Moody Church Service

Libera sang for the morning worship service at Moody Church yesterday. It's a beautiful, historic church built in 1925. You can read about the Moody Church here and about D. L. Moody here. He was an evangelist who preached in the U.S., England and Scotland.

The church seats 3800. Attendance is usually much lower during the summer since the Moody college students are not there. But not this Sunday! The place was packed! There were so many first-time visitors. There were maybe 50 empty seats in the whole place.

This was earlier before the service after Libera practiced

their songs. The seats all filled up. =)

This was right as the service started. We were packed to the rafters!

Dr. Erwin Lutzer is the pastor of the church. He mentioned getting to meet with the boys before the service. He said, "If you want to hear how English should be spoken, talk to these boys. I asked one of them how long they have been in the U.S., and he said, 'About a week and a h-ah-f.'" Insert nice British accent here. =)

The church had a live feed of the service, and Jimmy Riddle recorded and posted the songs to YouTube for us. I'm so happy for all the fans who've never seen Libera live or haven't seen the newbies. Aren't they sooo cute?!!! The people at this church are so nice, and the whole service was such a blessing!

Libera sang "Gloria" towards the beginning of the service, and it was fabulous. They were accompanied by Mr. Prizeman, an organist, and a string quartet. The acoustics in this church are so good, too. When they were done, the congregation applauded. In the U.S., some churches say "Amen" after something that they like, and others clap. This is a clapping church. =) As Libera went to take their seats on the right front rows, I could hear people gasp as if they were saying, "That's it? We want more!" Maybe they didn't have a church bulletin with the order of service in it. Much more to come! =)



The offeratory was done by Scott Griffin on the piano (he is a Moody Bible Institute graduate and works at Moody now) and the organist. Ben Crawley turned the organist's music pages for him. I wish this was on YouTube also. It was amazing! More applause.

Before Dr. Lutzer got up to preach, Libera sang 3 more songs. First was "Exultate." The beginning part that used to be sung by mini-Ben (now Big Benedict) was sung by Jakob, Daniel, Ralph and Eoghan. They were then joined by Luke, Matthew R-A, Carlos and Freddie. It was wonderful! Hope you like it as much as the congregation did.



Next was "Glory To Thee." Wow! Just wow! You all get to hear Eoghan's solo. It's so moving. You get to see how they sing it in a wave (or round) with group 1 starting, then group 2 joining, then group 3, and so on, and they drop out in the same order with Sammy and Josh singing at the end. Then Eoghan sings the last "Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost" and the final "Amen."  



Their last song was "How Shall I Sing That Majesty?" Jakob sings the first verse, and Eoghan sings the second. This song is so stunning, and the words are so meaningful. The congregation LOVED it and gave them a standing ovation! Standing ovations are pretty rare in American churches. I can promise you the standing ovation was not started by a Libera fan but by a church member sitting on the left (who is probably NOW a Libera fan. lol.) Just awesome! I could tell that the boys were very happy with the congregation's reaction.



Dr. Lutzer preached from Luke 19:11-27 about how we should use our lives to serve God and spread the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.

After the service, the chaperones brought 4 of the younger boys out into the lobby to greet people. They were Matthew Madine, Dylan, Jude and Cassius.

Two little boys I babysit, Nick and Nate, came to the church service and the concert with their grandmother. They were running around after church passing out fliers for the concert to everyone, even outside! People kept telling them they sang very well this morning. lol.

Then more Libera boys came out into the foyer! What a great morning!

Nick (age 8) and Nate (age 9) with Mini mini Ben, Jude, Matthew Madine, Isaac, Michael, Orlando (in back facing left), Henry, Dylan, Daniel, Cassius, Luke, Barney & Matthew J.  Tiarnan, Sam & Jakob are in the back. =)