members went out of help other churches in their outreach and evangelism efforts throughout the Charleston area. At the same time as that was happening, several people were helping with the distribution of food that had been purchased through Angel Food Ministries.

Today was High Attendance Day where we were all encouraged to invite someone to church and we had a massive church-wide fellowship following the morning services. We also held deacon elections for which I was one of 12 candidates being considered for 9 positions (5 currently serving deacons are rotating off to take their year sabbatical after serving for 3 years and the membership has grown such that additional deacons were added to lighten service load across the entire deacon board). I was one of the ones that the membership chose to serve.

Well, even after all that, tomorrow's just the start of a normal week for me.

Confession: Good for ... ?

People say that confession is good for the soul and the Bible tells us that God will forgive (and forget) our sins if we just confess them to him. Through Sunday morning's sermon, the Lord convicted me of a certain sin in my life that was preventing me from answering the call to a possible opportunity to serve Him and His Kingdom due to the fear of somebody finding out about it should I be chosen for this calling. You would simply not believe the amount of searching that I had done to find "justification" for this particular sin and had myself convinced that it was alright and not really a sin. The devil can be very sneaky in guiding you to any (mis)information that might help you think that a particular sin is right. Now that this sin is confessed and out of my life, I feel at peace with God once again and am free to serve him to the fullest of my ability.

Nicole and I also made a decision this weekend to begin getting into the Word and sincere prayer more often like we should. We have committed ourselves to two 15-minute (or longer) bible studies each day, one together and one individually. We both desire a closer walk with God and want increase our spiritual maturity.

Honing My Vocal Prowess

With the upcoming God and Country presentation that the worship choir will be presenting on July 1, I have been asked to do a solo (or two). While it is not a solo-solo (where I would be the only one singing) since the choir will be backing me up, it will be the first time in many, many years that I have truly sung by myself and not as a part of the larger group.

In addition, I have also dedicated myself to preparing and performing a song at least once a quarter. God has blessed me with the gift of music and by only utilizing my instrumental abilities, I am not using the whole talent I have been given to His fullest glory. The first song I am working on (in addition to the solo mentioned above) is Angels Wish by Steven Curtis Chapman.

Another thing that occurred to me as I am starting to sing again is that in high school chorus, I was a low baritone and made regional chorus two years in a row as a bass. The songs I am doing now are most definitely in the mid to high tenor range and I have very little difficulty, if any, reaching all of the notes without straining (as long as I am able to provide the diaphragmatic support necessary). However, you certainly couldn't tell from my speaking voice that I am able to reach all of the notes that I can.

Orchestra Debuts in the Evening Service

The new instrumental ministry / church orchestra debuted tonight in the evening service. As of now, the group consists of a piano, a synthesizer, a flute, a clarinet, a trumpet, and a violin. We played as the accompaniment for the main song service at the beginning of the service.

I thought it sounded very good and it seemed to be a welcome addition to our worship experience as the congregation was, at time, singing loud enough for me to hear over the trumpet which was less that 3 feet from my ear. I'm looking forward to playing more with this group and seeing it grow as time goes on.

The children's choir also did a presentation of a musical named Sticky Notes and Bible Quotes. Unfortunately, I was unable to catch their performance as I had to step out at that time to pick my wife up from work.

The Choir is Back

This morning was the choir's first Sunday back in the choir loft after our break following our Easter passion play production. We sang Still which is what we sang one of the first weeks after we hired our current music minister last year.

Instrumental Ministry Kick-Off

Last night, we held the first rehearsal of our new instrumental ministry. Other than myself, the group consisted of a flute, a clarinet, a violin, a trumpet, and piano. I played a string reduction part on the synthesizer. The first thing we are working on is to accompany the main song service for an evening worship coming up. The group sounded very good for it being our first time playing together and I have high hopes that this ministry will grow.