This is a great song from Zach Williams filled with great truth! We are so excited to have Zach joining us at this years Worship In The Adirondacks 2018. For details and tickets go to www.worshipintheadirondacks.com.
Meet the UB Worship Team
It’s been incredible to momentum growing for the upcoming UniteBoston worship night. Chloe Gaydos, UniteBoston’s intern this summer, has pulled together an incredibly talented team of individuals. One of the most beautiful aspects is the diversity of people represented in the team.
A few members of the band include:
- An Asian exchange student from Berkeley playing the violin
- A Catholic singer/songwriter
- A Protestant drum teacher from Berklee
- A Nondenominational Gospel Singer
- A Boston-based Rap Artist
- An Indie/Jazz Worship Leader
- A young man from one of the first Pentecostal churches in Indonesia
In light of the recent events in Charlottesville, this is a crucial time for us to lift up the message of love and peace found in Christ. We have been planning to have our worship night in the Boston Common for months, which turned out to be the same location that Saturday’s “free speech” rally took place. Our leadership team felt like this was a God-ordained opportunity for us to proclaim that Jesus unites, and Jesus is the true source of peace for the city, so we made “peace for the city” the theme of the worship night.
Meet the members of the worship team!
Name: Korleen Sheridan
Instrument: Guitar & Vocals
Home Church: St Cecilias Parish
“I am so excited to see God working in Boston and seeing so many Christians praising God together. This is so needed in a city where you walk by people every day and you don’t know their faith background.”
Name: Caleb McCoy (http://www.welcometotheoak.com/)
Instrument: Vocals
Home Church: Neighborhood Church of Boston
“I am excited to worship with a diverse group of people from different backgrounds. I think the fact that the worship team is represented by different races, denominations, and styles of worship will make this night extra special.”
Name: Anita Maldonado 
Instrument: Guitar & Vocals
Home Church: The City
“I’ve been in Massachusetts for 5 years, but it’s been tough for me to integrate into the city. As soon as I heard about UniteBoston’s worship night, I knew this was the event that I’ve been waiting for. It’s beautiful that we can all worship our Father with no barriers, and I wanted to be a part of that.”
Name: Ola Olukorede
Instrument: Vocals
Home Church: Dayspring Chapel
“I am excited about experiencing God in a new dimension than before through worshipping with people from around Boston who have the same faith as me. Though sometimes we might feel like we’re alone, this night proves that God’s people are everywhere and God’s praise is real.”
Name: Ben Hills
Instrument: Sound Team
Home Church: First Presbyterian Church Northshore
“I’m excited to see a worship gathering on a place as public as the Boston Common. I can’t wait to see what God will do with it.”
Name: Calvin Limuel
Instrument: Keyboard
Home Church: Heart Change Fellowship
“There aren’t many events that bring together Christians very often, especially for public worship, and this is so needed in our city.”
Name: Tony Lee
Instrument: Vocals
Home Church: Aletheia Church
“My college was immensely supportive of diversity, and I got to witness some amazing things. I saw dance as worship, art as worship, spoken word as worship. Things that I never saw in church were happening on campus, and it was incredible to participate. As various cultures of students came together, I witnessed God’s creativity flowing through them. And let me testify, I felt an immense amount of joy when a congregation jives to a funky beat within the context of a new style of worship. In my life, I experienced this through corporate worship between Korean and American churches. We are made as limitless beings, and I know that unless we go beyond our boundaries, we will miss out on the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory. I had heard about UniteBoston and wanted to be a part of it. I love worshipping… Any way that I can spend more of my waking hours worshipping draws me closer to God.”
10 Days Boston Praise Report
With Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, and Taize services, the denominations of host churches for this year’s 10 Days Boston evening gatherings was more diverse than ever before. There were 19 different churches present the first night in Cambridge! Additionally, the Indian gathering brought together five different Indian people groups for the first time!
18 churches represented at the first night in Cambridge
With this diversity, though, comes the difficulty of defining the unity we share in Christ. The 10 Days theme that we chose this year was “One Heart” – When Jesus prays that we would be one as He is one, what does that mean? Who is involved in this oneness?
At one of the evening gatherings, I was sitting down for a time of fellowship, and one of the women asked me what my home church was. I told her that it was an evangelical church called Journey Church in Harvard Square. She turned to another lady at the table and asked, “Is she a Christian?” and then they spoke in five minutes in another language before determining that yes, I was.
This was an external example of the question that I believe we all are wrestling with. Is this denomination really following Jesus? Is this person really “saved?” Who is “in” and who is “out?”
But perhaps this is the wrong question for us to be asking. In engaging with brothers and sisters of different Christian streams, I believe our approach towards one another should be filled with grace and love rather than suspicion or judgement. We should seek to learn and understand, by asking “Who have you put your trust in?” and “What is your relationship with Jesus like?”
The bible describes that the unity we share in Christ as a unity not of doctrine but of Spirit (Eph. 4:3, 1 Cor 12:7, Phil 1:27). When I started to think about it, I’ve discovered that any two individuals don’t agree completely due to the nuances of theological understandings.
As Rev. JP Robins and the Northern Suburbs team grappled with the question: “What unites us and who do we unite with?” they determined that “We are one with whoever confesses ‘Jesus as Lord.’”
Yes, what makes us one is our revelation of Christ – our acknowledgement that before Him we are all desperate for His redeeming grace.
We must never lose the centrality of Jesus in our quest for unity because He is the only one who unites us.
Other testimonies
There’s truly nothing like getting to spend time with God, and one man who was able to join us for the majority of the daytime gatherings, remarked, “That was the best week of my life.”
A young couple was so inspired by the 10 Days vision after the first night in Cambridge that they traveled around the city every evening, making it to eight of the 10 Days gatherings with their young one-year-old son.
Here is a video clip from one of our morning worship sessions out in front of Harvard University. As you can see, God really released His joy over us and many students came to join in the dance!
At the last gathering of 10 Days Boston, we stood in front of a wall of windows overlooking Boston to make declarations over the city. We also divided into groups and shared about how God was working among our various communities.
Worshipping and praying over the city of Boston
Night 2 – Pastors in the Northern Suburbs uniting in prayer
Night 4 – Praising God at the Indian gathering in Natick
Night 5 – UniteBoston friends coming together for the Taize prayer gathering at Trinity Church
Many were blessed to engage in the contemplative Taize prayer for the first time
Connecting with God at the Fenway gathering on Night 7
Night 9 – Father Dimitri explains about the history of the Orthodox Church
Daytime prayer at Harvard University
We praise God for the work that He has done to unite followers of Jesus during 10 Days Boston this year. We also celebrate the many other unity-minded initiatives that are bringing together the body of Christ in Greater Boston.
May God continue to bind us together to proclaim that Jesus is Lord over Boston!
What If A City Stopped and Prayed? Join us for 10 Days Boston
Ten Days is an opportunity to set apart a season of seeking God together as the wider Body of Christ, and doing so in a way that moves us beyond the walls of our own local churches, our own denominations, and our own ethnic groups.
What if a city stopped and prayed?
Learn more about the vision behind 10 Days in the video playlist below with 10 Days founder Jonathan Friz
Get involved!
There are many ways for you to get involved with 10 Days Boston:
1. Join Christians throughout the city for the nighttime gatherings.
Attending the evening gatherings is a great way to put your “foot in the door” and see what the ten days is all about.
2. Join us for worship and prayer during the daytime prayer sets Prayer and worship is happening at various times and locations throughout the city, so there is plenty of opportunity to get involved! Whether you work during the day or at night, whether you live in Cambridge or Roxbury, the ten days is taking place in your neighborhood.
3. Tell your friends!
Download the promotional materials to print and distribute to your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ
Acts 4:32 says “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.” Yes, Lord, let it be so!
Until we are one,
—
Kelly Steinhaus
Team Leader, UniteBoston
www.uniteboston.com
The UniteBoston Unity Challenge: Win A Free Starbucks Gift Card!
