Moses Lake Ministerial Association hosts first United Community Worship Night
Sep. 19—MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Ministerial Association presented the city's first inter-congregational United Community Worship Night Friday in the sanctuary of Restore City Church.
Campus Coordinator at Youth Dynamics and Worship Leader at Grace Harvest Church Davie Sawyer, who was part of Friday's worship team, explained the goal of the event.
"It was a community-minded thing, where we were trying to bring everybody together, just so we can worship together and kind of set aside any sort of differences," he said.
The worship and prayer team leading the event consisted of members from five different Christian churches involved in planning and managing the event, including Moses Lake Christian Church, Grace Harvest Church, Restore City Church, Moses Lake Presbyterian Church and Bethlehem Chapel in Ephrata.
"We had a choir that was an ensemble of people from all those different churches," said Sawyer. "We ended up doing eight songs, and then we had pastors from different churches come up in between and pray for our community."
Sawyer said that part of the reason for holding the event was that there haven't been any inter-congregational Christian worship events in Moses Lake, and the Ministerial Association wanted to start one.
The event had a successful turnout, said Sawyer, with somewhere around 250 people of varying denominations and congregations attending. Sawyer said the attendance was about what event organizers were expecting.
"Obviously, we're always hoping for more," he said. "It was at Restore City Church, and their sanctuary is huge. They have a really wide open sanctuary. So, for me, I was hoping to pack it out, but basically what we did was we filled most of the chairs that we set out."
Sawyer said that the Ministerial Association Worship Team came together for a conference for married couples and the general consensus among the worship team and the Association was that they needed to do more collaborative events.
Sawyer then elaborated on the Moses Lake Ministerial Association's purpose.
"So I, along with other worship leaders and pastors in town, we belong to the Moses Lake Ministerial Association, where we meet monthly," said Sawyer. "The Christian pastors in town meet at a designated location and chat about what's going on and encourage each other."
The Association also facilitates community events like the worship night with the intent of strengthening the community.
"Our goal is to get to where we actually feel more like a community," said Sawyer, "to bring people together under one banner."
Sawyer said that the banner includes more than just Moses Lake.
"Even though we're called the Moses Lake Ministerial Association, It's the only ministerial association in our area, so all of the pastors that are in our area are obviously welcome to come to that too. And it's the same thing with the worship nights; anybody that wants to really be involved, we would love that. You know, the more the merrier."
The Ministerial Association Worship Team is hoping to put on another community worship event in the first quarter of 2024, said Sawyer, who was also hopeful they could make inter-congregational worship a regular event for the Moses Lake community and surrounding areas.
"I feel like our community, we do a really good job of not really being mad at each other and I think this is just one of those instances," said Sawyer. "It was really fun just to be with other churches and planning this and acting as one body of Christ, you know, so it was really, really good."
Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.
