{"id":2239,"date":"2012-10-02T14:13:57","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T19:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/?p=2239"},"modified":"2012-10-02T14:13:57","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T19:13:57","slug":"our-churches-paradise-valley-community-church-phoenix-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/2012\/10\/our-churches-paradise-valley-community-church-phoenix-arizona\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Churches: Paradise Valley Community Church \u2013 Phoenix, Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>We have started a new series of posts here on the Worship Connect blog. In addition to our normal Friday posts, on occasional Tuesdays we\u2019ll be profiling one of our Covenant churches. Our purpose is to celebrate God\u2019s work in and through us, to demonstrate the diversity of approaches to worship in the ECC, and to prompt prayer for one another. We are better together.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Our fifth post comes to us from Mike Delster,\u00a0Interim Worship and Creative Arts Director at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paradisechurch.com\/\">Paradise Valley Community Church<\/a> in Phoenix, AZ.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/fishbowl.jpg\" rel=\"prettyPhoto[2239]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2242\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/fishbowl-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/fishbowl-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/fishbowl-1024x682.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/fishbowl.jpg 1049w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\u201cOur church is not perfect.\u201d There could be no greater understatement, because the fact of the matter is, <em>people<\/em> make up the body of the church.<\/p>\n<p>People can be messy.<\/p>\n<p>Sin has a nasty way of digging into wounds we thought were already healed. It brings about insecurities, poor conflict resolution, pride, selfishness, and anything else that would be a distraction. <strong>Sin has a way of taking something beautiful, designed to glorify our God, and makes us believe that it <em>is<\/em> our god.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>Church is messy, not because the youth group stained the sanctuary carpet with Jello again, but because people are messy by nature. They are the leaders, the musicians, the youth, and the elders. They all have stories, some have baggage, and some have yet to experience healing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/exterior.jpg\" rel=\"prettyPhoto[2239]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2241\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/exterior-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/exterior-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/exterior.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>And so it is; our church is imperfect\u2026 \u00a0but the fact of the matter is, I have never seen another church embrace their imperfection so well. The more we realize our fallibility, the more we recognize our need for God\u2019s grace in our lives. God\u2019s love actually appears to be even greater through the lens of our imperfection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Church as the Body of Christ will never fail.<\/strong> On our worst days, we have to own the fact that we are a hypocritical organization with a vision statement built on good intentions. But on our very <em>best<\/em> days, we recognize that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We are part of God\u2019s mission in this world, His ever-expanding Kingdom, the proclamation of the Gospel in word and deed. On our <em>best<\/em> days, we are brightly reflecting God\u2019s light in the darkness. And on our <em>best<\/em> days, we are empowered with the Holy Spirit! This is not because we are special or more qualified, but because we are blessed and honored to be a part of what God is doing in our local community and throughout the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The hour we gather together on Sunday mornings is our flawed community\u2019s best attempt at worshiping our perfect Lord.<\/strong> We recognize in our meeting that we need something greater than ourselves; not merely because we are inadequate, but because we don\u2019t want to settle for a life of mediocrity. We need grace. We need resurrection, in this life and the next. We need Christ. We need each other.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/interior.jpg\" rel=\"prettyPhoto[2239]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2240\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/interior-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/interior-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/interior-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2012\/10\/interior.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>This expression of worship stems from our community as a response to who God is and what He is doing here. As a result, the worship is a reflection of the gifts and talents of our community, using whichever stylistic choices bring about life within us. Our services generally include music, preaching, testimony, communion, and some form of reflection time. While we will never claim to be perfect, we have a commitment to bring God our excellence, our first fruits, in everything we do.<\/p>\n<p>We are a community that seeks to love God above all else, <em>especially<\/em> in the midst of our imperfection. We count ourselves blessed and so very grateful to be a part of God\u2019s mysterious and wonderful plan of salvation for this world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=2239&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have started a new series of posts here on the Worship Connect blog. In addition to our normal Friday posts, on occasional Tuesdays we\u2019ll be profiling one of our Covenant churches. Our purpose is to celebrate God\u2019s work in and through us, to demonstrate the diversity of approaches to worship in the ECC, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14503,14,14507,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-better-together","category-local-church","category-our-churches","category-vocation-and-call"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Our Churches: Paradise Valley Community Church \u2013 Phoenix, Arizona - Worship Connect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wc\/2012\/10\/our-churches-paradise-valley-community-church-phoenix-arizona\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Churches: Paradise Valley Community Church \u2013 Phoenix, Arizona - Worship Connect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We have started a new series of posts here on the Worship Connect blog. 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