Good News - January 2022

VILLAGE HYMNS 30 January 2022 www.goodnewsfl.org Good news • South Florida Edition Last year provided Village Hymns many opportunities to continue developing and supporting worship leaders as they lead their own worship ministries across South Florida. As we at Village Hymns reflect on 2021, we are grateful and excited for what God has done in and through our organization. We wrote and released new music, met with the Village Hymns cohort monthly, and found new ways to support worship ministries throughout our region. In the middle of the year, a few worship and church leaders began to contact us, asking for help finding musicians who could fill temporary worship team positions. Through our network of local worship leaders and musicians, we were able to help connect available individuals with churches in need. Due to Village Hymns’ familiarity with the South Florida area and its worship ministries, we were able to find individuals who fit each church’s unique worship environment. We soon realized that this was not just a one-time service, but a helpful resource for our local church community. Within a few weeks, we began receiving an increase in requests; by September, we were up to three to five a week. It became clear to us that this resource needed to become a regular part of the ministry that Village Hymns provides, and so VH Support was launched. Supporting the local church VH Support is a way for Village Hymns to support churches in our region by finding local worship leaders and musicians to fill in any gaps they may have in their worship team on a Sunday morning. We’ve had the privilege of meeting and working with so many worship leaders and musicians in the area, and by partnering with them, we have built a sturdy contractor list of capable musicians. These friends of Village Hymns are a network of individuals who share in our vision to reach our community through worship. Clearly 2021 has been a challenging year for churches. Portions of church congregations are still attending church online due to Covid, some of which are previous worship team members. And when worship leaders or musicians have to drop out due to sickness, churches need a quick solution. Carl Thomas, pastor of Revival Life Church, said this about VH Support: "Village Hymns has been a tremendous blessing for our church. The ability to have vetted musicians and worship leaders has enabled us to continue to minister to our community in this crazy season.” A Musician’s Perspective For contractors on our sub list, VH Support offers experience serving in new, unique worship settings. This has created a lot of unity between churches as contractors get to be a part of different church contexts. Miguel Gonzalez shared about his experience serving as a contractor with VH Support: “The experience of being a ‘traveling worship leader’ is amazing: to experience new congregations, new people, new opportunities and new challenges - to experience the actual, unified Church of Christ? That’s something that can’t be overstated. It’s been almost a mystical journey to watch how week after week, it doesn’t matter how “unknown” the church is on that Sunday - once the people start singing, and the Spirit starts moving, you feel right at home. A growing network Jesus is King over all the parts of our vast cities, and Village Hymns has given some of us the opportunity to experience that in a really tangible way. His Name is beautiful in so many different forms outside of just our home churches, and it’s deeply refreshing to witness that time and time again.” Now, just over five months after our first request, we’ve been able to fill over one hundred requests from local churches in need. Forty different local worship leaders and musicians have gone out to serve the worship ministries of seventeen churches all over South Florida. We’re so grateful for the musicians and leaders in our network, and for the opportunity to serve the Church in this way. If you’re a worship leader interested in getting involved with Village Hymns, please email [email protected] or visit our website at villagehymns.com. - Amber Harrison - Village Hymns Administrative Coordinator Each month we’ll be sharing a song created by local worship leaders. Our January Song of the Month “Jesus, Only Jesus” is available on Spotify, iTunes, and Apple Music. VH Support Matches Worship Leaders with Churches

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