Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—“ NIV

Have you ever had an idea or concept stick in your mind and permeate your thinking, catching not only your thoughts, but also your imagination, working it’s way deep down into the fabric of your being and changing you in some profound way? Such realizations are precious to the believer, especially when they come from truths that fill our hearts anew with love for our Savior. For me, the transformational idea has been grace. I want to live this out in my daily life, to see others as God sees me through eyes of holiness, but my natural inclination is to see them through eyes clouded by my own sin, a kind of spiritual cataract. How does one see through the lens of grace?

A few years ago, a Christian buzz-phrase began to show up on bracelets, signs, and bumper stickers. “What would Jesus Do?” I always thought of this as a phrase dictating an outward response towards an external stimulus. In trying to employ the phrase in my encounters with others, I would find myself trying to formulate a response that would be Christlike, thinking to myself, “this is what Jesus would say or do” and then trying to do it because it would please the Lord and I would feel like I’d done something noble and worthy in spirit. Somehow, I don’t think this is what Jesus would do. His approach to relationship with others was to love them as they were, and to point them to the truths of God that he embodied fully. He was compassionate, merciful, kind, and bestowed the gracious gift of forgiveness and reconciliation in his words, his life, his death, and his resurrection. He saw those the Father had given him as he knew he would make them to be, pure, holy, and blameless before the Lord. He was grace incarnate.

As long as I live in this body, I will wrestle with sin. I cannot escape it. But Christ has purchased for me a place in the Kingdom of God and I belong to him. My debt for sin has been pain in full. God sees the beauty of his son when he looks upon me, even though I struggle in this flesh, he gazes upon a beauty that he has ascribed to me and sees me now as I will be in eternity.

Such a truth awakens in me a spirit of gratitude. Through grace I can respond with an obedience that is fired by thankfulness for the work that has been done in me, not so that I might boast of my goodness, but that I might boast of the grace, mercy, love and compassion that has been shown to me by God through the work of his Son, Jesus, and the help that is given to me by the Holy Spirit, enabling me to live in freedom.

Because of the incredible grace of God, I can lean into the love of my Savior and begin to see my brothers and sisters with new eyes. I can leave some of the harsh judgment of the world out of my dealings with them, and let them see grace in me. If I try to do this as an act of obedience rather than as a response to grace in my life, then I miss the true blessing. Joy is found through resting in Him who has saved me and presents me as clean and beautiful before God. I long to please Him, not out of obligation to law, but out of gratitude for his rich, vast, incomprehensible love for me.

Hearing the Word

I don’t know about you, but sitting down and reading the Bible in a quiet and uninterrupted environment is nigh unto impossible for me. I love the Word of God, love how it speaks to my heart, love the way it shapes my thinking and my prayers, but I struggle with the actual reading part.

For years I would set my clock to rise before the sun and try to have my devotional time with my Lord and some coffee, only to find myself too full of sleep to concentrate, or interrupted by my early rising children. I had great intentions, but not too much success. Often I felt an incredible sense of guilt and frustration when hearing others talk about their quiet times and how meaningful they were. Mind you, the few successful ones I had were quite meaningful, but the majority of my attempts left me feeling irritable and something of a devotional failure. I tried reading at bedtime…..zzzzz. I tried it on my lunch break… too many interruptions.

I’m a huge lover of audio books and tend to be a person who works best while listening to something. This past year, I stumbled upon the solution for me and maybe others who might struggle with my dilemma—the Bible on mp3. Before purchasing I “shopped” various narrators to see which voice most appealed to my ear by sampling audio files online. After careful deliberation I purchased the NIV Audio Bible, published by Zondervan and have been blessed beyond my wildest expectations. I listen in the morning while I’m getting ready for work, in the car, and even in the shower. I listen while working in the yard, folding laundry, and cleaning the house. My mind has been saturated with the Word of God and it’s been a tremendous source of encouragement to me.

As I thought through Jeff’s message on Diversity this week, I was reminded of how God has uniquely formed each of us with our various quirks and dispositions, and found myself thankful that He’s also provided ways for us to seek Him that meet us where we are. Although I still use my “print” Bible for reference and study, I love the accessibility of the digital Word and the way the beautifully spoken words speak to my spirit.

If you’d like to check it out you can follow this link. Remember this is the Bible on mp3, not CD. You load these discs onto your computer and then sync them to your ipod through itunes. You can also purchase it on CD for a bit more money.


Here’s to diversity—what a beautiful body we are in Christ!

I’m a gardener by hobby, although I admit to being a novice. I love to dig, plant, prune, and cultivate, fulfilling an aspect of my need to be creative that is truly satisfying. Over Spring Break I worked on landscaping an area of our yard that had been overgrown and messy, dividing some plants I already had, sharing some with friends and planting some they’d shared with me, creating a winding path with a peaceful and tropical feel. Each morning I walk the path and take note of the new growth found there and it fills me with the greatest of satisfaction. Some of the plants sprout tender foliage while others shoot up great spikes of thick leaves. All very different, all beautiful in their own way, diverse in nature, color, and form, they give testimony to the order found in nature and speak of the glorious creativity of their Creator.



Sometimes I think that the body of Christ is like a garden. God has created us each with our own beautiful attributes, planting us where he knows we will flourish, feeding us with His Word, pruning us for greater growth, transplanting us for His glory and our good, and taking pleasure in our growth in Him. Some grow quickly, shooting up tall, their work visible and encouraging. Some grow slowly-- the beauty of God’s work in them moving at a sure and steadfast pace. Others grow with tender grace, speaking peace to the body through their very natures. When we come together in worship we bring that beauty with us, reaching up to our Heavenly Father as tender shoots reach for the nourishing rays of the sun.



The Body of Christ is beautiful, no matter what metaphor we use to describe it, and as we come together to worship our Lord and Creator He takes great pleasure in us. He loves to see our growth in whatever form it takes, loves to be in our midst as we praise Him in our diversity, and breathes in the sweet perfume of our praise. How comforting to know that He loves, tends, and cares for us, and that He moves among us as we lift our praises up to Him.

Each week we worship the Lord in word and in music, expressing words of truth on the wings of song. Music connects us to the message and helps free our spirits to worship God with greater ease and joy. I had a student express this beautifully to me a few weeks ago after we had sung an anthem about Christ’s sure faithfulness to us, and he said that somehow while he was singing the beauty of the song combined with the truth of the words moved his spirit to tears. Often a singer in the worship ministry will tell me of how a particular song impacted them as they worked on the music between our mid-week rehearsal and Sunday morning, how the truth of the message worked its way into them as they practiced and prepared.

Music is an integral part of my life and nature. I appreciate it for so many reasons… the beauty it speaks of so eloquently, the response it evokes within me, the power it has to help deliver a text, and the intense impressions it can give. I love the way it can lift my spirits or set the tone or mood for an event and how it gives us a way to express worship to our maker, creating beautiful and moving settings for words of praise, prayer, and supplication.

I remember with great clarity my first experience with the power of music to move me and fire my imagination. My father used to play beautiful music in the house on the stereo when I was a child. Often on a Saturday morning, I would dress up in one of my mother’s fancy gowns and turn on whatever record had been left on the stereo and would play to the music. That particular morning the music that came floating out the speakers was “In A Persian Market” by Ketelbey. The music was composed of several contrasting sections beginning with a beguiling serpentine melody that evoked images of snake charmers, wooden flutes, and reed baskets. The second movement sounded to me like the entire Persian army singing and it held my 6 year old imagination captive, and the third sounded as if it took place in the garden of a palace in Babylon and the peace it brought to my spirit still returns whenever I listen today. It quickly became my favorite song and I made many an imaginary trip to the hills and markets of Persia.

Music helps connect our hearts with our minds in worship and gives us a beautiful way of joining our voices together in unity and praise. Karl Pulnack, a professor at the Boston Conservatory of Music said it this way in his welcoming address to the parents of incoming Freshmen:

"The first people to understand how music really works were the ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you; the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping figure out the position of things inside us." Click here to read the complete address.

While Pulnack mistakenly attributes a savior status to music near the end of his address, he rightly acknowledges the impact that art can have on all of humanity. How blessed we are as God’s people to be gifted with the ability to create music and voices as instruments to lift in praise and understanding to our Lord and King!

Our Tech Team



Each week our “Sanctionasium” is transformed into something beautiful for worship. Our team of tech wizards employs their skills in fresh creative ways using lighting, color, and beautiful graphics. Here’s a small glimpse into that process.

Chris, our Technical Director, spends hours each week sifting through pictures, color palates, and graphic art to come up with a theme for projection that complements the service theme for that week. Once he has a plan he creates a graphics progression that follows the service order. Text is added to the slides for songs, scripture, and sermon points, and he creates a color array that will be used in the service.

Gary, Lighting director, then takes that array and plots a lighting plan for the entire service, creatively using light to complement the service’s theme and elements.


During the service, Chris turns his attention to the soundboard and Sarah takes over the graphics, making sure the slide changes are timed well for Scripture, song lyrics, and Sermon notes.

Our Sanctuary is a challenging room to work in for sound and lighting and our team works hard to make it wonderful each week. They support Jeff and our Music team in ways that often can’t be seen. Two other members of our tech team, AJ and Mark, support the singers with sound help from a sound board located off stage, and enable them to hear exactly what they need in their monitors.

Please keep our worship ministry in your prayers as we plan and serve each week with the goal of helping the Body of Christ worship our great and glorious God.

Ever wonder about the folks who lead the singing each week?

The “Singists” are all worship participants at Orangewood and are a delightful group of people from all backgrounds who come together in small groups to sing, laugh, and pray. We are blessed to have a warm spirit of family within the group and are always glad to welcome new people into our ministry. Members have varying degrees of musical experience but share the ethic of personal preparation, which makes rehearsals fun and rewarding.

Each week members pick up the following week’s charts and take them home to review and practice prior to a mid-week rehearsal where we polish up the music and try to glean all we can from the music and the text. To aid them with this process we provide support mp3’s through our worship website for those singing a part other than melody. On Sunday morning, we rehearse with the band and then lead in worship. Our desire is to glorify the Lord and enjoy one another in the process.

Serving Together in Music and Worship


Psalm 150

Let Everything Praise the LORD
Praise the LORD!Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD! (ESV)



The worship ministry at Orangewood is composed of wonderful singers, a fantastic band, and brilliant sound and lighting engineers, all working together week after week to offer our best in the worship of our Lord. This week's glimpse into worship focuses on our band.

The overall sound of a group is dependent on the level of musicianship of each member and ours is no exception. The band is made up of professional musicians who have committed to our service at Orangewood-- tremendous guys who love the Lord and us.
Each member is committed to personal excellence in their instrument and it shows. Music is distributed a week in advance and the guys prepare on their own before coming together on Sunday mornings for an intense pre-service rehearsal.






Currently we have Mark on drums, Tony on bass, Luis on electric guitar, Kyle on keyboard, and Dan and Jack on accoustic. It's great to serve with one another in the Worship of our Lord!