Summer Worship

Paul told the church at Rome, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:1-2, NIV)

In these verses, Paul ties the idea of worship to our response to God's mercy with lives of transformation, obedience, and gratitude. This is truly the heart of worship. Worship goes far beyond the twenty minutes we spend in song on Sunday morning. Worship infuses every part of our lives.

This Biblical view of worship is the lens through which we should view every individual expression of worship…including the expression of music. We highly value music and the arts at Old North. From our commitment to worshipping Jesus each week in song, to our art gallery that showcases the beauty of our Creator and His creation, we are fully committed to the creative worship experience.

Most of you are aware that we are currently without a pastor overseeing the area of worship and creative arts. One of the first steps in determining what comes next for this area of ministry is establishing a candidate assessment team, which was completed at the end of June. That team is currently praying through the next steps and includes: Lori Allen, Rick Blanco, Jackie Evans, Sherry Larson, Bob Schmid, Chris Drombetta, Ted Miller, Nick Burkert, Brent Allen, and Darla Funk.

As we go through the summer, we're looking to accomplish two simple and primary objectives in our worship services; exalting Jesus and teaching Biblical truth. One way that we're making this happen is by simplifying and streamlining our two services into a more unified format. This approach has been helpful in several areas. The first is very practical, in that, planning and organizing one service is much more efficient than planning and organizing two services. This has been very helpful as we've gone through the summer shorthanded on our staff. The second area is that for the first time in many years, we are celebrating in worship as an entire congregation with a unified expression. While musical taste and style are very personal, it's been great to take the summer and rally together around the simple truths of exalting Jesus and teaching Biblical truth in our worship.

This does not mean that we're definatively moving away from our two service formats, "blended" and "contemporary". That would be a much broader decision and one that we're not in a position to make at this juncture. However, we do know that God is calling us deeper into unity as a community of believers. We know that he's calling us to authentic, Biblical worship that exalts Jesus and teaches Biblical truth in our music.

Therefore, as we go through the summer exercising some flexibility on how to accomplish these objectives in worship, we'd ask for your prayers and input. What do you feel God calling us to do in the area of worship and arts? Is the "blended/contemporary" spilt in the services a good thing or something we should pray about moving away from? What lessons is God teaching you about what worship is and what worship is not? How do you best connect to God in the musical expression of worship? What opportunities do you see for connecting with one another and our communities in worship?

We'd encourage you to really pray through these questions and touch base with the Elders, leaders, and candidate assessment team with your insight. We are so excited about what God has in store for our church community. Thank you for your prayers and participation in this process...and thank you for your commitment to worshipping with the whole of your life, in grateful response and obedience to God's mercy!