World Cafe Live

Friday afternoon, our church's home group received an e-mail from one of our members inviting us to a free concert at the World Cafe Live. As it turns out, our church worship leader played and wrote music with several of the musicians when he lived in Nashville. Neither Sarah nor I had been to the World Cafe Live before, but we decided to check it out. We were very glad that we did! The atmosphere at the WCL was very cool: dark lighting, nice tables, small venue, candlelight...wonderful. A simple setup of guitars and a djimbae combined with the singers' beautiful voices created a very camp-like feel. Delightful!

The musicians were Jeremy Lister, Sandra McCracken (wife of Caedmon's Call member), Katie Herzig, and Matthew Perryman Jones. Sarah, Seth, and I went in together and bought five of their CDs for $33. Well worth the money.

Why is it that live music so often sounds better than CDs ? There must be some indescribable, unmeasurable, element to it.

Saturday morning I drove out to the Roxborough neighborhood of Philly to help our church clean out a few rooms for their new service site. Even though Liberti is only three years old, they've grown to over 400 people and, as of this coming Sunday, will have three service sites! I enjoyed serving along with several other members of the community...there is perhaps no better way to get to know others than by serving alongside of them. I believe this is one of the biggest reasons that people return from mission trips with such close bonds with their team. The church that serves together, stays together? =)

If you haven't checked out Liberti's website yet, please do so! We had a bunch of high schoolers from Pittsburgh in the "balcony" (aka: sitting on top of tables) in the back today. They were on a service project, found the church online, and decided to check it out!

The whole service today blessed me. From the sermon tracing communion back to the passover to the children singing "Live a Life of Love" to praying for the groups starting the new site to discussing a Brian McLaren book, I felt encouraged, challenged, and embraced. Somehow, going out to lunch with fellow worshipers helps combine the compartments of home and church into a new compartment of community. I like it.