Part of Fred’s carnival.  See what other worship leaders are doing too @ Fred’s blog.

This morning was fun!  There were lots of people out sick, traveling or enjoying the sun (who knows) but there were also a few new faces.  We started a little more low-key than normal, and I was thrilled to see that many people were lifting their hands and fully entering into worship by the chorus of the first song – yay!

I was going to upload a vlog here, but I can’t get it to load (and I’m tired of messing with it) so you just get a normal blog today.  Sorry!

Da list:

• Reign In Us [F] Starfield
• Lifesong [G] Casting Crowns
• Praise Adonai [Am] Baloche
• Sweetly Broken [F] Riddle
• kids message
• Everything To God [F] Anderson
• announcements
• message – Patience
• Reign In Us [F] – short version

Again, it was so great to see people really entering into worship way early in the first song.  It was the third week we had done Reign In Us, and between us leading it and it starting to be played on the radio, I think people are starting to know it pretty well.  And the bad did is flawlessly   the transitions were perfect!

We followed that up with Lifesong, which we haven’t done in about a year.  When we used to sing it we had an amazing tenor who led it (and he nailed it every single time – it was fabulous!)  Unfortunately, we no longer have Ernie… we have me (NOT a tenor) and Art (an amazing baritone) so we made do.  I was pushing for doing it in A, but everyone else thought the chorus would be too high (boo!) so we dropped it to G (too low on the verses for me) and Art led the verses while I led the chorus. I think it worked out well, but I’d love to hear back from someone else who was there!

Then we moved to Praise Adonai (another one we haven’t done in months) and Warren went to town on the drums.  He was making all kinds of cool sounds back there using his 8″ tom and the plastic ends of his hott sticks.  It was kewl.

Confessional time:  Sweetly Broken is a song I love to hat, or hate to love, or something like that.  I love the chorus, the lyrics are great… I just can’t ever remember how the dumb thing starts!  Oy!  I think it goes back to the first time I tried to lead it (ever) and TOTALLY BOMBED!!!!  No, really.  Complete blank on how it started, how it went, etc.  It was bad.  So, now that memory haunts me every time I lead it.  It brings it’s bad ju-ju with it.  BUT, I love the song, and keep getting requests to lead it, so I guess it’s working out now!

Mrs. J came up after that for the kids message and used dandelions to share about patience.  You can check out that message here, if you’re interested.

This is where we kicked up the morning (it had been pretty laid-back up to this point).  We introduced Everything To God (from New Life Worship) for the kids song.  Oh, and we slowed it down just a little bit.  Made it easier to play and gave opportunity to grab an extra breath here and there.  Oy.  I think it went over pretty well for the first time – especiall as we were teaching everything – including motions.

Pastor Chris taught on patience this morning, as we continued out voyage through the life of King David.  We started out in 1 Samusl 26, following the story of when David was being chased by Saul, and David walked into the sleeping camp and took Saul’s spear and water jug – but not his life.  David had many opportunities to take matters into his own hands, but he chose instead to wait on God’s timing.  That must have been hard, as he was anointed king 15 years before he was crowned (and then it was only over Judah).  It was a great message – if you are interested it will be available for listening later today over here.

We ended the service with the 2nd bridge and chorus of Reign In Us, which fit really well with the message – I just love it when God does that, don’t you?

That was our morning… now onto the evening service.

Once a month we have an evening communion service – a time of worship, prayer and communion as a body.  Those that attend it say that it’s a service that they really enjoy, and that they like the chance to just gather together and spend time with God as a body.  Unfortunately not too many people make it.  Last night there was an equal number of people leading and sitting in the pews (actually, 2 of the men in the pews were helping lead) so I’m somewhat discouraged.  BUT – I have had people thank me for taking the time to lead this service even though it’s not well attended yet because it was something that they really needed.  It’s my favorite service too

The list of music:

• Agnus Dei
• How Marvelous/I Stand Amazed (Tomlin’s version)
• intro to communion
• Lest I Forget (Rebecca St. James)
• Jesus Blood (Martin Smith)
• Once Again
• All I Have
• time of corporate prayer
• Hungry (Kathryn Scott)
• Only You (Andy Park)

Yeah, it was a pretty Vineyard-heavy night, but it worked really well.  I usually try to incorporate a few scripture readings into the bridges of songs, but I only found one for last night (I think I was a little distracted by a kitchen remodel last week or something).  This used to be a candlelight service… but it’s at 6pm, and the sun isn’t going down until around 7:30-8:00 these days, so we skipped all of the candles.  Makes it easier to see the music though!

There isn’t too much to say about this service, except that it was nice to just spend the time in worship of our amazing God.  Much less “Am I doing this right?” stress and just praising God with the benefit of a band to play along.  Oh, and I got to sing a little more harmony which is ALWAYS a good think in my book!

Well, that was our weekend!  I’m heading around to read about some others, but I’d love to hear how yours went too!

What a beautiful Spring day!  The clouds have rolled in a bit, but it’s still 61F outside this afternoon – I’ll take it!

We picked up our series on the King of Hearts this morning after taking a break for Palm Sunday & Easter, and our topic this morning was on friendship – as exemplified by David and Jonathan.  We all want a Jonathan, don’t we?  Someone who is willing to sacrifice everything they have for us… but God is calling us to more that having a Jonathan for a friend – He is calling us to BE a Jonathan to someone.  That, my friends, is much harder to do!

Well, since I wasn’t in the mood to sing Friends, and I don’t know too many other songs that have to do with friendship, we didn’t follow the theme too closely this morning.  Here is the list of what we did sing, however!

• You’re Worthy Of My Praise [E]
• God of Wonders [F]
• Reign In Us [F] (Starfield)
• The Solid Rock [D]
• kids msg.
• Love The Lord  (Lincoln Brewster)
• announcements
• message – Two of A Kind
• When I Survey The Wondrous Cross – CHOIR
• communion

The first two songs kinda call for a male/female lead… and I am so thankful that Art decided to go ahead and come today even though he wasn’t feeling well!  I ended up singing with him for a lot of it and letting the other 3 ladies do the echoes, since his voice was not it normal full-bodied self today.  Something I can relate with entirely too well lately!

God of Wonders posed a small problem during our rehearsal… we sang this a LOT at CCB, but we sang it slightly differently than the team is used to singing it.  Oops!  So there I was hapily singing along from memory and I started in on the alternate chorus as I am used to… and everyone else stopped.  They skip to the “Precious Lord” instead of starting over with “God of Wonders” (which I am used to doing).  Oops!  That also means that the charts I typed were… incorrect.  Oh well.

This was the 2nd week for Reign In Us, and a few more people were singing along (some were even raising their hands – yay!)  We skipped last week for it since it was Easter, so it had been two weeks since we sang it last.  I think we’ll do it next week to, just to help it get in there.  Fiting that chart all on one page (and still have it readable) is a challenge – and our chart has arrows all over it directing you to the next spot!  Eventually it will become second nature, but until then there will still be the pauses as everyone remembers where we are going to next!  We are getting it though.

The version of The Solid Rock that we do is the Passion one, and we stick pretty close to that.  We haven’t done it for a bit, simply because we didn’t have the chart.  It’s a great one though, and people really seemed to be entering in.

Then there’s the kids song…

I’ve seem Lincoln Brewster perform this live, and I LOVED it (even when I was sick of doing it).  Unfortunately, we don’t sound like Lincoln Brewster, and it often turns into the song that never ends – ever.  My sweet husband kept grinning in amusement during it this morning, and I nearly broke down because I know what he was thinking.  I hope it passed off as more of a hiccup that a giggle, but I can’t be too sure.  It’s a great song, and the kids love it… it just goes on and on and on and on…

It was a communion Sunday today, and instead of the band leading a song, we had the choir sing their song from our Good Friday service so that more people could hear it.  Karen requested that Jennifer join her on the solo since she is also fighting off a cold, and it sounded great.  From what I heard today, people were blessed by it.  This is a very different arrangement of it – set to a tune similar to “The Water Is Wide” that starts with a solo, addsin female voices, then adds in men and harmonies for the third verse.  It is gorgeous!

Again, the sermon was on being a friend to those around you.  If you are interested in hearing it, you can head over to FalconRidgeFellowship.com – it’s worth the listen, if only for the childhood stories and the hike.  Yes Chris, I’m making sure that those get heard!  LOL

Well, that was our day, how was yours?

As always, this is part of Fred’s carnival – click here to see what other churches are doing all over the world!

Well, the service wasn’t ON a Sunday, so it can’t be a Sunday Setlist, right?  That’s the logic behind the different title anyway…

So, we had our Good Friday service last night.  We did a candlelight communion service – lots of music, some scripture & a (very) short message.  And it was the most attended communion service we’ve had to date!  yay!

Das Muzik:

• When I Survery The Wondrous Cross
  ~ The choir sang this, and the melody was similar to The Water Is Wide.. Very lovely
• The Love Of God [A]
• Forever (The Nails In Your Hands) [D]
  ~ The Legend of the Three Trees – Kids Story Time
  ~ Communion Intro
  ~John 12:23-36
  ~ John 14:1-21
• You Gave Your Life Away [E]
• How Deep The Father’s Love For Us [D]
• Here Is Love [D]
• Lead Me To The Cross [D]
  ~Message
• I’m Amazed [C]

We found this beautiful arrangement of The Wonderous Cross that starts out with a solo, adds in the women, and adds in parts on the 3rd verse.  I got feedback that there were goosebumps, which is always a good response!

In case you aren’t seeing the trend… we were focusing in on the fact that God loves us enough to sacrifice His Son/die on a cross for US.  When you really stop to think about that, it’s pretty amazing.

Jen R led You Gave Your Life Away (similar to Kathryn Scott’s version) and How Deep The Father’s Love (which meant I got to sing harmony – yay!).  I led Here Is Love and ended up singing a solo for Lead Me To The Cross.  P. Chris ended up alternating between bass and keyboard last night, which was pertty cool. He usually plays lead guitar, but he also plays piano very well.  I have recently decided that Lead Me To The Cross is really a song for the piano…  no, really.  Try it sometime.

We finished up with I’m Amazed, which really sums up what this weekend is all about.

We generally fit the songs together in such a way that the worship team can rotate off the stage throughout those 4 songs and participate in taking communion.  Unfortunately we ran out of some essential items for the service… namely the bread and grape juice!  Not sure how that happened, but I know of at least 10 people who didn’t get to participate (namely the worship team, Eric and a couple of others)  Oops!

The biggest issue I had was simply that more & more I’m finding that I can’t sing all that low anymore.  I’m a soprano, and as such should avoid singing below mid C if I can help it.  No, I really should.  An octave or 2 above mid C are fine, but below needs to be avoided.

I’d love any feedback from those who attended the service – how did it go?

Oh, and this post is part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist carnival.

Happy Palm Sunday!

The sun has finally decided to make an appearance here in Washington, and it is fabulous!  The sunlight streaming through the windows of our little white church was a beautiful site this morning, although I’m not sure that everyone arrived fully awake today… it took a song or so to get people awake and joining in.

Onto the list…

• Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) [F]
• Matt 21:6-11 reading
• How Can I Keep From Singing [F]
• Reign In Us [F]
• In Christ Alone [G]
• kids Palm Sunday story
• Every Move I Make [G]
• Announcements
• Message – Guest Speaker
• Hosanna reprise

This morning was one of those days where the Spirit just worked everything out… we had a guest pastor and a guest children’s teacher, and none of us talked beforehand… but EVERYTHING jut melded together.  It was just cool.  Granted, we did have a unifying topic… it IS Palm Sunday after all!

Dave got a new guitar yesterday, unfortunately he broke a string just as we were starting our rehearsal this morning – that meant we didn’t get to hear it yet.  Ah well, his dad ran home & got his other guitar so he still got to play.

We have been doing Hosanna quite a bit lately, but is such a great song to get people up and praising God – that and this being a day that we remember Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a donkey to the shouts of “Hosanna” it just seemed fitting.

Reign in Us is a song that the team has been working on since Feb, but it just keeps getting bumped for one reason or another.  We finally got to teach it to the church this morning, and I was thrilled to note that quite a few were able to join in and sing it with us.  One of the local stations has started playing it some, which I’m sure helps. 

In Christ Alone is one of those songs that I just love… the words are so rich and the melody enhances them at just the right moment… the choir is singing it next Sunday, but I just couldn’t resist adding it in today.

Overall everything went very well – even with the early hiccups and Pastor Chris absent.  David is doing a great job as lead guitar (even though I still want to turn up his amp!) and I’m excited to see where it will be going!  

I’m slowly adjusting the keys of the songs up a bit from a baritone-led range to a soprano-led one… since I’m a soprano instead of a baritone.  Practice Wednesday night reminded me of that in a big way – and I’m getting tired of coming home from rehearsal with a blown out voice.  Ugh.  I just can’t sing consistently down below mid-C… a couple of octaves up is just fine for 4 hours, but not below.  I know… I need to keep it lower for our alto-range congregation, but I’m searching for that happy medium.  It seemed to work better today though – with everything in either F or G ;~)  I’m remembering why I used to always find a nice harmony… then I can place it wherever I need it without having to worry about everyone else needing it lower.

Well, it’s a beautiful day out and sitting here at a computer just seems wrong, so I”m going to head out and soak up some vitamin D before it leaves again.  It is only April after all – and we did get snow last week.

How did your Sunday morning go?

As always, this is part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist Carnival!  Head over and take part, or just read about the others at FredMcKinnon.com!

Happy Monday!  Yes, I normally would have posted these as two separate posts, but I just didn’t get to posting the am service yesterday afternoon, so you get a 2-for-1 today!

Let’s start with the morning service…

Da List…

• Lord, Light The Fire Again [D]
• Everlasting God [Ab]
• Forever [F]
• Amazing Grace – My Chains Are Gone [D]
• kids message – David & Goliath
• You Never Let Go [F]
• announcements
• message – Going Nullo/Facing Your Giant Fears
• Communion – Matt 7:13-24
• Lead Me To The Cross [D]
• Doxology

Due to the  ears, I wasn’t sure if I would be singing yesterday morning or not.  I’m actually starting to get used to not hearing (although I will be thrilled with they finally clear up & I can hear again!) so the vertigo was the larger concern.  To help with that I tool a stool to church today just in case I needed to sit down.  I hate feeling handicapped in this way!

Because of the possible change in singers (me) we changed the original list to all well-known songs and postponed the new ones again… We had been planning to teach Sing, Sing, Sing at least once before Easter, but it didn’t work out that way.  Bummer.  But it also meant that I got to step back and let Art lead yesterday and sing harmony.  It was lovely.  Unfortunately, it also meant that I was on the mic that hates me.  Well, it doesn’t hate me, it’s just that no one can hear my voice through it if I’m talking or if Chris is playing or if anyone else is singing.  But I think I fixed that… more later.

The only “problem” we had yesterday am was the kids song.  While I love You Never Let Go – and the kids like it a lot – we opted for instruments for them instead of motions b/c Jennifer was out of town.  This meant that 1 or 2 of the kids were banging out any-ol-rhythm all through the song (unfortunately one of them was mine!) and very nearly threw off the band.  I forgot that they would be getting them, so I didn’t instruct them to look at us for the rhythm to play (oops!)  I was ever-so-very-thankful that we have a real drummer again!  Warren, you rock, man!  

Oh, being on that mic also meant that any comments I made between songs were completely lost… the 2nd row couldn’t even hear them.  ugh.  However, that mic works beautifully for Chris (go figure) so he got to step up and speak (again) yesterday.  I love that he’s good at that, and doesn’t mind doing it (too much).

Regarding that mic… I think I figured out a way to “rig the system” into letting us have another mic to run through the sound board… we just have to unplug the jack that connects the computer to the board (only a problem if we plan to run any videos through with sound… I sure hope I remember what I did!)  That means that we now have 4 mics + the one in the little perch… it came in handy on Sunday night… everyone got their own mic for the very first time!  Yay!

The message was a really good one too – the passage was 1 Samuel 17 about David & Goliath.  Pastor Chris talked about the giants that our fears can become – how frightening their offense appears, and how well defended they look, as though nothing we can throw at them will penetrate their armor.  Then he reminded us that when we have God on our side, we are stronger!  Fears come when we are down, or tired, or not feeling well – not when we are filled up and passionate about God.  Our giant fears come when we are at our low points, and they taunt us relentlessly.  But – and this is a big one – they are just paper tigers.  Yes, they can still cause us harm (paper does still cut, after all) but they aren’t as powerful as we can imagine them to be.  All it takes is the faith that a smooth stone will land right where God wants to put it and they will disappear – dead and no longer able to harm us.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a recording this weekend.  The recorder’s battery went dead and we didn’t know where the charger was.  The wonderful woman who usually takes care of that is on vacation with her family for Spring Break.  (Jennifer!  We need you!) 

Onto the evening “candlelight” service…

• Lord You Have My Heart [D]
• Grace Flows Down [D]
• Communion intro
• Jesus Blood [G]
• Take Me In [Em]
• Majesty (Here I Am) [Em]
• Short message on Romans 8:28-30
• Take My Life (Tomlin) [D]
• reading – Erasmus
• I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever [D]
• Glorious [G]

This service went really, really well.  We were missing both of our lead guitarists (they were headed for CA for the week) so I called a friend from my old church to come up and play with us.  I like a lot of guitars, even if they are all acoustic.

Yes, you will note that songs are grouped together by key… WE HAD FLOW!!!!!  It was beautiful.  One song flowed seamlessly into the next and it just carried everyone through them.  It was beautiful (well, what I could hear anyway)

Confession:  I was a bad leader again.  Yep, I tossed a bunch of (old) new songs at the team, and since I wasn’t able to make practice this week, they didn’t really get a chance to learn them.  Oh, and Chris didn’t know too many of them either, so he couldn’t teach them.  Oops.  Most of them are AT LEAST 10 years old though… I figured they might have heard them around somewhere…  Good thing Youly knew them all (after all, we used to sing them together regularly!)

The problem song?  Take My Life… again.  I need to practice it more with someone other than me or a recording playing it.  I can sing it fine acapella, I can sing it fine with a recording, I can even pick out some chords and sing it, but I just can’t seem to get the rhythm right when I’m leading it.  In theory it’s easy – the words just fall on the off-beats – but in practice it seems ever so much more difficult.  Although that may be a key word – practice (ha ha ha).  I love the song though, so we’ll have to work on it more.  Sorry gang, you have to put up with me figuring it out for a bit!  I think the trick is to play AND sing it… then you know the rhythm you are choosing and can follow (or lead) yourself.  I’m open to ANY tips on this one!

The only other “thing” was I Could Sing… I love the verse & chorus, but if I never sang the bridge again I could live with that.  I feel foolish when I sing it because I’m just standing there… I don’t especially feel like dancing sometimes, but I’m singing that I not only feel like doing it, but that I AM doing it.  oy.

Oh, and the whole “candlelight” thing?  We may have to bump the service to 7 if we want candlelight… but the evening sunlight streaming through the windows was beautiful none the less!  We had an hour of the little white church being filled with golden rays of sunlight, so we left the candles unlit.

The best part?  I wasn’t dizzy ONCE.  The worst part?  My ears blocked up right before the first song and I couldn’t hear Youly & Taya AT ALL for the first 2 songs.  We turned up their amp just a touch and all was right in the world again.

And… we were done 10 minutes early.  Check!

So, we went and had sushi.

That was our Sunday!  How was yours?

To take part in the setlist carnival, head over to Fred’s blog and join in the fun – or just read about the other worshippers that posted their Sunday worship time.

** added in question **

So, for special services that aren’t an “every week” thing, what do you do to help people remember them?  Our evening service is a once-a-month-thing, and some months there are more people leading worship than there are sitting in the pews… or at least the numbers are really, really close.  Those that DO come love this service – it’s 45-60 minutes of music, communion and prayer.  Just a time to worship our wonderful God!  But, we usually get the elders and most of the spouse of those on the worship team… and maybe one or two other people.  Any thoughts?

One of these days I will get to post that we had a great set and NO ONE was sick… how I long for that day!  I also long for the day that I’m NOT one of the ones that was sick… but I digress.

Overall, the service went great this morning – even though I could only hear with one ear (more about that here) I could actually HEAR THE CONGREGATION WORSHIPING this morning! How totally awesome is that? And they were loud – it sounded like a choir… a really big choir. It was great. Thanks Wendell & Harriett for bringing the clan in with you today – I’m sure they contributed!

Onto the list:

• Hosanna (Praise is Rising) [F]
• We Lift You Up [G]
• Mighty To Save [A]
• Nothing Without You [D]
• Kids Message – Humility
• Here I Am To Worship [E]
• Announcements
• Message – “Solitaire Service – King David’s Humility”
• Hosanna (PIR) Recap [F]

Hosanna was – again – a great song to get people to their feet and get their blood flowing. Makes my job easier! We Lift You Up is pretty good that way too. And yes, there seems to have been an un-intentional “country” bent this morning with the 2nd-4th songs. Not sure how that happened, but they loved it.

We sped up Here I Am To Worship a little today, since it was the kids song, and it worked really well. Jen R had some great motions to go with it, and this was one of the songs that I could actually hear everyone singing out their worship to God. Even though I coughed instead of starting the song… again. Ugh.

Confessional time.

Taya was home sick, so there was no acoustic. Dave was leading electric by himself this week because Chris moved to bass (and he looked like a kid in a candy store sitting over there on the HUGE bass amp with his legs dangling – it was cute…) And then there was me. Somebody just shoot me, or figure out the cure-all for this never-ending curse of a cold that I seem to have contracted. Yes, I’ve been to the Dr, yes, I’m going back tomorrow. Ear plugged with cotton & hurting, throat dry from too much medication, and still coughing.  Oh, and me on medication & trying to talk… I’m sure it was rather odd sounding!  I hope at least part of it made sense.

So that was our weekend service, how was yours?

Oh, as always, part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist Carnival… check it out!

Well, once again we woke up to snow! Fortunately it was just a half-inch or so of slushy stuff and it wasn’t sticking.

We started a new series today on David called King of Hearts, and today was based in 1 Samuel 15. We looked at the fruit of the hearts of Saul, Samuel and David. It was pretty interesting!

We also had a commissioning of our new Youth Leader this morning, which was pretty exciting. I think Shelli will do a great job with the youth, and I’m excited to see what she does.

Onto the music…

• Jesus Messiah [E]
• Better Is One Day [D]
• All I Have Is You [F]
• Nothing Without You [D]
• commissioning
• kids message
• Jesus Loves Me [C]
• announcements
• message – Royalty Among Discards
• Communion
• How Great Is Our God [F]

Once again, I just can’t find that perfect tempo for Jesus Messiah. We had it at practice on Wednesday, but couldn’t find it this morning. It always seems too fast or too slow… weird.

Better Is One Day is one of those songs that I love! The best day we could ever have cannot compare to even one minute spent in the presence of God… and I can’t wait until we have days without end to spend worshiping at His feet!

All I Have is a song that we have done a few times – and I really like it – but I’m still learning it. I think this key was just a bit low (at least it is when I have a cold!)

We introduced Nothing Without You this morning, as apparently I am the only one who has ever sang it before – go figure! I know it’s been out for a few years, because we used to sing it at CCBothell (and that was a couple of years ago!). Pastor Chris decided that it had a country feel to it (which we NEVER do) and enjoyed himself making a joke about me bringing a country song. Grr. However, when he mentioned the country feel to it, there were cheers. I’m worried now! (in case you hadn’t noticed, country is not my fav. genre…)

Since we were talking about how God looks at the heart, we sang Jesus Loves Me… not the usual stuff for Sunday morning, but it worked. It was a little slower than I would have liked, but it worked pretty well. We sang 2 verses of it (out of the 7+ that are out there). The kids enjoyed doing the sign language to it, and I even saw a couple of adults joining in with the signs – it was pretty cool.

We sang How Great Is Our God, and Art did a great job leading it (as usual!). We had planned to tack on the chorus to How Great Thou Art, but we were running late on time so we ended it a bit early, cutting off a couple of repeats to the chorus as well.

I still can’t hear very well, and Pastor Chris was having the same problem… made things a bit more interesting to be sure. The team pulled together and did a great job though!

That was our Sunday morning… how was yours?

** As always, this is part of the Sunday Setlist / Worship Confessional over at Fred’s blog…**