Pages

"Worship is man's full reason for existence. Worship is why we are born and why we are born again." A.W. Tozer

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Sunday Setlist - 10.31.10


Week #119 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, October 31st.

- Happy Day by Tim Hughes
- Glorified by Jared Anderson
- Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King by Gateway Worship
- In Christ Alone by Keith & Kristyn Getty
- Everlasting God by Brenton Brown

This has been one full weekend at Bethel. Last night we hosted the Laugh All Night Comedy Concert with comedian Mike Williams! It was a great night of laughter. The concert is sponsored by New Missions, a missions organization that has been in Haiti for 28 years.

Then of course the service this morning which went well. No weird things happening this morning because I chose to try and change things up. Though we did have a video that decided to not work on us. If it's not one thing, it's another. It was a promo video for Operation Christmas Child that we've already shown once, so it wasn't a huge deal that it didn't work.

Then tonight, our Awana Club and Children's Ministry had their Fall Festival. I did not make it to that, but I'm hoping it was a great time for everyone involved. A lot of planning went into it, and I'm sure it turned out great.

To check out what others are doing in their services and learn more about what Sunday Setlists is all about, check out TheWorshipCommunity.com at http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/sunday-setlists-119/

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Sunday Setlist - 10.24.10


Week #118 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, October 24th.

- How Great Thou Art by Paul Baloche
- Glory to God Forever by Steve Fee
- Forever by Chris Tomlin
- New Doxology by Gateway Worship
- Holy is the Lord by Chris Tomlin

A good morning at Bethel. Our pastor was back preaching today and he continued in our Hebrews series. This morning was Hebrews 12.5-11 and his message was on the discipline of the Lord. And now, time for one of those funny worship leading stories. We had a lot going on this morning, with five songs, a lot of announcements, and a little bit longer sermon than usual, so I was trying to watch the clock to make sure my pastor was up on time. We were doing "Forever" and I realized that we weren't going to have enough time to do all of "New Doxology" so I knew were going to have to do some changing up of that one on the fly. Normally it's not too bad, but this morning it did not work at all. The worship team was all off and so was our EasyWorship operator. I was focused on cutting off some time and I really didn't do any sort of verbal leading, which is why things didn't work out so well. Oh well, just one of those things that happen, but we finished and I still believe the Lord was honored with our worship this morning.

To check out what others are doing in their services and learn more about what Sunday Setlists is all about, check out TheWorshipCommunity.com at http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/sunday-setlists-118/

Monday, October 18, 2010

The Grace of God by Andy Stanley

The Grace of God by Andy Stanley is another great book to add to list of great books he has already written. One thing I've really enjoyed about reading Andy Stanley is that after hearing him speak and reading other books he's written is that he writes the way he speaks. It's nice to know that he's not trying to be someone he's not. He puts as much passion into his writing and into a subject as he does into his messages for his church. It shows not only his passion for God, but his passion for providing a resource to help others grow in their relationship with God.

This book provides examples of grace shown throughout the Bible; Old Testament and New Testament. So often we think of grace as only a New Testament act, but Andy Stanley shows us that grace was extended to people in the Old Testament as well. Andy Stanley walks us through the entire Bible sharing stories of how God has continuously extended grace to people, including us as modern day Christians, who don't deserve it at all. Andy Stanley writes this,
"God's promise of blessing was not anchored by the behavior of the recipient, but by the grace of the One who had made the promise."
If grace was based on our actions and behaviors, then there would be no hope for any of us. Lucky for us, that is not the case, and that's not the case of the examples that Andy Stanley writes about in this book; Adam and Eve and the fall of man, Abraham who took his wife's maidservant to start the lineage God said He would provide, Rahab who was a prostitute, David who committed adultery with Bathsheba which led to the murder of Uriah, Jonah who ran from God, Levi who left his heritage to become a Roman tax collector, Nicodemus who was a Pharisee, the Samaritan woman at the well who had been married five times and now lives with a man who is not her husband, Paul who had been a persecutor of Christians, and one of the criminals crucified with Jesus. Then ultimately you and I and all those that have yet to come a saving knowledge and relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are called to share this grace with others. Earlier today I found this on a note that I had written on my facebook page,
"People's lives can be completely changed by Christ. God's grace is given to everyone who should call on His name and believe. No matter your background or what you've done, God's grace is extended to you."
God's grace is amazing and something that He extends to us. Grace that we don't deserve, but we must not forget that it came at a price; the giving of God's one and only Son. I leave you with this that Andy Stanley concludes one of his chapters with, "Eternal life isn't a reward for good people; it's God's gift to forgiven people. So the only question left for you to answer is: 'have I ever received God's gift of eternal life by placing my faith in Christ's death as the full and final payment for my sin?'"
Heavenly Father, I confess that as good as I've tried to be, I'm still not good enough to earn eternal life. I'm a sinner. I need more than a second chance-I need a Savior. I believe Jesus, your Son, came to this world to be my Savior. So right now I place all my trust in his death on the cross as the full payment for my sin. I'm no longer trusting in my goodness, my effort, my commitment, or my consistency. I'm trusting completely in Jesus. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for giving me the promise of eternal life. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Special thanks to Thomas Nelson and BookSneeze for providing this complimentary book to read and review. You can purchase the book here on amazon.com.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Sunday Setlist - 10.17.10


Week #117 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, October 17th.

- Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee by Charlie Hall
- Glorified by Jared Anderson
- Nothing But the Blood by Matt Redman
- Jesus Paid It All by Kristian Stanfill
- Your Grace Is Enough by Chris Tomlin

Another great morning of worship. Loved the songs that we did today, especially Nothing But the Blood and Jesus Paid It All together as a set. Had a couple of the people on the worship team read some scripture during Nothing But the Blood. One passage was Ephesians 1.7-8a,
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us."
and the other passage was Romans 5.8-9,
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him."
Also had my team surprise me today during the service for pastor appreciation month. They got me a card, some gift cards, and even put together a lunch after church. I so appreciate all the people I get to serve with at Bethel. They are a great group of people and I definitely couldn't do this without them. They do such a great job every week.

To check out what others are doing in their services and learn more about what Sunday Setlists is all about, check out TheWorshipCommunity.com at http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/sunday-setlists-117/

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Nudge by Leonard Sweet

Nudge by Leonard Sweet turned out to be a very different book than I thought it was going to be. "Nudge will remind you that for God to do something through us, God must be doing something in us." My premise of the book was that it was going to be techniques on how to do evangelism, but as I kept on reading, that was only part of it. The subtitle of the book is "Awakening Each Other to the God Who's Already There", but the each other can only come once we are aware of what God is doing around us. Sweet talks about how the approach to evangelism is changing. He says it's not so much about speaking anymore as it is experiencing; an experience of the five senses we all have, sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. To be honest, I'm not completely sure I agree with him. If we as believers are keenly aware of what God is doing around us, and allow that to show through us to others, I believe it can make an impact in non-believers lives. However, I don't believe that that approach by itself will make people followers of Christ. I still feel that we are going to have to talk and ask questions. He bases the book on semiotics, which he defines as reading the signs of God around us and through that evangelism happens. I believe that that is just one part of evangelism. Towards the end of the book, Sweet says this,
"Where hermeneutics is pre-occupied with meaning, semiotics (or the art and science of sign reading) is preoccupied with dancing. Semiotics is the art and science of paying attention. A spiritual semiotics is paying attention to what the Holy Spirit is up to in our world today."
I think being able to sense what the Holy Spirit is up to is important, but I think to sometimes sense what He's up to, we have to know who He is. I think the meaning (hermeneutics) side is just as important as the semiotics side. If we're evangelizing, or thinking we're evangelizing, to others based completely on senses, we may be just leaving people with a "I think I sensed something, but I'm not sure, must have been a cold chill." moment instead of really taking the time to share with them what that means. I don't think we can just focus on senses.

Now at the same time, I think Sweet's chapters on the senses have good things in them for believers. We do need to be aware of what God is doing around us and recognize those "nudges" and be able to respond to them. This is definitely a book that will challenge your thinking and hopefully make each one of use more aware of the God that is around us.

Special thanks to The B & B Media Group, Inc. and David C. Cook for providing this complimentary book to read and review. You can purchase the book here on amazon.com.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Sunday Setlist - 10.10.10


Week #116 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, October 10th.

- O Worship the King by Chris Tomlin
- Glorified by Jared Anderson
- Mighty to Save by Hillsong
- Jesus Messiah by Chris Tomlin

We had a great morning today at Bethel. A great time of worshipping through songs with the body and a great message from the word. The message this morning was brought by Paul Root, who is the Church Planting Director for CONVERGE PacWest which is our region under our larger gathering of churches called CONVERGE Worldwide. He brought a message from 2 Corinthians 5.14-21 on a transformed life. It's one of our conferences focuses, to transform lives and communities with Christ's love and truth. He even shared some awesome testimonies of people in our conference that have experience incredible transformed lives because of Christ.

To check out what others are doing in their services and learn more about what Sunday Setlists is all about, check out TheWorshipCommunity.com at http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/sunday-setlists-116/

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Sunday Setlist - 10.03.10


Week #115 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, October 3rd.

- Glorified
- All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises
- God of Wonders
- Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
- Be Thou My Vision
- Blessed Be Your Name

Another great morning of worship. Great music and a great message. We had a guest speaker this morning. Dr. Jim Cecy of Campus Bible Church and JARON Ministries was with us. He brought a great message to us on living a steadfast life; living a life of endurance with the end in mind. All in all, it was a great morning.

To check out what others are doing in their services and learn more about what Sunday Setlists is all about, check out TheWorshipCommunity.com at http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/sunday-setlists-115/