Most other worship nights are just one local church putting on an event and, rarely but possibly, inviting other churches. These events often include teachings, dogma, or traditions that are unique to that denomination or sect. Sounds of the City seeks to de-couple the event from the local church that happens to host it. Instead, the church building acts as a living room where brothers and sisters from all different Christian communities join together, not in agreement with everything (or even most things), but in agreement that God is worthy of our praise.

Simplicity is key. Sounds of the City worship nights are acoustic and intentionally low-key. We do not feature electric instruments or a light show on a stage. The goal is to keep things simple enough that no rehearsal is required, and we aren’t consumed with the pressures of over-producing or overthinking anything. The more complicated an event is, the less likely we are to have the capacity to keep them as regular occurrences. We don’t want the “production” to prevent participation.

We try to allow Sounds of the City to be an organic worship session like one you could hold in a living room. We aren’t concerned about it being perfect. We’re simply the family of God gathering around his table as siblings in Christ, adoring our perfect Father.

Not only are you welcome, Sounds of the City exists for you. These evenings live so that anyone who considers themselves a disciple of Jesus can join with those of other church communities and be unified in at least one belief: Jesus is worthy of our praise. Sounds of the City seeks to strip away any theological/dogmatic/tradition that can be a point of division amongst any Christians who participate.

Sounds of the City intentionally does not include any teachings, traditions, or rituals in order to reduce disagreements. The different church communities participating and attending Sounds of the City are not endorsing each other’s denominations or dogma, and we don’t have to. We may disagree on barely anything or a great many things, but we all seek to worship God, and we choose to do so, united, in musical praise and worship.

Sounds of the City nights occur in a particular city four times a year, which ends up being every three months. We have found that January (Winter), April (Spring), July (Summer), and October (Fall) have worked well.

Leading these nights are members of worship teams from various local churches. The goal is to divide the night into a few rotations of musicians so that we get to hear from a variety of churches, as well as allow these same musicians and worship leaders to worship without having to lead when they’re rotated out for the night. We have found that 3-5 churches playing together per night works out best. Any more than 5, and you don’t get to really hear much from that particular church house.

Generally, worship nights are around 90 minutes in length, not including any fellowship that happens before or after the worship portion. Typically, the night opens up with an invitation to worship from a church leader, followed by 4-5 songs, an intermission time of prayer, followed by another 4-5 songs, and a closing prayer.

Our times of prayer hold the expressed purpose of showing God our adoration as well as prayers of blessings and encouragement over all represented churches. During prayer, you will not hear mini-sermons, a presidential candidate endorsement, or any divisive dogmatic beliefs being espoused. Our goal is to bring glory to God by exalting Him. Because loving God and loving others are inseparable, we also dedicate some time to communal prayer in small groups as an exercise in loving and caring for each other.

Refreshments are served either before or after worship, and this time provides terrific opportunities to meet new friends, churches, and leaders in your city! Making connections helps remind us that we are not alone. We are all in this together. Maybe you lead the youth group at your church and are looking for new ideas to live out the vision God has placed on your heart! You may very well meet a whole bunch of other youth group leaders and gain some beautiful encouragement and wisdom! This happens all the time and is one of the many reasons these nights are so meaningful.

Most hosting churches won’t have the capacity to provide childcare for worship nights, so while this is a family event and all are welcome, all parents with kids are responsible for watching their own.