This blog is part of the Sunday Setlist Blog Carnival Extravaganza over at
FredMckinnon.com
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This was an important Sunday for me. I have spent the last several months focusing solely on developing and leading my youth teams (and the growth there has been very encouraging), and have not led a full service in 'big church' since around August of last year. Since that time some new songs had captured my heart, I've written some new ones, and I've grown a bit - which should be expected for any Christian - so I was really excited about the opportunity to lead.
As soon as I discovered that I might be leading that week, I began praying, and sifting through potential songs, making changes as I discovered more about David's sermon topic, eventually stumbling into his office one Wednesday, and - fearfully - sharing an original song that I had on my heart for that Sunday. I gave him every way out, explaining that it's probably too odd - that it's not corporate - that it's too IHOP/Morningstar for our church body. Then he responded, "I think that'll work." I couldn't even believe it.
I was also excited to lead because we are closing in on my favorite holiday of the year: Easter. It's the resurrection of Jesus that captured my thought as a non-believer, and it is because of the resurrection that I believe in God to begin with. Celebrate whatever holidays you want, but Easter is always a joy for me. It was also exciting because I love leading worship with my wife - she's talented, an expressive worshiper, and nice to look at when the opportunity arises, and to talk to during breaks. Cyle played keys and sang tenor/alto/melody (depending on the song). I think I'll keep her around for a while. ;-)
That said, here's my list.
- We hadn't played this song since we've been in the new building as far as I know, so it's been over a year, but it's a 'classic', and was clear that a number of folks were very familiar with it. The band almost perfectly reproduced the studio original, except that I paused the song in the middle to remind the congregation of Jesus' prayer that "God's Kingdom come - His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven", which, to pray, is the very same as saying "Yes!" to God, then invited them to join in on a few resounding rounds of "YES LORD!"
- One of our youth actually introduced this one Wednesday night when I was preaching, and I had given his full-reign of the worship service, and it has become one of my absolute favorites since. I'll be honestly, I prefer our INSIDE OUT version over Fee's own - we lose all of the 'country' edge, and just let it fly like Anberlin. Kudos to Fred for suggesting keying it down to "C" instead of "D" - given that this was the first time we'd ever sung this corporately (it has only been used as walk-in music on Sunday mornings), the congregation REALLY took to it - especially during the second service, where at one point at least a fourth of the room had their hands in the air, and as far as I could tell, everyone was singing. I think that's a 'keeper'!
- We played this like a combination of the Passion live version and Tomlin's studio version. It's an old familiar one at out church, with God-glorifying lyrics.
- After a short, soul revealing introduction (see the extended story here), we played our original song. The comments from those who were touched by it were a much needed encouragement to my wife and I. It was as though a special connection were made between a good many of us - knowing that our story was not an uncommon one. Oh, and the band NAILED IT - kudos to the guys for working so hard during rehearsal to interpret some of the craziness I hear in my head into actual live music!
3.) the Wonderful Cross (Isaac Watts, Chris Tomlin, & Jesse Reeves)
4.) Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) (John Newton, Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio)
- As communion closed, we cut this song short, ending with a powerful, corporate a'capella repeat of that wonderful first verse - and every voice was singing. Again, kudos to Fred for his wise suggestion to re-key the song from "G" to "E".
5.) Healer (Mike Guglielmucci)
- In spite of all of the controversy surrounding this song - or rather it's writer - the lyrics are profoundly true, challenging, and faith inspiring, and the song itself is melodically moving, and makes me want to trust God more fully when I sing it, and in my book, that's a good reason to sing a song. We hadn't ever used this during a Sunday A.M. service (though we use it regularly at Inside Out, and Rush Hour, and I think the Elevate teams use it regularly as well) - only once at our Night of Worship several months back - but most of the congregation seemed familiar with it. For the sake of time, we simplified the song, ditching most of the instrumental intros, and breaks, but judging by the vocal participation, that didn't affect things much.
Following the first service, we went back into Healer, but after the second I decided to change things up and go back into Glorious One. Over-all it was an exciting morning, leading people that I love, to worship someOne that I love, with friends/musicians/vocalists that I love. No one can complain about that, now, can they?!