The Heart of Worship
October 5, 2008
The Faith Experience: The Heart of Worship
This past September FX service rounded out the Summer Roots series with Reverend Derek delivering the Word about Worship. FX was originally launched to introduce contemporary worship as a modern alternative to traditional worship, but does the style in which we chose to worship really matter as long as we are giving honor, glory and praise to God? Does it make any difference whether or not we are lifting our hands while shouting our praises or meditatively standing and quietly expressing our gratitude in silence? For, Worship is all about God, and our primary concern should be whether our worship pleases God.
Reverend Derek summarized that the word “worship” comes from the Old English roots “weorth”, meaning “honor” and “worthiness” and “scipe” which means “to create”. The primary focus of Worship, what we were created for, is to give glory, honor and praise to God – and not just on Sundays, but every single day of our lives. When we put God in the center of our Worship, we receive blessings in this encounter with the living God: we come to find ourselves in the presence of the living God – not just having “knowledge about God”, but being present to a life-giving relationship “with God”.
Today we live in a world that is plagued by consumerism, a constant distraction that preoccupies our lives and distorts reality, causing us to miss the importance of why we were created. Newer modern technology also contributes to life distortion, which leave sources of our contentment empty. “Getting caught up” brings no satisfaction in this culture of consumerism and takes the focus off of saturating our mind with the Word, opening our hearts to God and honoring God in Worship.
Through Worship we are giving worth to God. Worship is a reflection of our thanks for His unfailing love, a tribute to His Power and Majesty, an offering for all that are we are to be in His very presence. In Worship, open all your being for God to speak through you and receive God’s Word. Putting God at the center of Worship gives God a sense of pleasure, the whole purpose for our praises.
So, what prevents you from being fully present in Worship? How can you incorporate Worship into your life on a daily basis? How can you make your work life an expression of Worship? How can you fit Worship into your children’s school and sports activities?
One way that I have found to Worship on a daily basis is through picking plumerias (or any other flowers) to wear in my hair. Plumerias remind me of the many summers I spent on Molokai in Hawaii with my grandma, Helen. Every morning we would go in the back of our homestead property and pick plumerias to wear in our hair. Now, every time I pick a plumeria and breathe in its sweet fragrance I remember those cherished childhood memories and my “tutu”, whom I loved very dearly. And I praise God with each and every plumeria that I pick and give Him thanks for the many blessings in my life.
May you find new and creative ways to Worship each and every day, and remember…in the heart of worship it always is, and always will be, all about our loving God.
-Laurie P. (October Good News Article)
next fX worship: Sat August 9 @ 5pm
July 26, 2008
Hello, fX family!!
Our next fX Worship Service will be Saturday, August 9 beginning at 5pm. We will continue our Summer Roots series with ”Summer Roots: Healing Our Hearts”
The text is taken from Mark 7:1-23 where Jesus teaches about inner purity, and how we need to be clean from within.
There’s a lot in our hearts that needs to be worked on; and we need to be touched by God. There is a neediness in our hearts – sometimes we are just “going through the motions” and our hearts are left untouched by God.
We hope to see you August 9. Please click on the “About FX Worship” tab for details.
Peace and blessings,
The fX team
Summer Roots: Renewing our Minds
July 15, 2008
We kicked off our three-part summer series Summer Roots last Saturday night, with the theme of the first installment being Renewing Our Minds. This series will concentrate on the roots of our lives: how we think, what we feel and what our motivations are. It is important to strengthen our roots, because those are the things that will keep us grounded and in place as we face the storms of the world!
When Reverend Ken began the Surrender series last fall, it was with Romans 12. Well, we revisited the same verse again as we focused on the second verse: “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.”
A key part in renewing our minds is to think right and stay with the truth. We can do this by saturating our minds with God’s Word:
- Be real with what you think
- Set a time and place to regularly feed your mind the word
- Meditate on a particular passage throughout the day
After Reverend Ken’s message, we divided into small groups and reflected on the areas in our lives where we need a mental transformation.
Worship also included a very powerful worship set led by the FX Praise team and a brief testimony. The youth enjoyed a separate worship and craft time, and we all gathered together afterwards for our famous monthly Ohana fellowship dinner (this month: torpedo sandwiches and pizza).
Go ahead and mark August 9th on the calendar – that’s the date of our next faith eXperience – we hope you will join us.
Can you believe it??
July 10, 2008
. Anyway, I wanted to remind you that we’re having FX this Sat., July 12, 5pm. We’ll be starting our summer series called “Summer Roots”. The focus for this series is on establishing healthy roots during the summer in order to prepare us for an exciting ride in the upcoming Fall. Hope you can make it… and don’t forget to invite a few people.Roots of fX: the Faith Experience
June 15, 2008
The Faith Experience, more commonly known by the acronym FX, is Faith UMC’s monthly contemporary worship service. FX serves as a modern alternative to traditional worship, features contemporary Christian music led by the FX Praise Team, and joins together families in fellowship with an Ohana dinner service. The FX worship service is currently scheduled on the 2nd Saturday of each month and begins at 5 PM in the Sanctuary.
As FX enters into its third year, we want to celebrate the success and growth of this ministry by sharing with you its roots and background history.
After Summer Day Camp in 2005, Reverend Derek asked Bob K to begin working on ways to integrate contemporary praise and worship music into MYF/TGIF meetings, and other Church services and events.
Further conversations evolved into an eventual discussion of planning a new service that would incorporate innovative styles of worship. Knowing that several members of our Church family were interested in exploring contemporary worship, a leadership team of highly devoted people of Faith was formed who have been serving together since October of 2005, on developing and directing monthly worship celebrations.
The mission of the leadership team was, and continues to be, to develop and support a Christian community by inspiring personal relationships with God through prayer, scripture, and interactive worship. Initially, the goal was to acquaint the congregation with new praise songs through occasional informal gatherings – Pastor Eric called them “jam sessions” – and plans were set in motion to take action during the spring of 2006.
From Psalm 66:2, “Sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise!” Using this Scripture as the basis for a theme, the leadership team determined that it couldn’t just occasionally gather informally, but needed to establish an on-going monthly worship service. After months of rehearsal, prayer, and preparation, “Sing Praise!” was launched on Palm Sunday, April 9, 2006.
Through the leadership of Pastor Eric, “Sing Praise!” evolved into a deep, spiritual, monthly contemporary worship service. Environmental design and thematically focused messages were eventually mainstreamed into the worship service. Through the team’s leadership and planning abilities, they gained experience that helped to develop a tight knit spiritual community of followers. Within a year’s time, attendance at the contemporary worship service was dominated by a committed group of Christians, including regular attending members of Faith UMC along with other local community congregations.
In May 2007, during Pastor Eric’s last contemporary worship service before he moved on to continue his education, “Sing Praise!” was renamed “The Faith Experience”. This name came from one of the church leaders who suggested it to describe the service during an Ad Council meeting while discussion of potential names were being explored. And so “The Faith Experience” was adopted and branded as FX.
The leadership team expanded and evolved into the FX Praise Team which participates in various Sunday morning services, and also includes Christmas, Good Friday and Palm Sunday services.
Reverend Ken’s arrival in the fall of 2007 began a new chapter of FX. In October 2007, the thematic series “Surrender” was introduced, an in-depth look at how we need to surrender everything to our loving God. The “Surrender” series sparked a spiritual fire that brought newcomers and visitors from other churches. At the conclusion of the “Surrender” series in June 2008, the growth in attendance extended the feeling that this Saturday evening service fulfills a need not only within our own Church community, but within the local area as well.
With the guidance of Reverend Derek and Pam, and help from our MYF youth, FX further expanded by providing children’s worship and arts and crafts. What started out as a potluck has now become the Ohana dinner, which provides time after worship to share great home cooked food while interacting with each other in Christian fellowship.
We invite you to join us for FX contemporary worship as God continues to touch everyone involved with the Faith Experience, and we look forward to His guidance as we move forward into the fall of 2008.
- contributed by Laurie P & Bob K
