Make Me A Servant

I have been reading through Luke's gospel in the past couple of months, and over the last week I have started to see a recurring theme in Luke 16-17: servanthood. Listen to Jesus' words:

"No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” -Luke 16:13

“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” -Luke 17:7-10

I shared these verses with our worship team last night at rehearsal, and used the study notes in my ESV Bible to explain the point Jesus was making in this parable: that we are unworthy servants. That God owes us nothing, and we owe Him everything, even our very lives. And that in order to ensure we are serving God first and foremost before money or anything else, we are called to use our God-given gifts, abilities, time, energy, services, and resources to serve others and to further the work of the kingdom.

And that is exactly what we are doing by serving on the worship team. We have the privilege of leading our church body in corporate worship, and we are leveraging the musical gifts God has given us to bring Him glory. These verses are a great reminder that as worship leaders, we are first and foremost servants of God. Let's ask God today to give us an attitude of servanthood in all that we do, especially as we stand before our church Sunday after Sunday and lead people in praise to our Savior.

Remember the song "Make Me a Servant"? Let's make this our prayer today:

"Make me a servant humble and meek
Lord let me lift up those who are weak
And may the prayer of my heart always be
Make me a servant make me a servant
Make me a servant today"
-Kelly Willard, 1982

Faith in Action Sunday, pt. 2

This past Sunday our church had a great time getting out into the community and serving those in need. We collected 2,840 food items and canned goods for the Wheeling Township Food Pantry, and all came back at 5:00 pm for a powerful service of worship and celebration in our church gym. Here's what the service looked like:

Instrumental Prelude: Blessed Be Your Name (A)
Welcome - Dave
-Happy Day (B)
-How Great Thou Art (B) - Baloche version
[Prayer] - Scott
-Jesus Messiah (A)
Reading: Ephesians 2:4-9
-Amazing Grace / My Chains Are Gone (F)
Testimonies / Stories from the day
Kentucky Mission Team Dedication
Highlight Slideshow
-Stronger (C)

Faith in Action Sunday

This weekend is our church's 2nd annual Faith in Action Sunday - where we cancel our morning services and instead go out into the community and do service projects - and then return at 5:00 pm for a church service and dinner in the gym. I am so excited about this weekend, because of the potential it holds for our church to love and serve our surrounding community, and to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those who need help and who often cannot help themselves.

I'll try to post some highlights, along with an outline of our Sunday evening service, sometime next week.

Passion 2010

Guess where I'll be January 2-5, 2010? Yep, you guessed it ... Atlanta, GA. Kristen and I are going to be volunteers at Passion 2010. I'm so excited for what God is going to do in these days. Check out the promo video!

Psalm 42

Over the past year or so I have been studying the Psalms, using the NIV Application Commentary Volume 1 by Gerald Wilson. The Psalms have proven to be a place of refuge, where I am constantly encouraged in life and ministry, and where my understanding of worship has been shaped and challenged. Today I read Psalm 42 - one of the lament Psalms - and was struck by how the Psalmist dealt with his sorrow. Verse 6 says, "My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember You ..."

Wilson points out in his commentary the value of memory, and of remembering who God is and what He has done when we go through times of deep despair and sadness. He then connects it with corporate worship, and says,

"Worship together is a place of memory. Together we call to mind what it is so easy to forget alone - that God is good and that his steadfast love endures forever for those who trust in Him. Corporate worship counters our society's message of forgetfulness and sends a message both outwardly and inwardly that we are not alone. Worship is a place for testimony and celebration. It is a time for confession and forgiveness. It is a place where we remember the past, receive power to face the present, and conceive hope for tomorrow."

I really resonated with this idea - that coming together for corporate worship is about reminding each other of God's faithfulness and grace in each of our lives. Are we doing our part as worship leaders to remind ourselves and those we lead of God's continued faithfulness to His people, through the songs we sing and the prayers we pray and the Scripture passages we read? It may be exactly what many hurting people need to hear when they gather for corporate worship.

God is GREAT

This past Sunday at ACC I used a quote from J.I. Packer to set up / transition into the song "How Great Is Our God." I was trying to think of a fresh way to transition without resorting to the two most often used methods: 1) Scripture and 2) Prayer. Not that these two methods are bad by any means, but I think it is good to weave in other elements that draw people's attention to the Savior from time to time.

The quote is a bit lengthy, so we decided to have it on the screen so people could actually see it and let it sink in a little better.

Here's what it said:

“Today, vast stress is laid on the thought that God is personal, but this truth is so stated as to leave the impression that God is a person of the same sort as we are – weak, inadequate, ineffective, a little pathetic. But this is not the God of the Bible! Our personal life is a finite thing: it is limited in every direction, in space, in time, in knowledge, in power. But God is not so limited. He is eternal, infinite, and almighty. He has us in his hands; we never have him in ours. Like us he is personal; but unlike us, he is great.” -Knowing God

After reading the quote, I followed up by explaining how and why it grabbed my attention: because magnifying God's greatness and recognizing that he is greater than we are is at the core of what worship is about.

WEEKEND REVIEW #14 - AUGUST 30, 2009

We had a great time worshiping the Lord this past Sunday at ACC. It was the last Sunday in our Proverbs: Rumble Strips Series, and we celebrated communion together. Here's what we did:

Instrumental Prelude: He Is Exalted (G) -an oldie but a goodie!
Welcome | Announcements - Allison
Recite Apostle's Creed
-Blessed Be Your Name (B)
-It Is Well (B)
Message: "Loose Lips" - Dave
Offering
-Psalm 19 - May the Words of My Mouth (D)
Communion - Allan

-Jesus, Thank You (A) - great song From Pat Sczebel and the folks at Sovereign Grace. Check out the lyrics below.

-Mighty To Save (A)
Benediction: Psalm 19:14

We're also in the process of adding some musicians to our worship team. Pray for God's leading on this in the coming weeks! I'm excited!

Yahweh

Last week I bought the new Hillsong CD - "Faith + Hope + Love" and have been giving it a few listens over the past few days. My favorite song so far has been track 6 - "Yahweh". The lyrics to the chorus are simple ... "We look to Yahweh ... our hope is Yahweh ... and he shall reign forever and ever." And yet the Hillsong writers have a way of taking simple words and phrases and crafting brilliant, memorable melodies with them. This song has been running through my head and heart like crazy!

Today I found this video of the song, but it also includes an extended intro. to the song that explains the meaning of the name "Yahweh" and brings greater clarity to the lyrics and the theme of the song. I think this is a great example of using verbal transitions well between songs, and of explaining the point behind a song or helping the congregation understand how the song connects to their lives. Worship leaders, are you using your transitions well, with an aim to serve your congregation and ensure they understand what they are singing about?

GEAR (PART 2)

Just over a year ago I gave in and converted to being a Mac user, and ever since I have been incredibly happy with that decision. I use my MacBook Pro for just about everything now, and have been very satisfied with all of the software that comes standard on a Mac.

I use GarageBand to record demos of songs I am working on, which works seamlessly with the M-Audio Profire 610 Firewire Interface. The 610 has two Mic/Line inputs on the front, which I normally use for guitar and vocals. It also has two more line inputs on the back, eight line outputs, MIDI in/out capability, and two headphone outputs. I would highly recommend the 610 if you're looking for a basic recording interface and won't need to be tracking more than two sources at one time.

WEEKEND REVIEW #13 - July 26, 2009

OK, so the last few weeks have been crazy ... I was on vacation for a week right after the 4th of July, then came home and got sick, then took a modular class at Trinity from Monday-Friday from 8:00-4:30 that completely consumed my life for a week. So I'm finally back to "normal" this week. I know, I know ... it's no excuse for not blogging in a month!

Anyways, Part 2 of the Gear Post is coming soon.

Now to review this past Sunday ... anyone involved in worship planning on a regular basis knows that summer is CRAZY in terms of scheduling and service layouts being different. Pastors take extended vacation or Sabbaticals, so there is often a great deal of flexibility required in working with guest speakers, associate pastors, etc. who may have a different teaching style, or who may preach a much shorter or WAY longer sermon than you're used to. Another factor in summer is often band members being on vacation, and having to either strip down to an acoustic set or bring in some guest musicians. So the challenge becomes keeping consistency with the normal "feel" of your service when you have different or less people involved. Well, this past Sunday we had an altogether different kind of service than normal, but it seemed that people really appreciated the change of pace. Here are some factors that were different:

1) We gave the band a week off and I led solo from my acoustic.
2) In place of a sermon, we gave the time to our youth mission team who had just returned from South Dakota. Chris shared about seeing God's faithfulness through his own life and throughout the week, we watched a slideshow from the trip, and four students were interviewed about what they learned on the trip.
3) We celebrated communion together, but instead of having the ushers serve it via passing down each row, we instructed people to come forward and serve each other. (So Dave would serve the first person, then that person would step up and serve the next person, and so on, and so on)

We're still thinking through whether it was wise to alter so many factors on one Sunday, but I think one benefit is that it was a break from routine and a great opportunity for our congregation to see how God is working in the lives of our students!

The service order shaped up like this:

Welcome | Announcements - Michelle
-One Way (B)
Congregational Reading: Psalm 100:1-5
-Blessed Be Your Name (A)
Lessons Learned: God's Faithfulness - Chris
-You Never Let Go (B)
-Jesus Paid It All (B) - 1st service only
Offering | Mission Trip Slideshow
Student Interviews
Communion - Dave

GEAR (PART 1)

I have appreciated when other worship leaders whose blogs I read have posted on what kind of gear they use, from instruments to effects pedals to software to hardware. So I thought I would write a series of posts on what kind of gear I use and our church uses.

So for all you gearheads out there ... enjoy.

I play a Taylor acoustic / electric grand auditorium - model 314CE. I bought it new in 2003, and it has the Venetian cutaway and Fishman prefix plus pickup system. (I bought this right before Taylor switched over to the expression system on all their acoustic / electrics.)

I run my guitar through a Boss TU-2 chromatic tuner pedal, and out through a Pro Co DB-1 direct box into the church's house system.




I have two Kyser capos, and recently was given a G7th Nashville capo that I now use. I have found that the G7th capo tends to put my guitar out of tune less than others because it has a softer spring.
Strings: I have used Elixir Nanoweb medium lights and D'Addario EXP16 lights. The EXP16's seem to stand up a little better and break less.

Picks: I use medium-gauge picks, and like Fender and Taylor's.

Part 2 to come ...

Weekend Review #12 - June 14, 2009

We did a couple more songs than usual this morning, which was fun. Here's what we did:

Call to Worship: Psalm 34: 1-10 (the three of us vocalists split up the passage and we each read a few verses)
-All Because of Jesus (A)
-Jesus Saves (B) by Tim Hughes (teach)
Announcements (Jamie)
-A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (C)
Part 1 Message: Dave
-You Are My King (D)
-Lord, Be Glorified (D)
Part 2 Message: Dave
Offering
-From the Inside Out (C)
Closing prayer

Overall, I feel like we had a good balance of old and new songs this morning. It was also great to play with a full band again this weekend!

Weekend Review #11 - June 7, 2009

We did more of an acoustic set this weekend with piano, synth, acoustic guitar, bass, and djembe/shakers. We also started things off a bit differently by observing a moment of silence right after announcements and before we did any singing. Silence can be scary for worship leaders ... especially when it equals "awkward transition time between songs." But when prefaced and explained effectively, I believe it can be a powerful tool in preparing one's heart and mind for worship. And that's what we were aiming for by placing it at the beginning of the service.

-You Never Let Go (B) - instrumental prelude
Announcements - Chris
Moment of silence
-Here I Am To Worship (E)
-Hosanna / Praise Is Rising (G)
Comment as a bridge between songs (Referenced the line "You are the God who saves us", and explained how we are saved through Christ's sacrifice, specifically his blood. Ephesians 2:13)
-Nothing But the Blood (B) - Matt Redman
Video: "Spirit"
-Consuming Fire (G)
Message: "The Holy Spirit" - Dave
Offering
-I Need Thee Every Hour (G) - Jars of Clay arrangement
Benediction: 2 Corinthians 13:14

Here's the video we used:

Sermon Jams

I came across this fun web site called Relevant Revolution that takes sermon excerpts from John Piper, Alistair Begg, Ravi Zacharias, etc. and puts them to hip-hop beats. The best part is they are all offered for download free of charge here.

Click here to listen to a sample.

Vacation + New Music

You may have heard the rumors and thought they were just rumors ... but it's true. I actually met Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin while my wife and I were on vacation last week in Panama City Beach, FL. If you know anything about me at all, you know that Louie and Chris are two men whom I deeply respect and admire for not only their passionate love for God, but also for the way God has used them to shape much of what is the modern worship movement today. I was very much encouraged and humbled to have the opportunity to meet them while on vacation. And the funny thing is after meeting them last week I kept asking myself, "What are the chances?" But I know better. In retrospect I know that God had a plan and purpose in me meeting both of them, and I believe He has used it in my life to encourage me in my role as a songwriter and worship leader. He also used it to call attention to the fact that I was idolizing these men and putting them on pedestals I shouldn't have. Nevertheless, I am still blown away by the fact that I got to meet Louie and Chris while on vacation, and that they were vacationing at the same beach club we had been staying at the entire week.

Anyways, vacation truly was a blessing, and now I am back and ready to face this summer head-on. I feel rested, rejuvenated, and refreshed, and for that I am grateful.

I am also grateful for ... new music! Check out these two new releases out in the past week that I have been loving and listening to ... a lot:

1) Hillsong United - A_CROSS // The_EARTH: Tear Down the Walls













2) Christy Nockels - Life Light Up
(her sixstepsrecords debut!)

Passion Conferences

For the past few weeks I've been engrossed in my final project / paper for Cultural Engagement class. My topic is "The Influence of Passion Conferences On the Modern Worship Movement." I already knew a good deal about Passion before I started researching for my project, but just about everything I have learned has impressed me and has been positive. I love what Passion has done with preserving old hymns, and adding a new chorus or bridge to many of them has breathed a freshness on it.

Here is the video I showed in my class presentation of "Jesus Paid It All", with the bridge written by Alex Nifong and led by Kristian Stanfill at Passion '06.

Benedictions

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Gospel Coalition Conference at the Rosemont Convention Center. The Gospel Coalition is a group of pastors and church leaders that hold to the conviction that the gospel of Jesus Christ must stay at the center of life and ministry, and at this conference I had the opportunity to hear messages from many widely-respected pastors. It was a refreshing week, and my heart and mind are full!

Something that Ligon Duncan said in his message on 2 Timothy 4:6-22 really made me think. He said, “People often treat benedictions like the emergency instructions you hear on an airplane. They zone out and think they don’t need to listen because they’ve heard them a million times. But I guarantee you, those passengers on Flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River were wishing they would’ve listened a little better to those instructions!”

The word benediction comes from the Latin word meaning “to bless.” Benedictions in scripture, such as the one in 2 Timothy 4:22, “The Lord be with your spirit - grace be with you” are not just a formal part of the letter that the author was required to throw in. It’s the same with our benedictions at the close of our services at ACC. They are not just a nice way to end the service. They are meant to send people out with hope by speaking about the truth of who God is. They are designed to equip us for the battles we will face in the week ahead, until we can gather again as a church.

So how do you treat benedictions? Do you zone out and start thinking about what’s for lunch? Or do you soak in every word and think about it so you can bring it to memory again later in the week when you are exhausted and need a spiritual “pick me up”?

If you want to listen to and watch Ligon Duncan's complete message from the conference, you can do so here.

Weekend Review #10 - April 19, 2009

Powerful services at ACC this past weekend. So as not to overuse and generalize phrases like those, let me explain... :)

One of our elders lost his job this past week. Dave was preaching on the first line of the Apostle's Creed - "I believe in God the Father, Almighty maker of heaven and earth." When Dave talked about God as Almighty, Sovereign, and as our loving Father, he had this elder come forward and share about how God was working in his life and how He is still sovereign even in the midst of layoffs and a huge economic downturn. I believe this was a huge encouragement to many in our church who have lost jobs or are at risk. And the songs really connected with the theme and resonated with people's hearts - I love when that happens!

Here's what we did:

Prelude: Blessed Be Your Name (A)
-All Because of Jesus (A)
-Everlasting God (A)
-Special: Creed (G) - Third Day version
Message Part 1 - Dave
-God of Wonders (A)
Message Part 2 - Dave
-You Are God Alone (B)
Benediction: 1 Timothy 1:17

The Gospel Coalition Conference starts today - I can't wait! It's going to be a jam-packed week. Hoping to write a post early next week with some of the stuff I've learned...

EASTER AT ACC

Here's some shots that Brion Kendzora took at our church on Easter Sunday:

Revelation Song

I've been studying and meditating on Revelation 4 and 5 as part of an assignment for one of my classes. It is amazing to me that God has given us this picture of what throne-room worship looks like, and ultimately, what eternity will be like in heaven.

Every time I read this passage I find myself thinking about or listening to "Revelation Song" by Jennie Lee Riddle. I first heard this song at Harvest's live worship recording in Elgin last June '08. So I have listened a lot to Meredith Andrews sing it on Harvest's Lift Up the Name cd. Today I just watched the video of Kari Jobe singing it at Gateway Church in Dallas - they have the video on CCLI tv right now. It is an incredible song - the lyrics are straight out of Revelation 4:8-11.

Enjoy!

Transposr.com - What a life saver!

I've been meaning to blog about this resource I found recently - Transposr.com.

This free online tool is every musician's best friend. You can take any chord chart or mp3 file and upload it to the site, tell it what key the original is in and what key you want to transpose it into, and it will transpose it for you. Say for example, you want to do the song "Hosanna" by Brooke Fraser, but you have a guy leading the song, so you will most likely want to change the key it is in. Well, the original key is E, and you want to change it to G. Simply upload your mp3 to the site, enter your parameters, and wa - la!

Our team has found this resource particularly helpful when we are doing a song in a different key than the original, and we need to listen to the mp3 in rehearsal for each band member to learn their part. It's a lot easier to listen to the song and learn it in the key we are actually doing it in!

The one downside I've found with transposing an mp3 this way is that it screws with the vocals quite a bit. Like in Hosanna, when I transposed it from E to G, it made Brooke sounds like Minnie Mouse! So it's probably not a recording you would want to use for anything except rehearsing purposes. Still, I think this is a resource that will save me time in the long run when I need to transpose a chord sheet or mp3.

Has anyone else come across any good tools like this? If so, please leave a comment and let me know.

Weekend Review #9 - April 12, 2009 - He is Risen!

What an amazing time of worship to our risen King Jesus we had this morning in both our services at ACC! It's such a blessing to serve with gifted, humble, servants who love Jesus and want to see His fame made known. I genuinely looked forward to and enjoyed today - I feel like the things I have been learning in my Christian Worship class about church history and the church calendar have made me appreciate Easter Sunday even more, as I have been made aware of what a monumental and crucial day it is for the church.

Here's how our services shaped up:

(Click on any of the song titles to be taken to them in iTunes)

Instrumental Prelude: Everlasting God (A)
Welcome / Announcements / Passing of the Peace - Dave
-Happy Day (B) - w/ horns
-Christ the Lord Is Risen Today (C) - w/ horns
Message - Luke 24:13-35 - Dave
-Nothing But the Blood (B)
Comment and reading from 1 Corinthians 15:55-57
-The Power of the Cross (C)
Video Testimonies
Apostle's Creed series promo - Dave
Offering
-Stronger (C) - w/ horns
Benediction

I was so excited to have a horn section with us today on three of the songs. We had trombone, trumpet, and french horn, and they sounded awesome. Really helped to raise the energy level and proclaim Christ's resurrection in an "anthemic" way!

Weekend Review #8 - April 5, 2009 - Palm Sunday!

OK, I know I haven't posted anything in awhile - things have been pretty crazy around here getting ready for our Passover Seder we had this past Sunday - as well as looking ahead to Easter Sunday (4 days from now!) I had the opportunity to attend the Dare2Share Conference with our church's youth group, and it was a blast. Fee and Leeland led the worship, and pretty much blew up the place - some incredible times of worship!

It made for a ridiculously busy weekend though... anyways, on to the review from this past Sunday. Here's what we did:

Instrumental Prelude: Here I Am To Worship (E)
Unchanging (G)
Responsive Reading from Psalm 24:7-10
Hosanna (G) - by Brooke Fraser
Welcome & announcements - Chris
Glory to God Forever (A)
Beautiful Jesus (A)
You Are My King (D)
Palm Sunday Message - "Not the King You Think" - from Matthew 21:1-11
How Great Is Our God (C)
Benediction - Congregational Prayer (taken from The Book of Common Prayer)

Now back to planning for Easter Sunday...

Peace.

Weekend Service Review #7 - March 22, 2009

Yesterday was a powerful time of worshipping the Lord at ACC. It was also one where we made a last-minute change to the set list, which doesn't happen too often.

As my wife and I were looking over Dave's sermon notes on Saturday, we realized that he quoted all three verses of the hymn "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" to emphasize a point he was making about prayer. So our thought was "Helloooooo ... why aren't we doing this song tomorrow?!?!"

We ended up swapping out another song to do What A Friend, and I couldn't have been happier about the switch. So here's what we did:

-Prelude: Your Grace Is Enough (G) by Chris Tomlin
-Welcome / call to worship (Philippians 4:4)
-Hosanna / Praise Is Rising (G) by Brenton Brown & Paul Baloche
Transition to new song - comment about glory
-Glory To God Forever (A) by Steve Fee & Vicky Beeching
Prayer
Message Part 1 - Dave
-What A Friend We Have In Jesus (E) hymn by Joseph Scriven
-Adoration (G) by Brenton Brown
-Jesus Messiah (A) by Chris Tomlin
Message Part 2 - Dave
Offering & announcements - Chris
Benediction - Romans 15:13 - Chris
(Upward highlight video as people dismissed)

You'll notice that we also tried something new this week at the end. Instead of a closing song during the offering, we had Chris give announcements and share a recap of the Upward season, and then dismiss people while the Upward video played. This worked out particularly well this weekend because all of the announcements had an immediate action step associated with them right after the service (ie. buy your Seder tickets in the lobby, attend the Welcome Lunch starting in 10 minutes, etc.)

By the way, I am loving the new Steve Fee song we did this weekend. Thanks, Steve, for posting the how-to video and chord charts on your web site!

Meet Jenn Weber

I always get excited when I hear or find out about fresh new artists in the modern worship (or sometimes CCM) genres. At some point this past November, I heard about Jenn Weber, found her Myspace Page, listened to several songs, and I was hooked instantly. I received Jenn's CD "World of Wonder" for Christmas, and have been listening to it frequently ever since.

In my opinion, the lyrics are creative and worshipful, and I would classify the style as acoustic pop / folk, comparable to Christy Nockels, Sarah McLaughlin, or Brooke Fraser. The one song I can't stop listening to is "Your Love Is Changing Me". Here's a sampling of the lyrics:

"Don't know who I was
Don't know what I'll be
All I know is that You found me
From a far off land
Cross a lonely sea
You pursued and You've captured me

Oh, how You make me sing
Yeah Your love is changing me
You're awakening a marvelous dream
Yeah, Your love is changing me"

It is true that God has pursued and captured us, and His love is powerful enough to change us. I have seen God graciously bring about incredible change in my life recently - from the way I work to the way I love my wife to the way I worship.

How has God's love been changing you recently?

Weekend Service Review #6 - March 15, 2009

It was a good day on Sunday. We originally planned on doing just one song up front and three in the middle package, but as I was thinking about the order over the weekend I realized that it can be hard to focus on worshiping the Lord if you only have one song to do it in at a time. Let me explain: when we gather as the church for worship, there are often a thousand other thoughts going through our heads and hearts, and often it takes a few songs before we can really start to focus on worshiping the Lord and soaking up the songs we're singing. I noticed this in myself when I visited a church a few weeks back, and I found myself thinking about the tempo, instrumentation, environment I was in, the weather outside, etc. etc. etc. It wasn't until about the third song that I started to consciously bring my thoughts and emotions together and truly engage with the lyrics we were singing.

So that is a bit of the reasoning why we moved "Jesus Paid It All" up to the opening package this past Sunday. Here's what the service looked like after the change:

Instrumental Prelude: Sing to the King (E) by Billy Foote
Welcome & announcements
-Happy Day (B) by Tim Hughes
-Jesus Paid It All (B) - hymn w/ chorus by Alex Nifong
Holy Week Preview - Dave
Part 1 Message - Dave
-From the Inside Out (C) by Joel Houston
(Comment about giving God control of our lives - transition into Center)
-Center (E) by Charlie Hall
Part 2 Message - Dave
-In Christ Alone (E) by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Benediction - Philippians 4:1

Oh ... and in case you were wondering, here's what our service order looks like on paper (click on the image to blow it up):

A Good Reminder

"Worship leading requires certain skills, a good grasp of how to accomplish the transitions from one phase to another, an ability to make the right connecting comments between songs, a strong bond with the congregation, and a heart in tune with the Spirit." -Robert Webber, in Worship Old & New, p.160

Lectures on Worship

Justin Taylor recently posted a compilation of lectures on worship over on his blog.

There is a bunch of good stuff there that I want to listen to - now I just need to find (I mean make) the time for it. I already downloaded and listened to one lecture from John Frame titled "Christian Worship Music: Is It Postmodern?" and learned a lot from it. I think this will prove to be an invaluable resource not only for the project I am doing for Cultural Engagement class, but also for my role as a worship leader.

By the way, I also just added Justin's blog "Between Two Worlds" to my blogroll and will be checking it regularly from now on. I don't know how the guy writes so much - sometimes a many as 10 posts a day! But it's all good stuff.

Weekend Service Review #5 - March 8, 2009

I guess I'm a little late reviewing this past Sunday's service, but here goes anyway:

Instrumental Prelude: Famous One (E) by Chris Tomlin
Welcome & announcements
-Come, Christians, Join To Sing (G) by Christian Bateman -updated arrangement in 6/8
-Adoration (G) by Brenton Brown
Congregational Reading: 1 Peter 2:9-10
-Marvelous Light (A) by Charlie Hall
Video: "Spiritual Influencers"
-Glory In the Highest (C) by Chris Tomlin
Message - Philippians 3:1-11 - Dave
Knowing You (C) by Graham Kendrick
Benediction - Hebrews 13:20-21

We don't regularly do songs as "old" as Knowing You (written in 1993), but the lyrics fit in perfectly as a follow-up and response to the message, since they come right out of the Philippians passage we were in. I should clarify that I have nothing against old songs - in fact, I love many of the hymns that the church has been singing for centuries. Generally, when we do older songs we stick with the classic hymns that have been around for 50+ years (usually in a modern arrangement, of course). Most of the modern worship songs we sing are those written this side of 2000. I've found that many (not all!) of the songs written in the 80s and 90s are a bit outdated and overdone. And as in any generation of the church, there will probably only be a handful of songs from our generation that survive in the church for years to come anyway! I do think, though, that each new generation is called to "sing a new song to the Lord" (Psalm 96:1), and it is important that we be singing songs that bring fresh expressions to our faith and our worship.

Weekend Service Review #4 - March 1, 2009

Today Dave preached a great message from Philippians 2:12-18 on living out our salvation and shining the light of Christ in a dark world. One of the primary application points I took away was to stop complaining and start counting the blessings the Lord has given to me. This was definitely a message I needed to hear.

I've had a request from a few people to include the name of the artist or songwriter of each song listed on these reviews, so here it is:

-Happy Day (B) by Tim Hughes - instrumental prelude
Welcome - Chris
-All Because of Jesus (A) by Steve Fee
-One Way (B) by Joel Houston / Hillsong
(Message intro with skit by Mike Malek)
Message Part 1 - Dave
-Jesus Messiah (A) by Chris Tomlin
Scripture Reading: Psalm 148:1-13
-All Creatures of Our God and King (D) - David Crowder arrangement
Message Part 2 - Dave
-Special: Shine (G) by Matt Redman
Benediction - Ephesians 3:20-21

I was happy with how the special reaffirmed the main points of the passage and really hit home for a lot of people. Below is a video of Matt Redman singing the song at the close of Passion '07 in Atlanta, with lyrics included. Those of you that were there will remember how they raised up those huge banners with the names of cities around the world, along with the names of hundreds of colleges and universities, to symbolize sending out and setting our hearts toward the Passion World Tour that was to follow.

HELLO KLEAN KANTEEN

I did it. I gave in and bought a Klean Kanteen bottle today. I was introduced to these by my good friend Chris, our youth and children's pastor at ACC. What's so great about a Klean Kanteen, you ask?

-Made from high-quality stainless steel
-Dishwasher friendly
-BPA-free ("Recent studies have shown that many plastic water bottles, including Lexan bottles, leach toxins such as BPA. These studies have linked BPA to breast cancer & reproductive mutations.")
-It's reusable and therefore good for the environment!

This last one was what did it for me. As a musician and a vocalist, I drink a lot of water. For the past several years I have been buying bottled water to drink, and I always bring a bottle to Wednesday evening rehearsal and Sunday morning services. I always have one in the car with me as well. So it's safe to say that in any given week I burn through at least 3-4 plastic bottles that get thrown into landfills and pollute the environment. In general, I'm not an outspoken environmentalist or passionate about being "green", but I do think that we as human beings have a responsibility to be good stewards of this planet that God has entrusted to us and commanded us to cultivate and keep (Genesis 2:15). As I have been thinking a lot about this issue, I guess I started to feel convicted about all the water bottles I've gone through over the course of my lifetime. So that's what did it for me.

Goodbye plastic disposable water bottles, and hello Klean Kanteen!

Weekend Service Review #3 - February 22, 2009

This morning we were in Philippians 2:1-11 - one of my favorite passages in scripture that is often referred to as the kenosis passage or the "humiliation of Christ." Here's what we did:

-Forever (G) - instrumental prelude
Welcome
-Everlasting God (A)
Dramatic Reading - Philippians 2:1-11
Message intro - video clip from Hitch
Message Part 1 - Dave
Communion
-Mighty Is the Power of the Cross (E) - communion special
Message Part 2 - Dave
-May the Mind of Christ My Savior (D) w/ new chorus
-Adoration (G)
Benediction - Jude 24-25

I really liked the dramatic reading of this morning's Scripture passage - it set up the message nicely and definitely brought out the text in a fresh way. Hopefully we will be able to do more dramatic readings like this in future weeks - maybe at least 1 per series?

PASSION 2010

Registration for Passion 2010 is now open! It sounds far away, but January 2, 2010 will be here before you know it. Last night they opened registration with a live worship and prayer video broadcast from the Passion house in Alpharetta, GA. They had a promotion that the first 1,000 people that registered would get in for $99 bucks - and that filled up after the first three minutes of registration being open. Crazy...

Even though I am no longer in college, I still qualify for the 18-26 age range to attend the conference, so I am hoping to attend.

You can register here for $129 until April 1.

Weekend Service Review #2 - February 8, 2009

Yesterday was a bit of a crazy day at ACC and a first for our current staff. Dave, our senior pastor, was scheduled to preach, but he caught a nasty case of the flu on Friday night, so he called Chris (our youth pastor) and myself around noon on Saturday saying he didn't think he would be able to make it on Sunday morning. So Chris had about 18 hours to put together a 30-minute sermon. (Doesn't sound hard to you? Well, then, you try it some time. :)

In my opinion, Chris did a great job filling in for Dave. He talked about loving God and loving others, the two greatest commandments according to Jesus in Mark 12:28-31. This is what Scot McKnight labels the "Jesus Creed", and it is the subject of his book by the same title.

Chris asked if the worship team would plan a few extra songs just in case he went short. We ended up just adding one song at the end of the service - "Lord Reign In Me" - which worked out great because it encapsulates our desire as a congregation to let God have His way in our lives as we seek to love Him and others - AND it was also in the same key as our originally-planned last song (added bonus!)

So here's what we did:

-Let the Praises Ring (E) - live prelude w/ vocals
Welcome & announcements - Chris
-O Come Let Us Adore Him (G)
-Adoration (G)
Message Part 1 - Chris
-It Is Well With My Soul (B)
Time of directed prayer where I shared a bit of background to Horatio Spafford and how he came to write It Is Well, and then instructed everyone to pray for someone they knew going through a trial or hard time.
-You Never Let Go (B)
Message Part 2 - Chris
-From the Inside Out (C)
-Lord Reign In Me (C)
Benediction - Ephesians 3:20-21

Overall, I think the morning turned out well, considering the circumstances. "Adoration" sounded awesome with a full band this week - Jim nailed all the drum parts, and Karen programmed the string parts into the synth - the end result was powerful, and people really responded to it - even with it being the second week we've sang it - ever!

Weekend Service Review #1 - February 1, 2009

When I started this blog I promised you readers (and myself) that I would review the Sunday services at our church and give a snapshot of what the service looked like, including what elements we used and what songs were sung. Now, I can't promise that I will do this every week, but Lord-willing I can make this into a habit that sticks.

So ... here's what yesterday's services looked like:

-Short Welcome & announcements
-Holy Is the Lord (G)
(Exhortation to worship God with not only our lips, but also our lives, based on Matthew 15:8-9)
-Beautiful Jesus (A)
Message Part 1 - Dave
-Consuming Fire (G)
(Introduce new song which I explained will be a theme song for our Philippians series, based on Philippians 3:13-14)
-Adoration (G)
Message Part 2 - Dave
-The Solid Rock (D)
Benediction - Revelation 1:5-6

We did an acoustic set with guitar, bass, keys and djembe, and overall I feel like it sat well. There's always the challenge of keeping the energy level up on acoustic weekends, but one benefit is that the congregation can hear themselves better, which I know many people appreciate.

Dave preached a great message from Philippians 1:1-11 on how we are all a "piece of work" - what a great reminder that our sanctification is a lifelong process of becoming more like Christ. You can listen to it here.

NEW SERIES

New series in the book of Philippians starting this weekend at our church.

More info. to come ...

ATTENTION

Kristian Stanfill's new EP Attention releases on iTunes today. All I have to say is ... wow. It is everything I was hoping for and more. This guy knows how to write songs that will turn your heart and mind toward God AND make you want to sing at the top of your lungs. It's good stuff. I am hoping to use some more of his songs in our church services over the next few months.

Here's a snapshot of some lyrics from the song "Kingdom":

Stand up and heed heaven's call
Coming to us one and all
To live love and give love
To those who don't know of
The lavish and true love of God
We are the kingdom of God
We are an army of love
We carry truth to the world
We are the kingdom of God

Be watching for the full album coming 4.21.09!

CONCERTS COMING UP

I'm always looking around the internet to find out if my favorite bands and artists will be in town anytime soon. Over the past week I've found out about some events happening in the Chicago area in the next few months that I either have tickets to already or am going to try to make it out to...

-Phil Wickham is going to be leading at 631 Ministries on Monday, February 9th in Berwyn, IL. 631 is a gathering of 18-20 somethings that meets monthly on Monday nights at 7 PM.

-Matt Maher, Brenton Brown, Michael Gungor Band, and Kelly Minter will be leading a worship training day hosted by Worship Together at First Assembly of God in Kenosha, WI on Monday, March 16. I won't be going to the training, but am hoping to make it to the evening worship program at 7 PM. Tickets are $10. Details here.

-Chris Tomlin and Israel Houghton w/ New Breed concert at the Sears Centre - Saturday, March 28 at 7 PM. This is going to be a great concert. Plus, Chris is hosting a Worship Frequency gathering a few hours before the event, where he will talk about leading worship and take questions ... the idea being to help train and equip local worship leaders like yours truly. I am hoping to take some guys from our church's worship team to this concert, but they don't know that yet ... so shhhhh. Check out details here or here.

If you know of any other worship gatherings or concerts coming up in Chicagoland this spring, leave a comment and spread the word!

8 Below

It's cold...

They were saying on the news that it got down to 20 below zero overnight (that's not including wind chill!). This is the coldest day Chicago has seen in some 15 years.

Why do we live in Chicago again?

THE GOSPEL COALITION

I just registered to go to the Gospel Coalition Conference on April 21-23 - it's in Chicago this time! The theme of this year's conference is "Entrusted With the Gospel: Living the Vision of 2 Timothy". The Gospel Coalition is an organization of pastors and Christian leaders from all different denominations, who all share the same conviction that the gospel of Jesus Christ as it is presented in Scripture has to stay at the center of all of life and ministry. Check out this video that gets at the heart of what it's all about.



I'm really excited for this conference for a number of reasons, one of which is that I have a chance to attend the conference and soak everything in with some of my good friends and partners in ministry.

The conference is only $100 for students if you register before Jan. 31 ... AND they're giving away an ESV Study Bible to everyone who attends! Find out more here.

First Blog Post

OK, so one of my New Year's resolutions for '09 was to start my own blog. It is something I've been thinking about doing for awhile now, but never pulled the trigger on. So here we go!

Some of the things you can expect to find on here:

-Reviews of our Sunday services at Arlington Countryside Church, where I am the Worship Arts Pastor
-Current happenings in the realm of worship music and ministry
-Good books I've read or am currently reading
-Things I've been learning from God's Word
-Videos

And a whole smattering of other things.

Check back regularly for new posts ...