Pastor’s Corner “Immanuel Music & Unified Worship”

Before I write anything else, I first want to give thanks to our heavenly Father, to Melissa, and to her amazing team of volunteers for a wonderful week of Vacation Bible School! When “The Weekly” hits your inbox, we’ll be enjoying day four of five days of a fun, engaging exploration of what it means to “Live it Out” with Jesus, focusing on loving others like Jesus loves us. Please continue praying for these final two days, and be ready to welcome these kids and their families when they come to visit the second service as we celebrate VBS Sunday.

The past three Sundays we have been reflecting on the understanding that we gather on Sundays to be renewed in our worship of God in Jesus. “Unified Worship” is a recurring phrase from these past weeks, and one we’ve been applying in particular to our liturgy, our music, and our weekly worship as one congregation with two services.

The phrase “Unified Worship” emerged as our music enters a new season of growth. In May, Immanuel Music (the name for our music ministry) articulated its mission with these words:

The Music Ministry of Immanuel is One Team, with One Mission: Engage the hearts of people in Spirit- filled Unified Worship of God through Jesus Christ.

The term “Unified Worship” reflects the biblical teaching that, though we are diverse, we are called to be one in Christ (Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 12:12-14). It is worship rooted in the rich history of the Church while remaining open to the Spirit’s movement today, bringing together the “best of the best” from both past and present.

Worship is not about style—it’s about the heart.

God is shaping the heart of Immanuel to transcend style and allow flexibility in how the Holy Spirit brings us together in unity under Christ to glorify Him through music and technology using the best of music both ancient and modern.

Colossians 3:15-17 is the foundational passage for Immanuel’s Music Ministry.

Over the next several months the music ministry will move forward in various ways: weekly rehearsals, 1^st Tuesdays of Praise and Prayer, new music on Sunday mornings, and the occasional use of a technology called “MultiTracks” that supplements instrumentation. If you would like to participate in Immanuel Music as a vocalist or instrumentalist, or in assisting with A/V, please talk to Meredyth Stirling, Phoebe Giannini, or Dan Ellison.

We are taking one more important step forward in our music ministry: the formation of a discernment committee that will assist me in calling a Worship Leader/Music Minister. That person will be instrumental in leading us further into Unified Worship (pun intended!). We will begin by spending the month of August praying for the formation of the committee.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

Your Pastor in Christ,