Monday, November 20, 2006
Report from Grants tour ‘06 4
Report from Betty Grit on the final stop of her tour of recipients of Worship Renewal Grants:
At Clifton Baptist Church in Louisville, the surrounding streets are lined with parked cars more than an hour before the worship service will begin. Inside the church, Chip Stam, Minister of Music, finalizes details with nine musicians before they pray together to ask for God’s blessing on the service. Soon young families with infants and children, elderly members and visitors, students from nearby Kentucky School for the Blind and from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary enter warmly greeting us and one another. 
Clifton Baptist partnered with CICW in a Vertical Habits Worship Formation grant project. This morning the music and Dr. Bruce Ware’s message based on Psalm 116 focuses our minds and hearts on living a life of Thanksgiving.
After lunch and conversation with pastors at the home of Chip and Doris Stam, we visit Sojourn Community Church. Today Sojourn is worshiping for the first time in their newly renovated space. 
Spotlights on art in the gallery, beautiful wood floors, a worship space that seats 450 people and offices with high glass windows have been created from a former elementary school building. Sojourn is using visual art and music based on Vertical Habits to create resources that will explain who they are and why they do what they do in worship.
Both Clifton Baptist and Sojourn Community Church have discovered that Vertical Habits provides a framework and vocabulary to help both new believers and lifelong Christians engage more deeply in worship and connect worship on Sunday with life through the week.
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