October was a wonderfully productive month for us at Worship Without Borders! We kicked it off with a powerful worship seminar in Helena, Montana at Mountain Family Fellowship and Pastor Paul McElroy and Pastor Steve Allen. This a great capital city in the heart of Montana surrounded by beauty and brimming with great potential for a powerful move of God. We sensed from the beginning the earnest hearts of the believers there who are praying and believing for a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit and their sensitivity to the presence of God in worship and prayer.
Friday night, October 2, began with a wonderful time of worship led by their main worship leader Josiah Ediger along with Baily McElroy. I loved how they took many songs and made it their own in worship. They were able to rent a beautiful cello for me, so Maryl and I played along in the worship set. It was amazingly easy to flow with them though we didn’t have time to practice together for that set! After the worship I shared on the Vision of Worship in the house. Great response from the congregation and the pastor who exhorted everyone to come out on Saturday for the workshops.
Saturday was a delightful day of worship and teaching and ‘practicing the presence’ as I worked with the singers and musicians alike in practical areas of musicality and inspirational elements of worship. By the afternoon we had them singing their own songs and flowing in chord progressions and learning to listen to the Holy Spirit in their songs. There was much excitement around the circle of 5ths as the beauty of this simple tool was shown to them. We created ‘flows’ in different keys and chord progressions and then laid simple new songs on top of that. Saturday night we experienced a powerful time of very prophetic worship and new songs throughout the whole evening. I finished my teaching on Vision of Worship with an emphasis on relationships in worship being the key to our own release.
Sunday was so full of beautiful and powerful worship we just had to go a little longer than normal! God really spoke through many different people and I was able to sing a new song after each word to connect them to the whole morning! Such an amazing and sweet time with these great people! I preached on the Shachah and Proskuneo worship that God is calling all of us into. More than a song, more than an emotion, more than great music – He calls us to Himself, into His presence and we respond accordingly with our whole heart! Once again the response was powerful and complete. Beautiful time of prayer at the altar for many who responded! You can see all the times of ministry in Helena here.
Thank you, Pastor Paul and Steve and the whole worship team at Mountain Family Fellowship. We look forward to seeing what God continues to build there for His glory. We’ll be back!
Later in October we were honored to fly up to Calgary, AB Canada to be with our good friends at Eastside City Church (Pastor Todd and Jan Swisher) for their annual Missions Sunday. On Saturday I met with the whole worship team and had a mini-seminar and rehearsal for Sunday’s worship set. I love being able to flow and work with totally unique teams from all over the world. This team had a good mix of young and old, experienced and inexperienced. So it was easy to work with them, stretch them and release them to enjoy His presence.
Sunday morning was an absolute delight! I led both worship services, with Maryl playing flute at my side – they even found me a mandolin so I could lead one of my latest favorite songs ‘Joy’ from that! It was fun to flow with their schedule though they gave me great latitude to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. The congregation seemed so ready to jump in on every song. Both services were packed with ready and willing worshipers! We then flowed easily into a parade of flags from all over the world held by people from many nations in full regalia (I believe there are over 40 nations represented in this one church!). It was a beautiful sight to see them marching and waving their flags while singing ‘You Said’ – a song of promise for the nations of the earth! I love how this church not only prays for and supports God’s work all over the world but they are also personally sending people who are going and touching countries. If every Christian church would do likewise then truly, the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord! The icing on the cake was Pastor Marc Honorat from Haiti preaching a great word! What a great work he and Lisa are doing in Haiti! Thanks Eastside for continuing to sow into missions everywhere! We’ll be back!
The very next weekend, October 23, we flew south to Los Angeles and ministered in Monrovia, CA at Indonesian Full Gospel Fellowship of LA (IFGF-LA), with our good friend, Pastor Danny Hanafi. This was a very special weekend for me since I travelled with Pastor Danny to Indonesia way back in 1989! He has planted over a 1000 churches around the world and has a great growing church in Monrovia with 4 campuses throughout the LA area. We rehearsed with his main worship team Friday night (they let me go into Hollywood to choose a cello to rent – ended up with a beautiful looking and sounding Chinese cello – one of the best I have ever played – thanks!) I ended up leading worship from the cello all weekend! What a challenge and what a delight!
Saturday they invited all their worship teams from the different campuses to join us in Monrovia for an all-day (9am-7pm) seminar full of worship, teaching, workshops and hands-on practical experience ending with a beautiful time of worship and flowing together. I started with the Vision of Worship, getting a better picture of what God has in store for us in every worship service! Revealing Jesus, being changed by the Holy Spirit, singing songs that come alive and words that speak to us by the Holy Spirit and healing and joining of relationships – all part of God-worship! After teaching primarily, we moved into hands-on experiential worship practice with new songs and chord progressions. Learning to flow out of each song, keeping the ‘current’ of worship going in transitions and allowing the Holy Spirit to breathe in each song. Near the end, I had the team get into a simple chord progression while I was on the cello. Then I had everyone else start praying in song over each other. Near the end of that, I started singing over the whole group a simple song from the heart of God to each of them. Great response – I heard from some of them later that this moment meant a lot to them and they recognized the voice of God in the song! We ended the evening with a great time of worship with me co-leading with Pastor Stef and Claudia! Powerful day!
Sunday was a thrill to worship and preach with such a responsive congregation. I must say the cello we were able to rent was so rich and warm that I was tempted to carry it home in my carry-on! J Leading from the cello is becoming so much more natural for me and frees up the keyboard for others to play. There were some strong prophetic moments in the worship time with the songs Great Are You Lord and No Longer Slaves. We could have stayed on those two songs for hours! Really!! Then I preached my Extreme Worship sermon about ‘Shachah’ and ‘Proskuneo’ – God’s great words for worship in the Old Testament and New Testament. Besides a great response in bowing and surrendering to God in this moment, we sang ‘Good Good Father’ as our response to the beautiful unfathomable love of the Father for each of us. He truly is amazing!
Thanks Pastor Danny and Pastor Stef for hosting and releasing such a powerful weekend of worship, praise and prayer for your congregation. We were so blessed by the warmth and enthusiasm we saw and felt each day we were there. You truly have a great vision for the whole world. We love you all. Hope to come back in the spring!
This month (November) we return to Guatemala for our 4th time there, joining Pastor Paul Nufio to do in-depth teaching with leaders and worship team members for the great church, Elim Central of Guatemala City, Pastor Hector Nufio. Please be praying for a great release and impartation for this week of teaching, worship and preaching to thousands.
Thank you all for your prayers, notes and support over these last nine years! It’s been an amazing adventure and we continue on, confident in His leading, provision, protection and presence going with us everywhere we go. He is an amazing God, and His love endures forever!
We love you all, your worship missionaries: Dr. Tim and Maryl Smith