Prepare for Worship (Page 4)

Hey Church! The song, “Highlands (Song of Ascent),” is a Rio-family favorite, without a doubt! It is by FAR your most requested song. What’s interesting to me is that it is also the most poetically challenging song in our repertoire. It’s one that takes an extra measure of focus and thoughtfulness for me to sing in a meaningful way, so I figured it…

Hey Church! I am back from my COVID-Christmas vacation (Whee! What a season it’s been!), and it is so, SO good for my soul to be back in action and preparing my heart to worship with you all this weekend. This week I was reflecting on the title of our new series, “He Gave Us Stories.” As I did, it dawned on me that the themes of Jesus’ parables, as…

Hey Rio! Mark Lautenschlager here again, filling in for Worship Pastor Ryan Brasington, who’s on the mend healthwise but is on vacation this week, continuing to rest. Please persist in lifting up the Brasingtons and all in our church who have been touched by COVID.  Hebrews 13:7-9 7 Remember…

Happy Christmas Eve! If you are able to attend, we invite you to either the 4PM or 6PM candlelight service this evening. We have all you need to know about parking and childcare on our Christas Eve page. Just tap or click on the graphic above. If you can’t be with us in person, consider…

Greetings, Saints at Rio! From out here in Vacationland, it’s Mark Lautenschlager filling in for Ryan Brasington who is ill this week. Pray for Ryan, if you would. I’m doing my best to channel my inner Brasington today, I hope you find the subject matter as interesting as I did. This…

Hey Church! We have so much to celebrate in worship this weekend! It is our third Sunday in Advent, we will light the Shepherds’ candle to remember how they were told of Jesus’ birth, Tom will preach on the third “Emmanuel Song” from Isaiah 11, we will…

Hey Church! Today’s reflection is on pain. It has been heavy on my mind as of late, so I hope something of my own experience on the subject will engender a timely word of encouragement to some of you who suffer. If this is not written for you, perhaps it is written for your ministry to a friend or neighbor.  We all experience pain in various forms and degrees. For…

Hey Church! This Sunday we will leave the season of Pentecost behind (be honest, who remembered that we were still in Pentecost?) and enter into the four-week season of Advent. The four Sundays preceding Christmas have traditionally been a time when Christians long for Christ’s coming (“advent” means “appearance; arrival; coming”)–both…

Hey Church! This weekend I want to encourage you to bring your authentic self to God in worship. It is all too easy for us to “play church” on Sundays in a way that doesn’t result in a genuine encounter with the Holy Spirit. We don’t do this on purpose, of course. At some point along the way, we believed the lie that church is a place that requires…

Hey Church! This weekend, as you prepare your hearts and minds for Sunday morning, I want to encourage you to set aside a pocket of time to meditate on the lyrics copied below. Watch the videos, learn the melodies (extra credit if you learn the harmonies), and read through the words we will be singing together in church. What scriptures come to mind as you listen and…