St. Andrew's Church in Mahtomedi

It was a wonderful night!  Service was at 5pm. We got there a bit early to find a good seat.  This service was in the Great Hall.  It had a more modern look and feel to it with no pews, no formal chancel (I would call it a stage), and a giant screen as the focal point above the altar.  The worship band was "stage left" and the altar was "stage right".

This was the order of worship:

• Prelude Song/Band Feature
• Congregational Song - "Love the Lord your God"
• Announcements:  3 in all and done in under 2 minutes
• Congregational greeting, then sat for 4 baptisms
• Reading and Sermon:  14 minutes
• Offertory/Song:  an unfamiliar piece with words shown on screen--no congregational singing
• Communion/Song:  again, an unfamiliar piece with only the band singing
• Benediction/Closing Song:  Everytime I Feel the Spirit with a different verse melody
• 55 minute service total!

Some general observations:

•  Service felt like it went by really fast.
• The worship band was an all-professional group (and you could tell!)
• The video screens were different for each section of the service and they ALWAYS had a moving element to them (i.e.:  If the screen was a picture of water, you could see the ripples moving)
• They had a St. Andrew's logo on screen that popped up quite often in between sections of service.
• Music lyrics were broken down into small sections (2-3 lines on each screen) and center justified. 
• The opening band feature felt like a prelude.  This allowed people extra time to gather and be invited to worship.
• There was no order of worship but they did hand out what Nate would call an "informational brochure".  I would call it a bulletin, but we could not agree on this. ;)
• The lead singer did improvise on some of the songs, but only after 2/3 of the piece was sung. 
• It felt like band/soloist lead and drove the momentum of the service. 
• Sara Renner, lead singer, was a very charasmatic leader both in singing and leading (lots of gesturing, as she did not play an instrument).
• There was no children's message.

We had a lovely time at worship and would feel very comfortable worshiping there again. Our evening ended at Roma in Mahtomedi with Stillwater "Farm Girl" beers, a caprese appetizer, caesar salad, and a balsamico pizza.  ALL WONDERFUL!! :)

Hope you can join us next week as we head to another contemporary worship service.

-Gina and Nate