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!

Yes, I know, I’ve been missing doing these… but I have a good excuse!  I’ve had a houseful of people for a bit…

Oh, and as always, this is part of Fred’s Sunday setlist carnival – see what songs are being sung around the world!

So… last week was our first week back in the little white church, and we are once again getting used to the notion that we don’t have a sound system.  That’s fun to work around, but it does seem to be working pretty well.

Onto da songs…

• Happy Day
• Trading my Sorrows
• Reign In Us (Starfield)
• Only You
• kids storytime
• Counting On God
• announcements
• message – “What is THAT???”
• How Great Thou Art – chorus

The message was from Exodus 16:1-16 – the Israelites are getting hungry and are starting to whine… but God provides!  We opened with Happy Day, and after working on it wuite a bit at practice, it worked much better this week!  Sam has been leading it and is doing a GREAT job.  We chopped some of it out this week too, and made it a little easier to follow.

Trading My Sorrows is not one of my favorite songs, but many people really seemed to connect with it this morning.  we changed it around a bit from the last time we sang it too – it ended up being a little longer but I think it worked.

Reign In Us is one of those songs that I just love – it is sung to God, and is completely about surrender (which ended up working with the message perfectly – I love it when God does that!)  We followed that up with Only You (which I love) and the only drawback to it was that I had to sing lead instead of harmony.

As usual, the kids message was spot on – I really love how Faith Weavers works everything together for all ages.  Jennifer & the other ladies have done a great job of putting together that part of the service.  And It was the 3rd week for Counting On God (with a break last week) and I think everyone is starting to get it.  It’s a very energetic song – but it’s fun.

I will post a link to the sermon when it’s live – Pastor Chris did a great job this week (even if he did make everyone hungry… again)

Well, I’m off to my SIL’s birthday, so I’m keeping it a little shorter this week.  How did your Sunday morning go?

Part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist bloggy carnival – see what is going on in churches all over the world!

Wow.  I know it’s been a looong time since I posted a setlist blog… but I haven’t been leading worship and while I did attend chirch onine 2 weeks ago, we got in late & missed the worship.  And last week I just didn’t have the energy since we hadn’t gotten home until 1 am and the cat, well, she missed us.  And she proved it throughout the night, but especially around 6:30 that morning.  gotta love cats, right?  Right?

But, I am back as of today!  And yes, it was nice to be back… I missed everyone and I missed being a part of it all (although Art did a REALLY great job last week!)

Onto the setlist…

• Happy Day [G] (Cantelon/Hughes)
• Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) [F]  (Baloche/Brown)
  
• Here Is Love [D] (Cook/Cook/Rees)
• Revelation Song [D] (Riddle)
• kids message on Forgiveness
• Everything To God [A] (Anderson)
• announcements
• message – God, Religion & Politics (aka, love your neighbor)
• Hosanna reprise

It was a great set – the only drawback was the lack of our regular drummer and bass player.  You try to do Happy Day without a rhythm section and see how it goes for you!  Although Taya’s son (visiting from California) stepped in and beat out a rhythm on the djembe which helped some.

High point – really feeling God’s presence.  I can only hope that others felt at least a part of what I did!  And while it doesn’t compare to the former, having someone around to tweak the sound board and make everything sound better.  Wow, what a difference.

Low point – The lack of a strong, solid rhythm section was felt today.  It was kinda icky, but not horrid.

So, how was your service today?

Wow, what a great time of worship we had yesterday!  Well, at least I had a great time… I can only hope everyone else did too!

The list…

• We Lift You Up
• Happy Day (Kim Walker version)
• Reign In Us (Starfield)
• Revelation Song (Kari Jobe version)
• kids message
• Love The Lord
• message – “Going Down?”
• Great Is Thy Faithfulness

The songs just seemed to flow one to the next lyrically yesterday, and it was amazing.  It was our 2nd week singing “Happy Day” and there was much more participation.  That was pretty cool to see.  We tightened up the vocals a bit this week too, and I think that helped a lot too.  We dropped down to 1 or 2 voices to start each song and added in voices on the choruses, and that in itself helped the dynamics a ton.  Now we just need to get the bass & electric guitars turned up a tad more so I can actually hear them…

High point?  Happy Day ROCKED yesterday.  Sam nailed the verses this week and it just felt… better.  Having the congregation get more “into” it really helped too.

Low point? Love The Lord.  It started really s.l.o.w. no, I mean at like 1/4 the correct tempo.  Take a song that seems to go on and on an on forever and then slow it down?  I was very close to stopping after the 1st verse and saying “Now that we remember the song, let’s speed it up!”  but I didn’t want to call it out  like that.  I kept trying to speed it up, but it just wasn’t happening.  Oh well.

I’m still thoroughly enjoying having the space and the centralized sound that Peace Lutheran offers, however I think we may have figured out why they have their later service in the little white church… that sanctuary is HOT by 9:30 am!  We had a few fans going this week, and they had opened up all of the doors and windows for their early service so it was a little better, but we were still all dripping by the time the service started.  Wow.  Of course, it is substantially warmer than normal for western Washington these days.  It’s supposed to hit 98 today… and we often have Summers that don’t break 80!  Yep, I’m looking for any excuse to find a place with a/c.

Want to read about other worship services around the globe (and possibly win some free stuff?)  Head over to Fred’s blog!  It’s the official 1 year anniversary of the Sunday Setlist Bloggy Carnival this week, and Fred has over $600 worth of goodies to pass on to lucky folks like you and me, so head over and check it out!