A Regular Service

I told you about an "irregular" service a couple of weeks ago -- where the S.S.S. came and sang, we got testimonies from the kids who went to camp, and the puppets gave a rousing rendition of "The Preacher Man" (a parody of "The Candy Man", a song I hadn't heard since I was knee high to a strawhberry -- best line of the song: Who can take an offering/Any time of day?) .

Anyway, today was a much more normal service. We started with some prelude music (but that's not the prelude; I'll get to that in a moment). Then I did a greeting and announcements. Then we had the "prelude". See, they used to have the prelude before the greeting, but people talked through it and the organists got their feelings hurt because they had practiced the music and then nobody listened to it. Thus, after the greeting and announcements, the prelude is played. I was a little miffed by the whole thing until I prayed about it (funny how that happens). As I finished the greeting/announcement time, I told the congregation during the prelude to prepare themselves to come before the Lord for worship -- if they needed to confess, to pray, to quiet their hearts, whatever they needed. That seemed to be a good thing.

Then we read a call to worship. Then 3 high school girls and I lead singing: "Open the Eyes of My Heart" and "I Want to Know You (In the Secret)". We then had the "greet each other" time and prayer requests. After prayer, we had a teenager do a great liturgical dance to a Chris Tomlin song. I read the scripture (Exodus 33:12-18), then we had a hymn: Come Thou Almighty King. Then I preached on Moses' prayer (show me Your intentions so I will be able to understand You more fully and do exactly what You want me to do; if You don't go with us personally, then we don't move from this spot; show me Your glorious presence).

After that, we had the offering, and we sang another hymn, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, and then we dismissed. At 11:15.

That's a much more normal service.