Woodstock Christian Church

“19? Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ?20? always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

21? Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:19-21

Every week I have the blessed honor of leading worship. It is a pleasure and I have never lost the joy of preparing to bring the congregation before the presence of God. It is a fantastic thing to adore and to love the creator and show respect and honor to His Majesty the King.

When selecting songs, I spend a lot of time thinking through all of the songs that we have in the hymn books, the choruses that have stood the test of time and the new songs that are covering the airwaves and how we can blend all of these songs together to compliment the message of the day. There are many songs out there. I select the best of all types and prepare the praise team to lead them. In this way we speak to one another with psalms (tested and proven choruses), hymns (the core and backbone of any worship service), and spiritual songs (the new stuff, heartfelt and powerful).

Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord. Now I know there are individual that would rather not sing aloud. They fear that the individuals around them would not consider this to be joyful noise unto the Lord. I respect that. But you must sing. In our hearts we are to sing and make music to the Lord. This can not be done if your hearts are divided and distant from the Lord. Every week, every one of us must clear out our hearts and renew ourselves with worship. The heart is the abiding place of the Holy Spirit and we must make room. Everyday we clutter up our hearts and Sunday morning is a fabulous time to clean up our hearts and allow our hearts to sing.

We all have opinion and personal preference. We have the brothers and sisters that enjoy the classics. Submit to them out of reverence for Christ. Then there are brothers and sisters who would rather us sing the modern stuff that they hear on the radio every day on Christian radio stations like 93.3 or 104.7 and even Sunday mornings on 94.9. Submit to them out of reverence for Christ.

I would encourage anyone that would like to hear a certain song, fell free to make a request. I have always attempted to do songs that have been requested. There will be a box in the foyer. If it is a classic, write down the name and the song number. If it is a modern song, please write the name and who it is done by. I look forward to finding ways of incorporating these songs into worship.

I think that it is very honorable that we attempt to approach worship in a blended way. Your brother and sisters preferences in worship are as important as your own. We will always have new songs. And we will always, gratefully, have the songs that have stood the test of time. We are all one body and let us submit to one another in unity. We enter in together, AS ONE to worship the One.