Adler Ministry Group - Adler Ministry Group - News&Observations;

DATE NIGHT AT THE GRAND

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Invest in your marriage this summer!

Michael and Linda Adler

and special guests, Rick and Sherri Burgess

present

DATE NIGHT AT THE GRAND

At the Jewel of the South, the fabulous
Grand Hotel Marriott Conference Center, in Mobile, Alabama.

Information and Registration at the web site

www.DateNightAtTheGrand.com

Friday Thru Sunday, July 23-25, 2010

HYMNS ALBUM UPDATE

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Our "Hymns" project is nearly finished. We are in the final mix stage, then it is shipped off to Hank Williams at Mastermix in Nashville, then on to Texas for processing and packaging. We're expecting them in hand by April 2. We'll have sound samples up on line soon.

Twelve ancient and modern hymns arranged by Michael Adler and sung by Michael and Linda Adler. Programmed by musician / drummer Richie Pena (Natalie Grant; Babyface) Guitars by Mark Baldwin Engineered by Rob Searcy. Songs include “Jesus What a Friend for Sinners”, “Thy Mercy My God”, “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”, “Power in the Blood”, “I’ll Fly Away” and more, plus special bonus Adler arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow / When We All Get to Heaven”.

New Year - New Chapter

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

God has led Linda and me thru so many amazing chapters that it is hard to even focus on just one era.

Some chapters were full of adventure, big projects, activities and lots of events.

Wait a minute .... ALL of the chapters had those characteristics.

Some chapters, especially those when we first began, were like a child taking giant steps trying to be big. We had great responsibilities, but we were truthfully just still young and inexperienced. Soooo... we just took big steps and tried to keep up.

Some chapters were full of challenges and one had to look hard to find a consistent source of joy. Somehow those seasons actually made those grown up steps come a bit more easily and in retrospect, God was putting us on the fast track of growing up.

Some chapters went by far too fast. Those were the seasons where activity was a far greater force than any sort of internal motivation or passion from God. We were on a very rapidly moving conveyor belt and just trying to keep up.

This chapter is characterized by our desire to do fewer things and do them very well.

This year - Luke and Lindsay are getting married May 22. What a gift!

-"Hymns" recording is nearly completed. In hand April 2.

-DATE NIGHT AT THE GRAND. July 23-25. Check out the "News" entry on this cool event!

God is ALWAYS faithful. We are not. God is ALWAYS just and fair. We are not.

So now we look ahead, pray a lot, rejoice in the beautiful, joyful and sometimes mind boggling treasures He places in our path and press on.

Watch our calendar and our Facebook "Adler Worship Ministries" page for details and updates.

Is Your Work a Perfect Fit? (written ten years ago, but worth another look)

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Is Your Work A Perfect Fit?
Michael Adler

A few weeks ago I had a church search committee member call me to come to work for them. This gentleman was the second caller of two from the same place. Both were charged with the mission of convincing me to make a career move. While it was an honor to be sought after, I knew it was best to come to closure quickly on a request like this. I have found that to have a divided mind in this line of work makes an already consuming job become completely suffocating. Before even considering what kind of carrot is being dangled in front of my face, I need to ask myself a few fundamental questions: Do I feel a sense of closure where I am currently serving? Have I done all that God intends for me to do in the fellowship where I work? Have a learned from the Lord all that I am supposed to learn while in this place?

Back to the phone calls. We exchanged tidbits about each other’s locations. I conveyed that I felt extremely blessed to do what I do for a living and to be able to do it where I currently serve. In his persistence, the man on the other end of the phone tried to steer the conversation toward a more undesirable view of where I currently serve, hoping to make the grass even greener on his side of the fence. He started the sparring with budget questions, then on to fellow staff members, then to another oft-used weapon, musical styles. After several rounds of good conversation and my not surrendering my corner, he jabbed with this question, “Well, is the place where you are now serving what you would consider a perfect fit?”

I immediately replied with a resounding, “NO”. Do you know the feeling you get when you know you are definitely in the spirit? My response must have been one of those rare moments. I know that in the flesh, my soulish man would have at least considered the question a little bit longer before answering. But I knew that this was a God kind of answer and I’d like to show you why.

Eugene Peterson creates a perfect commentary on service by highlighting Romans 12 in his paraphrase, The Message:
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Should our vocational goal in ministry be to find “the perfect fit”? If it is, then when the dating (search committee) relationship begins, there probably should be some sort of prenuptial agreement so that both parties have the option to move on to other relationships should there prove to be “irreconcilable differences”. I think about my friend and former college roommate John Lindstrom. He and his family live in Papua, New Guinea in very primitive accommodations and work as Bible translators for Wycliffe. I wonder what he’d say about our struggles for power, platform and recognition. I also wonder about my grandparents, immigrants from Switzerland who gave their lives in service with the Salvation Army. I doubt that the question, “what’s my package?” ever came up with them when the prospect of a new place of service emerged.

Don’t misread my rantings. I still struggle with looking over the fence at other ministries. I look at management structure and style, physical plant, staff makeup, demographics and anything else that happens to pop up on the screen of envy or discontent. BUT when the Holy Spirit is in control, I know that God gave me the gifts that I have in order that I would give them back to Him and His children; in whatever conditions may come with the territory.

I hesitate to confess this, but I believe that those of us in the music ministry have a more difficult time than any other ministerial area in separating personal preference in our area of ministry from the needs of the entire body. We have chosen a career path that postures us as leaders who express themselves through the arts, and most generally, enjoy a platform that allows that sort of expression. But the arts have an element of subjectivity that runs through them that is virtually nonexistent in other areas. When someone expresses an opinion about musical preferences or likes and dislikes, how often is it based on a chart or graph or the latest statistics? Rarely ever, I would guess. Musical expression is so much about the heart and emotions and feelings. (That’s why informing a passionate, artistic auditionee that they “don’t have the right stuff” remains a very difficult task). Along the same line of thought, when a music minister is asked to make a philosophical or stylistic change in their format, up go the hackles of personal preference. We take the latest format change personally because it is our art and an extension of what we are. Here is where our wanderlust kicks in and we decide that there must be a place where we can do it all. But here is where we have the opportunity to allow God to grow us up. Here is where that “perfect fit” philosophy can change seats with a new line of thought...”the right fit”.

Realistically, our congregation’s musical tastes are as diverse as the number of radio stations on the dial. Within that mix dwells our own preferences as well as the God-given responsibility of bringing them all together on Sunday in one united chorus of praise. Giving up our musical rights for the good of the body becomes remarkably liberating when we see our vocational position as a calling of service and sacrifice. There are few things more rewarding than to hear a 73 year old woman come to me and tell me that she’s been “doing church” all of her life, and has just now caught on to the fact that God is her audience when she sings. That didn’t happen from her singing the latest Delirious CCM hit. It came from steadily and deliberately including her and her generation, along with all of the other demographic groups in your congregation, in a worship format that continues its metamorphosis with each new trend. More often than not, it won’t be my preferences that fill the worship list, although something in there ought to really stimulate me as well. But, “the right fit” means that though your current location may not be Musical Mecca, it is where your gifts were meant to be used for that time with those people.

When you gave your life to the work of the ministry, you didn’t do it committing to ultimate personal and musical fulfillment. You came committing to Jesus and His work. The sense of fulfillment that follows a sacrificial, wholehearted ministry life is leagues deeper than hitting the latest musical lick. (Don’t get me wrong, I love hitting the latest musical lick, too.)

Too often we mentally create this dream church environment and set sail on a vocational trek searching for own artistic Avalon. I’m seeing it now, two entities running in slow motion toward each other ready to embark on a long journey of bliss and beauty. Your gifts match their desires; you’d prefer to have three days off instead of one or two; they insist on it!; You golf, so do they!; You don’t like asparagus, their church constitution has banned it! This is not reality.

My wife and I have served in the music ministry in three different churches as well as several national ministries. Each of those areas was unique and had its own personality. Most often the character of that ministry was built around the personality of the particular leader in charge. Each leader had a style, philosophy and method of doing things that distinguished him from the others. Of course we experienced a weeding out process prior to coming to land in these ministries. We declined a job offer from a guy who asked if I would leave work if my wife went into labor. I gave the wrong answer. We said no to several places where we would have been in a theological environment that didn’t fit with our background and preferences. We said “No” to some that were not going the philosophical direction we were going in ministry. And yes, some said no to us for similar reasons. But once we all agreed that this is where we were going, the very first thing we did was to ask the Lord to show us favor with His people. Without exception we have had rich, meaningful times in each place of service. And yes, we’ve also had frustrating, demotivating, and discouraging times in those same places. Had any one of those places been the perfect fit, shouldn’t we have remained there for life? Or, instead should we go ready to serve and submit ourselves to whomever God has placed at the helm?

I had one of our talented choir members call me a few days ago and describe the situation he was finding himself in as an interim minister of music at a neighboring church. He’s been looking for a place to serve full time and this seemed like the right spot. The church he was serving was searching for the full time man and initially asked him to come “on a trial basis”. After several months of hard work and good results he learned that the church was “also looking at other candidates”, but wondered if he might stay on until they come to their final conclusion?

He moaned about feeling “used”. I thought about that word and wondered out loud to him if being “used” is not such a bad thing after all. The fit may not have been perfect, but he was still the man privileged to lead that congregation before the Lord every Sunday until they made a final decision. He could drone on with his negative “I’ve been used” mantra, or determine to bless the Lord for the opportunity to be “used” to His glory.

Someone recently remarked about a fellow colleague, “He stays put just long enough to realize that his boss is human too. Then he sends out the resumes.” What does that say to those to whom we minister? Are we going to stand shoulder to shoulder with them until our life gets a little inconvenienced and then pack our gig bag and move on?

I’ve been reading a book, The Authoritative Life of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. My family roots being from the Salvation Army, I am especially interested in this man’s legacy. His biography has reminded me what sacrifice really means. Here is an excerpt from his diary:
“I felt that I wanted, in place of a life of self-indulgence, to which I was yielding myself, a happy, conscious sense that I was pleasing God, living right, and spending all my powers to get others into such a life”¦”

A perfect fit comes when we are walking with the Lord and having fellowship with Him and using our gifts to His glory. We won’t always have the greenest grass on our side of the fence. Some other guy will always have something we’d like. But I want to be found with William Booth’s “happy, conscious sense” that I am pleasing God; not just through great worship experiences, but through my heart.

Â©Michael Adler 1999
Worship Pastor
Shades Mountain Baptist Church
www.shades.org
www.adlerworshipministries.com

Worship Leader Wanted

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Worship Leader Wanted -

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to spend time with leadership from three major Christian universities to give input into their current academic curriculum as it relates to Church Music Majors. The common dynamic with these three great schools was that the "product" that was graduating under the umbrella of Church Music Degree was NOT in many ways prepared for the expectations of today's church.

My first experience was with the University of Mobile where Roger Breland, (a huge influence in my life since I was 19) was asked to take on the position of Dean of the Center for Performing Arts. As founder of Christian recording group TRUTH in the early 70s, Dr. Breland has made his calling to invest in young Christian talent and in my opinion, he is unparalleled in that quest. The call to retool the scope and vision of this fine music program was the singular act of one man, University of Mobile President, Dr. Mark Foley, who backed Dr. Breland completely thru every major decision involved in this quest. In just a few years time this division of music has shown exponential growth and now features many premiere performing groups including their stunning brass and percussion group, RamCorps and the powerful vocal ensemble, Voices. In addition, Dr Breland has brought to this campus some of the finest academic and musical talent in the country including Integrity Music's Dr. Pete Sanchez, Don Wolf, Dr. Al Miller.

My second experience was at Liberty University where Dr. Vernon Whaley invited me to teach at their Liberty Center for Worship. Here again, Dr. Jerry Falwell stood with Dr Whaley in the reshaping of their current academic program; not jettisoning the current structure, but adding and broadening the options for today's prospective worship leader. One of the Liberty University Center for Worship strong points is the consistent exposure of their students to real world application by bringing in adjunct faculty members to teach. Current large church worship pastors are invited to teach on a short term basis, but to bring to the classroom real world experience.

The third and most recent was at Trevecca University in Nashville where I spent some of the more stimulating hours I have spent in recent days with five other men from around the country. In attendance for this intensive 36 hours was Chuck Fromm, Editor of Worship Leader Magazine; Howard Rachinski, founder of CCLI; Jim VanHook, Christian Music Industry Veteran; Carlton Dillard, Worship Pastor from Riverbend Church in Austin; and Dr Dan Boone, President of Trevecca University.

The common element to each of these appointments was the desire of these institutions of higher learning to deliberately train up a new generation of worship leaders for the local church. Each of these schools had a strong history of excellent music programs and graduates who entered the work force with excellent music skills. But the shared sentiment among all three was that the needs of the local church were not matching the profies of the graduates coming out of these music programs.

Being given this opportunity has expanded my perspective in some ways, but also has confirmed many of my long standing beliefs in others.

I think most would agree that the worship / music expectations of today's local church are profoundly different than they were in generations past. The plethora of styles alone makes the expectations for a single local church music program quite mind boggling. Add to that the sense of entitlement felt by today's lay person and you have created a formula for failure in many cases.

What is a prospective worship pastor to do with a church that asks for a contemporary-blended-mosai

c-traditional-edgy-keep-the-hymns-but-not-too-many-of-them-cool-looking-worship-band-with-great-lighting-but-don't-offend-the-older-folks music program???

Here are a few observations for pastors or search committees who are looking for new worship leadership for your church.

-Create a written philosophy of worship. What that means in your situation could be as diverse as the writings of Marva Dawn to Robert Webber or a page from the Chris Tomlin School of Passion Worship Leader Guys. It simply needs to be a profile for your church.

-If at all possible, find two other "models" which you believe are realistically similar to the direction you are heading or desire to head. I use the word "realistic" intentionally because there are always churches who fancy themselves as being just like another high profile church (Willow, Saddleback, Mosaic, Fellowship, etc) but the reality is far from that model. This disparity of vision vs reality sets up the prospective worship leader for failure.

-Know your demographic and then set out to set the table for them to come and have fellowship with God thru worship. Aim high with your talent pool, but teach them about the Christian walk at the same time as you motivate them to be excellent musicians and performers. Keep Jesus as the main thing. Remind them often that the ultimate goal of a worship leader is not to sing a killer solo or have an amazing musical moment, but to have fellowship with the One who loves them most. All the rest is gravy.

Seek out one of these three universities for advice and even for prospective candidates.

Our hearts have always been for the local church to not just survive but thrive because the heartbeat of God resonates among His people. Worship leadership is an essential element to that formula and it must be handled with care and prayer.

Press on.
Michael Adler

www.adlerworshipministries.com

MetroOne Worship Conference

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Linda and I were privileged to host the MetroOne Worship Leader Conference in Nashville, TN this past February.
It is an annual gathering of 50 large church worship pastors and their wives for one week of inspiration, teaching, motivation and peer to peer interaction.
These men and women are some of the finest in their craft and hail from ministries as diverse and wonderful as Max Lucado's church, Rick Warren's church, David Jeremiah's church, and about 47 more.

Linda and I led parallel paths with the men and women divided thru most of the daytime events and then gathering together for lunch and PM venue events.
She and her team had their meeting space looking like a Pottery Barn model home; quite wonderful. They had sessions ranging from heart rending speakers to a fashion show called, "Does This Make My Butt Look Big?"

We had been in the planning stages of this for more than a year and had asked God to be in every detail. Suffice to say that He had a word for all of us in EVERY person we invited to speak, sing, worship, or entertain.

The fruit and results were far beyond what we could ask or imagine.

Many thanks go to Linda's posse of girls from our church that absolutely OWNED this week and volunteered many days and hours of their lives to help us thru the week. Janie, Becky, Lindy, Leslie, Jennifer, Kelly and Karen all played a huge role in the success of our week.

Some highlights for all of us:
- 3 On a String as the fun, but excellent opening act. Rick Burgess' opening address, "I'm Going for the Well Done. How about you?"

-Howard Rachinski. CCLI Founder
-Country Music Hall of Fame - FORD THEATER Concert with the AMAZING Kirk Whalum and band PLUS an incredible night of worship led by Travis Cottrell and band
-Dr. Ergun Caner's talk
-Dennis Jernigan leading us all in worship. He's one of the giants.
-Natalie Grant and Band in Concert at the Hermitage PLUS Michael Neale and his wonderful People's Church Band
-FINALE night at David Phelps' HOUSE! David and his band hosted us at his rennovated, all white barn for a full concert and meal. His musical gifts are mind blowing and his committment to the body of Christ is humbling. Thank you Scott Gurosky and MG&A for sponsoring this amazing night.

I Am Second

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

I found this very creative, very God filled web site yesterday.

I hope you'll check it out and pass it on. I started by viewing Brian Walsh of KORN.

www.iamsecond.com

The Shack - MUST READ

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

READ IT.
GREAT book by William Young.

Some say it is this generation's "Pilgrim's Progress".

(Some say it's NOT the Bible and should be banned!)

I say that my heart is still smiling...

Cuba - God's Revolution

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Our Cuba translator pressed his hands together, fingers pointed up into a praying position and said, “The Lord has shown us that we will not build His church like this (gesturing to his upright pointed fingers), because this gets noticed and then gets cut off!” Then he moved his hands diagonally as if playing the piano and said, “We will build God’s church like this”.

Indeed they have.

Linda, Jake, Brady and I just returned from a week of mission work that was like no other trip we have ever taken. We were invited to take this trip by our good friends, Scott and Kelly Gurosky, who insisted that both couples also take with us our young sons. Their boys, Drew and Davis, and Jake and Brady filled the back seat of our van on what would be the most memorable of weeks.

Our daily van trips consisted of our two families plus World Link founder, Manny Fernandez and his wonderful wife, Glenda, plus a driver, who was also a full time Cuban pastor, plus whatever random passengers were invited to join us thru the week. At one point of our trip our 12-passenger van had all of the above plus a girl with one leg, an 18-day-old baby, a fantastic Cuban singer and her fiancé, plus a grandmother. (Linda says to remind you that I am NOT making this up!) We traveled across this tropical island to three churches each day on roads ranging from moderate to atrocious. The churches were typically a three-hour drive apart and held in mostly rural locations ranging from farm buildings to shanties to thatched roof assembly areas. Even the churches considered better by Cuba standards were still a far cry from any of the physical properties we are accustomed to in the US.

At every stop we would arrive to a waiting crowd, do our best to sing the few songs we had learned in Spanish with the help of our guest Cuban singer and then Scott would bring the Word of God with Manny as translator. At each site, many had come already expecting to be baptized and still others came to Christ at the moment of our invitation. It was amazing to see God delivering people from demon worship and all sorts of bondage. We baptized many and many were saved.

Don’t think for a moment that our presence in Cuba sparked this movement of God. Cuban nationals who are on the payroll of WorldLink as pastors lead all of this work. They receive the usual $20 per month wage that everyone from orthopedic surgeon to restaurant waiter receives and they are genuinely joyful about seeing God’s hand at work in their country.

There are now nearly 1,400 vibrant, disciple-making house churches on this island the size of California and that number grows even as we write this note. We will always be grateful for the invitation of our friends, Scott and Kelly, who encouraged us to take this trip with them. We are even more grateful to have come to know our new friends, Manny and Glenda Fernandez and their work in World Link. Manny’s response to God’s call to “make disciples” is beyond commendable. The Kingdom impact of World Link in the nation of Cuba is simply mind blowing.

Northern Ireland - A God Report

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Our music ministry team literally hit the ground running upon our arrival in Northern Ireland on Saturday, May 24. After an all night flight departing from Atlanta, we emerged in the pastoral countryside town of Port O’ Down. After a brief change of clothes and a late afternoon meal on Saturday we headed straight to the CE Youth Center for an evening concert. Sound equipment everywhere and band and choir members filling the room, we set up for our first of a series of five very busy days of ministry.

Saturday nights’ concert took place in a room packed shoulder to shoulder with about 400 students. Many of the adult leaders present and also a good number of students had been in our concerts in the same room four years ago and this time the students outnumbered the adults by about 10 to 1. We began with a high energy worship time and we felt immediately at home, knowing that God had prepared the way for us to minister. Our student band immediately got their attention with “Fields of Grace” with its rockin’ feel and celebrative lyrics. One of the band members set up “Voice of Truth”, and you could tell that this was a peer to peer conversation that will resonate in their hearts for a long time.

Having a real high school principal as part of our music team was a real advantage to us on this trip. Cas McWaters spoke very clearly to this room of attentive students and challenged them with the word “choices”. He gave a clear gospel presentation and as is customary there, we left the follow up with those who are with the students on a weekly basis.

The next morning on Sunday we were the guest musicians and worship leaders in our host, Gareth and Jackie Martin’s church, Port O Down Baptist on Thomas Street. This is a dear congregation, many of whom remembered our visit four years ago. This was the second time in as many days where we were able to see a direct result of our visits four years earlier. ALL of us remember our Sunday afternoons in Northern Ireland, where we are fed and loved on and fed again all in the homes of church members from Port O Down Baptist.

Sunday night was a triple header for us. The student band carried the worship leadership at the 7pm service at one church and the choir and I led worship at Port O’ Down Baptist. We finished those two services and then all converged at 8:30 at Richhill Presbyterian Church for a two hour, God filled evening of worship. Three encores and many wonderful moments in worship left us all fairly exhausted but with a great sense of satisfaction that God had allowed us to do what we came to do. Linda sang “Who Can Satisfy” and then sang it AGAIN and then we finished with the beautiful prayer called, “Captivate Us”. God did that to us all at Richhill.

Monday was an off day and so we loaded the bus for a glorious day of perfect weather and the gorgeous coast of Northern Ireland.

Tuesday began with two morning appearances in primary schools led by our Children’s Ministry Team as well as our student band. As in our previous trips, these schools are more than cordial and welcoming to us and we finish each event with a pot of tea and snacks in the teacher’s lounge area. Pretty cool.

I was pulled aside by a teacher at one of our daytime school appearance and she wanted to share with me a story the blessed me immensely. It turns out that she came to the Worship Seminar that I taught along w/ our band four years ago on our first trip to NI. She told me this time that those two hours and her pages of notes from that night produced a radical change in the worship atmosphere of their church and it continues today w/ students heading off into full time ministry from that place.

We finished the afternoon with two more school events held back to back in a larger auditorium where they weren’t able to fit the whole school at once. Great fun. Each appearance was delightful for me to watch as I saw not only our whole team completely immersed in these moments with students, but also got to see our two boys, Jake and Brady, help to teach and motivate their peers in Northern Ireland toward Jesus. Pretty cool again.

Tuesday night was a concert event at the Lisburn Island Centre, a cultural arts facility with art studios, recording areas and a beautiful concert venue. A local church helped sponsor this event with hopes for developing new relationships with folks interested in learning more about Christianity. In retrospect, our invitation time was really God led and I believe that God had a specific group in that room that night to hear what HE wanted to say. We have prayed since that day for God to draw those people to Himself and to the church that sponsored the event.

Wednesday included one more day time school event and a POWERFUL concert that evening. The concert was held at the three hundred year old Church of Ireland in an area called Mullavilly. The thick stone walls, aged wooden pews and adjacent cemetery all gave us an immediate sense that we were preparing to be a part of an ancient history and a special moment. I won’t say too much about this location, but will suffice to say that there were more than a dozen teen suicides by hanging in a very small area in this community over the last year. Most of the people in attendance either knew, or were related to a family that was affected by these ungodly occurrences. The Rector of the church was a kind and very accommodating man, even though we learned that the sounds and styles we would be bringing into his church had not ever been a part of their worship patterns. He confided in me two days before the concert that though he had a bit of anxiety about our concert, he nevertheless wanted deeply to “take the risk” because he had heard about what God was doing in our concerts on previous nights and knew that there were God sized needs in his area.

We prayed for several days for this event and even on that day prayed that our only desire would be to bring glory to God. I reworked our entire set list to basically ”˜unplug’ all of the modern elements of our presentation. Chris skillfully played percussion thru the whole evening with a minimal set. Our guitar players unplugged and one of our guys played dobro throughout the entire evening. That alone gave a feel of antiquity to our music and then we trusted God to make it a sweet sound to their ears and His.

It has been a long time since I experienced the manifest presence of God in an evening of worship such that we experienced at the Church of Ireland that night. Song after song we knew that God was speaking thru our words and melodies and the Spirit ministered throughout the room, both on stage and in the pew all thru the night. There were times when we opened our mouths and could not sing because there was something bigger than us at work. When Cas opened his mouth to sing, “I Can Only Imagine” it was as though the air was removed from the room. All the context of what had taken place in that community over the past year was so vivid and the beauty and the presence of God was SUCH a stark contrast to that darkness. It was as though we all had witnessed God’s soothing wash over that congregation. It was amazing.

Our thanks go to Gareth and Jackie Martin for again being such servants and such skilled hosts and such amazing facilitators for ministry. We grateful to God for the chance to do this and we are grateful to God for a church that encourages us to do so.

To God be the glory”¦.