second weekend of the advent season... I'm probably as excited about the worship sets this Christmas season as I've been in the 9+ years (this is actually the 10th Christmas) I've been leading worship here at MSC. It's kinda funny 'cause I have this odd reputation of hating Christmas music, which couldn't be further from the truth. The thing is, I feel like my job is to help facilitate an atmosphere of authentic communication with our Creator during the first 20 minutes or so of our services. Too often, people long to sing Christmas music for the wrong reasons... to satiate the desire for that warm, fuzzy feeling they get when they sing them, to hold on to memories of childhood and/or fond years past, or even just because they really, really like 'em. I actually LOVE Christmas music for those same reasons... but the truth is, none of those accomplish the objective for which we show up in a worship service: to communicate with our Creator in worship.
This year, I've embraced the idea of interjecting the wonderful Christmas hymns of our faith into compelling worship sets in a way that doesn't compromise the objective of our time together. I think (I sure hope) that people have felt that we've been successful at doing that. We continued what has been our m.o. this year with Christmas sets by inserting a small piece of 'We Three Kings' into the middle of the set... just the 'Star of Wonder' piece. Here's how the setlist looked:
Beautiful One - (Tim Hughes)
Indescribable - (Laura Story)
('Star of Wonder' tag)
Break Through - Tommy Walker
O Come O Come Emmanuel
feature tune: Surrender - Marc James
(w/ chorus of trad. hymn 'I Surrender All')
The set felt really good to me this week. Again, transitions were key, and we really never stopped at all between any of the songs. The trickiest was the transition between the 'Star of Wonder' tag and 'Break Through' as I had to switch from capo 1 / cut capo 3 to open strings, removing both capos... the other instrumentalists walked from the F to an F/A, Bb then landed on C, which is where I started 'Break Through.'
We served communion this weekend, during which we sang a 'Surrender' medley, if you will. Starting with the Marc James tune from Vineyard, we pressed through to a couple big choruses at the end and then the bottom dropped out, leaving only a guitar, piano and Beth, one of our vocalists, taking over with the chorus of 'I Surrender All.' Then I played the melody on the acoustic a few times through, accompanied by the piano, before we began building up to the end of the service. 'I Surrender All' was reprised first, several times, and then we launched back into a full-blown chorus or two of the Marc James tune before our Pastor gave the blessing.
Equally as excited about this weekend, can't wait to tell you how it went...
this post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
Showing posts with label weekend service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend service. Show all posts
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
worship confessional (10.19.08)
man, I'm terrible at getting these written... how do all of you other worship leaders do it? I completely ignored last week--and it was a great service and setlist, too--and now this week, I'm finally getting to it on Thursday night. whew....
ok, so I've been doing these 3 song sets at the beginning of service all through October, right? I've been doing that so I could assure ample time to allow the Spirit to move... to allow room for us to have 'moments' if you will. It's been great so far overall, although on at least one occasion I've felt that it limited our ability to really sink into His presence, you know? It has to be the right 3 songs, that's for sure.
Anyway, this past week, an altogether different blessing came from my prepared 3 song set--a 4th song. I didn't write one, and my pastor or Worship Design Team didn't come up with a last-minute "must-do" worship song... there's this tune by a friend of mine, Gary Durbin that I simply couldn't get out of my head. Literally, for a good straight week it was the only song that would stick in my head morning, noon & night. The song is called Beautiful Scene and it's truly a special tune... honestly, I felt like God was telling me that the congregation needed to hear this song. So, we slid it in to the setlist this week last minute since I had plenty of room for a 4th tune!
Oddly enough (yeah, right... I know better) it fit perfectly within a message about intentional faith development. It's a killer worship song, but it has another layer to it as well... it speaks of how beautiful a scene it is when it's only God and only me... an awesome lyric that doubles as the feeling of intimacy we are able to attain with God in spite of being in a room filled with others communicating with Him at the same time, and also the richness of the time we spend alone with God in prayer and in His Word. Anyway... special tune, people... go check it out.
Setlist went like this:
I Want To Know You (In the Secret) - (Andy Park)
Everlasting God - (Brenton Brown, Ken Riley)
Steps of Faith - (M. Roach)
Beautiful Scene - (Gary Durbin)
feature tune - Deeper (Deliriou5?)
Everyday - (Joel Houston)
this post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
ok, so I've been doing these 3 song sets at the beginning of service all through October, right? I've been doing that so I could assure ample time to allow the Spirit to move... to allow room for us to have 'moments' if you will. It's been great so far overall, although on at least one occasion I've felt that it limited our ability to really sink into His presence, you know? It has to be the right 3 songs, that's for sure.
Anyway, this past week, an altogether different blessing came from my prepared 3 song set--a 4th song. I didn't write one, and my pastor or Worship Design Team didn't come up with a last-minute "must-do" worship song... there's this tune by a friend of mine, Gary Durbin that I simply couldn't get out of my head. Literally, for a good straight week it was the only song that would stick in my head morning, noon & night. The song is called Beautiful Scene and it's truly a special tune... honestly, I felt like God was telling me that the congregation needed to hear this song. So, we slid it in to the setlist this week last minute since I had plenty of room for a 4th tune!
Oddly enough (yeah, right... I know better) it fit perfectly within a message about intentional faith development. It's a killer worship song, but it has another layer to it as well... it speaks of how beautiful a scene it is when it's only God and only me... an awesome lyric that doubles as the feeling of intimacy we are able to attain with God in spite of being in a room filled with others communicating with Him at the same time, and also the richness of the time we spend alone with God in prayer and in His Word. Anyway... special tune, people... go check it out.
Setlist went like this:
I Want To Know You (In the Secret) - (Andy Park)
Everlasting God - (Brenton Brown, Ken Riley)
Steps of Faith - (M. Roach)
Beautiful Scene - (Gary Durbin)
feature tune - Deeper (Deliriou5?)
Everyday - (Joel Houston)
this post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
worship confessional (10.05.08)
does anyone else feel like the very first service of the weekend comes off as more of a rehearsal than anything? we battled that for the longest time when we were a portable church--sometimes we were still making sure microphones were plugged in when the service was supposed to be starting--but we're battling it again. I think it's 'cause we're coming into church in the middle of the day on a Saturday, half a day of lawn-mowing, mall-walking, kid-feeding, game-playing already under our belts, you know? anyway, we prayed it all out this Saturday and grabbed on tight to our last fiber of focus as we headed out to the platform. Little mistakes everywhere in our polishing time and full run-through, but we pretty well nailed it in the service. love that. I firmly believe that mistakes, missed entrances, wrong notes, etc.--while they all will happen at some point--become obstacles in our worship services. (yeah, I know that conceit, performance, self-righteousness, smoke machines and worship leaders can too, but that's a whole 'nother Oprah) Anyway, it was nice this weekend to feel like we were able to honor God with our song set in equal measure for three services this weekend. My hope is to continue that trend from here on out. I'll keep you posted :)
setlist looked like this:
As Long As I Have You - (M. Roach)
The Wonderful Cross - (Tomlin and Co.)
Cannons - (Phil Wickham)
feature tune - Please Come by Nichole Nordeman
Here With You - (M. Roach)
I decided to take a moment during 'The Wonderful Cross' and talk about paradox. The title of that song has plenty of it, and the lyric follows suit. the hymn's poetry is astounding, especially in the second verse: See from His head, His hands, His feet | Sorrow and love flow mingled down ... come on, that's poetry. love it. anyway, this whole idea of something so horrific as the cross being described as wonderful, the idea of thorns forming so rich a crown as the one on Jesus' brow, the idea of dying that we may truly live, counting our riches gains as but losses... it goes all the way back to the King of Kings lying in a manger, doesn't it? we took some time to ingest that this weekend as we sang that tune. we bookended that one with a tune of mine 'As Long As I Have You', based on the 23rd Psalm, and an amazing tune called 'Cannons' by Phil Wickham. I'll say this again: if you haven't thrown that tune into your worship set, next week isn't early enough. Great song. I'm waiting for it to become a staple so I can play it instead of 'How Great is Our God' when I visit churches and youth groups... (nothing against the Tomlin tune... just sayin')
anyway, we ended with 'Here With You' again--we usually end with a song we sang two or three weeks before and that one fell in that slot. I'm really amped for you all (outside my church, of course) to hear that one. that's all I have for this week, so until the next... blessings!
this post is also a part of sunday setlists
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
worship confessional (9.28.08)
so I made a strange decision last week, after years of pushing for more music up front at our services, always lobbying to maintain our typical 4-song set whenever possible... I decided that I'm going to try something over the next month or so. 3 songs. 3 songs in the 20 minutes or so that I'm allotted in each service. why? well, lately I've felt... I don't know... trapped. constricted. have I really been allowing the Spirit to move in our sets? we've become much more polished in the last several years--especially after moving into our first facility. sure, I've been accused thousands of times of rambling during worship... but it never fails. those are the days when someone comes up to me and thanks me--not for the great music, great words, great band, but for my heart. something that I said, read, suggested, questioned even.
anyway, this past weekend was the first of those 3 song sets, and I did my share of rambling again... spoke a bit about the Trinity.
I have a brand new song called 'Holy Lord' (that I'm so amped for all of you to hear, by the way) that focuses on the entities of the Trinity for a verse each. the bridge is one of those one-line repeating worship bridges and the chorus just shouts of the holiness of God. my hope is that I allowed--both musically and with what I said--a moment to happen. a moment where the music would culminate in a change--even ever so slight--in someone's heart, mind, soul...
anyway, I'd love to hear about how you all intentionally leave space for the movement of the Spirit... how many songs up front, etc. songset follows:
Beautiful One - (Tim Hughes)
Indescribable - (Laura Story)
Holy Lord - (M. Roach)
feature tune - Better Is One Day (Matt Redman)
we ended the service (and our entire series on 'Inheritance' actually) by singing 'Better Is One Day' together...
I broke out the ol' bible on the platform and just read portions of Psalms 84 and 27, just two of the passages represented in the lyric. we used a loop that I created in the vain of the original Passion version's loop, so that was fun... and we triggered it with Ableton Live and were able to loop the fallout section as our Pastor came up to do the blessing and return to the full loop seemlessly into the end. I love using technology in that transparent sort of way, although we fell just short of mastering it this weekend. it worked out, though.
until next week...
this post is also a part of sunday setlists
anyway, this past weekend was the first of those 3 song sets, and I did my share of rambling again... spoke a bit about the Trinity.
I have a brand new song called 'Holy Lord' (that I'm so amped for all of you to hear, by the way) that focuses on the entities of the Trinity for a verse each. the bridge is one of those one-line repeating worship bridges and the chorus just shouts of the holiness of God. my hope is that I allowed--both musically and with what I said--a moment to happen. a moment where the music would culminate in a change--even ever so slight--in someone's heart, mind, soul...anyway, I'd love to hear about how you all intentionally leave space for the movement of the Spirit... how many songs up front, etc. songset follows:
Beautiful One - (Tim Hughes)
Indescribable - (Laura Story)
Holy Lord - (M. Roach)
feature tune - Better Is One Day (Matt Redman)
we ended the service (and our entire series on 'Inheritance' actually) by singing 'Better Is One Day' together...
I broke out the ol' bible on the platform and just read portions of Psalms 84 and 27, just two of the passages represented in the lyric. we used a loop that I created in the vain of the original Passion version's loop, so that was fun... and we triggered it with Ableton Live and were able to loop the fallout section as our Pastor came up to do the blessing and return to the full loop seemlessly into the end. I love using technology in that transparent sort of way, although we fell just short of mastering it this weekend. it worked out, though.until next week...
this post is also a part of sunday setlists
Thursday, September 25, 2008
worship confessional (9.21.08)
Wow... it's been a tough several weeks here at MSC as we had another untimely death in our congregation, this time a sister of one of the praise team members. To add to the discomfort, we're right in the middle of series called 'Inheritance' and were all set to discuss whether or not we would recognize our earthly relationships in heaven. Once again, I think we pulled through and honored the departed, her friends and family.... and God. Gotta be honest, though. We're hoping this is the last one for a long time.We also broke out the whole texting thing again in service... are any of you all doing this? I know they are down at Church at Rock Creek, where I played a few months back, but I'd love to hear about your experiences. We're very new at it at this point, but it's been received well thus far. Basically, we are allowing--encouraging, really--people to text in questions during the message and, after being screened, they are forwarded to a screen in front of our Pastor. He answers those he's able to get to with the time allowed. Like I said, it's been well received by and large, although we did end up causing a bit of a stir online after our local paper published a story about us... hit the front page, too... click here for the article, and feel free to join the conversation!
Here was the setlist:
Filled With Your Glory - (Tim & Jon Neufeld)
Here With You - (M. Roach) - brand new tune, can't wait to play it for all of you!
May the Words of My Mouth - (Rob Hill, Tim Hughes)
feature tune: Tears in Heaven (Clapton)
2nd feature tune: Homesick (MercyMe)
Mighty to Save - (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)
This post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
Thursday, September 4, 2008
worship confessional (8.31.08)
Man, I'm bad at doing these right after the weekend, huh? Gary Durbin's was practically up before our last service was over... :) oh, well... way to stay on top of things, Gary! :)
This weekend was one of those that started out brutally, but ended well. Ever have those? Well, mine was self-inflicted as I committed the cardinal sin of wireless in-ear usage on Saturday and neglected to change out my batteries before service. No idea where my head was... and I'm pretty sure those batteries were in the wireless pack since our rehearsal on Tuesday. That's right, that's exactly what happened, and it happened in the middle of the 2nd song of a 4 song set. Brutal. I fought through 2 1/2 songs with absolutely nothing in my in-ear monitors. In the spirit of authenticity, I'm pretty sure the first song and a half was spent going over what could have possibly just happened... and when I finally figured it out during the last tune, I was able to worship and pray that our set would somehow still please God and serve His purpose in worship. ouch.
Sunday was much better... we finally pulled out 'Hosanna' by Paul Baloche this past week. I'm behind most on that one, I know. I talked a bit about the intent behind the song as stated by Paul on his WorshipSource profile. Also, we revisited one of my own, 'All I Can Do is Surrender' which was kinda fun. Keep in mind, we'll sing originals of mine for months or years before they land on a record... we hadn't done that one in a while at MSC. Anyway, the setlist was:
You're Worthy of My Praise - David Ruis
Hosanna - Paul Baloche/Brenton Brown
All I Can Do is Surrender - M. Roach
You Gave Your Life Away - Paul Baloche/Kathryn Scott
Feature tune: Add to the Beauty by Sara Groves
Blessed Be Your Name - Matt/Beth Redman
Seriously, if you haven't already introduced 'You Gave...' to your congregation, don't wait any longer, it's truly an unbelievable congregational tune and you won't regret it. I blogged about it a while back as well...
This confessional is also a part of the ever-growing Sunday Setlists. Check out what other worship leaders around the country did this past weekend and/or post your own!
This weekend was one of those that started out brutally, but ended well. Ever have those? Well, mine was self-inflicted as I committed the cardinal sin of wireless in-ear usage on Saturday and neglected to change out my batteries before service. No idea where my head was... and I'm pretty sure those batteries were in the wireless pack since our rehearsal on Tuesday. That's right, that's exactly what happened, and it happened in the middle of the 2nd song of a 4 song set. Brutal. I fought through 2 1/2 songs with absolutely nothing in my in-ear monitors. In the spirit of authenticity, I'm pretty sure the first song and a half was spent going over what could have possibly just happened... and when I finally figured it out during the last tune, I was able to worship and pray that our set would somehow still please God and serve His purpose in worship. ouch.
Sunday was much better... we finally pulled out 'Hosanna' by Paul Baloche this past week. I'm behind most on that one, I know. I talked a bit about the intent behind the song as stated by Paul on his WorshipSource profile. Also, we revisited one of my own, 'All I Can Do is Surrender' which was kinda fun. Keep in mind, we'll sing originals of mine for months or years before they land on a record... we hadn't done that one in a while at MSC. Anyway, the setlist was:
You're Worthy of My Praise - David Ruis
Hosanna - Paul Baloche/Brenton Brown
All I Can Do is Surrender - M. Roach
You Gave Your Life Away - Paul Baloche/Kathryn Scott
Feature tune: Add to the Beauty by Sara Groves
Blessed Be Your Name - Matt/Beth Redman
Seriously, if you haven't already introduced 'You Gave...' to your congregation, don't wait any longer, it's truly an unbelievable congregational tune and you won't regret it. I blogged about it a while back as well...
This confessional is also a part of the ever-growing Sunday Setlists. Check out what other worship leaders around the country did this past weekend and/or post your own!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
worship confessional (8.24.08)
this weekend was one of those crazy weekends for me when I have an engagement out of town on Saturday, but I drive back Saturday night for Sunday a.m. services. Of course, we have Saturday night service as well, so it makes for an odd weekend for the whole team in many ways. Ryan, the Associate Music Director at MSC, takes over as worship leader in my absence. This weekend I was in Urbana, IL (more on that in a later post) and we drove about 3 hours and 15 minutes back to STL, arriving at about 1:00a.m. If you know me at all, you know that even though I get up at about 5:45a.m. on Sundays (and only on Sundays) I am rarely in bed earlier than 1:00a.m. on Saturday nights... so this shouldn't be a big deal. Unfortunately, I had way too much caffeine on the drive home and couldn't get to sleep. So I was running on just under 2 hours of sleep on Sunday after a nice 12-hour excursion to IL for a festival.
That said, it was actually a great morning... especially considering. Wasn't sure my voice was going to come around, but it ended up coming all the way back for worship and it didn't really leave me until Sunday evening and into Monday. It's all good, though, it'll be back again for rehearsal on Tuesday night. Anyway, the setlist was strong this week--in my opinion, anyway--as we closed our 3-part Olympic series with a bang:
Your Grace is Enough - Matt Maher
Give It All Away - Aaron Shust
Holy is the Lord - Tomlin and Co.
Break Through - Tommy Walker
feature tune - Olympic Song by Andy Gullahorn
Happy Day - Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon
I'm gonna re-iterate a couple of things I'm sure I've already said about a few of these tunes... first off, 'Give It All Away' is a great congregational tune if you haven't tried it. The bridge is awkward in terms of being singable and so we just skip it, but the rest of tune is really strong. It's a bit of a departure from a lot of the other worship stuff we do in terms of melody and form, so it feels fresh in our worship sets. 'Break Through' is just plain great... it's an incredible song, and, as I often do, I took a moment during this song to just encourage people to open themselves up to the Holy Spirit. I invited everyone to welcome break through in their hearts--if not theirs, then those who really needed it at that moment--and to really believe that it can happen right there in that moment. So many people going so many different emotional directions right in front of you, you know? I just wanted everyone to pause and contemplate how vast God really is, and that he's capable--even right at that moment--of breaking through addictions, crumbled relationships, financial burdens, pride, arrogance, any of the myriad of trials facing all of us. If you haven't tried this tune in your services, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a keeper.
Anyway, our feature tune was a tongue-in-cheek musing by songwriter Andy Gullahorn--a genius in terms of songwriting if you ask me. It's a simple little ditty about get so wrapped up in the Olympics that you convince yourself, if only for a day, that you're heading there in four years yourself to conquer the world and get a medal of your own... clever as usual from Andy, and hook-laden. Went over well, I felt. You can check out Andy's stuff on iTunes, and I highly recommend it.
I'm posting this confessional in collaboration with other Worship Leaders as a part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlists
That said, it was actually a great morning... especially considering. Wasn't sure my voice was going to come around, but it ended up coming all the way back for worship and it didn't really leave me until Sunday evening and into Monday. It's all good, though, it'll be back again for rehearsal on Tuesday night. Anyway, the setlist was strong this week--in my opinion, anyway--as we closed our 3-part Olympic series with a bang:
Your Grace is Enough - Matt Maher
Give It All Away - Aaron Shust
Holy is the Lord - Tomlin and Co.
Break Through - Tommy Walker
feature tune - Olympic Song by Andy Gullahorn
Happy Day - Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon
I'm gonna re-iterate a couple of things I'm sure I've already said about a few of these tunes... first off, 'Give It All Away' is a great congregational tune if you haven't tried it. The bridge is awkward in terms of being singable and so we just skip it, but the rest of tune is really strong. It's a bit of a departure from a lot of the other worship stuff we do in terms of melody and form, so it feels fresh in our worship sets. 'Break Through' is just plain great... it's an incredible song, and, as I often do, I took a moment during this song to just encourage people to open themselves up to the Holy Spirit. I invited everyone to welcome break through in their hearts--if not theirs, then those who really needed it at that moment--and to really believe that it can happen right there in that moment. So many people going so many different emotional directions right in front of you, you know? I just wanted everyone to pause and contemplate how vast God really is, and that he's capable--even right at that moment--of breaking through addictions, crumbled relationships, financial burdens, pride, arrogance, any of the myriad of trials facing all of us. If you haven't tried this tune in your services, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a keeper.
Anyway, our feature tune was a tongue-in-cheek musing by songwriter Andy Gullahorn--a genius in terms of songwriting if you ask me. It's a simple little ditty about get so wrapped up in the Olympics that you convince yourself, if only for a day, that you're heading there in four years yourself to conquer the world and get a medal of your own... clever as usual from Andy, and hook-laden. Went over well, I felt. You can check out Andy's stuff on iTunes, and I highly recommend it.
I'm posting this confessional in collaboration with other Worship Leaders as a part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlists
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
worship confessional (8.17.08)
Tough weekend at MSC, as we lost a special young nineteen-year-old girl to a fatal single-car accident on Friday. She was to turn 20 on Saturday, and our church--young as it is--had literally watched her grow up as her and her family have attended for virtually the entire nine-year life of our ministry. Couple that with the elation that comes with the 30+ baptisms we were celebrating at our Saturday services, and you certainly end up with a strange dichotomy of emotions--and maybe the very essence of the Christian walk.
We've been talking about the Olympics, and the feature tune this week was among the toughest we've ever tried to pull off--more on that later. As we began services on Saturday, we knew the weekend was going to be tough, and I really feel as though we did a great job in worshiping right through the emotional duality in the room. We called it out before we even got started. Just before we sang, I just wanted to name the reality that we were facing. We were staring untimely death and undeserved new life in the face simultaneously... wow. And we worshiped. The setlist, solidified and rehearsed long before the tragedy befell us, was eerily poignant:
Forever - Chris Tomlin
Blessed Be Your Name - Matt/Beth Redman
The Least I Can Do - M. Roach
feature tune - Running On Ice (Billy Joel)
I Stand Amazed - Passion arrangement
All Because of Jesus - Steve Fee
'Blessed Be Your Name' is among the most sung modern worship songs in the country, and most of know that it really shines in the face of tragedy. This weekend, the simple repetitive declaration in the bridge absolutely sucker-punched me... You give and take away | You give and take away | my heart will choose to say | Lord, blessed be Your name. When all was said and done, we simply gave God glory and honor as we attempt to do every weekend, and it felt like the absolute appropriate response to both facets of our emotional state. God is good.
As for the feature tune, Billy Joel's 'Running On Ice,' the piano part alone makes it one of the most difficult songs we've ever tackled--especially considering I played it and I'm not really a piano player. I practiced for hours this week, mainly just trying to nail-down the intro and a ridiculous transition into a quick piano interlude. We recorded some little sound nuggets and artifacts as tracks that we played along to which gave it a little bit more flavor of it's 80's origin, then added some filtered video a la A-Ha's famous 'Take On Me' video. It certainly didn't look like animated charcoal drawings in our version, but it was a cool effect. Of course, all of this came crashing down at the 11am Sunday service when a mute was inadvertently pushed on the channel that contained our click-track. The video started--and restarted--several times (without the click in our ears) before we finally decided to jump ship on the video all together and use our regular metronome. This meant we were going to play it w/ no tracks, which wasn't that big of a deal until we realized half way through the first verse that the video was still playing up in the booth, and now the little sound nuggets and artifacts were bursting through the mains at random times with no rhyme or reason... yeah, it pretty well fell apart. But, the tracks were eventually muted when the video eventually stopped, and we somehow pushed our way through the tune and survived the service... with a few compliments on the feature tune, even :) Ah, nobody's perfect... and technology had it's way with us at 11am this Sunday. If nothing else, we learned something.
I'm doing something new this week, and I'm posting this confessional in collaboration with other Worship Leaders as a part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlists
We've been talking about the Olympics, and the feature tune this week was among the toughest we've ever tried to pull off--more on that later. As we began services on Saturday, we knew the weekend was going to be tough, and I really feel as though we did a great job in worshiping right through the emotional duality in the room. We called it out before we even got started. Just before we sang, I just wanted to name the reality that we were facing. We were staring untimely death and undeserved new life in the face simultaneously... wow. And we worshiped. The setlist, solidified and rehearsed long before the tragedy befell us, was eerily poignant:
Forever - Chris Tomlin
Blessed Be Your Name - Matt/Beth Redman
The Least I Can Do - M. Roach
feature tune - Running On Ice (Billy Joel)
I Stand Amazed - Passion arrangement
All Because of Jesus - Steve Fee
'Blessed Be Your Name' is among the most sung modern worship songs in the country, and most of know that it really shines in the face of tragedy. This weekend, the simple repetitive declaration in the bridge absolutely sucker-punched me... You give and take away | You give and take away | my heart will choose to say | Lord, blessed be Your name. When all was said and done, we simply gave God glory and honor as we attempt to do every weekend, and it felt like the absolute appropriate response to both facets of our emotional state. God is good.
As for the feature tune, Billy Joel's 'Running On Ice,' the piano part alone makes it one of the most difficult songs we've ever tackled--especially considering I played it and I'm not really a piano player. I practiced for hours this week, mainly just trying to nail-down the intro and a ridiculous transition into a quick piano interlude. We recorded some little sound nuggets and artifacts as tracks that we played along to which gave it a little bit more flavor of it's 80's origin, then added some filtered video a la A-Ha's famous 'Take On Me' video. It certainly didn't look like animated charcoal drawings in our version, but it was a cool effect. Of course, all of this came crashing down at the 11am Sunday service when a mute was inadvertently pushed on the channel that contained our click-track. The video started--and restarted--several times (without the click in our ears) before we finally decided to jump ship on the video all together and use our regular metronome. This meant we were going to play it w/ no tracks, which wasn't that big of a deal until we realized half way through the first verse that the video was still playing up in the booth, and now the little sound nuggets and artifacts were bursting through the mains at random times with no rhyme or reason... yeah, it pretty well fell apart. But, the tracks were eventually muted when the video eventually stopped, and we somehow pushed our way through the tune and survived the service... with a few compliments on the feature tune, even :) Ah, nobody's perfect... and technology had it's way with us at 11am this Sunday. If nothing else, we learned something.
I'm doing something new this week, and I'm posting this confessional in collaboration with other Worship Leaders as a part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlists
Thursday, July 31, 2008
worship confessional (7.27.08)
This past weekend was the 3rd in our 4-part series called "Any Questions?" It's been a great series so far, taking spiritual questions from our congregation and building messages around biblical answers to them. This week our new Youth Pastor, Matthew Skroblus, tackled the oft asked question: Why Do I Still Feel Guilty? He did a great job up there and the Worship Design Team was certainly made aware that we have another option in terms of a teaching pastor once in a while. It's always great to throw someone in their 20's up on the platform, too--someone who loves the Lord and really knows the scripture... that's Matthew.
Anyway, we also introduced my brand new tune "Here With You"... it's the kind of tune that I've been admittedly shying away from writing until now... a simple love song to God. It's not based on any specific scriptures, and it doesn't even have any of our typical worship language--hallelujah, holy, holy, etc. Anyway, I'm currently writing another tune based heavily on scripture and the divine nature of God so I think I felt some freedom to flesh this other one out. I got great feedback on it, and I look forward to getting a demo of it done as well so we can polish it up a bit.
Beyond that, it was a cool setlist that ended with the song "Breathe" ... something about the 4, 6m, 5 section in that tune (which we vamp at the end) just really resonates with me, and I like to just sing over the top of it--and invite the congregation to do the same. In our Worship Design Team we've come to call this a "Breathe Moment" and it's no coincidence. This song seems to beg for them every time we do it. You could definitely feel the spirit in the room during that moment this weekend, and that's always an awesome thing.
So, here was the setlist:
Transformed (M. Roach, Matthew West)
Filled With Your Glory (John & Tim Neufeld)
Here With You (M. Roach)
Breathe (Marie Barnett)
feature tune: Undo (Rush of Fools)
Anyway, we also introduced my brand new tune "Here With You"... it's the kind of tune that I've been admittedly shying away from writing until now... a simple love song to God. It's not based on any specific scriptures, and it doesn't even have any of our typical worship language--hallelujah, holy, holy, etc. Anyway, I'm currently writing another tune based heavily on scripture and the divine nature of God so I think I felt some freedom to flesh this other one out. I got great feedback on it, and I look forward to getting a demo of it done as well so we can polish it up a bit.
Beyond that, it was a cool setlist that ended with the song "Breathe" ... something about the 4, 6m, 5 section in that tune (which we vamp at the end) just really resonates with me, and I like to just sing over the top of it--and invite the congregation to do the same. In our Worship Design Team we've come to call this a "Breathe Moment" and it's no coincidence. This song seems to beg for them every time we do it. You could definitely feel the spirit in the room during that moment this weekend, and that's always an awesome thing.
So, here was the setlist:
Transformed (M. Roach, Matthew West)
Filled With Your Glory (John & Tim Neufeld)
Here With You (M. Roach)
Breathe (Marie Barnett)
feature tune: Undo (Rush of Fools)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
worship confessional (7.6.08)
It was a good weekend overall... must admit, though, I didn't really feel 100% back in the swing of things--two weekends playing out of state, I come back and it's the first weekend of our Lead Pastor's summer vacation (he's basically gone all of July) and on top of that we did this kinda Family Service type of thing. So, I guess it just didn't feel as much like 'home' as it usually does coming back after a few weeks away. That said, there really is something special about coming home and leading with a sense of familiarity. I know we're worshiping the same God no matter what church or state I'm in, but Morning Star is also my family, and there's something awesome about worshiping not only with fellow believers, but with family. Ok, enough of that...
So, we had all of our K-5 kids in worship this weekend. We've received mixed feedback about that--(by the way, do any of you do that quarterly or once a month or something? I'd love to hear about how your congregations feel about that)--but it did make the music a little more interesting. Pastor Keith had told 'em all the week before to stand on their chairs while we sang and they did. They also really did sing out, which was very cool. Ok, setlist:
I'm Not Ashamed (Tommy Walker)
Indescribable (Laura Story)
Once Again (Matt/Beth Redman)
feature tune: Communion (Third Day)
ended with: How Can I Keep From Singing (Tomlin and Co.)
When we have Communion (once a month) we typically will cut a worship song from the front set, so we only do three instead of four. We change up the rhythm of the verse melody quite a bit in the Tommy Walker song and we really don't implement the calypso (if you've heard his, you know what I mean) but it's a high energy tune. Indescribable is still a favorite of mine, and after getting a change to meet Laura Story this past month I think I like it even more. She was just an absolutely awesome person and great to talk with. Real to the core, and I love that. Anyway, then 'Once Again' which is one of those oldie but goodie tunes in my book. I just love singing that song. In church I've been using a wah and a DD-20 delay pedal with my acoustic a lot lately... just to bring some tones to the repetoire other than the simple acoustic. So I used a dotted eighth delay on the verses and bridge (and I essentially use the wah like an envelope filter) and that changed it up a bit.
'Communion' is a great song and we've used it several times over the past few years during Holy Communion. I play electric on it, which always poses a unique challenge getting the transition smoothe into the next tune. We try to go all the way through Communion and Offering, then begin singing again as a congregation before the Pastor comes up and gives the final blessing. This week, I just had the keyboardist tail off the end of 'Communion' (the song) and play the chorus changes with organ only. It sounded cool, and kinda reverent actually, as I changed guitars and then slid into an acoustic version of 'How Can I Keep From Singing.' Once the offering was completed, we started the click and launched a full-on band version of the same tune to send us out. It was a cool Sunday, and I was glad to be back.
More next week!
So, we had all of our K-5 kids in worship this weekend. We've received mixed feedback about that--(by the way, do any of you do that quarterly or once a month or something? I'd love to hear about how your congregations feel about that)--but it did make the music a little more interesting. Pastor Keith had told 'em all the week before to stand on their chairs while we sang and they did. They also really did sing out, which was very cool. Ok, setlist:
I'm Not Ashamed (Tommy Walker)
Indescribable (Laura Story)
Once Again (Matt/Beth Redman)
feature tune: Communion (Third Day)
ended with: How Can I Keep From Singing (Tomlin and Co.)
When we have Communion (once a month) we typically will cut a worship song from the front set, so we only do three instead of four. We change up the rhythm of the verse melody quite a bit in the Tommy Walker song and we really don't implement the calypso (if you've heard his, you know what I mean) but it's a high energy tune. Indescribable is still a favorite of mine, and after getting a change to meet Laura Story this past month I think I like it even more. She was just an absolutely awesome person and great to talk with. Real to the core, and I love that. Anyway, then 'Once Again' which is one of those oldie but goodie tunes in my book. I just love singing that song. In church I've been using a wah and a DD-20 delay pedal with my acoustic a lot lately... just to bring some tones to the repetoire other than the simple acoustic. So I used a dotted eighth delay on the verses and bridge (and I essentially use the wah like an envelope filter) and that changed it up a bit.
'Communion' is a great song and we've used it several times over the past few years during Holy Communion. I play electric on it, which always poses a unique challenge getting the transition smoothe into the next tune. We try to go all the way through Communion and Offering, then begin singing again as a congregation before the Pastor comes up and gives the final blessing. This week, I just had the keyboardist tail off the end of 'Communion' (the song) and play the chorus changes with organ only. It sounded cool, and kinda reverent actually, as I changed guitars and then slid into an acoustic version of 'How Can I Keep From Singing.' Once the offering was completed, we started the click and launched a full-on band version of the same tune to send us out. It was a cool Sunday, and I was glad to be back.
More next week!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Worship Confessional (6.29.08) -- from the road
Wow... it's been a while since I've penned one of these, and now I'm a week late on this one. Time just seems to slip through my fingertips. Hey last week we found ourselves in Little Rock, AR at The Church at Rock Creek. Richard Wentz is the worship Pastor over there and we met at this cool conference called re:create that I've been to for a couple years in Nashville. Anyway, the ministry there is quite cool, and we had an absolute blast.Had some new guys playing with me this past week--Josh Gleave and Keith Harris--not only great players, but great guys. Richard is already doing two of the tunes off of Every Reason Why ('A Thousand Hallelujahs' & 'You Are') in services, so those didn't even have to feel like new tunes
to the congregation... I threw 'Amazing' in there as another tune that every finds at least somewhat recognizable and my setlist looked about like this:As Long As I Have You
A Thousand Hallelujahs
Amazing
The Least I Can Do (w/ tag of 'Here I Am to Worship')
You Are
The church is very unique in a couple of ways... first of all, the third service on Sunday--called the Rock Creek 30--is a legit, 30-minute service. Two tunes, a 15-minute message, prayer and offering. Sound a little strange? Not when you hear them tell you that they've baptized a half-dozen people in the last few months that started out at that service. Awesome. Also, instead of a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night service, they actually have a Monday night service. Also seems a bit odd 'til you see 600-800 people showing up for it.
Anyway, like I said, we had an unbelievable time, Richard and the entire staff were amazing. If any of you ever find yourself in Little Rock looking for a great,
God-centered church to visit, don't even hesitate heading over there. If nothing else, there's a Starbucks inside the bookstore--come on, who can beat that?!? Seriously, though, after a long (my son was especially beat) but wonderful weekend, we headed back to the good ol' STL and look forward to the opportunity of heading back there again sometime soon!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Worship Confessional (5.11.08)
This past weekend was, of course, Mom's Day. Usually, we get a packed house on Mother's Day weekend, but for whatever reason (maybe the ridiculously dismal weather) we were not only light on attendance, but a bit blah as well. Now, my friend Gary Durbin in Florida points out in his most recent WorshipSource confessional the importance of not measuring worship by the congregation's response, but focusing instead on God's pleasure... good reminder for all of us, I'm sure, and so I'll move on. :)
The last few weeks, I've been doing something a bit unorthodox with my acoustic--and I'm actually kinda likin' it. I've been plugging my acoustic into a Line6 floorboard, bypassing everything but the delay, and then using the built-in wah pedal as well. This past week, I used this on 'Welcome Song' by Pocket Full of Rocks. I use the Edge-inspired dotted quarter delay, and it manifests that tight, even sixteenth delay when I play eighths. The wah allows me to shape the sound a bit, like an envelope filter. It's cool stuff. Anyway, I'm in the process of replacing the church's Line6 with 'real gear' that will serve the same purpose--a Cry Baby and a DD-20. I'll keep you posted!
Here was the setlist for this past weekend:
The Welcome Song - Michael Farren
Filled With Your Glory - Jon/Tim Neufeld
How Can I Keep from Singing - Tomlin and Co.
Spirit Song - John Wimber
feature tune: Thank You Mom by Good Charlotte
ended with: As Long As I Have You - M. Roach
The feature tune was a crazy find... a hidden track from a Good Charlotte record that actually talks about his mom singing songs of praise and teaching him how to love God and such... we were just looking for a simple Mom's day tune and I was elated to find something by Good Charlotte instead of having to veer toward Bette Midler. :)
Until next week!
The last few weeks, I've been doing something a bit unorthodox with my acoustic--and I'm actually kinda likin' it. I've been plugging my acoustic into a Line6 floorboard, bypassing everything but the delay, and then using the built-in wah pedal as well. This past week, I used this on 'Welcome Song' by Pocket Full of Rocks. I use the Edge-inspired dotted quarter delay, and it manifests that tight, even sixteenth delay when I play eighths. The wah allows me to shape the sound a bit, like an envelope filter. It's cool stuff. Anyway, I'm in the process of replacing the church's Line6 with 'real gear' that will serve the same purpose--a Cry Baby and a DD-20. I'll keep you posted!
Here was the setlist for this past weekend:
The Welcome Song - Michael Farren
Filled With Your Glory - Jon/Tim Neufeld
How Can I Keep from Singing - Tomlin and Co.
Spirit Song - John Wimber
feature tune: Thank You Mom by Good Charlotte
ended with: As Long As I Have You - M. Roach
The feature tune was a crazy find... a hidden track from a Good Charlotte record that actually talks about his mom singing songs of praise and teaching him how to love God and such... we were just looking for a simple Mom's day tune and I was elated to find something by Good Charlotte instead of having to veer toward Bette Midler. :)
Until next week!
Worship Confessional (5.04.08)
Ok, this one's really late, I know, but I have to mention this... we had Mike Lewis, also known as the Jesus Painter, come and be a part of our Celebration services--the culmination of our Love. Loud. initiative. He is truly an awesome guy, and what he does in worship should be incorporated into every church across America and beyond if you ask me. If your church doesn't incorporate visual art or painting during worship, you should click on the painting to the right and check out what he does. Anyway, the services were jam-packed with songs, paintings, kids, baptisms, confirmations, pledges, thumbprints (kind of a way of every saying "I'm in") ... one of those services that triples the number of elements we include in a normal weekend. Great stuff, though, and Mike Lewis was an awesome addition. The tunes we did during the worship set were perfect for the two paintings he did while we worshiped. Here's the setlist:The Happy Song - Martin Smith
Beautiful One - Tim Hughes
You Are - M. Roach
You Gave Your Life Away - Paul Baloche/Kathryn Scott
Sunday, April 27, 2008
worship confessional (4.27.08)
Last week, I got the not-as-rare-as-it-used-to-be privilege of coming to my own church as an attender. Ryan, our Associate Music Director, led worship and I was out in the congregation holding my son in my arms and singing to my Creator--my son singing gently in my ear throughout the worship set... it doesn't get a whole lot sweeter than that.
This week was our last weekend of our Love. Loud. initiative-- that is, the last week before the 'celebration' weekend next week, where we bring forth our pledges and finally begin to put flesh to the bone of our last 4 weeks of discussion. We were headed for an uber long service, and so we preemptively cut a tune from the worship set. That always bums me out, but the day felt all kinds of good in spite of that. Here's the setlist we ended up with:
As Long As I Have You - M. Roach
Pleasing - Glenn Packiam
Enough - Tomlin/Giglio
----
feature tune - Take My Life (a la Passion - Tomlin and Co.)
----
Love Loud (tag) - by our own Ryan Redding
The set felt pretty good... I hate having to change guitars quickly in transitions, but it actually worked out ok. I lead from an electric on 'As Long As...' and played acoustic on the other two. Originally, when we were planning on doing 4 tunes, we had the welcome/announcement piece between the first two songs, so I would have had plenty of time for the switch. When we cut the last tune, we felt like a two-song set after the announcements just didn't feel right, so that left us with a quick guitar transition. At any rate, our congregation typically applauds after the uptempo stuff in the set (does your church do that? I know, that's another discussion entirely) so I had a few seconds to grab the guitar and get to the mic, and then I spoke briefly before 'Pleasing.' That's a strong tune, by the way, if you don't do it at your church, you should look at it.
We did 'Take My Life' differently on Saturday than on Sunday... Saturday I played my electric so I could put a dotted eighth delay on it and really get some cool build at the end, but without that sparkle and percussive nature an acoustic provides, something was missing. Both would have been ideal, but when I had to pick one, the acoustic won the day and I asked our electric player to beef his part up a bit with delay and such. 'Take My Life' is a great song... really fun to play, but we've never done it in a worship rotation, always as a special.
Ok, my rant is done I think. I often wonder if anyone cares about my weekly (ok, not exactly weekly) muses--but hey, if not, I'm keepin' a good journal, right? At any rate, next week is big. Mike Lewis (the Jesus Painter) is coming to town, baptisms, confirmations, and we find out just how loud our congregation wants to love... see you then.
This week was our last weekend of our Love. Loud. initiative-- that is, the last week before the 'celebration' weekend next week, where we bring forth our pledges and finally begin to put flesh to the bone of our last 4 weeks of discussion. We were headed for an uber long service, and so we preemptively cut a tune from the worship set. That always bums me out, but the day felt all kinds of good in spite of that. Here's the setlist we ended up with:
As Long As I Have You - M. Roach
Pleasing - Glenn Packiam
Enough - Tomlin/Giglio
----
feature tune - Take My Life (a la Passion - Tomlin and Co.)
----
Love Loud (tag) - by our own Ryan Redding
The set felt pretty good... I hate having to change guitars quickly in transitions, but it actually worked out ok. I lead from an electric on 'As Long As...' and played acoustic on the other two. Originally, when we were planning on doing 4 tunes, we had the welcome/announcement piece between the first two songs, so I would have had plenty of time for the switch. When we cut the last tune, we felt like a two-song set after the announcements just didn't feel right, so that left us with a quick guitar transition. At any rate, our congregation typically applauds after the uptempo stuff in the set (does your church do that? I know, that's another discussion entirely) so I had a few seconds to grab the guitar and get to the mic, and then I spoke briefly before 'Pleasing.' That's a strong tune, by the way, if you don't do it at your church, you should look at it.
We did 'Take My Life' differently on Saturday than on Sunday... Saturday I played my electric so I could put a dotted eighth delay on it and really get some cool build at the end, but without that sparkle and percussive nature an acoustic provides, something was missing. Both would have been ideal, but when I had to pick one, the acoustic won the day and I asked our electric player to beef his part up a bit with delay and such. 'Take My Life' is a great song... really fun to play, but we've never done it in a worship rotation, always as a special.
Ok, my rant is done I think. I often wonder if anyone cares about my weekly (ok, not exactly weekly) muses--but hey, if not, I'm keepin' a good journal, right? At any rate, next week is big. Mike Lewis (the Jesus Painter) is coming to town, baptisms, confirmations, and we find out just how loud our congregation wants to love... see you then.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
different perspective...
So this Sunday may have literally been the very first time in eight years that I actually came to my own church for just one service, with my family, mid-morning, parked in the lot while it was full, entered the front doors, etc. It was crazy... crazy cool, though.
I love doing that, to be honest. I love to come to my own church, sit in the congregation and just take it in, you know? It's an entirely different worship experience than the one I have while on the platform myself. different. not better. but I love it. Anyway, nothing else of any major significance happened at the service, so this will pretty much conclude the weekend service blog for me this week. Sorry I missed you all last week, by the way, I just altogether... didn't blog about last week's services. It wasn't that they weren't blog-worthy or anything, I just... didn't. That'll happen from time to time, but I'll try to be consistent with this.
If you comment, that'll really motivate me! :)
I love doing that, to be honest. I love to come to my own church, sit in the congregation and just take it in, you know? It's an entirely different worship experience than the one I have while on the platform myself. different. not better. but I love it. Anyway, nothing else of any major significance happened at the service, so this will pretty much conclude the weekend service blog for me this week. Sorry I missed you all last week, by the way, I just altogether... didn't blog about last week's services. It wasn't that they weren't blog-worthy or anything, I just... didn't. That'll happen from time to time, but I'll try to be consistent with this.
If you comment, that'll really motivate me! :)
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