• The CORE Grand Opening
On Sunday, April 19, 2009, I returned to The CORE for the grand opening. Immediately upon entering the doors, I was hit by the smell of fresh popcorn. There was more popcorn for the grand opening of The CORE as a church than there was for the film festival, however, there were also a lot more people on hand than were there for the festival.
There was standing room only at The CORE as a large number of WELS members came to see this different style of worship. Even Pastor Ski commented on the large number of pastors in attendance.
The service began with a crystal clear projection of The CORE’s new logo on their extra-large movie screen surrounded by lightning and electricity sound effects. Immediately, it was clear that The CORE’s video was going to far surpass the quality of the video at the film festival. “Pastor Ski” (Skorzewski) then joked that The CORE doesn’t have a bell, so they use lightning and electricity sound effects instead.
The jokes and statement of mission were followed by a period of introduction and prayer. The praise band then took over with the first praise song: “God of Wonders” by Chris Tomlin.
The following player plays a low quality recording of some sample music from the grand opening: “At the Name of Jesus.”
Then there was a confession of sins called “Forgive Us, Renew Us, Lead Us,” a reading from the Book of Jonah, a collection of gifts followed by applause for the praise band, and then the sermon entitled: “Urban Legends: There are Many Ways to God.”
As part of the sermon message we watched a five minute video of Pastor Skorzewski asking people, “How do you get to heaven?” The answers were all basically the same: Be a good person. Pastor Skorzewski’s sermon did deliver law and gospel.
Here is a link to a pdf of The CORE’s grand opening bulletin along with a sermon outline:
The CORE Grand Opening Bulletin
After the sermon, Pastor Skorzewski asked the audience for prayer requests. Then after some specific prayers and the Lord’s prayer, the praise band concluded with “The Voice of Truth” by Casting Crowns. Here is the refrain and bridge from that song:
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, “Do not be afraid!”
The voice of truth says, “This is for My glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.
After this song, Pastor Skorzewski gave the Benediction, and then concluded with a number of closing comments, including giving away prizes to the winners of a number of naming contests: The winning name for the video blog was “EnCORE,” and the winning name for the newsletter was “COREspondence.”
Finally, there was a period of fellowship and food in The CORE’s lobby.
