Vertical’s first Christmas services were truly amazing. There was a definite presence of God throughout the Carolina Civic Center, and we saw over 50 people give their lives to Christ. It was beautiful. For those of you who would like to relive the week that was, here is a list of the videos we showed. However, what was most moving to me, was what most people in attendance didn’t see. More on that tomorrow.

For now, I want to share our set for the services. We did this set three times. The first, on Wednesday night, was reserved for our volunteers and FUZE Student Ministry. All three services were identical. We use Planning Center for our service programming, and if you’re not using it in your church, you should be. I honestly can’t imagine how we’d do what we do every week without it. But I digress.

Here’s a snapshot of the service program:

Definitely a jam-packed night!

We kicked things off with “Run Rudolph Run” by Chuck Berry. I had a discussion with one of our production members prior to the service as to whether “reindeers” is a word. It isn’t. I didn’t think so.

Then was this cool video:

After that, and a welcome from Brandon, we went into the first of three testimony videos. The first was from one of our parking lot volunteers, Greg Blaine.

Then we moved on to our first worship song of the night, “Do You Hear,” from North Point Worship (pardon the brief ad at the beginning).

We moved right into “All Creation Sing” next, also by North Point. No video available.

Then we threw together a mix of traditional carols during the offering. This was actually a very powerful part of the service. After that, we played a video that has been circulating Facebook ever since, called “A Social Network Christmas.”

After that video, we heard a reading from Luke 2:1-21, and went into the powerful song, “Everything Changed,” by Eddie Kirkland (also of North Point). Here’s the actual video from one of the nights:

After that song came the second testimony video, by one of our worship leaders, Rhonda Lovin.

After Rhonda’s video, she came out and led a beautiful a capella rendition of “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” It was truly amazing and I could sense the hand of God on her during that song. When the song was over, we showed the final testimony video, by Meredith Allen.

After Mike P’s message (which hit home for SO many of us), we closed out the service with the bridge of Hillsong’s “Came to My Rescue.”

Stay tuned tomorrow for what you DIDN’T see!