Worship and the Arts Symposium

This past weekend was the Worship and the Arts Symposium. The event that I was a part of was the Saturday evening Accompany them with singing worship service. The concert choir (which I am a part of), along with the Women’s Chorus, Men’s Ensemble and many church choirs from around the area sang some pieces alone as well as also singing with the congregation in attendance.  It was a wonderful service. Not only was it fun to have John Ferguson come for the symposium to conduct us, or that I got to sing with, and at the same time listen to wonderful four part harmony, but Tom Long’s sermon also touched me. 

Tom spoke about the story of how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and focused on it in a way I hadn’t thought about before. What he really focused in on was the reaction of Martha when Jesus shows up four days after Lazarus dies and she says: “Lord, if you would have been here my brother would not have died.” This message along with his personal experience he shared that related back to his message was very touching. I won’t begin to try and explain the message because it wouldn’t do Tom’s presentation of his sermon justice! I do however, want to mention one thing that really hit home for me. He totally changed my perception of “time.” He said that instead of our lives running out of time, death is running out of time because we have eternity. Instead of justice running out of time, all the injustices are running out of time. Instead of all the good things running out of time, all the bad things are running out of time. I had never looked at time like that and seeing that new perspective was something very important to me.

I also heard from many people in the audience how much they enjoyed it and how special of an experience it was for them too.

It was a lot of work to put it all together, but it was a wonderful experience and I will be looking forward to attending the next one!