Category — .Worship

Wow, it’s hard to believe it’s already January 2010!

This weekend was a bit different in that Pastor Chris was home sick with the flu… not fun for him, but we made do without him.  Wayne did a great job on the message yesterday, and Ross went through the 8 principles from Celebrate Recovery to celebrate his 12th anniversary of being born again.  It was pretty cool.

As for the music, we mixed it up a touch by putting the slower stuff in the middle of more upbeat songs… and other than having a couple of different words in a key place it worked pretty well.

Da List:

• Hosanna (Praise Is Rising)
• How He Loves
• How Can I Keep From Singing
• Forever
• kids story
• Glorious
• Celebrating Recovery Principles
• Message
• You Gave your Life Away
• communion
• Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

How was your service this weekend?

The Sunday Setlist Blog Carnival has moved!  It’s now located on TheWorshipCommunity.com – check it out!

Wow – I knew I had missed a couple of weeks, but I didn’t realize how many!  Sorry about that!

We are all moved over to the old Arlington High School, and are getting settled in.  The biggest issue we have had since moving is the heat – it’s either not on in the auditorium, or it’s not on in the classrooms!  Hopefully we will get it figured out with the school district soon though.

As for the space we now have… it’s been soooooo wonderful!  The kids have room to run around and scream and play dodge ball and we can’t hear a peep of it in the auditorium.  The preschoolers have their own room where they can play and learn a bible lesson, and we finally have space for a cry room!  Yay!  And that cry room has been used every week since we moved over, which is great.

The space in the auditorium is great too – there is room on the stage for the band to spread out a bit and we can fit the choir without having to shuffle anyone over.  The auditorium is larger than we need right now, but it’s nice to have the extra space to spread out in.  Praise God!

We’ve now had a full month of services in the new place – including a Christmas Candlelight service last Sunday evening – and I think we are starting to get settled in.  There are still a few bugs to work out, but we are getting the set-up and tear-down time whittled down week by week.

This weekend was a little light since we had a couple of people out sick, but it all worked out.  HEre is the setlist from this morning:

• Everlasting God
• You’re Worthy Of My Praise
• My Jesus I Love Thee (Brading)
• Here Is Love
• kids story – Jesus as a boy
• Jesus Loves Me
• Message – Where Is Jesus?
• communion – You Never Let Go
• O Come All Ye Faithful – chorus only

We went with songs that we can practically play in our sleep since it was the week of Christmas and we didn’t have a mid-week rehearsal.  It worked out pretty well, even though we hadn’t done a couple of these songs in a few months.

My personal favorite song from this morning was My Jesus I Love Thee – if you haven’t heard the version by Brading, head over here to give it a listen.  We don’t do the background vocals that the recording has, but we keep pretty close to the instrumentation.  The way it builds verse by verse is amazing.

The low point this morning?  The fact that it’s the cold & flu season & my throat chose this morning to decide to act up again.  I’ve been fighting something off all week while we were at Eric’s mom’s and it just isn’t quite gone yet.  Ugh.  Well, that and the fact that my house was only 51*F when the alarm went off – but that is something for another post!

Now that Christmas is over and we are all moved in I should be posting more regularly again – sorry for the long break!  Life got just a wee bit hectic around here…

As always, this is part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist Bloggy Carnival – head over to see what songs were led at churches all over the world this weekend!

*Part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist blog carnival – to see what churches all over the world are singing, head over to FredMcKinnon.com!

We are in the final countdown of weeks at our beautiful Little White Church on the Hill… after today we have just one service left! We had a dessert potluck for the folks at Peace Lutheran tonight (ironically it was at Peace Lutheran…) to say thank you for all that they have done for us in the past year.  As a church they have shown us how to do it right, and I am conitnually amazed by how gracious and giving they are.  What a blesing!

This morning we went back to our roots a bit and did a bunch of our older songs.  You know, those songs that you don’t really even have to think about anymore, but they can just flow from your heart straight up to God.  Here’s the list:

• Forever [F]
• Trading My Sorrows [G]
• Lord, Light The Fire Again [E]
• Glorious [Bb] (Paul Baloche/Brenton Brown)
• kids storytime
• Beautiful One [E]
• announcements
• message – God’s Forget-Me-Not’s
• Lord, Light The Fire Again

Well, it was older songs plus the new Glorious by Brenton Brown & Paul Baloche.  We introduced it today and it was great!  We tweaked it a little bit from the recording, but it worked out really well.

I will admit that I had a bit of trepidation going into this setlist earlier this week – Trading my Sorrows is not one of my favorite songs (something about a 5 week long migraine & singing that song a lot has gotten linked up in my memory… it wasn’t pretty) but at our rehearsal on Wednesday God redeemed it for me.  It was actually fun to sing it again for the first time in a year-and-a-half.  (It could have helped that Chris was leading it again too.)

This week’s passage was from Joshua 3& 4, where the Israelite’s cross the Jordan River on their way to Jericho.  God told them to take 12 stones from the riverbed where the priests were holding the Ark and build a memorial where they camped that evening to remind them and to share with others what God had done for them.  In our home groups we discussed remembrances as well – those things we do as individuals or families to remind ourselves of His faithfulness.  Pastor Chris wrapped the week up with a great message on why we need to remember what God has done in our lives.  Hopefully we will get it up on the church site in the next few days.

One of my personal reminder’s is A’s middle name.  She was born in the midst of what we affectionately called the “Holy Smackdown”  Eric lost his job, his grandfather died, A was born, my dad died and we ended up living with family and friends and eventually moving back to Colorado.  Through it all God was faithful.  He drew us closer to Him, and He provided for our every need through it all.  Her middle name is Faith, because she was born in the middle of a time that truly tested and strengthened our faith.  And the best part?  She knows why that’s her middle name.  She is proud that she bears the mark of God’s faithfulness in our family’s life.

Do you have any “stones of remembrance?”

Are you interested in what songs have been sung at churches all over the world this weekend>  Take a look at Fred’s Sunday Setlist blog carnival over at FredMcKinnon.com!

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What a fabulous weekend we had!  5 of our team members headed down to CMS @Overlake this weekend, and it was soooo great!  Next year we need to bring along the rest of the crew…

We made it back last night though, with plenty of time to get a good night’s rest to be ready for this morning.

This morning, however…

well, we sang through these tunes…

• Happy Day [G]
• Your Grace Is Enough [F]
• Come Thou Fount [D]
• Here I Am, Send Me [G]
• kids storytime
• Everyday [Ab]
• announcements
• message – Oh, Scarlet!
• The Wonderful Cross [D]
• communion
• O, How I Love Jesus [acapella]

Happy Day… in practice we flew through it.  Yep, it went waaay too fast.  However in the service we went just a bit too slow.  OK, so we slogged our way through it. Oh well… it seemed to be the day where a great rehearsal produces a slightly more… well, a more fun service.

Yep, we had a few interesting moments.  However, it all flowed rather well in spite of everything. We were missing a few members this morning – keys, bass and a singer, but it all worked out.  Since Nancy wasn’t there, Chris ended up playing piano for The Wonderful Cross – which worked well for the song with Taya’s new guitar and Warren on the djembe.  We finished out with an acapella version of O How I Love Jesus.  It was a great service.

Oh, and I actually wore jeans to church.  I realize that this isn’t a big deal for most people, but it goes entirely against everything I was raised with.  Fortunately the building is still standing and I wasn’t struck by lightning, so I guess we’re all good    No offense meant to anyone who is on either side of that fence… it’s just been one of those “discussions” we’ve been having.  We’ll see what happens in the future, however I believe an agreement has been reached.

The high point?  Once again having the privilege of worshiping our amazing God in the company of great friends.

The low point?  My family was not there this morning   Because of the conference the girls were at Grandma’s house for the weekend and Eric had gone down there to pick them up.  Fortunately they went to the early service and were done in time to meet me for lunch!

How was your weekend?

What a lovely day!  October 18 is a day that I love, because it is the day that my oldest daughter was born.  Yep, she turned 9 years old today!  Happy Birthday Sweetie!

It was a fairly busy day – church, then a pot-luck and an all-church meeting after that, so I’m a bit later getting this posted than normal.  Well, that and when I got home from the meeting my computer had been taken over and was running webkinz.com and scooby-doo cartoons.

So… church.  It was a Communion Sunday and we had a couple of baby/child dedications and it was also our pastor’s birthday today.  Needless to say, it was a full one.

Da list:

• Sing Sing Sing [A]
• You’re Worthy Of My Praise [E]
• Here I Am, Send Me [G]  (Martin Anderson)
• Revelation Song [D]
• dedications
• kids story – dedicating your treasures to God
• announcements
• message – The Flip-Side of Worship
• Communion
• Lead Me To The Cross [E]
• Take My Life [D] (Tomlin)

Here I Am, Send Me is a great song that was written by a former pastor of mine, and I was thrilled to be able to share it with our body.  I just love the message of it – that we don’t deserve any of the grace that God gives us, and in spite of that God loves us anyway.  The pre-chorus is my favorite part:

You sought me, You found me,
You bought me, You brought me,
You saved me, You sealed me,
You hold me, You heal me,
You take me and break me
And change me and make me,
You fill me you choose me,
You call me now use me!

The message today was on being a servant.  Not just performing acts of service, but truly living out Jesus’ example of service others out of a heart that loves and desires to please God.  We can perform acts of service all day long, but if our heart isn’t right, well, then we have missed the point!

Well, I’m off to celebrate the last few minutes of my baby’s birthday.  Have a great week!

As always, this is part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist bloggy carnival - see what other churches are singing around the world!

Every Sunday we take part in Fred’s Sunday Setlist bloggy carnival - if you are interested in seeing what churches all over the world are singing each weekend, head over and check it out!

Wow – it’s another beautiful day today!  It got off to a bit of a shaky start for me – it was around 30F last night and my wonderful car wouldn’t start this morning.  I guess I need to invest in a new battery now that the cold weather is back.  That meant that rather than getting to the church about 15 minutes before everyone else I got there about 15 minutes after them.  Fortunately they had started rehearsal without me.  It all worked out though.

It was a light crowd this morning too – there were quite a few families helping out on an outreach this weekend, a few that were on vacation and a few that have been hit with the bug-o-the-day.  For example: we had a grand total of three kids today.  We usually run a little closer to 15-20…

Anywho, here is the list:

• Happy Day [G]
• Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) [F]
• O Worship The King [F]
• How He Loves [G]
• kids story
• Beautiful One
• announcements
• message
• Made To Worship [F]

Sam did a great job leading out on Happy Day and How He Loves today – even though she wasn’t feeling well.  It’s amazing how He comes through when we are feeling our worst!  We finally settled on G as the key for How He Loves as everyone else can start the verses out low in that key and I can come in at an octave up and it’s not too high that it sounds odd (but just high enough to make it fun!)  I’m curious what key others choose to do it in…

The whole set was my high point today – every one of the songs is an old friend and I don’t have to worry about where I’m supposed to go next or what the words are which is always a relief.  That and it just seemed to flow better today.  I think it was a God thing

The low point?  That came from the knowledge that I had the perfect song to fit the message to close us out with… but it wasn’t the song that I had chosen.  And I couldn’t sub it in at the last minute because a couple of the members of the band have never had a chance to hear it or run through it.  Oh well.  It would have fit so very well though!

So that was our day.  The message was great again (I’m really enjoying our walk through Exodus) and I’ll get it posted later this week – I have to wait for Jennifer to get back and get ahold of the recorder…

Next week I may miss you all – the 18th is a birthday in our house and we have an all church meeting to discuss our possible upcoming move.  It will be a very busy day!

How was your service this weekend?

What a beautiful day it is!  Fall in the Pac NW is near perfection – cool crisp mornings, sunny mid-day and mild temps.  It really doesn’t get much better.

This morning was our first service that was bumped back to a 10 am starting time after being at 10:30 since the beginning of July – and amazingly enough most people were there by 10 after.  Yay!  The list today was one that was mostly filled with well-known favorites with a new one tosed in towards the end… but I’ll get to that.  It was really nice to be able to just flow through the songs without worrying about what was supposed to come next!  Well, mostly anyway *blush*

Der Liszt:

• Sing, Sing, Sing [A]
• Everlasting God [Ab]
• Glorious [G]
• In Christ Alone [G]
• kids story time
• Everyday [Ab]
• announcements
• prayer for Manny & the Bushareds
• message – Elementary, My Dear
• Communion
• How He Loves [G]
• prayer
• It Is Well With My Soul [acapella]

The high point – finally getting to lead How He loves was a high point for the past week leading up to todays service.  Working on it and getting to spend a lot more time with it this week was so good for a reminder of the truths that are proclaimed in the lyrics.  Oh and before you ask – no we did not sing “sloppy wet kiss” (I just don’t think that our congregation would have understood it.  No we didn’t sing “unforseen” either.  We sang “unrestrained” as I felt that it gave the correct emotion without the “what did she just say?” element.)

The high point today, however, was the message.  Pastor Chris laid it all out there today.  Today’s message was part 2 of the 10 commandments – you know the last 6 that were about us rather than the first 4 about God.  The law is summed up on 2 things – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind & strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

I’ll post it once it’s up on the site – it was a really, really good one.

The low point – I felt like poo today.  I’m not sure if it’s a cold that won’t go away or allergies, but I woke up with gobs of drainage clogging up my throat.  Ugh.  And when I get sick guess what portion of my voice goes away – yep, the low end.  Guess where all of our songs are pitched.  Right down there where I can’t sing when I’m sick.

Thus, my mind was (unfortunately) a bit distracted with trying to emit some kind of sound when there was very little to work with.  I botched up the 1st 3 songs in one way or another even though they are songs that I know inside & out.  But kudos to our team – they all followed along beautifully!  Well, except when I tried to come in early.  oy.

So, now that I’ve shared my worship confessional… how did it go in your worship service this weekend?

Want to read about other worship services around the globe?  Check them out over at Fred’s Sunday Setlist bloggy carnival!

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After a day of rain yesterday (which we desperately needed!) today is lovely.  The air looks scrubbed clean with the bright blue broken up occasionally by fluffy white clouds, and there is a hint of coolness in the air.  Autumn has arrived!  (and yes, this makes me very, very happy!)

Our service this morning was great!  We are going though Exodus and following the Israelite’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land… and many weeks it feels like an episode of some reality show called “What Not To Do”.  No, really.

If I remember I will post the link to the sermon once it’s uploaded… tomorrow or Tuesday.  It was a good one!

As for the setlist, well, here it is!

• Blessed Be your Name
• The Solid Rock
• You Never Let Go
• Revelation Song
• kids message
• Beautiful One
• announcements
• message
• Communion
• White As Snow

Personally, this list was a home run.  They are all songs that I love to worship through, and it seemed that many of our congregation felt the same way.  There were times during the quieter moments that I could hear them singing out to God, and it was glorious.

What did your church sing this weekend?

As always, this is part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist bloggy carnival – now over 1 year and going strong!  Take a look at what other churches around the world are singing each week!