Leaders and congregations called to become worshipers
By Vivian Atkins

The Society for Church of God Worship met on Wednesday to fellowship, worship, and hear from God’s Word regarding their ministry and purpose. Joanie Frymire leads this group of people, striving to connect via Web ministry and share with other worship pastors in the Church of God congregations across America. Todd Braschler led the group in worship; he appropriately asked them to put aside their responsibilities and stresses of convention and take time to picture the face of Jesus. He asked them to speak about the most magnificent thing that had happened in their ministry this past year. Participants recalled experiencing the unity of believers, leading a person to Christ, hearing timid members testifying about God’s work in their lives, and worshiping on days other than Sunday. Together, they sang the words to “How Great is our God”—the sound filled not only the room in the basement of Church of God Ministries building where they gathered but also the hallways where international guests were resting between conferences.

Melissa Pratt, senior pastor at the Teays Valley Church of God in West Virginia, presented “God Invites Us to Be Worshipers.” She read Isaiah 1:13–14 from The Message, which encourages us to “quit our worship charades and all of the meetings,” (which are a part of our lives). She spoke of biblical principles that lead us to an “everlasting preoccupation with him.” Those principles are that worshipers respond in faith to a revelation from God; worshipers respond in obedience to that revelation; worshipers bring a costly sacrifice to God; and worshipers receive a blessing. She noted that “Abraham’s blessing came after faith had been exercised and obedience had been displayed. It came after preparation had taken place and the sacrifice had been made.”

The Society encourages worship leaders to join the group so that they might be connected with other leaders who have insight to share. Interested leaders may contact Church of God Ministries to get information regarding the Society for Church of God membership.

A version of this article appears in the Thursday, July 2, 2009, edition of the NAC roundup/09 newsletter.  To view the newsletter in its entirety, click here (1.24 MB). The document is in PDF format and requires Adobe Acrobat in order to read and/or print it. If you do not have Acrobat installed on your computer, you can download a free copy of Acrobat Reader here.