Dearly Beloved

Dearly Beloved,

A few Sundays ago, we finished sound-check in record time. It was glorious! I wandered into my office, happily brushed my teeth (a story for another time), put on mascara, used the washroom, and then leisurely sauntered back into the auditorium, ready to gather everyone for our morning meeting and prayer time.

As I walked in, there was a horrible buzz coming through the speakers.

Confused, I looked up at our soundman. He gave me a nervous, "I'm just as perplexed as you are," shoulder shrug.

What on earth?

Immediate, controlled panic ensued. (Yes, I realize those words don't really belong together, but nothing made sense in the situation, so I feel justified using contradictory words to describe it!)

During the 9:00 service, the problem became so bad after worship that Mike addressed it from the stage, and I decided it was time for a different solution. We quickly set up some additional speakers, shut off the ones causing the problem, and carried on as best we could. A quick shout-out to our amazing volunteers who jumped into action!

It was quite a morning.

Worshipping together on Sunday mornings is an incredible joy and privilege. 

One of our worship team’s values is to eliminate as many distractions as possible through preparation—musically, technically, and visually. Of course, each person who comes chooses whether they will genuinely engage in worship, but if we can remove unnecessary obstacles, that's a joy for us.

For every distraction that slips through during a service, there are probably fifty more that were caught and solved during the week.

A few Sundays ago, though, what you experienced wasn't something we could have anticipated. A genuine problem was revealing itself in real time.

We are so blessed by you—our gracious church family—who are willing to have those "family moments" together. Your patience and generosity continue to amaze us.

On a whim that morning, I jokingly announced that if anyone felt so led, our new "speaker fund" had officially opened.

CPC... you showed up.

Since then, more than $10,000 has been designated toward this project.

Wow.

Praise the Lord.

And thank you. This helps accomplish so much.

Over the past few weeks, I've been working alongside a consultant and several of our incredibly skilled volunteers (who happen to have wonderfully handy jobs like electricians!), and believe we've identified the issue.

Well... issues, plural.

The solutions involve both replacing our main speaker system as well as electrical upgrades in our building. Some of those fixes are already underway, while others will take time to do properly.

But here's what has encouraged me the most through all of this.

I'm so proud to be part of a church that knows how to worship Jesus in any circumstance.

If the power went out, the speakers all blew up, and the projector bulb burned out at the same time, I honestly believe we'd just sing louder, worshipping Jesus together without missing a beat.

Because we don't worship good sound.

We worship Jesus.

We don't sing because there are lyrics on a screen.

We sing because of who Jesus is and what He has done for us.

Thank you for being such an incredible church family.

Thank you for loving Jesus so well.

And thank you for your continued patience as we keep "plugging" away at these repairs.

(Electrical pun absolutely intended.)

Pastor Laura