bluegrass gospel

this year, immanuel has decided to return to their old practice of "fifth sundays."  since every month doesn't have five sundays, on the fifth sunday of a month worship will be somehow different or unique compared to other sundays.

this sunday was "bluegrass gospel sunday."  we had a bluegrass band playing music from "i love to tell the story" to "precious lord take my hand."  i also got to read the last page of the bulletin to find out where bluegrass music comes from, not to mention a sermon that included the camp grace infamous for bringing rain: the johnny appleseed grace.

while having a blue grass gospel service every sunday is not sustainable for the congregation (despite the huge number of musicians of all kinds that consider immanuel home), it's extremely refreshing and fun to occasionally worship with a different style of music.  as most of you probably know, i have no internal sense of rhythm (it's my hope that weekly zumba will help me out in that department).  this usually means that i don't clap when songs involve clapping to the beat, which tends to seem like i'm not involved.

well, i move to the music instead of clapping and the music today was ideal for that!  two services of wonderful music that made my body move.  we're emphasizing whole life stewardship for the next few weeks at immanuel, and today was whole body worship for me.  dancing and moving up the aisle toward the narthex to "i'll fly away," letting the music infuse my soul.  "what a fellowship, what a joy divine," indeed!

as we journey through the year, i'm excited to continue experiencing with this congregation new and various ways of worshipping god together!