Our first congregational song was "Victory in Jesus." Our founding pastor, Dr. James Singleton, loved that song and requested it almost every Sunday night for many years. Then we sang "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" because I knew we were going to use it later in the service.

After the pastoral prayer, Pastor Mike honored staff members who have served faithfully at Tri-City for many years. Pastor Mike presented the Mary Singleton IBCS Scholarship Award to Brittany Moffitt. And Pastor Jim thanked Pastor Mike for his many years of good leadership.

Then as we sang our next congregational song, the All-Staff choir left their seats in the congregation and came to the choir loft on the platform. It was impressive and exciting to hear the 80 voices choir sing "How Firm a Foundation." I made a point to explain to the congregation how important it is that our music ministry is not spectator; it is participatory. So even though some on our staff don’t consider themselves “musicians” or “singers,” they sang for and with their church family.

This led right to the All-Staff Choir teaching us a new-to-us song by Dr. Bryson "What Does It Cost to Follow Jesus?" One woman said to me that she was so moved that she could not even sing. Hearing the congregation and the All-Staff Choir sing together brought tears to her eyes. I say they sang together because Dr. Bryson wrote his song to be a partner song with “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”—that is, you can sing the two melodies together.

Pastor Mike began his sermon series on Romans. You can hear his message here. The service ended with the congregation singing “What Does It Cost to Follow Jesus” one more time.

In the evening service, the choir started off the service with a song that we have sung for Anniversary Sunday in years past. “The voices of our founders still echo through these halls, That heritage still calls us to answer God’s great call.”