Singing a New Song

Yo soy quien dices que soy, soy hijo de Dios, sí lo soy. (I am who you say I am, I’m a child of God, yes I am).

This last weekend, nine people from the worship teams of Living Hope Piperton and Vollintine-Evergreen traveled to Querétaro, Mexico to conduct a worship conference with our church plant partners there. Worship teams from the churches of Lumina, Conexión Vertical, and Esperanza Viva joined with our team to worship and learn from each other about how we can more faithfully serve our churches as we lead in worship. 

Over the last few years, a close partnership has developed with three different church planters and their churches in the area surrounding Querétaro. Living Hope has sent several mission teams to the area, and we have hosted them here in Memphis. On their last visit, as we discussed how Living Hope could further minister to their churches, they asked us to come and do some teaching in the area of worship. 

We spent the last few months building a team and preparing to lead a mini-conference for everyone involved in their worship ministry. Since their teams are usually the ones serving everyone else in the church, on Friday night, our team led them in a worship service, so that they could have a time to sit back and enjoy worshipping Jesus together. I was especially proud of all the hard work our team put into learning all the songs in Spanish so that we could minister to them in a way they could most clearly understand. On Saturday, we met with worship leaders, planners, musicians, audio engineers, and technicians to teach on both the theology and practice of leading others in worship. Each member of our team was able to share from their experience and engaged in teaching and Q&A with their team members. On Sunday, we split up and joined their worship teams and preached in their churches to serve their congregations as well. Pablo DiGilio, one of the planters, sent us this encouraging email this week: “Thank you again for all the effort and thought you put into the conference, our team is already talking about working on the vision, values and objectives, and we are going to spend some time on the worksheets you gave us. You guys have such an important part in everything we do here.” 

This trip was beneficial for our team as well. The time we had serving and growing together, in both the preparation and the execution of the trip will continue to reap benefits for our worship team (and our church) for years to come. We made friendships and built relationships that will be lifelong. 

I am so grateful to be a part of a church that realizes, as the redeemed children of God, we must take church planting seriously, and be willing to give time, money, and energy so that others can know our Father. Please continue to pray for Pablo, Alex, Juan, and their families and churches as they labor in Querétaro, and continue to seek God in how you might be involved in going, praying, or sending others out for the sake of the Gospel.

- David Lewis, Worship Pastor/Elder