First St. John's Sunday morning!

Okay, we've had our first St. John's rehearsal, our first St. John's evening, and finally, our first morning service at St. John's.

It's all still a little surreal to me. Sitting in church today, it was all so familiar, with so many friends in the congregation. At the same, we're there for different reasons than before, and we've both experienced so much since we were last there.

A lot of people were away today for the Alpha weekend, but there was still a good crowd. We opened with "Be Thou My Vision," "Here I am to Worship," and "Holy is the Lord." I really tried to choose a good mix of classic hymns and newer songs. We sang "Spirit of the Living God" in reference to the Alpha weekend and "On Eagle's Wings" in response to the sermon. During communion, we did "Living Manna, Living Bread," and "Give Me Jesus," and closed out the whole service with a rousing rendition of "How Great Thou Art." I couldn't always hear people singing, but I could see lots of mouths moving, and a few smiles, so that was good.

After the service, we were greeted by hugs and "So glad you're here" and "How're your parents?", and of course, "Aren't you Hollis's daughter?" We were grateful for the welcome, and even more grateful for the positive feedback.

There are a few technical things we still need to tweak - where to stand? where to put the SoloAmp? - but overall, I think this was a great start to our new adventure.