Week #110 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, August 29th.
- How Great Thou Art (Paul Baloche version) - How He Loves - Jesus Paid It All (Kristian Stanfill version) - Glory to God Forever/The Stand
What a great morning of worship. We did How He Loves for the second week and it was great to hear everyone singing, especially with it being a new song. Another combination that worked really well together was Glory to God Forever with the chorus to The Stand; same key and chord structure and with the lyrics it works perfectly to go back into the bridge of Glory to God Forever to finish it out. Overall a great morning. We also shared with our people the launch of our home groups ministry. Lots of people involved in putting it together and looks like lots of people are wanting to get involved. We'll see what God decides to do with that in the life of our church.
This post comes to us today from Rich Kirkpatrick, with his permission! You can see the original post over at his blog at rkweblog.com.
Do we lead worship to impress or engage people to life change? Leading worship is actually part of any pastor’s heart if we look at it that way.
As worship leaders we provide a safe place to meet God. We design experiences that are based biblically on truth, decoding the culture while engaging people in drawing nearer to God.
What do you think: is worship leading pastoring or something else?(If you choose to leave a comment here, please go to his blog and leave the same comment there.)
The Medicine by John Mark McMillan is a great album. I first heard of McMillan after hearing the song How He Loves being picked up by different artists. After listening to this album, McMillan's lyrics seem so honest and real. The melodic lines and his arrangements are very intriguing. You can't help but get caught up in the music. A lot of the songs on this album came out of a troubling time for McMillan and it's those raw lyrics that make this album so great. Personally, I'm not sure how many of these songs would work in my church for corporate worship, but I'm sure there's a place for them somewhere in a worship service depending on the elements of the service.
Death In His Grave: I love the picture that this song paints about what our Savior did for us on the cross. I also love the way he uses the word death in the lyrics. Even though are Savior was condemned to death, in this song there was victory over death and it was placed in the grave that was meant for our Lord, the grave that couldn't contain Him. On Friday a thief, on Sunday a King, laid down in grief, but awoke with keys, of Hell on that day, the first born of the slain, the Man Jesus Christ, laid death in his grave.
How He Loves: This is a song the church that has become an anthem in the church today. I introduced it to my church for the first time this morning. I love the lyrics he chooses to get across the true force of the love of God and how overwhelming His grace is. What a great song for the church to be able to sing when we feel like all is lost. We have a song that can help us remember how much He loves us. He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. If grace is an ocean we're all sinking. How he loves us so.
Check out the video below as John Mark McMillan shares the story behind the song How He Loves.
You can purchase the CD here on amazon.com or download it here on iTunes.
Week #109 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, August 22nd.
- Happy Day - The Lord Reigns - O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing (David Crowder version) - It Is Well (Todd Fields version) - How He Loves - I Am Yours (Take My Life)
This morning we had a praise service focusing on the faithfulness of God. I believe it fell at a perfect time as we're in the midst of a series in the book of Hebrews and the last couple weeks we've been in chapter 11, the great faith chapter of the Bible. I filled up the platform with a very full worship team which was awesome. They all did a great job. We spent some time allowing people to share testimonies of how God has proved faithful in their lives. We also spent some time in prayer for those that feel faithless. We definitely wanted to focus on the great things, but I felt like it had to go beyond that, because the truth is we all struggle especially in these tough times. I pray that those that are feeling like God isn't around in their lives, that they would be encouraged. At that point, I shared the song story video on How He Loves by John Mark McMillan and then introduced the song for the first time. I believe they really grabbed hold of it. It was a great morning of worship and it's my prayer that everyone was blessed in a mighty way.
Integrity Music has another great album with Ragamuffin Soul by Carlos Whittaker. I first heard of Carlos when I attended Catalyst West in 2009 and then this past year in 2010 he led worship at a few of the sessions. He has a fantastic blog by the same name at Ragamuffin Soul and you can also follow him on twitter at @loswhit. It's been a blessing to get a glimpse into his life through his blog and twitter. And now you get a glimpse into who he is as a worshipper and one of the ways he worships, through his music. This is a great project with some great songs that share his heart and can also be used by others in the local church.
Rain It Down: So often in the Old Testament we see God providing for His people by raining down manna from heaven to feed and sustain them. Here is a song with a cry from the hearts of people for our Father to rain down His love on us in whatever situation we find ourselves in. Come Lord we're thirsty now, come Lord and rain it down, rain down on us.
We Will Worship: This is a great song that I think the church can really grab a hold of if they become honest with themselves, including myself. The lyrics are tough but are so true. So often we become comfortable in this life as Christians, but I believe God has called us to be so much more than comfortable in this life. Save us from these comforts, break us of our need for the familiar, spare us any joy that's not of You and we will worship You.
God of Second Chances: This is a song of outreach, but also a song that believers should not forget. We don't deserve the life that God gave us through His son Jesus Christ, but He gave us a second chance. He loves us and gave us the wonderful gift through His son. You’re the God of second chances, You're the God who still romances, we're in awe before You now and our hearts are bowing down. You're the God of all the ages, who are we that You would save us, we're in awe before You now and our hearts are crying out.
Check out this video of Carlos. He's singing God of Second Chances when up walks this homeless man named Danny. Out of nowhere Danny sits beside Carlos and starts singing with him. Listen all the way to end.
Hillsong Live has given us another fantastic worship album with A Beautiful Exchange. This album holds a collection of songs that come straight from the heart of a body of believers that are seeking hard after God. After listening to the album, these aren't just words put to music, these are prayers that are set to music and offered as worship to a Holy God, a God of love, a God who saves. These are all songs that are set in a vertical setting, they're being sung to God, not about God. I think these are exactly the type of songs the church needs. We have so many songs that are in the context of singing about God, we need songs that are sung to Him. These are songs that I believe the church can connect with.
Our God Is Love: An upbeat song, and as the opening track on the CD this would also be a great song as an opening of a service as a call to worship. Every soul every beating heart, every nation and every tongue. Come find hope in the love of the Father. All creation will bow as one. Lift their eyes, see the risen Son, Jesus, Saviour forever and after.
Open My Eyes: Another upbeat song with a lot of energy and the musical arrangement is great. I like this song because there is already an understanding by the believer on the greatness of God, but there is also a longing to continue to learn more. So open my eyes oh God, open my eyes to see all the wonders and the power of Your name. By Your grace I’ll live, by Your grace I’ll see, for my life and my salvation is in You.
Forever Reign: I believe this is an anthem that the church at large can really grab hold of. It's a little slower with a melody that is easy to catch on to. In times of such uncertainty, when we feel like there's nothing left, we have a God who loves us and has outstretched His arms for us to run into, a picture of the cross and salvation. I’m running to Your arms, I’m running to Your arms, the riches of Your love will always be enough. Nothing compares to Your embrace. Light of the world forever reign.
You can purchase the CD here on amazon.com or download it here on iTunes.
Week #108 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, August 15th.
- O Worship the King - Fairest (with Fairest Lord Jesus) - Holy is the Lord - Your Grace Is Enough
Another great morning of worship. I'm so thankful for the team I get to work with. I took a quick little surprise trip to see my family in Michigan, so we didn't have rehearsal. The team did extremely well with the songs with just a run-through this morning. Overall the songs flowed really well this morning. So grateful to worship a great God!
True Religion by Palmer Chinchen was a good book to read. It is definitely challenging. Palmer has a very different experience with the world that we live in. During his life as a missionary, he has seen things that most of us will never see. As you read the pages of this book, you hear Palmer's heart as he shares the stories of his life growing up and the trips he has taken sense. He really has a heart for people in some of the poorest and harshest places in West Africa. In this book he challenges others to take the message of Christ out into the world. The subtitle of this book is Taking Pieces of Heaven to Places of Hell on Earth. Palmer writes this in one of his chapters,
"we see the bitterness of hell clear and present in this world: hate, abuse, addictions, racism, rape, bigotry, prejudice, poverty, and suffering. The point here is that if places of hell really do exist, then by all means, God's people must be about the business of taking a piece of heaven to them."
This book is about people seeing passion and life change that can happen as people live out the Gospel. Taking it and themselves to places where people wouldn't normally go. I have enjoyed this book and have felt challenged. However, where I have a problem with this book, is that I don't believe everyone is called to full-time missions work all over the globe. Now I know he has shared many stories about him taking teams on short-term missions trips, which is great. I do believe that everyone should take a short-term mission trip at some point in their lives. I also agree that these experiences can be life changing. Maybe I have seen one part of this book wrong, I don't know, but regardless if he wants people to go into full-time missions work, this book is challenging and definitely opens your eyes to the world that is out there; a world that is harsh and truly in need of the Gospel, and I'm great-full that there are people out there who have felt the call to become missionaries and live in these places spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Week #107 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, August 8th.
- Everlasting God - Beautiful the Blood - Great Is Thy Faithfulness - New Doxology
We had a great morning of worship. The songs ended up fitting really well with the message and even made a change on the fly at the end of the service. We were going to do How Great Thou Art for the closing song, but Everlasting God ended up fitting so well, I decided to do that one at the end also. So thankful for a team that can handle changes, even though this wasn't a big one, on the fly.
Week #106 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, August 1st.
- Open the Eyes of My Heart - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (Travis Cottrell version) - Surrender - Jesus Died My Soul To Save (communion) - Trust in You
First Sunday back after vacation and it was good to be back. All in all it was a great morning. I was hoping Jesus Died My Soul to Save by Michael Farren of Pocket Full of Rocks would have gone better. I did it by myself on acoustic and just lost my place a couple times. Font was pretty small and the chart and probably just didn't know it as well as I would've liked. I have to say, I'm still enjoying being at one service right now. Unfortunately we're still having issues with some of our sound equipment. Probably going to have to do a serious inventory pretty soon. We for sure won't be able to purchase a lot of things to upgrade our system, but then we will at least have an idea of what we might need in the future. If your church is using IEMs, what system are you using?
