Church service

Our team had the honor of leading the church service at All Nations Church during our second Sunday there, the day before the VBS started. Their service was set up in a similar way to our home church in Arizona – the first half was worship, and the second half was the message.

Three of us were able to play with the worship team, along with Paul, who often plays bass. Elisa and Jessica sang backing vocals – it was Jessica’s first time singing in a mic during a church service, so that was pretty awesome! I was originally going to play guitar, but they already had two acoustic guitarists, and the guitar I was using for our team’s impromptu worship sessions needed an intonation adjustment; it was fine for us, but I didn’t want to play it during a service and muddy the sound with out-of-tune chords.

I went to the Thursday night worship practice anyway, thinking I would just sing or something, when Paul mentioned that their drummer was out of town and told me to give it a try. I saw down mostly as a joke, having never played drums in my life (unless you count the video game Rock Band). On top of being unfamiliar with the instrument, I had never heard any of the four songs we were doing. The worship leader was great, and gave a lot of instructions on what she wanted from the rhythm section. (I was told she tended to do that anyway; it wasn’t just because I was new.)

I was happy to do whatever was asked of me; my ego as a drummer was obviously right around zero. I was shocked to find that I could actually keep a pretty good beat, and as we played through the songs, I gradually added more and more things in. It sounded good! Nothing special, pretty simple beats, but still – I was able to hold my own and not screw things up for the rest of the band; no one at the church service would have guessed it was my first time drumming. I was proud of that. I think God gave me a special grace for it or something. When I got back to Phoenix, I sat down at a drum set once and tried to remember the beat from the first song, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. I hope I still have access to that ability, though, because I’ve always wanted to play drums and would love more opportunities to actually learn how to do it properly.

So that was worship. It was awesome. Afterward, we went into the message. Lauren spoke during the first service, and Jessica spoke at the second. They had different messages, with different tie-in skits or demonstrations. We wanted the service to showcase the kinds of things we’d do at the VBS, since there were a bunch of parents and kids in the congregation.

Lauren spoke about faith and trusting God, and shared some very personal things about struggling with anxiety. She used the story of Jesus calming the storm in the boat, focusing on the part where Jesus told His disciples they would sail to the other side, and their lack of trust in His words. Our team went up to act out the story as she told it – it was fun, and a nice change of pace in the middle of the sermon. Lauren did really well – she had spoken at a service in Nepal, but that was mostly telling her testimony. This was her first actual, prepared sermon, and she aced it. People were touched, and many came up for prayer afterward. One man came up and said he wanted to dedicate his life to the Lord. We learned that this was especially significant because his wife was a faithful believer, but he had been on the fence for years, never committing himself to God. It was powerful and humbling to see.

Jessica spoke about forgiveness, and about letting Jesus guide us through the things in our lives instead of trying to control them ourselves. It was her first sermon as well, and she also did great! She did a demonstration in the middle of her message, too – she had someone come up and put a blindfold on, while she led them in a two-step dance (an activity we later used in the VBS). It showed how a blind person, i.e., all of us, could still follow the steps and dance smoothly if they stopped trying to control things and let the person who could see (Jesus) take the lead.

Jessica was kind enough to share the main points she had written for her sermon. They are:

• Forgiveness of Others: it's not just about saying the words, "I forgive you", it's a change of heart.

• Forgiveness of Self: Jesus died for your sins to be forgiven, don't deny Him the joy of generous giving. Let go of your sins, don't hold on to a past mistake that God has already forgiven you for.

• New Self in Christ: you have to remove all of the old self (anger, malice, slander, and obscenity) to make room for the new self (compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love)

• Jesus Take the Lead: like a blind person trying to follow in a partner dance, you have to trust the other to lead you. You need to trust Jesus. He has a bird's eye view, He knows what's best for you, trust Him and follow His lead.

• He Loves You: He will not lead you astray, He is your protector, and He loves you. You are valuable. He died for you because you're worth it! He loves you 100%. He knows you're not perfect, but He meets you where you are and loves you, even in your toughest times on the hardest days.