At Grace, we love to sing. We believe singing is a very important way for Christ’s gathered people to worship him, and to bless one-another (Colossians 3:16). We also believe that singing God’s praise at church is being obedient to his commands (Psalm 30:4).
The songs we sing are carefully chosen to reflect Biblical truth through excellent and accessible music, as well as reflecting the diversity present in Christ’s church. Rather than going for a ‘contemporary’ or ‘traditional’ approach, we like to sing the best of the old and the best of the new side-by-side. That means singing solid and rich classic hymns, as well as expressive modern songs by EMU Music, Dustin Kensrue or CityAlight.
We are blessed with a faithful team of gifted musicians and singers at Grace. Our Music Ministry Team serves the gathered church by leading us in song, providing ‘backing music’ and direction for us all to raise our voices together in praise of the Lord Jesus.
At our 7.45am worship service, we usually sing two songs, led on alternating weeks by Clint Lombard or Marie Butler. At our 9.30am worship service, we have a three-week rotation, with Clint Lombard and Marie Butler alternating for the first week, a team led by Jay Mathew for the second week, and a team led by Andrea Hooper for the third week. Sometimes the music is led by a single musician, other times by a small ensemble or full band, depending on availability. The music ministry team also includes faithful sound operators, who often serve in the background, ensuring that everyone is served well by what is heard. Thanks guys!
Our ministry team does face a number of challenges. Many of those who serve have to juggle the demands of busy family and work schedules to plan the music for a service, make a mid-week rehearsal and to be around an hour before a service to set up and sound check. Two families in our teams are expecting new babies soon. Often, those serving are involved in other ministries too.
There are a number of ways you can support and encourage our music ministry team:
- SING The greatest reward for those serving is when they can hear their Christians brothers and sisters raising their voices to Jesus with them.
- PRAY This week’s Prayer Focus has a few ideas on how to pray for our music ministry
- SERVE We’d love to see more people involved in this ministry. If you would like to serve in our music ministry team or find out more, have a chat to Clint Lombard after the service (or call on 0478 578 152 or email pastorclint@gracechurchbuderim.com.au).