It finally feels like we’re finding our rhythm with weekly Sunday gatherings. Like every portable church plant, part of the challenge to the weekly plan is finding people willing to serve early on Sunday mornings and help load-in and set-up. Even with a sparse crew, things are getting done and we’re thankful for this dedicated team.

We’re also wanting to stay very intentional about creating a unique Worship Experience every Sunday. It’s easy to default into an expected flow and order of things. On one hand it is nice to have a basic plan to launch from, but we definitely want to keep finding new ways to connect with people and create meaningful moments where people can experience the love of God.

The entrepreneurial part of me is absolutely loving the discovery of a new church culture along with the opportunity to help define the worship expression we have as a group.

Our numbers were down some this week. There were 45 people in the main venue and 16 in the Kids Station. There are still a solid percentage of first time visitors coming each week. We have a developing core of regular attenders, but at this point in our journey it’s not consistent from week to week.

Musically we had a great week. The band was incredibly solid and that helps create a distraction-free Worship Experience that is a joy to lead.

Our Great God | Casey Darnell
One Thing Remains | Jesus Culture
Always | One Sonic Society
From The Inside Out | Hillsong United

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We started a new series this week called ‘All In’ at The Station Church. Keying off of Matthew 22:37…loving the Lord with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind…being ‘All In’ with God.

Our set design team did a great job putting together a new concept for the stage and worked with the lighting crew to enhance the vibe in our Worship Experience. It turned out very cool.

We had 50 people in our main Worship Experience and 17 in Kids Station. We also had a free VIP lunch to close out the day. It was a ton of fun to see so many people hanging out together and building new relationships. So very cool!

Our band was a 4 piece this week and i really liked it. We still used enhancement tracks to fill out the sonic spectrum, but there was a great rock energy with a simple 4 piece arrangement.

With Us | Hillsong
Stronger | Hillsong Live
All Things New | Elevation Worship
Search My Heart | Hillsong United

How was your Post-Easter Sunday?
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This was our first Easter Worship Experience at The Station Church. An exciting day for our faith as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, our Savior!

We had experienced several technical challenges with the videos we’d planned to show, so our tech crew was scrambling right up to the last minute to get things working so we would have media projected correctly. It all came together as we started…great work team!

There was an energy of expectation in the room as we began. I love it when there is a sense that people have showed up to really connect with each other and God. There was a feeling of celebration and reverence during our worship set that was entirely moving.

Josh spoke about the life of Jesus and who He is. The Jesus of the Bible is the same Jesus that we can know personally today. At the close of his teaching, he gave people an opportunity to make a decision to follow Christ. 2 people committed their hearts to Jesus…what an incredible day to mark a new relationship with God!

Over the past 8 weeks we have been humbled to see 30 people make decisions to follow Jesus!! YES!! It’s amazing to witness God transforming hearts as we’re giving our lives to this work.

We closed out the day with a feature song called Christ Is Risen. Inspired by a piece we’d seen online, we integrated a powerful Spoken Word piece in the middle of the song. It really turned out to be a profound moment in our Easter celebration.

Overall, we had 89 people in our main Worship Experience and 17 in Kids Station for a total 106. It continues to be an exciting journey as we see new people joining us every week and God impacting the lives and hearts of those attending.

My Savior Lives | New Life Worship
Mighty To Save | Hillsong United
Jesus Paid It All | Kristian Stanfill
Christ Is Risen | Andy Frank

How was your Easter? What was your experience this year?
Leave a comment below…

We decided to change things up a bit for Palm Sunday. Our musical configuration is typically a modern rock band. Electric, plugged-in and rockin’.

This week we went more with an ‘unplugged’ format. Still plugged-in but with a more acoustic-ish feel. I led from keys which was fun for me because I almost always lead from guitar.

I really need to say how fortunate I am to be surrounded by really great musicians and vocalists at this point in our journey as a start-up church. I’ve worked with hundreds of churches over the years and I can honestly say that the players we have at The Station Church are incredible. I’m already at the point where I can comfortably hand off lead to a couple other vocalists and know that they’re going to knock it out of the park.

So…that’s what I did this week. We had a 4 song set and I only led two of them vocally. It was very, very cool.

We had 65 people in our main Worship Experience and 15 in the Kids Station for a total of 80 people on campus. There are still new people coming every week so we don’t necessarily have a ‘group’ of people attending regularly each week. I’m sure that will become more evident over time, but we’re very excited to continually meet new people coming to worship with us.

The stat with eternal significance is what pumps me up…2 people made decisions to follow Christ! This will never get old…I love it!

This was the second week in our ‘Made’ series. Week one was incredible as Michael Franzese came and spoke, drawing quite a crowd.

Josh talked this week about how we were made for this moment. God has made each of us with a unique gifting. Within our individual design we can live out who we were destined to be. It was a challenge for everyone to lean into their personal life calling from God.

Our overall attendance was down this week at 80, with 65 people in the main worship experience and 15 at The Kids Station. I’m discovering that consistency in numbers is not something we’ll probably see for a while as a new church start-up.

The worship set went great. Even with several new players in each week’s configuration, the band is really solid and these folks are worshiping as a team. Our technical set-up and run-thru is getting smoother as well.

It’s an interesting journey to help define the worship culture of a new church. I’m finding that it’s more ‘uncovering‘ than ‘defining‘ the unique worship culture with the people that are coming every week. Our worship expression as a church is evolving and developing. It will be for some time. I’m finding my challenge is to be at peace with the unknown and to embrace (and gently lead) this complex assortment of people who are gathering here to worship.