Recent Worship Experiences on a Christian Journey

This week I attended worship at Cascade Church Portland on SE Woodstock. The congregation starts by socializing with a coffee and fellowship time. Turned out this can be helpful for someone attending for the first time like me. I talked and was able to worship with someone who showed me the ropes and shared what worship at Cascade was like for her. Plenty of meaningful testimony about this church. Worship started with a band - cello, guitar, drums and vocals - leading the praise music. The contemporary songs intentionally evoked strong emotions and lyrics that adeptly mixed personal perspective ( I and my ) and references to the larger community ( we and our ). The worship structure basically moved from music to prayer then back again. Communion was included (although I understand this does not necessarily happen weekly). The communion balanced being both individual and part of a community, like the music did. We were invited to take bread individually and then saved the ...