Completed Reading Plan!

Throughout this past year, I have been reading through the Bible using YouVersion's M'Cheyne One Year Reading Plan. What a wonderful year it's been. By doing this plan, during the course of the year I have read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice. And this morning I completed the 365th day of reading! This is the first time I've ever done anything this. YouVersion has been a fantastic resource with everything online! With their mobile apps, it makes it that much better. I've got the app on my iPad which allows me online and offline access. The app is also available for my BlackBerry. Now I'm not trying to take anything away from the bound Word of God that I have with me as well. There is however a lot of times I'm in places that I don't have my Bible with me. With this resource in so many places, I pretty much always have access to the Bible; I could keep reading and keep up with my reading plan.

If you've never done anything like this, I would encourage you to do so. There's all kinds of plans out there, so I'm not saying you have to use YouVersion. I've just had a great experience using their resource. They have many reading plans available. You can check them out here if you're interested.

Tomorrow as we start the new year, I will also be starting a new one-year reading plan. I have chosen to do the OWNit365 plan. This plan has a reading from the Old Testament and one from either the Wisdom books or the New Testament (the acronym "OWN") for each day. This plan has readings six days a week and allows for a day off. I'm really looking forward to this one, as my wife and I are going to do it together. It's my prayer that this will be a year where we can grow together in our knowledge of the Word and in our relationships with God. It's also my prayer that you would consider going through a plan and continuing in the Word consistently through 2011.

Sunday Setlist - 12.26.10

Week #127 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, December 26th.

- Joyful, Joyful (Christmas version)
- Angels We Have Heard On High
- Joy to the World (Unspeakable Joy) by Chris Tomlin
- Glory in the Highest by Chris Tomlin
- Winter Snow by Audrey Assad
- How Great Is Our God by Chris Tomlin

We had a great morning today, this day after Christmas. A good group of people showed up this morning. It was a wonderful time of singing and a great message. My wife also sang Audrey Assad's song Winter Snow. She did an absolutely fantastic job. It's one that she's been working on for a while and this is the weekend it worked to do it. Our pastor is on vacation this week, so members and home group facilitators spoke this morning. He did a great job bringing a message to us. It was about how we have now heard the Christmas story and the Christ child that came as a baby now lives in our hearts as believers. Now that we've received Christ, how are we going to live our lives? Are we going to forget about it or are we going to radically live for Him. I just recently finished reading David Platt's book Radical, so I couldn't help but think about the content of that book the whole time. It sure causes you to stop and think about how you're living your life. After the message and before our closing song, I shared this quote from the book Radical because it fit so well with the rest of the message; "Do we believe the reward found in Jesus is worth the risk of following Him?"

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-127/

Christmas Eve Setlist - 12.24.10

This is a special Christmas Eve episode of Sunday Setlists, even though it was a Friday night. Here is our setlist for Christmas Eve, December 24th.

- Joy to the World (Unspeakable Joy) by Chris Tomlin
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- Welcome & Prayer
- Scripture Reading: Luke 2.1-14
- Away in a Manger
- The First Noel by Phil Wickham
- Advent Reading & Candle Lighting
- O Holy Night
- Quiet Time of Reflection
- You're Here by Francesca Battistelli
- Message
- Scripture Reading: Matthew 2.1-12
- Hark the Herald Angels Sing
- Lighting of Candles
- Light of the World by Chris Tomlin
- Silent Night by Matt Maher

I chose to include the whole entire service instead of just the songs that we used. I know that often worship leaders are always looking for what songs people are using (traditional or contemporary) but also how they're putting them together in the context of a Christmas Eve service. So hopefully this will serve as a good reference for whoever finds this post. The service went great! Pretty much all the songs were congregational, except for You're Here and Light of the World. One of my worship team members told me that she had gotten You're Here and wanted to do it sometime during the Christmas season. I'd almost forgotten about it, but luckily I was reminded of it, and it fit perfectly with Christmas Eve and she did a fantastic job. I accompanied her on guitar and it was a lot of fun to learn how to play it. Definitely stretched my guitar playing. I threw Light of the World in the day before the service. I was looking for something to do while the candlelight was being passed and before singing Silent Night. I had been listening to Chris Tomlin's Christmas CD, Glory in the Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship, and when I came across that song, I figured it would be a perfect fit as a response to the light of the world coming from heaven to earth and then ultimately into our hearts.

Radical by David Platt

Radical by David Platt is one of those books that I believe will be around for a long time. This book is truly a challenge to the church in America. He asks us to take a hard look into the comforts and luxuries we have settled for and instead live a radical life that is sold out for Jesus Christ. His premise is that the church in America is living far differently that what Jesus taught. This isn't the first time I've heard the message. I believe this is a relevant topic today as I've heard many churches do "Radical" sermon series, and a lot of them based on the book of Acts. When you look at that first century church and how the Gospel spread and the church grew, you can't help but ask what they were doing, how they were living their lives. Now I know that there are people and churches that are living radical lives and doing amazing things to further the Gospel, so this book should not be taken as a guilt trip. I know that for some, and even sometimes my mind wanders that direction, this book will come across that way, but try to avoid that thinking. This is a book that is going to cause you to think and struggle. It has definitely caused me to stop and think about my life in the context of living for the One who saved me. David says this towards the end of the book, "Do we believe the reward found in Jesus is worth the risk of following Him?" He also quotes missionary Jim Elliot, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." We long for the reward of spending eternity with our Father in heaven, but what are we doing right now in this life to live radically for Him.

Honestly, I've struggled to write this review. Not because I'm hesitant about the book, but because I'm still working through how I've been affected by this book. It's one of those times where there is a lot going through my head and I'm having a hard time trying to get it out and into this post. It's definitely a book that I'm going to have to read again.

Special thanks to WaterBrook Multnomah and Blogging for Books for providing this complimentary book to read and review. You can purchase the book here on amazon.com.

If you found this review helpful, would you go to the review on Blogging for Books and rate it.

Sunday Setlist - 12.19.10

Week #126 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, December 19th.

- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
- Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
- One Small Child
- What Child Is This?

Wow, what a Sunday. This Sunday was our Christmas service. We enjoyed lots of music; congregational Christmas carols, an adult choir and a childrens choir. We don't normally have a choir, but so many enjoy it and Christmas works well for it. The choir took on two pieces this year; Come To Bethlehem and There Is A Child. The children's choir sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, Go Tell It On the Mountain and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. We ended the morning with a great brunch and a good time getting to fellowship with everyone. It's such a busy time of year, but the time to be able to come together and worship together with the Body is always great! I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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-126/

Sunday Setlist - 12.12.10

Week #125 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, December 12th.

- Everlasting God by Brenton Brown
- Angels From the Realms of Glory
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- Gloria (Mary's Song) by Glenn Packiam

Loving the Christmas series that we're in right now, Changed By Christmas. This Sunday the focus was on Mary and her story from Luke 1.26-45. One young woman's life was completely changed and it started with her heart. I also threw in Glenn Packiam's Gloria (Mary's Song) the day of our rehearsal. My wife and another of my worship team members took it on and did an amazing job, with not a lot of time to prepare it. It fit perfectly with Mary's story. Looking forward to continuing in this series the next couple services.

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-125/

Sunday Setlist - 12.05.10

Week #124 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, December 5th.

- Holy is the Lord by Chris Tomlin
- O Little Town of Bethlehem by Phillips Brooks
- Jesus Paid It All by Kristian Stanfill

This morning we officially began our Christmas series, Changed by Christmas. We began the series this morning in Matthew 1.18-25, where we get a glimpse of Mary and Joseph. Now there is a young couple that was completely changed leading up to the first Christmas. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series.

Now to those other worship leaders out there, where do you find your music for the Christmas season? I know there's so many standard Christmas carols out there, but what arrangements are you using with the contemporary music setting? Part of me still loves the traditional setting of carols with piano and organ, but that's just not available right now. I'd really like to find some great contemporary arrangements of the Christmas carols. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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-124/