Have I mentioned recently that my church is awesome?

[feliciakw]

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. My new church recognizes this. It's kinda cool. The congregation I grew up in didn't do anything for Advent, so it's kind of neat to have that.

But more than that, we sang contemporary worship music (i.e., "rock"-ish, danceable music) this morning. Like we do every Sunday. The difference today? IT WAS IN HEBREW! How cool is that?

And finally, our worship band played "Christmas Eve in Sarajevo." Yes, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra arrangement. It was missing some instruments, obviously, compensated for by the synthesizer/keyboard. But it brought tears to my eyes. I think if I ever went to an actual TSO concert, I'd have tears just streaming down my face.

Comments

[shadow-of-doubt.livejournal.com]

I want to go to your church!!

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad we found this church.

I knew we'd found the right place the Sunday we sang "Amazing Grace" to the melody of "Peaceful Easy Feeling," by the Eagles. :-) And the following Sunday, for the exeunt music, the praise team sang "Amazing Grace" to the melody of "House of the Rising Sun." (It works perfectly, but "Amazing Grace" in a minor key is a little . . . strange.)

[shadow-of-doubt.livejournal.com]

That sounds like so much fun! I really wish there was a church like that around here.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

We spent a year church shopping after the move, which I'm really glad we did and it was a really good experience. But this is the church that felt most like home to us.

If you'd like to find a church like this in your area, you might look for a Christian Church (I'm speaking here about the name of a non-denominational fellowship rather than the Christian church at large. For example, I grew up in First Christian Church. We're currently attending Maple Grove Christian Church). I think the Christian Church in general has moved and is moving toward a more contemporary expression of worship. (Of course it also depends on the make-up of the congregation.) If you find one, the Christmas season might be a good time to get a flavor of things.

And if you're ever in the area and want to visit, we'd be glad to take you as our guests. :-)

If you find you have questions, feel free to ask.

[whitemartyr.livejournal.com]

Hebrew rock worship for Advent! Haha. Nice.

You woulda loved the service I was at tonight. My goodness it was amazing... big ole beautiful cathedral that's been there since the 1300s (give or take a bit, I forget exactly, but it's very old), organ music, total darkness then choir singing and walking and scripture readings while they slowly light the whole cathedral up by candlelight then sing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" I've still got shivers... :)

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

"O Come, O Come Emmanuel" is one of my very favorite Christmas carols. Particularly if it's sung a cappella.

It sounds like you had a beautiful service! That would be just amazing.

[yasminke.livejournal.com]

In Hebrew? Cool -- know the titles?

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

The title as listed in our program was "Shabach."

The lyrics had both Hebrew and English. It's been ages since I've been to anything with our Jewish friends (since they're back in Ohio and all), so I was glad the words were relatively easy. And I was a little grinning and flaily that we were singing in Hebrew. And dancing (inasmuch as you can move between church pews).

[yasminke.livejournal.com]

Not up on Christian hymns -- I only learned two, in any language, when I was little. Not even sure I learned any Jewish ones when I was little (horrible attention span on the weekends).

[just-ruth.livejournal.com]

We celebrated the first week of Advent too - not as cool a service as you had though. Our first candle was lit by one of the youngest members of the church (5 year old Savannah) and one of the oldest (92 year old Marion) to make us think of our history and our future.

Then I went to teach Sunday School, but everyone was distracted and if you check my LJ, you'll see why. :)

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

I did read about your disruptions. That's great! :-)