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Woburn

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35 Olympia Avenue
Woburn, MA 01801

Service Times

Sunday 8:30 AM

Sunday 10:00 AM

Sunday 11:30 AM

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Set Congregation

North Shore

Address

North Beverly Elementary School | 48 Putnam St.
Beverly, MA 01915

Service Times

Sunday 10:00 AM

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Set Congregation

3 Prayers for the Music Initiative

by Kyle Asmus on July 16, 2018


We were sitting in our weekly Worship meeting brainstorming how to grow ourselves and our community in worship. We were asking questions like, “What does a vibrant community of passionate worshippers look like?” “What would a first-time guest say about their worship experience on Sunday morning?” “How do people who don’t follow Jesus feel, think about, and interact with us when they participate in a GENESIS worship gathering?”


Tough questions. Hard to answer.


In all the discussing, we couldn’t shake the image of a singing-community. “What is a singing-community,” you might ask? Well, I can tell you what it isn’t. It’s not a group of people who gather for Christian karaoke every Sunday morning. It’s not a group of people who stand in a zombaic-trance and mumble the words from the screen. It’s not a group of people who feel too bashful or awkward to raise their hands or lift their voice.

On the contrary, a singing-community is a lightning rod attracting Spirit-filled, unceasing, unashamed worship of King Jesus. It’s a group of people who have one heart: to celebrate who God is, remind themselves of His promises, and embrace the freedom to approach God as they are.

A singing-community is so entrenched in the Gospel that they cannot help but lift their eyes off horizontal distractions to gaze upon vertical glory. This is the community we desire to be.

This is what God wants His Church to look like. This is the endgame of the Music Initiative. We will be praying 3 prayers to this end for the next five weeks. Would you join us?

 

Our three prayers

 

1)    That People Would Come to Know Jesus by the Way We Sing.

Do you believe it's possible that unbelievers would see a community singing so loudly and passionately that they would long to have what they are clearly missing? God designed singing to be evangelistic. Psalm 9:11 says, “Sing the praises of the Lord, enthroned in Zion; proclaim among the nations what he has done.” Singing among the nations is a way we give glory to a God they do not know. When we sing we point to someone greater, higher, and more worthy than ourselves. How could a community that sings ignite change in a culture that almost completely rejects Christianity?

 

2)    That We Would Grow in Our Love for Christ by the Way We Sing.


If singing doesn’t stir your own heart and soul then you’re not singing rightly. Singing is meant to be an overflow of a heart that is beaming with praise and worship for a God who has invaded and transformed your life. The Apostle Paul wrote, “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” (Col 3:16). Paul teaches that singing is a way for us to grow in the Gospel because when we engage in it we cannot help but be thankful to God.

 

3)    That We Would Experience God in Fresh Ways.


The reality that God designed us to sing points us to the type of God we worship. He is a singing God. Zeph. 3:17 paints the picture that as God’s people sing to Him, He sings over us. God doesn’t demand our singing because He is an egotistical megalomaniac, but He commands it so we will experience His love, power, and grace in new ways.

When we sing we get what we need most: God Himself.

 

The Music Initiative will come and go, but a group of people that learn to sing well has staying power.