KirstenL4W

¹⁸Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. ¹⁹Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. ²⁰The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls; because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen. ²¹This people I have formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise. Isaiah 43:18-21

That is the theme passage for New Song Church. I have been worhsipping there since August 2003, a couple months after I moved to Las Vegas. The church itself is brand new; the first public worship was held on January 5, 2003. Today, 3 years, 8 months and 20 days after that very first gathering, we had another first: our first worship service in our permanent home. This is the 21st century, and a church building cannot get built without money. That money must come from the people who wish to worship there. It’s the old chicken or egg thing. So we worshipped, prayed, and gave to be able to have a place to call home, and today that became a reality. Our new building is just awesome! It is so wonderful to have a place to call home and to have a very visual presence in the community.

All sorts of celebrations were planned for this weekend. We had originally hoped to be in the building in June or July. Then August. Then the first weekend in September. You get the picture. We got our occupancy permit on Thursday, September 21. The Dedication weekend began with an entertainment extravaganza the very next day. Good thing we got in there in time, otherwise we would have been performing in the parking lot! Jason, our music minister, knows so many wonderfully talented people in town, many of whom dedicated their time and talent to help us celebrate.

I am on the audio/video crew at church. Really, I don’t do much in the way of audio or video. I do VISUAL stuff though. During the Praise Service and the Contemporary Worship service, I make and run a powerpoint slideshow so that people can look up and not worry about where in the bulletin we are. I enjoy it; I like that behind-the-scenes stuff. Our new building has a great a/v corner, my favorite part of it is that it’s in the sanctuary and not in its own room somewhere. I feel more connected to the service and my fellow congregants, and it makes my worship experience so much more meaningful.

We were blessed today with the talents of Rick Alonzo, who painted 3 wonderful paintings for us. He coordinates his creation of the art to music and turns it into a short performance, and it was so awesome to have him share his gifts with us.

I am still so high from the events of this weekend. I’m a charter member of the church, which is a rare privilege, and I, along with a lot of other people, have been looking forward to this day for a long time. Of course, with the new worship schedule, new a/v equipment to learn, and soooo many people there today, I did not get to socialize with everyone as much as I had hoped to because I was just so busy. But it was fun, and I’m so thankful that I am able to be a part of this.

I have many pictures that I took today; you can all go here to see them.

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