After our soup and buns time CIA headed out to Williamsburg. Our Youth Praise Team was going to be playing for the youth service, and others of our group tagged along.
We began by loading up some of Calvin's equipment that we needed to take along. John's big bass with amp is being carried by Jacob and Chris.
It was a nice sunny drive to Williamsburg. Everyone seems to be having fun, except Chris....oh, he's just selecting songs off his iPod.
For us city folk, seeing cows next to the church building proved quite a novelty for some..... : )
Once we arrived at the church we set up our sound equipment and set to work getting used to the acoustics.
Every place is different, yet we seemed to adapt ok once again.
After about 1 hour's practice, I let the praise group go have some fun playing games with the rest of the group.
David and Jacob were our sound guys for the night. Very nice of the church to let them run things. Not so sure if we'd be that accommodating : ).
Hannah was stuck in sort of a sunken place where the piano's and organ were. She didn't seem to mind. In fact, she discovered that the keyboard she was playing had some funky sounds on it and she used them during the service.
Alex, one of the participants at our past three SERVES in Ottawa, goes to this church. He enjoyed listening to us practice.
We needed some fine tuning of our song slides, so I asked Jeannine if she'd help me out. She was very kind and did just that. I discovered during this time that she's pretty much a perfectionist. That, and me being a control freak, seemed to work well. : )
Here's the larger group enjoying some game time. There were about 60 yp there that evening.
Now you should know, that the desire of our youth leaders during these youth services, and other classis wide events, is to get our youth mingling with youth from other churches. As you can see, our group can be quite cliquish.
Megan and Rosy actually stepped out of their comfort zone for a bit. I had to help them by simply going up to people and saying hi, and then introducing them to my kids. Boy were they uptight about doing that! Practice makes perfect I always say. Hopefully they'll get better at it.
Look mom......no chairs......really, they are all supporting each other, no chairs...quite amazing actually!
Soon it was time for the service to begin. Youth in the front, and Williamsburg Cong. in the back. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.....for sure the youth were having lots of fun.
When it was all over, David and Jacob take a breather and relax. Being a sound tech can be very stressful!
I'm not sure why this picture is in here, suffice to say that I think there's some sort of joke happening here. Janine (left) looks like she's going to pee herself she was laughing so hard.
All in all we had a wonderful time. Pastor John had a creative sermon, our group played well and the games and fellowship were wonderful. A great, but busy, Sunday was had by our CIA group. Thanks for all your work today (I forgot to mention that the youth praise team also played for our AM service) and allowing others to worship God via your gifts and talents.
As a post script, let me get a little bold as I ponder the dynamics of having a youth praise team in our church. I continue to be amazed at how people react to different ways to praise God.
Our youth just love the praise and worship songs that we sing in our AM and PM youth service, but honestly, that can't be said for all those who came to worship that day (or didn't), in either service.
For some, things can get a bit loud, the words don't seem to be as meaningful as the hymns of yesteryear, or the actions of some of the songs may seem sacrilegious to some. For some, their hearing just can't take the drums, and I get that.
I understand that it's not easy to gain balance, especially when you are dealing with youth who don't always understand (or want to understand) that there is more than one volume - loud. It takes education on everyone's part.
Education for our youth to understand better what worship is and is not, and we are trying to do that (right John? : )) .
Education of some of our members who need to understand that we are trying to keep our youth in the church that they [the not so youthful any more] have come to love so dearly.
With young adults leaving the church in droves, I'm so happy that this group of youth is excited about being in youth group, is busy using their gifts (and believe me, they've been busy the last couple of weekends and will be again next weekend) and is learning about the love of God for them in the process.
I only hope that they will stay in church as they become young adults because of the memories, teaching, loving, and fellowship that they have experienced from our entire congregation.
I'm reminded of a book I read some time ago...."Who Stole My Church". Google it and buy it online, or in your favourite Christian book store. Humor me and give it a read (John V, you still have my copy you know : ) ).
If you want the Cole's notes, then go to my January 2009 entry and you will find the book summarized there. I just re-read it myself and realized this stuff is hard work.
If you want the Cole's notes, then go to my January 2009 entry and you will find the book summarized there. I just re-read it myself and realized this stuff is hard work.
It explains better than I ever could how the different generations can handle issues like this one in a Godly way.
Feel free to come talk to me or email me about that book once you've read it, or my synopsis. I'd love to dialogue.
Oh, and we'll end with a short video of some great talent from 3 of our youth group.....just some good clean entertainment.
1 comment:
I would just like to say...that big heavy amp Chris and Jacob are carrying TOGETHER...I carried by MYSELF!! ALLL ALONE! That's right, I'm that tank =)
-Fontana!!
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