Today we had our annual Bethel At The Rock service at one of the parks here in Janesville. Our day started early with hauling the equipment down to the park and setting up. With our new portable sound system from our Cafe Service, it made setup much easier today. After a lengthy sound check (we are now so used to using Avioms that using floor monitors and live sound now prove to be quite troublesome…), we were ready to go.
Prelude (15 minutes before as people were walking in)
Everday (Joel Houston)
Amazing Grace (Instrumental)
– This was kind of an impromptu last-minute addition today! As we were getting things setup, the band just started to noodle around playing Amazing Grace, and I thought they sounded so good, I asked them to play it during the prelude! With electric guitar lead, bass, guitar, drums and keys it sounded great!
Your Love Never Fails (Chris McClarney)
– A great song!!
Songs during the service:
Awesome Is The Lord Most High (Chris Tomlin)
Glory To God Forever (Steve Fee and Vicky Beeching)
You Alone Can Rescue (Matt Redman, Matt Maher)
Hold Us Together (Matt Maher)
– This was our special this morning we did during the offering. I had wanted to do this song for a long time, but was just waiting for the right combination of who would be singing it, and the right location. With Eric nailing the vocal part, the great band, and the baptism service, it seemed liked the perfect day to do it!!
Mighty To Save (Reuben Morgan)
We ended the service with hearing the testimonies of the 11 people who were going to be baptized, which was way cool! The people’s ages ranged from 9 to 70’s, with a husband, wife, and son. The park was right next to the Rock River, so it was perfect for the baptism service.
After that celebration, we had our Hog Roast meal right there at the park. Great food and fun fellowship!
Days like this are always so much more work than the normal day, but it was so worth it! Being outside in God’s beautiful creation, the excitement of having the whole church together for 1 service, and just the whole atmosphere of today made it a wonderful day!
This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog on The Worship Community, where you can read what happened at other churches around the country today!
Barry Westman 
Barry
Thanks for the feedback! Outdoor worship is always fun even though it’s alot of work to set up for. It’s great to be visible in the community and sing His praises so all can hear. Baptisms are always an inspiring testimony too!!! We do it once a summer, but I think we are going to try to do a few more next summer.
Doug
LikeLike
Doug,
No problem! Thanks for reading!
LikeLike
Awesome idea…I would love to do an outdoor service sometime. I think I would struggle with floor wedges as well at this point. What did you do for lyrics?
LikeLike
Hey Jeff – for the lyrics we just included an insert in our bulletin with the words to the songs. Without our rear screen for the lyrics, our singers used the music today.
LikeLike
Sounds like a lot of fun! I always love creative services. I just heard “Your Love Never Fails” for the first time this week. I really like it. I would love to do it sometime!
LikeLike
Bobby,
Thanks! It was a lot of fun. You need to do that song! It’s great.
Barry
LikeLike