iConnect ... that has been the theme of our church this past year. We've focused on connection with God, connection with others in the Body of Christ, and connection with the community at large. It's really played out well as far as providing focus to our efforts the past seven months.
As we move into the Fall though (can you believe that Summer is almost over?) we needed to get everyone refocused. We needed to settle in after vacations and maintain our priorities in the midst of the back to school rush, so we calendared a revival/renewal weekend in August and themed it re:Connect.
Over the past month as we began to gear up toward this weekend I've taken time in our Contemporary Service to focus on some Bibilical words (taken from the Hebrew Old Testament) that are ways of connecting with God in corporate worship. We taught briefly on the meaning of each word and then sang a song that reinforced it. You can reference the iTunes links under our "Last Sunday's Songs" posts to learn more about the songs.
Here's the ones we've covered so far.
July 6 - Barouch - meaning to bow, a symbol of obeisance, reverence, or homage. Paired with Dennis Jernigan's "Come Let Us Bow Down."
July 13 - Yadah - meaning to lift your hands. Paired with Chris Tomlin's "Holy Is The Lord" (the first line being "we stand and lift up our hands.") Biblically, the lifting of hands is an outward symbol of prayer, or an expression of blessing toward God.
July - 20 - Telillah - to sing and to chant and to praise in the Spirit. Paired with Todd Fields' "Let Us Sing." Isaiah 42:10 begins ... "Sing a new song to the Lord! Sing his praises from the ends of the earth! (NLT)"
July 27 - Shabach - to shout. Paired with Darlene Zschech's "Shout to the Lord." Just once I long to work up a good, long, loud, shouted JESUUUUUUUS in a corporate worship setting that would make Charlie Hall proud!
There are two more words to come before we get to our revival weekend. I'll get those up after we reveal them in our service. Be praying for God to move among us on re:Connect weekend.
