No Worship Leader Today?

I knew our Sunday morning worship service would be a little difficult with all our faithfully serving men up at a men's retreat, but I didn't anticipate what might happen today.  We planned to do what we always do and see others would fill in as God called upon them.  

And then I received a text message at 7:30am, Sunday morning.  The worship leader and her son were really sick.  No worship leader?  Okay.  Anybody else available to sing? No. What were we going to do? 

The truth is church is not our order or worship.  Our church is not a welcome, three songs, and so-on.  Our Sunday morning is not about dong stuff and doing it right.  It's about being the church . Sadly however, many people have turned Church into an event.  A thing you go to an enjoy or not enjoy.  A moment in time from which to consume or give. 

So when it was the time when we normally stand up and sing worship songs, I stood before our church and shared this short message.  I preached a sermon later, but I think God wanted us to think about the question, "What is the Church?"

If you'd like to listen to that seven-minute message in place of songs, you can listen on the player below or you can listen here.  Following this message, we listened to Emily and David play and we prayed and meditated on the Lord.  

And guess what?  Church was still there because we are the Church.  We gathered.  We prayed.  We opened our Bibles and heard from the Lord.  We praised our King. We remembered that the Church is a family and it was good.  Nothing blew up.  Nobody died.  And it was good. 

God used this morning to remind us of who we are.  We should celebrate that. 

Thanks for being the Church today!
Pastor Bryan