The tradition of evangelical worship on this holiday weekend has been to spend much of the service celebrating the United States. We do enjoy the freedom to worship and for that we should be thankful but the focus of the worship service should be telling the story of God. Right now I know there are people thinking I am not patriotic and you would be wrong. I am so honored and privileged to be a part of this great nation and do not take this lightly. Just recently I had the opportunity to hear my father tell some stories of his experience in Korea during the Korean conflict. As a nation we are indebted to the men and women who have served and serve today to protect our freedoms. As believers the most patriotic things we can do are: give thanks for the freedoms, support and pray for our leaders, as instructed in Gods’ Word and ask God for the strength to be a messenger of the gospel to this nation that is increasingly turning its heart from God. In our services yesterday we did not sing patriotic songs but we did dedicate a significant amount of our service to prayer for our country and our role as believers in this country.

Here is the Setlist with some thoughts on why we chose the items:

Song Set #1

Holy Spirit Rain Down

Hosanna (Praise Is Rising)

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

*The story we are tried to tell was: 1) God make this about You and we want your Holy Spirit to lead our worship; 2) We know that when we worship You are present and when we recognize and surrender to Your presence our live are change; 3) and finished this set with a song of testimony and encouragement proclaiming how we feel because of God’s grace.

Welcome

Baptism

Song Set #2

I Have a Hope

Prayers

Let the Church Rise

*Here the story was: God has a plan for our lives, part of that plan was for us to live in this country and therefore we offer these prayers (thanksgiving for freedoms, help us to submit to our government, give our leaders wisdom and let us be your gospel messengers to this country.) We concluded this set with a song that challenges us as a church to be a reflection of Christ.