Very recently, Holiness Tabernacle witnessed a historic event. For the first time, the Music and Youth Department joined efforts to create a “MY” Annual Day service unlike anything in the church’s sixteen year history. The service was a game changer for all who attended, but two of Holiness Tabernacle’s own youth , 13 year old Bro. Victor Merriweather, and 14 year old Sis. Colleen Brown agreed to share the details of the service as they experienced it.
Here is what they had to say.
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On Sunday, September 21 at 5pm Holiness Tabernacle had their annual "Music and Youth Day" appreciation service. Service started with Missionary Danielle Powell leading us into worship by singing “I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me.” Next Sister Crystal McCown led us in our invocation. Brother Dominic read our Old Testament scripture from Psalms 27:1-3 and our New Testament scripture, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 was read by Sister Karissa Jett .
After these great scripture readings from our brother and sister we had praise and worship from our Praise Team led by Sister DeAnna Pruitte, Aspiring Missionary Yolinda McCown, Sister Valerie Miller and Deacon Napoleon Paxton. Our praise and worship team helped get everyone in the sanctuary to have our hearts and minds set on Jesus as we continued to prepare for the Word of God. When praise and worship was finished, the whole sanctuary was in a state of praise thanking God for what He's done.
Aspiring Missionary Delia Pruitte went to the pulpit to introduce two of our Sunshine Band students who were going to give an inspirational word. Sister Plum Paxton, age 2, went up to talk about Jeremiah and the good word that God gave him. After Sister Paxton we heard another inspirational message from one of our Purity Class students, Sister Deloris Pruitte. She started off by reading 2 Samuel 7:9 and Malachi 1. She spoke about great people who did great things, to go off of our church’s theme: "Great God, Great People, Great Expectations." She explained that no matter how bad we feel, we should just trust God even when the devil keeps attacking the people of God. She ended with the phrase "No matter how bad you're feeling there is always someone that's doing worse than you."
Our worship in giving was led by Pastor Eddie B. Pruitte, and then we had a selection from the adult choir. Following our choir we continued our inspirational messages, with the next one coming from Sunshine Band student Brother Eryn McCown, age 5. Brother Eryn spoke to us about the prophet Jeremiah, and about how God made him an awesome promise. The last inspirational message was from Sister Asha King, and she talked about our generation being God’s next chosen generation. Our speaker was introduced by Asp. Missionary McCown, and then we heard a sermonic selection from our choir.
After the choir the whole sanctuary rose and stood up as Evangelist Missionary Naomi K. Thomas came up to speak the word and lead us in worship. In the beginning she explained how if you pay attention to how much God has done for you or if you try to count the number of blessings He's done for you then it doesn't matter how long you’re in church as long as your heart and mind are on Jesus. Missionary Thomas started her word with a few verses from the Bible starting with 2 Chronicles 20 and Psalms 34. Missionary Thomas ended her word saying, “It is trash day, and we need to throw away all of our sins so that it's not a burden on us!” After lots of praise and prayer we blessed the speaker with an offering, and then we the Music department gave a special presentation for Asp. Missionary McCown. Lastly, our Holiness Tabernacle court for this year was introduced with Sister Crystal McCown as the Duchess, Brother Jay Norman as the Duke, Sister Tamika Alexander as the Queen, and Brother John Mabry as King.
Brother Victor Merriweather
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Music? Check. Youth? Check. The Word of God? Check.
If you missed our 1st annual MY service, you missed out on a lot! We kicked off the service with PRAISE! The praise team lead us into an atmosphere of worship, and to take us even higher the youth and young adults of Holiness Tabernacle came bearing words of inspiration ranging from acknowledging that Jesus is Lord, to great people of God, to the promise of God, to realizing that without God our dreams are just another dream. By then, the Lord had already shown up and left His mark, but He wasn't quite finished. We had the distinct honor of having our president of the Virginia 1st Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Music Department render us the Word of God. God had just begun the mighty work He was going to work throughout the remainder of the service.
Evangelist Missionary Kim Thomas led us deeper into worship with her anointed and dynamic singing. As she spoke to us the Word that God had given her, she emphasized the importance of praising God even when we're going through a storm. She told us that praise confuses the enemy. We learned that having a praise or a song to sing to God is our weapon against the enemy. We also were reminded that even though Satan attacks our minds and our bodies, this battle is not ours, it is the Lord's. Many of us were burdened by the many battles we were in, or facing. As an act of faith we were able to come to the altar, “dump” our issues, or battles, and return to our seats rejoicing because we knew that God heard our cries and removed every affliction from us.
The most important time in a church service is when we praise, and the service wouldn't be complete if we didn't seal the Word of God with praise. God truly did speak through Missionary Thomas. To conclude the service, the Holiness Tabernacle Youth Department introduced their King and Queen court of 2014. The court consisted of Sister Crystal McCown, as the church's Duchess, and Brother Jay Norman, as the Duke of Holiness Tabernacle. Finally, Sister Tamika Alexander was named as Queen, alongside Brother John Mabry III, who was crowned King. The day was truly one you had to see to believe. It was one that tremendously blessed whoever was there, and you did not leave the same way you came in. We thank God for the Word, and the messenger of the Word. Missionary Thomas was truly a blessing to the church.
Sister Colleen Brown