During this past weekend, we pursued God's heart in why He calls us to gather corporately. From looking at what the early church devoted themselves to as it was birthed (Acts 2) to the call in Hebrews 10:24-25 "and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near." Why does God call us not to forsake our assembly together? We concluded that when God's people meet corporately: He bestows His unique grace on us as we are built up/matured/equipped through the teaching and proclamation of the Word of God; we are able to exalt God in one voice as we respond in worship; we are able to celebrate the Lord's Supper and Communion together; we get to seek Him in a unified way through prayer and repentance; and we are able to coordinate the dynamic life of our local church.

I believe we are at a unique season as a church family where we need to re-elevate the importance and priority of our corporate worship. I believe we can do this by each person coming with expectant hearts to hear from the Lord and coming with a heart to serve others. Corporate worship is really a privilege that we have as believers and coming with the right heart makes all the difference in the world.

As we head into this fall, let's all be expectant in what the Lord will do in our hearts as we seek Him through the Psalms (fall series) and as we come with hearts to be used by Him in each others lives! One simple challenge that we have put forth is to encourage everyone who is part of Mountain View Community Church to be serving the body in someway when it comes to our corporate worship. We all have different gifts and passions that the Lord has given us but all of us can do our part to enable our corporate gathering to continue to be a blessing to our body and those we are reaching out to. One analogy that we have used is "doing the dishes". It is the idea where is someone in the family showed up every night at 6pm when dinner was being served and then as soon as they were finished eating their food they threw down their fork and ran out the door not to return until the next day at dinner time - we would look at that and say "man that is dysfunctional - that is not a family". In the same way, we believe that those who are part of the body of Christ need to all chip in and do their part to help out with the "dishes". Now I don't like the analogy because serving God's people is far more joyful than doing the dishes (I don't personally enjoy doing dishes at home) - but you get my point.

As we head into this exciting fall season - would you consider serving in one of our ministries that support our corporate worship times - each of us doing our part. We figure it takes about 30-50 servants per service when we gather corporately. That means that each person should be serving every three or four weeks in some capacity. If we all don't do our part then the burden gets left on a few - and that ain't right. Many areas to serve are simple - only require minimal sacrifice (coming a few minutes early to the service you are worshipping at) while others take a little more investment and time (like teaching in our children's ministry). PLEASE fill out the form at http://www.mvcchurch.org/FortCollins/connect/serviceopportunities.php and a ministry coordinator will contact you. Right now we are in need of Children's Ministry Servants and Kitchen/Hospitality crew!