SFC opens (and closes) to rave reviews!
I hope you were able to attend one of the two performances this past Sunday, A Simple Family Christmas. The students did an outstanding job and Joy Montgomery began a beautiful artistic rendering of the nativity as it related to Christ and His purpose for coming to the earth.There were many friends, family, and visitors in the house—both shows were filled and everyone left with a gift bag from our church. I truly believe it was one of the best Christmas productions we have ever done. There are so many people to thank but our technical crew and production team did an amazing job. Thanks team! Without your expertise, we can’t do all that God has called us to. You enable the vision to go forth and we are extremely grateful.
It is our heart that every expression of art available is used in the church to present a glorious God to a lost world. For so long, art forms were removed from the church, leaving her a dead, dreary, lifeless body, devoid of the power and majesty of God, governed by rules and regulations. That is why the birth of Christ, the picture of new life and new beginnings is so powerful and so visual.As the arts relate to worship, we, who are created beings, by the ultimate Creator, have the same nature that is waiting to be released. Whether by singing, playing, dancing, or painting, our creative senses are tapped as we give glory to God and the world is given a true portrait of a God who doesn’t stand in judgment, rather One who is longing for relationship.
My favorite definition of worship comes from William Temple: “Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose—and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.”
As we drawer closer to Christmas, may our worship be an expression of the gift He has so bountifully given us. I close with the words to a song Cindy and I wrote many years ago called Lift Your Voice and Sing—
Lift your voice and sing,
Praises to the King,
To the true Messiah gifts we bring,
Lift your voice and sing!
Sing Allelujah, Sing Allelujah Sing Allelujah to the King
Sing, Allelujah, Sing Allelujah–Sing Allelujah to the King of Kings!
(Cruse Ministries Publishing 1997 All Rights Reserved)