It’s hard to believe that it was nearly a year ago that I was offered the worship pastor position at CLA.
I remember all the feelings - a mixture of nervousness and excitement - as I contemplated what it would look like to start over at a new church. Thinking about the people I would meet, the culture I would become part of, the history of CLA that I would now be stepping into. There was a weight to it, but I knew without a doubt that this was where God was calling me to be.
A year later, I can say with confidence that I am so glad that I stepped into that calling. God knew what He was doing when He placed me here, and He has continued to surprise me with the new things He has been doing in our worship ministry and in my personal life. We’ve continued to add to our team, both for Sunday morning worship and in our other ministries, and when I’ve been lacking in team members, He immediately provided someone new. In addition, it’s felt as though there’s been a shift in worship - something that isn’t necessarily tangible or easy to put words to, but a significant difference all the same. There’s a hunger for more, a desire to lift the name of Jesus as high as we can, and you can feel it in worship at any one of our different ministries throughout the week. It’s less perfection, more praise. And isn’t that what worship is intended to be?
When I first came to CLA, I thought I would just be continuing what was already happening in worship - that I was simply keeping things chugging ahead as normal. But in this year, what I’ve seen is that God is doing a NEW THING. And He’s inviting you - and me - to be a part of it. We are not the cause, or the ones making it happen. He is.
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19)
Something is stirring, church. And when we worship - when we lift our hands and raise our voices, united - we get to participate in that. He will come and move upon our praise, and will continue that new thing that He is doing.
I am so blessed to be a part of that, and to call CLA home in such a time as this. Crazy what God can do with a simple “yes.”
