Worship Ministry Update – 2023

We are so incredibly blessed by God to have a culture of multi-generational worship at Abiding Savior.  Each worship service includes volunteers from many different walks of life, with such a variety of ages!  This is one of our greatest strengths at Abiding Savior, serving together no matter what our age.

The fact that my wife and I can sit in a pew next to a couple who has been married for over 50 years; that my children can worship our Lord and Savior together with their more mature prayer partners who have such wisdom and love to share with them, we consider ourselves blessed! I want to encourage you to give thanks and praise to the Lord for the blessings he’s given to us here!

We worship together led by Pastors that preach the inerrant Word of God, and we are led in music by such an incredible group of musicians every single week!

A great example of just how many folks are involved in leading Sunday worship would be just a few weeks back we had about 65 people involved both up front and in the tech booths that morning!

Part of my job is just literally trying to use all of the available musicians at Abiding. Much of the job is coordinating and rehearsing the over 130 musicians available to us at Abiding Savior.  We have folks who assist me with worship leadership, those who sing in the choir and on the praise team, choir accompanists, musicians who play in the praise band and orchestra ensemble, and those who lead us prelude and postlude.

Our team of techs run the livestream sound, cameras, live house sound, and assist with slide preparation and operation; and every Sunday we have an incredible team of ushers serving us.

Our deacons serve in worship by praying for our families, serving communion, reading scripture and assisting us with the prayers of the church.  We also have so many involved in coordinating communion preparation, greeting guests on Sunday morning, volunteering in the nursery.  Not to mention our host of trustees that roam the building keeping us safe each and every Sunday!

Serving in the worship ministry is usually a lot of work for our volunteers!  Each and every week, our musicians and AV techs volunteer anywhere from 8-10 hours each time they are scheduled to serve.  From practicing their music at home, to rehearsing the music together, to leading our 3 weekend services each week, as well as our mid week Advent and Lent services – They rise above and beyond the calling to serve. I’m so incredibly grateful to work alongside so many generous and gifted people.

I praise God for the young people God has blessed us with!  We have so many children singing in our Celebrate Children’s Choir, led by Beth Feltes, who cares so deeply about our children’s hearts as she develops their voices. 

We also experience about 50 kids involved in our Youth worship ministry, led under the talent and passion of Issy DeWitt.

The majority of our orchestra is made up of those under the age of 18, with a few of us “older” folks to guide and encourage them along the way.  It gives me such joy to see both young musicians and seasoned musicians using their gifts to serve the Lord and His church together, side by side.

This my friends is something special that we get to experience together at Abiding Savior.  So I thank ALL of our volunteers constantly for their efforts for the sake of the Gospel.

Some of the highlights for me this past year include our choir/ensemble Sundays, our Advent and Lenten services, and seeing new faces step up and lead our church in song.  This past year we also started a joint venture with our sister AFLC church in town, Living Word, and held an outdoor service on their lawn in June.  

We plan to again meet on Father’s Day this coming year, June 18th on their lawn – so we hope you can come join us this year.

One major low this past year for me personally was losing my friend and co-worker Jonathan Steventon.  I know at times this past year I lacked excitement in ministry and was stressed a lot. I was deeply impacted by Jon’s loss, and it was a difficult year for me to navigate.

Thank you for all of you who extended me grace and understanding, and even stepped in to help me cover his roles transitionally.  Jon’s impact here at Abiding lives on, and I am so grateful for all the years I got to work with him.

I look forward to working with our new Multi-Media Manager Ryan Kroger, and partnering together in ministry in the years to come.

This is our goal – To aid and assist the church in lifting up hands and voices in praise to our Lord Jesus!  It is not about us being in the spotlight – trying to mediate between the church members and God – but about pointing to the One who is our mediator – the author and perfecter of our faith – Jesus Christ.  Our ministry seeks to bring honor and glory to Him in our endeavors.

Speaking of lifting up voices – church, we ALL have a role in this!

It is not just for the select few to perform praise, but for us all to lift up our voices in giving praise to the One who is worthy of every breath we breathe!  I want to help each of us better understand what our role is in worship, so I am holding a class starting up right after Lent called “Sing! – How Worship Transforms Your Life, Your Family, and Your Church”. 

Our goal in holding this class is that we as the church:

-Discover why we sing

-How singing impacts hearts and minds with the Gospel

-How to sing more in our homes

-Why singing brings unity to the church

-How singing together is a radical witness to the world

We will together rediscover and reclaim the apostle Peter’s words in declaring that we are:

A chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the excellences of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light! ~ 1 Peter 2:9

We are providing a free book for each family – so pick yours up at church as soon as you can to get a jump start on the reading.  You can sign up for our upcoming class by clicking HERE.  I hope to see many in the church participate in this class.

In Christ,

Mike Borg

Mike Borg
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