Music Ministries

Eileen Gathman, Worship Arts Coordiantor

It's been a refreshing year in worship at Central Church as many new opportunities have come along our path. As Central's unique styles of worship services have developed, as the arts have become more prominent in our congregational life, and as our worship attendance has increased, Central created a new ministry position, the Worship Arts Coordinator. I was hired to fill this role with the goal of building a unified team to give a meaningful and consistent worship experience for all who attend Sunday services. In this time, we've seen more artists honing their musical, dramatic, visual, and multi-media craft, to be able to offer fragrant sacrifices of worship. The volunteers have discovered new relationships as they serve side-by-side with other artists, and have the opportunity to share their strengths and weaknesses together as the body of Christ.

About mid-June, the pastors and I began taking a look at our current services and prayed hard about the possible decision to combine the two contemporary worship resources to create a new service that would take the place of the First Light and EPIC Services. The Mosaic Service was created, with the desire to live out Central's mission of moving people toward Christ by gathering together as "living stones," as 1 Peter 2:5 says. We are a people of all ages, races, and expressions of life, and in recognizing our brokenness and our need for God's Truth to direct our steps, we are allowing God to piece us together in a beautiful mosaic. On September 11th, we began the first Mosaic Service and God has shown Himself faithful through both the struggles and the successes.

Likewise, the Traditional Service has been moving people toward Christ through glorious moments of praise, combining the words and music of generations past and of contemporary Christians. A team of dedicated folks now meet regularly to bring together new ideas to incorporate into the service, ranging from hymns and creeds to anthems and prayers. This team has worked hard to find a vision for how this service comes together, focusing on how to maintain a flow of worship without forcing outside elements that might distract. Thus, with purpose and intentionality, we've begun using an occasional litany and dramatic presentation to further enhance the message. I've heard many positive comments when these elements are incorporated into this service and am grateful to our gifted Drama Team for their hard work.

Visual artists have also shared some wonderful moments with all three worship services. The Sundays at Central team has also invited artists to showcase their work as a ministry to God's people as they stroll through the Concourse. From September through May, we now enjoy the fruit of much artistic labor as various paintings fill the walls. Also, during special seasons of Lent and Advent, we ask our visual artists to help enhance our worship experience by creating bulletin covers and backgrounds for the screen. It is a gift to see the arts interconnect in so many ways and to know that Central has been a place for people to express themselves in worship.

We look forward to seeing how God will continue to use the Sunday services to deepen people's faith in Him and to grow us as His disciples. We ask that you pray with us for God to reveal His heart for worship to all the service leaders and volunteer teams.