well, after after a Christmas season littered with music and media galore, our first weekend of '09 started off with a fairly simple, straight-forward service. We kicked off a brand new message series about money, of all things. As odd as that seemed to myself, our Worship Design Team and much of the congregation I'm sure, I have to give plenty of kudos to our pastors who prayed diligently months ago about this and have felt called to launch the new year with this, the topic on just about every single person's mind in America. I can't begin to question such prayerfully executed planning.
By the way, feel free to vote in this week's webpoll, to the left there. It's a bit provocative and none of my business, I know... but it's anonymous :)
The series, brilliantly titled "The Other 90%" (I thought it was brilliant, anyway, and no, I didn't come up with it :) is really meant to focus on how Christians are supposed to live with, deal with, steward, etc. the 90% of everything we are blessed with that we're actually allowed to keep. Using the tithe as sort of a underlying premise but not the focus is an interesting take so far.
Setlist looked like this:
Filled With Your Glory (Jon & Tim Neufeld)
Be Glorified (Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio)
Holy Lord (M. Roach)
feature tune: One Pure and Holy Passion (Mark Altrogge)
Mighty to Save (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)
Again, nothing terribly interesting or unique in terms of the songset this weekend. Doesn't mean the Holy Spirit didn't show up in a big way, though... the set felt great. We served Communion this weekend, which is sometimes tricky to program in terms of music if attendance spikes. It did this weekend--particularly at our last service on Sunday--and we found ourselves desperately trying to stretch 'One Pure and Holy...' and 'Mighty to Save' to fill the time required by the Communion piece... it was already a bit tight on Saturday and the first Sunday, so I should have known better. We got away with it, but not without a few miscommunications in the lyric display dept. and such... looking forward to the rest of 2009 with great anticipation. I'm confident God has some amazing things planned for this year.
this post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
Showing posts with label Morning Star Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morning Star Church. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
worship confessional - Christmas 2008
ok, so I got just buried enough in the craziness of the Christmas season at the church, making sure that I was able to spend time with my family and, of course, my outward ministry that I completely defaulted on like, three straight weeks of worship confessionals. So, I'm just gonna recap some of my thoughts on the end of the holiday season with you in one big 'ol Christmas confessional.
December 14.
The weekend of the 14th was especially fun for me 'cause of the feature tune we did. My wife sang 'I'm Letting Go' by Francesca Battistelli which, oddly enough, works perfectly with the story of Mary. I, myself, am a huge fan of using non-traditional Christmas tunes to communicate the many layers of the Christmas story. It was a really tough tune to learn how to play on the piano, and I always dig a good challenge, so that was uber fun. More of the fun Christmas-tunes-interwoven-in-worship stuff, too... I had a really good time with that this year.
December 21.
another weekend I was excited about primarily 'cause of the feature tune. This fall I presented at a national conference that happens to be right here in my backyard in St. Charles, MO called "Write About Jesus"... at the writers' night on Friday, a guy by the name of Don Poythress got up and sang an unbelievable tune called 'Joseph' that silenced the crowd before manifesting a standing ovation. I asked if there was any way he could send a demo my way so I could try to squeeze it into our Christmas season and he burned me a CD right then and there. Unbelievable guy, unbelievable song. I didn't do it justice, but I loved the opportunity to do it... we also did an original video of a modern day Joseph story... kinda based on the idea that if Joseph were here now, faced with the same situation, and decided to self-submit a video for some intervention reality show type thing, here's what it might look like:
December 24.
Ok, so Christmas Eve was probably one of the most special services I've ever been a part of at MSC--for a myriad of reasons. It started a few months ago when we began unpacking the idea of doing something different for Christmas Eve... not different complex, different simple. acoustic. no band. That began to seem a touch lazy, so we thought about how we could do it with some intentionality. We ended up clearing the entire stage and bringing in a Steinway (& Sons) baby grand piano for starters. As it turned out, it ended up being my grandmother's piano that we brought in, which made it very special for our family as it's been in her house since before I can remember. Anyway, we brought in 3 string players and some percussion and filled the stage with candles and it was very cool. We did three original video pieces including this one:
My wife (who is an amazing vocalist) sang an arrangement that I did of 'O Holy Night' with an acoustic guitar, the piano and strings... very cool. Then we sang 'Silent Night' with candles and the whole deal... cheesy? maybe. I love it.
Anyway, so that was our Christmas season... hoped yours was incredible and I look forward to continuing connect with all of you here in 2009! Happy New Year!
December 14.
The weekend of the 14th was especially fun for me 'cause of the feature tune we did. My wife sang 'I'm Letting Go' by Francesca Battistelli which, oddly enough, works perfectly with the story of Mary. I, myself, am a huge fan of using non-traditional Christmas tunes to communicate the many layers of the Christmas story. It was a really tough tune to learn how to play on the piano, and I always dig a good challenge, so that was uber fun. More of the fun Christmas-tunes-interwoven-in-worship stuff, too... I had a really good time with that this year.
December 21.
another weekend I was excited about primarily 'cause of the feature tune. This fall I presented at a national conference that happens to be right here in my backyard in St. Charles, MO called "Write About Jesus"... at the writers' night on Friday, a guy by the name of Don Poythress got up and sang an unbelievable tune called 'Joseph' that silenced the crowd before manifesting a standing ovation. I asked if there was any way he could send a demo my way so I could try to squeeze it into our Christmas season and he burned me a CD right then and there. Unbelievable guy, unbelievable song. I didn't do it justice, but I loved the opportunity to do it... we also did an original video of a modern day Joseph story... kinda based on the idea that if Joseph were here now, faced with the same situation, and decided to self-submit a video for some intervention reality show type thing, here's what it might look like:
December 24.
Ok, so Christmas Eve was probably one of the most special services I've ever been a part of at MSC--for a myriad of reasons. It started a few months ago when we began unpacking the idea of doing something different for Christmas Eve... not different complex, different simple. acoustic. no band. That began to seem a touch lazy, so we thought about how we could do it with some intentionality. We ended up clearing the entire stage and bringing in a Steinway (& Sons) baby grand piano for starters. As it turned out, it ended up being my grandmother's piano that we brought in, which made it very special for our family as it's been in her house since before I can remember. Anyway, we brought in 3 string players and some percussion and filled the stage with candles and it was very cool. We did three original video pieces including this one:
My wife (who is an amazing vocalist) sang an arrangement that I did of 'O Holy Night' with an acoustic guitar, the piano and strings... very cool. Then we sang 'Silent Night' with candles and the whole deal... cheesy? maybe. I love it.
Anyway, so that was our Christmas season... hoped yours was incredible and I look forward to continuing connect with all of you here in 2009! Happy New Year!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
worship confessional (9.07.08)
One thing that's been weird the last year or so for me while leading worship at church has been getting used to in-ear monitors. I like 'em a lot for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that (I think) my tuning improves with them as opposed wedges... the biggest flaw I've encountered is the lack of connection with a congregation--and really, I mean an emotional, internal connection rather than an outward, stage presence type connection. I think I've done a fine job in overcoming the awkwardness of in-ears in terms of whether or not the congregation still relates with me. But this week, while we sang 'Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)' at the last service of the weekend, something really cool happened...
I had taken one ear out, as I sometimes do, so that I could get a little more feel of the congregation singing 'Mighty to Save' which was our second tune... the transition came a little quick and when I put my guitar down and headed over to the piano to start 'Amazing Grace,' I didn't have a chance to put my right in-ear back in. As we started singing, I realized two things: first off, people just love to sing Amazing Grace, so I realized that the congregation was at that glorious point of no return in their worship experience, ready to pour out their voices to our Creator. Secondly, I realized that unlike my acoustic--which is panned pretty hard left (so that I can hear it really well even when I remove my right in-ear)--my piano was panned pretty hard right... so I really couldn't hear it all that well. As much as I love to hear the instrument I'm playing, just for tuning and preventing mistakes, etc. I began to hear the swell of voices--400 to 500 strong in our auditorium just filling the place with His praises. I wasn't about to put my right in-ear back in, and I just bathed in the sound of our voices lifted to Him. It was very cool, and I realized once again what I often miss having both of those suckers pluggin' up my ears.
But I digress... it was a great weekend, and our setlist looked like this:
A Thousand Hallelujahs - (M. Roach)
Mighty to Save - (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) - (Tomlin and Co.)
feature tune - I Can Only Imagine (MercyMe) - acoustic version
Hosanna - (Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown)
this post is also part of 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
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
nailed to the cross...
Horatio Spafford articulated it so well in the classic Hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" when he penned the beautiful stream-of-conciousness lyric:
My sin--O the bliss of this glorious thought--my sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more... Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
At our Good Friday services this past week, those in attendance were invited to put flesh on the bone of that poignant declaration. We were each asked to write a sin on a small piece of paper. Then during a time of worship at the end of the service--which included communion, prayer, singing and the opportunity to give our financial offerings--we were also to come forward and nail our sins to the cross.
We had a large cross--10' x 5'6"--made for the services. Now, we're well aware this w
asn't some brilliant idea that no one had ever thought of... we knew it had been done before. In fact, we had done it before. But, for some reason, we'd not realized--at least I'd not realized--the impact it would make... not just on the congregation, but on those presenting as well. During the first service, I was absolutely wrecked by the sound of the hammers. My voice broke along with my heart as I closed my eyes and imagined my Savior on that very cross, having nails driven through him in cacophonous fashion by men, women and children alike. I couldn't help but take some photos afterward, the first of which is the cross from my perspective up on the platform.
My sin--O the bliss of this glorious thought--my sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more... Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
At our Good Friday services this past week, those in attendance were invited to put flesh on the bone of that poignant declaration. We were each asked to write a sin on a small piece of paper. Then during a time of worship at the end of the service--which included communion, prayer, singing and the opportunity to give our financial offerings--we were also to come forward and nail our sins to the cross.
We had a large cross--10' x 5'6"--made for the services. Now, we're well aware this w
asn't some brilliant idea that no one had ever thought of... we knew it had been done before. In fact, we had done it before. But, for some reason, we'd not realized--at least I'd not realized--the impact it would make... not just on the congregation, but on those presenting as well. During the first service, I was absolutely wrecked by the sound of the hammers. My voice broke along with my heart as I closed my eyes and imagined my Savior on that very cross, having nails driven through him in cacophonous fashion by men, women and children alike. I couldn't help but take some photos afterward, the first of which is the cross from my perspective up on the platform.Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The Money Song (that never talks about money)
Ok, so this weekend we did a message at MSC about how the word 'money' is taboo at church. We had a little fun with it, and made a fake Taboo card (from the board game) and told the pastor he had to deliver the entire message without saying any of the words on the card. He obliged, but also counter-challenged me to write a song...
Now, obviously, I wrote this not from my own perspective, but rather from the perspective of someone who simply doesn't want to ever hear the word 'money' in church. It's a bit tongue-in-cheek, hopefully light-hearted... I went ahead and included a copy of the Taboo card in the corner... makes it a little more fun. Hope you enjoy!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
the little drummer boy...
...so this Christmas Eve service was my four year-old's debut on the platform playing with the praise band! He was our very own 'little drummer boy' and he had an absolute blast. Take a look!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
November 3 & 4, 2007
Worship Setlist:
Beautiful One (Tim Hughes)
May the Words of My Mouth (Tim Hughes)
Amazing (John Newton, John P. Rees, Mark Roach)
I Stand Amazed (Charles Hutchison Gabriel)
Holy Is The Lord (Chris Tomlin)
Hey all... long weekend for us at MSC--the services on Saturday and Sunday were followed by a baptism service Sunday night @6pm. All I can say is... that's why we do what do... what an awesome thing to witness all of those professions of faith.
Well, I'm off tomorrow a.m. to Washington--first night of the tour with Aaron Shust and Building 429. Meredith Andrews (new Word artist, I believe) will be there, too. If we're in your city, drop by and worship with us, and say 'hey'... regardless, watch the blog, 'cause I'm gonna try to keep you all posted throughout the tour.
Many blessings!
Mark
[phil 4.8]
Monday, October 29, 2007
multiplicity.
October 27 & 28, 2007
Worship Setlist:
Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman, Beth Redman)
All I Can Do is Surrender (M. Roach)
Let My Words Be Few (Matt Redman, Beth Redman)
How Great is Our God (Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash)
The Noise (Ian Eskelin, Scott Davis, Jesse Daniels)
Forever (Chris Tomlin)
yeah... so as I look at the songs we did this week... I guess it was like 'Passion Weekend' with a gratuitous original thrown in, huh? :) Seriously, I do this from time to time, where I'll lay out the setlist just based on that delicate combination of rotation, vibe and transition and then I'll look back and realize that our whole set was written by Chris Tomlin or Matt Redman--or in this case, both of them. Does anyone else do that? Does anyone else care? I know the typical congregation member probably doesn't even notice, but do other worship leaders out there avoid this when possible? yeah... just totally curious.
It was a good set... so I don't really care. :) ... and I tend to think God wasn't disappointed with my lack of numbers in the songwriter column. I hope he was pleased with our offerings to Him this week. Still... I must admit, I may avoid it in the future (if I actually notice it ahead of time :)
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
he lost.
October 20 & 21, 2007
Worship Setlist:
You Are Good (Israel Houghton)
Indescribable (Laura Story)
You Are (M. Roach)
Adding to the Noise (Switchfoot)
Breathe (Marie Barnett)
Ok, so this weekend, only our second ever with services on Saturday and Sunday, was full of excitement to say the least... We continued a great series called 'Noise' that just deals with the noise and distractions in our lives. This week's emphasis: filters. We discussed some of the most common audio filters and then really honed in on the notch filter--a filter that identifies an offensive band of frequencies and attenuates it (turns it down) in order to hear the rest of audio undisturbed. Well, come on, it works in theory :)
Anyway, the message and premise were great, but we had our share of attacks this weekend: First of all, the virtually complete loss of our Sr. Pastor's voice. I guess that wasn't enough for Saturday and first service Sunday, 'cause then we had enough tech problems to take plenty of the focus off of the rasp-filled message. The highlight (read: lowlight) to me was during the Switchfoot tune--after forgetting to turn my own volume up, delaying the intro a few bars, I started to sing the first line when I looked at our rear screen (yes, I cheat lyrically by using a rear screen) only to gaze into vast blackness... or at least as much blackness as a low-lit white screen can provide. I believe I actually uttered--ok, blurted--the word "wow" within close enough proximity to my mic that all knew that I was taken completely off guard.
So just in case you other worship leaders out there have ever wondered what would happen if something visually catastrophic were to impede your presentation during a service, I could give a little first-hand testimony of just how not fun it is. Good news: we all survived, the message came through in spite of it all, and ultimately, the enemy lost the fight. :)
Monday, October 15, 2007
October 13 & 14, 2007
Worship Setlist:
Here For the King (Mark White)
Forever (Chris Tomlin)
Change Me (Gary Shoemaker, Rebecca Shoemaker)
The Heart of Worship (Matt Redman)
Still (Christy Nockels, Nathan Nockels)
Enough (Chris Tomlin)
we had an amazing weekend at MSC this last few days. It started with our first ever Saturday night service--ok, so 4:30pm isn't exactly night, but we all still seem to call it that--and it was packed... a family dinner and "Civic Day" event followed, complete with the firetrucks, ambulance, Sheriff's car, safe house, etc... and a helicopter landing on our parking lot. It wasn't punctual, but it got there. My son Conner freaked out--he loved the whole event--and as odd as it may seem, I'd never seen a helicopter land in front of me before either, so it was really cool.
Sunday morning followed, and we had two full services--a nice break from the one-lightly-populated-followed-by-two-full-service we'd been sustaining for the last several months. It was great for my voice, and we all got another hour and a half of sleep or so... win/win.
The message this weekend was [mute] ... the first in our new series entitled 'noise.' Man, it's a pervasive issue in all of our lives, the idea of noise--distractions, temptations, obstuctions, etc.--in our lives. I think it's going to be a really powerful message series and I'm looking forward to doing some cool tunes for it, too...
Well, until next time...
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Sunday, Oct. 7th
Worship Setlist:
Everlasting God (Brenton Brown, Ken Riley)
Happy Day (Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon)
You Never Let Go (Matt Redman, Beth Redman)
All Who Are Thirsty (Brenton Brown, Glen Robertson)
Here I Am, Lord (Dan Schutte)
We wrapped up our series called 'Just Walk Across the Room' yesterday with a message entitled 'The Big Fish'... Nothing spectacular happened from a musical standpoint at the service, but it's always awesome to see God show up in spite of ourselves. I haven't been a very good steward of my own ability to sleep lately, especially on Saturday nights, and I was running on fumes. We worship a Creator far more amazing than I have the capacity to understand, and I think that reality is most potent to me after I walk off of that platform--little, flawed, pathetic man that I am--only able to bring anyone into the throne room by His permission and with the help of His grace...
Ok, that's enough :) Anyway, this Saturday marks our first EVER Saturday 4:30pm service, and following it, a more reasonable 7:45am call time on Sunday a.m. and only two services... My vocal chords will undoubtedly thank me.
Friday, September 28, 2007
formulas.
Ok, so I got a question in a blog comment yesterday, and it's actually a question I've gotten several times at conferences and such as well, so I thought it kinda typified blogworthiness. I'm all about the non-words these days, aren't I?
So the question was basically how much do I do my own songs in church--and then how often do I use songs in general... SO... I thought I'd answer that question for any and all who are also curious but also unveil my typical, though inconsistent, strategic, though not always thought through, barely formulaic formulas for worship planning. We all have those, right?
First of all, I share on one condition: if you lead worship or plan worship services and you're reading this, you share, too... in fact, I hope you feel some amount of guilt if you're deciding to read on without any intention of sharing, 'cause that's not part of the deal...
Ok, so I'll start with the two-part question... I usually am pretty intentional about avoiding using more than one of my originals in any given service. I also will frequently have full services without any of my songs--I gots no problems with dat. As for how often I'll use any given song, I think we run about a 10 week rotation in our tunes. Now, we only do 3-4 songs at the beginning of services, and one at the end. The ending tune is usually pulled from the up-tempo portion of a services 2-3 weeks prior, so that tightens the rotation on the fast tunes a bit. Slow tunes really get a long rotation, 'cause we don't do as many in the service. I've been known to go several months without doing a slow tune that is considered in 'regular' rotation. I don't love that, but some tunes just resonate too well to cut, you know? (I'm not talking about mine) :)
When I introduce a brand new tune, I usually try to end the service with it as well, just to really make sure it gets in the ears of the congregation, and then I'll get it back in the rotation sooner, in 4-6 weeks or so... I know some people really hammer new tunes so that the congregation learns them quickly, but I really put the burden on the song selection being incredible congregational. I'm ridiculous about the songs I pick, and I'm just as hard on my own tunes as I am on anyone else's... if they're not really singable, we just plain usually don't do them. Part of that is 'cause we have so many first time visitors every week at our church, too. I want people to be able to sing along in the worship set regardless of whether or not they've heard the songs before.
As for the tunes on Every Reason Why... well, I'll just say that every song on the record has been sung at our church multiple times, including 'Foundations,' which is not a congregational worship tune, but was written for a message of the same title. Not all of the songs are in a current rotation, if you will, but maybe I'll expand on that in another post... this one has become... long.
So the question was basically how much do I do my own songs in church--and then how often do I use songs in general... SO... I thought I'd answer that question for any and all who are also curious but also unveil my typical, though inconsistent, strategic, though not always thought through, barely formulaic formulas for worship planning. We all have those, right?
First of all, I share on one condition: if you lead worship or plan worship services and you're reading this, you share, too... in fact, I hope you feel some amount of guilt if you're deciding to read on without any intention of sharing, 'cause that's not part of the deal...
Ok, so I'll start with the two-part question... I usually am pretty intentional about avoiding using more than one of my originals in any given service. I also will frequently have full services without any of my songs--I gots no problems with dat. As for how often I'll use any given song, I think we run about a 10 week rotation in our tunes. Now, we only do 3-4 songs at the beginning of services, and one at the end. The ending tune is usually pulled from the up-tempo portion of a services 2-3 weeks prior, so that tightens the rotation on the fast tunes a bit. Slow tunes really get a long rotation, 'cause we don't do as many in the service. I've been known to go several months without doing a slow tune that is considered in 'regular' rotation. I don't love that, but some tunes just resonate too well to cut, you know? (I'm not talking about mine) :)
When I introduce a brand new tune, I usually try to end the service with it as well, just to really make sure it gets in the ears of the congregation, and then I'll get it back in the rotation sooner, in 4-6 weeks or so... I know some people really hammer new tunes so that the congregation learns them quickly, but I really put the burden on the song selection being incredible congregational. I'm ridiculous about the songs I pick, and I'm just as hard on my own tunes as I am on anyone else's... if they're not really singable, we just plain usually don't do them. Part of that is 'cause we have so many first time visitors every week at our church, too. I want people to be able to sing along in the worship set regardless of whether or not they've heard the songs before.
As for the tunes on Every Reason Why... well, I'll just say that every song on the record has been sung at our church multiple times, including 'Foundations,' which is not a congregational worship tune, but was written for a message of the same title. Not all of the songs are in a current rotation, if you will, but maybe I'll expand on that in another post... this one has become... long.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
first time for everything...
ok, so this week I did something I literally haven't done once in the 8 years I've been leading worship at Morning Star Church... I overslept--not just overslept, like a half hour or something, I have done that before--no, I overslept big. Like the King of Glory was Jesus this Sunday and Mark was the king of oversleptedness. Look that one up.
So, yeah, I woke up 3 minutes before the band call on Sunday. I live almost a half hour away from the church. I usually get there about a half hour before the band call. wow. So I wake up (2 hours late!) and call my brand new Associate Music Director, who of course is already at the church like everyone else, and I explain to him that I'm late... and going to be later... and for some reason (probably because I was still 3/4 asleep) I proceeded to talk to him instead of making a b-line for the shower and getting to the church. At any rate, he covered for me big. He was the king of coveruptedness. Won't find that one either.
Thanks, Ryan. huge.
Anyway, in spite of all that, I actually was able to focus on worshiping--even in first service, though I was a bit glazed over--and we had a good Sunday. The message was awesome. We've just started a series called 'Just Walk Across the Room' from Willow and our Pastor really said some stuff this Sunday that I just think the church needs to hear. My biggest worry on a Sunday like that, though--you know, when it starts that way and I'm kinda under a cloud--is that I won't serve my God properly with my offering of worship. I try to pray through that kinda stuff, but we're only human, right? So, I really felt that by the 2nd service (we have three right now) I was able to really hone in and focus. Lord, I do hope and pray you were pleased by our efforts...
Looking forward to next week. The tunelist over to the left there looks really wimpy, but we've actually got a lot of cool music happening... some Toad the Wet Sprocket, which always make my week brighter, some Matthew West, and a reprise of one of the worship tunes... that's why there's only three tunes listed. Anyway, I guess I'll tell you how it went next week!
p.s. I'm a little offended that no one left any comments about my dog... just a little (and so is J.T. )
So, yeah, I woke up 3 minutes before the band call on Sunday. I live almost a half hour away from the church. I usually get there about a half hour before the band call. wow. So I wake up (2 hours late!) and call my brand new Associate Music Director, who of course is already at the church like everyone else, and I explain to him that I'm late... and going to be later... and for some reason (probably because I was still 3/4 asleep) I proceeded to talk to him instead of making a b-line for the shower and getting to the church. At any rate, he covered for me big. He was the king of coveruptedness. Won't find that one either.
Thanks, Ryan. huge.
Anyway, in spite of all that, I actually was able to focus on worshiping--even in first service, though I was a bit glazed over--and we had a good Sunday. The message was awesome. We've just started a series called 'Just Walk Across the Room' from Willow and our Pastor really said some stuff this Sunday that I just think the church needs to hear. My biggest worry on a Sunday like that, though--you know, when it starts that way and I'm kinda under a cloud--is that I won't serve my God properly with my offering of worship. I try to pray through that kinda stuff, but we're only human, right? So, I really felt that by the 2nd service (we have three right now) I was able to really hone in and focus. Lord, I do hope and pray you were pleased by our efforts...
Looking forward to next week. The tunelist over to the left there looks really wimpy, but we've actually got a lot of cool music happening... some Toad the Wet Sprocket, which always make my week brighter, some Matthew West, and a reprise of one of the worship tunes... that's why there's only three tunes listed. Anyway, I guess I'll tell you how it went next week!
p.s. I'm a little offended that no one left any comments about my dog... just a little (and so is J.T. )
Monday, August 27, 2007
'Flood'
ok, so all who are reading this... I'll likely be posting a new blog here every Sunday or Monday just reflecting on our weekend services at MSC--you know, just 'cause that's what I do, and I thought maybe some of you would be mildly interested in such a thing. There's a little 'comment' button around here somewhere that you can click if you disagree, I'd love to know! :)
Anyway, so this Sunday we wrapped up a series on the flood called 'The Perfect Storm'... this week's message was about God's promise that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. We did the song 'Flood' by Jars of Clay--come on, that song is ridiculously fun to play! We introduced 'You Never Let Go' (Redman) for the first time, and it was received really well... definitely a keeper. I think I'm a bit late to that party, actually. Other than that, we did 'Beautiful One,' 'You Are Good,' and 'Breathe.' We had a really cool moment in the middle of 'Breathe' where we just vamped over the last three chords for a few minutes and just worshiped spontaneously... we don't do that kind of very often at all at MSC, but I love those moments. I usually wind up coming up with a little melody and lyric that we all join in on before we head back into the song form. It was completely different at all three services, and I thought it was pretty cool... hopefully, God enjoyed it as well.
I'd love to hear about your weekend services!
Bye for now...
Mark
[phil 4.8]
Anyway, so this Sunday we wrapped up a series on the flood called 'The Perfect Storm'... this week's message was about God's promise that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. We did the song 'Flood' by Jars of Clay--come on, that song is ridiculously fun to play! We introduced 'You Never Let Go' (Redman) for the first time, and it was received really well... definitely a keeper. I think I'm a bit late to that party, actually. Other than that, we did 'Beautiful One,' 'You Are Good,' and 'Breathe.' We had a really cool moment in the middle of 'Breathe' where we just vamped over the last three chords for a few minutes and just worshiped spontaneously... we don't do that kind of very often at all at MSC, but I love those moments. I usually wind up coming up with a little melody and lyric that we all join in on before we head back into the song form. It was completely different at all three services, and I thought it was pretty cool... hopefully, God enjoyed it as well.
I'd love to hear about your weekend services!
Bye for now...
Mark
[phil 4.8]
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