Well today I did something I haven’t yet done at Faith.  Worship today was just me and my guitar.  Interesting that today was also my two year anniversary, wow two years I’ve been doing this.  Vacation was great but it is good to be back.

We changed things up today and had all of the music up front as well as communion.  Yes, communion BEFORE the sermon and this is what my brother in law had to say about it on his twitter.

Communion before the sermon? But now my religious routine has been interrupted. Now i must focus on meaning!

As church leadership we should really find opportunities to change things up so that everything does not just become routine.  When things become routine we tend to forget why we do them.  Breaking routine forces us to think about why we do something.  In the case of communion, our church has ALWAYS done communion after the sermon, not for any particular reason we just have.  The funny thing is we’ll have some people who will have a real problem with how we did it.  Like may things in our (american) church services there are many things that we do that are cultural and not biblical.  Now I’m not saying that we are doing things that are unbiblical, it’s just that there is no mandate at how we should do our services.  No “thou shalt sing for 30 minutes, preach for 45 and have 15 minutes of announcements, also don’t forget to greet one another.”  These are all good things but they tend to be huge issues if changed.

To Church Leaders:  Changing things up is good but be prepared to explain why you did it differently and the benefit you see in changing things up.  And the big things is extend a lot of grace.

To Church Congregations:  Understand and be able to differentiate between things that are biblical and things that are cultural.  Changes from things that are biblical should not be tolerated, changes from things that are simply cultural (although you may not like it) are okay.  And again the biggest thing is to extend a lot of grace to your church leadership.

Song list from today.

Hosanna (Praise is Rising)

We Won’t Stay Silent

Everlasting God

Saviour King

Better is One Day

My Tribute

Mighty to Save

Wow it was a rough morning from my point of view…it’s hard to come from such an awesome week like last week.  The devil was really messing with me.  My monitor was all over the map, my video wouldn’t play right, drums weren’t working right and I had to make a monitor request from the stage during worship which I don’t like cause it’s distracting for the congregation.  One of the good things that came out of the morning was our newest team member, singer and guitarist Lynette Gellner, she did a great job.

So that’s the morning I had…Here is what everyone else had to say.

“I just walked in and felt the presence of God in the building”

“It was great to just meet with Jesus”

“I think I just got a taste of heaven”

Ultimately my goal in leading worship is that the things that I do or don’t do help draw people toward Jesus.  And that they experience the presence of God and don’t miss it.  I’m mostly just bummed that I let the devil get to me like he did and I missed the awesome time that everyone else had

I can’t remember the last time I had as much fun worshipping as I did today.  For those who don’t know we had a 21 voice choir, 13 piece orchestra and the usual band.  Before the services we prayed as a team and I shared this with them (or at least the gist).

We have all spent a lot of time and energy preparing for this moment.  But unless God is totally in this our preparation is all for naught.  God will use our preparation for His glory but if we try to do this in our own strength we’re gonna fall flat on our faces.  So right now we need to put ourselves aside and allow God to take over.  We need to put our strength in Him and allow His glory to shine through us.

Musically the services were wonderful and sounded great.  In the 9am service we probably had over 400 in attendance, the worship center was packed.  Anytime the worship center is packed it elevates the energy in the room.  In the second service as we were singing Happy Day I began to feel what I sensed to be God smiling on us.  We then did Christ the Lord is Risen Today, and holy cow I had so much fun singing it.  I really felt as if the congregation was not only worshipping but having fun worshipping.  So many times we do it (worship) but don’t have fun, I mean really have fun to the point you can’t stop smiling.  That’s where I was at.  We sang the Easter song and it was amazingly clean.  My wife commented that we sounded a bit like Trans-Siberian Orchestra, to which I responded…SWEET!!!  (I love Trans-Siberian Orchestra)  Then came Mighty to Save…

I could not stop smiling, I was filled with a joy unlike anything you can find on earth.  It was a greater high then the adrenaline rush you get from a roller coaster.  I felt that God was completely satisfied and pleased with the offering we had brought to Him.  He was smiling down on us and I truly felt His joy.  I still smile as I think about the services and I probably will for weeks to come.  I can only hope that this was a beginning of God pouring more of His spirit out on our church.  Oh that we could experience that kind of intimacy with God on a weekly basis.

I’ll be editing down the video of the services this week and I hope to have it up online later this week.

Well this was one of the rare weeks we were just off.  That’s all I can really call it.  I mean the Holy Spirit was there but it was like we were all getting in the way.  Not intentionally…the Holy Spirit wasn’t moving like he normally does.  I left tired and frustrated cause I felt like we were just spinning our wheels.  There is a part of me that is glad for weeks like this because it’s a bit humbling and really causes us to check ourselves and what we are doing, what our motivations are.

Just as a side note and something that I noticed was numbers seemed abnormally high in the services this weekend.  Maybe everyones back from spring break.  Below is the set.

We had great services yesterday.  Both services were really engaged.  Second service there was a couple I didn’t recognize but they were really expressive in there worship.  Now as any pastor or worship leader will tell you it is really invigorating when people are responding.  It almost spurs you on as a leader to do more and it leaves you feeling encouraged.  It was really a lot of fun.  Church has been fun lately.

Here is the Set!

I am sitting on my back porch watching my kids play thinking about yesterday’s services.  It feels like it’s in the high 60’s (Fantastic!)

It was nice to get Stronger to finally come together.  The last two weeks were really rough…on the 22nd we didn’t even do it in the services.  Kind of a weird meter (3/4)  I know…that’s really crazy:)…almost as hard as 5/4:)  I jest…

Well we had two great services.  Again the first hour was much more responsive than the second.  We did our usual two songs before the sermon then the rest after.  We finally played all of the songs we prepared!!!!!  The services, however, ran about 5-7 minutes long.  Eh!  It was a great time.

The only song that we did that I don’t have in the playlist below was My Tribute.  It’s not in the play list because there is no recording of the song that sounds anything like we played it.  I played piano for it and Saviour King.  I’ll try to lay something down so I can share with all of you how we did it.  Here are the words in case you are not familiar with the song.

My Tribute

How can I say thanks for the things You have done for me,

Things so undeserved, Yet You give to prove Your love for me,

The voices of a million angels, Could not express my gratitude,

All that I am, and ever hope to be, I owe it all to Thee.

To God be the glory, To God be the glory,

To God be the glory, For the things He has done,

With His blood He has saved me, With His power He has raised me,

To God be the glory, For the things he has done.

Just let me live my life, Let it be pleasing Lord to Thee,

And should I gain any praise, Let it go to Calvary.

-Andrae Crouch

Great morning overall.

It was really great to have both services engaged.  Second service started out with about 20 people by the time we got to the second song it was pretty full.  I saw a ton of new people so I made sure to let the congregation know to worship how they’re wired.  It is also a good reminder for the rest of the congregation.

We had communion today and we sang This is Our God during communion.  Normally this would not work very well because of how heavy the song gets.  What we did was during the instrumental break I read Isaiah 53:2-5 then instead of building it up we worked the song down and sang the bridge with just acoustic guitar and keys.  It worked out really well.  (Another sign of a good worship song is that the words are just as powerful without the orchestration behind it.

We ended the worship time with an alter call.   It was really a great morning.

Here are the songs we played today!

Well it’s been over two months since I last posted and feel it is time to start things back up.

Today was…well…interesting?  during the services my mind was all over the place.  Musically we were not very together today, actually it was really rough.  We had tempo issues (RUSHING!!!), missed chords, some interesting harmonies.  I hope that it was not so bad that others were unable to engage completely with God.  I had a lot of trouble.  I’m trying a new thing here and putting up excerpts of the songs we did this morning.

I also had the opportunity to lead worship for our junior high youth group this morning.  TOUGH CROWD!!!  I say that because I was shocked at the lack of engagement with these kids.  Now I have lead this group before when they were younger in our Kids program, Holy Order of the Lion.  I want to know what happened between grade school and junior high that caused them to go from passionate worshippers who weren’t afraid to raise their hands and jump around.  Some might say that I am being a little harsh and I am aware that some of them may read this post.  The fact is I plan to ask them these questions.  I really want to know!!!  I’m just baffled.

GOOD NEWS!!!!! Our church finances are back in the black for the first time in a while (a long while)  God is gooooooood!  Only God could do the impossible task of funding a church during a recession like we are seeing.  All Glory to God!!  Numbers have also been up pretty consistently over the last few weeks.  I really feel like we are seeing people take intentional steps in their christian growth!!! Again…Only God!!

On a sad note.  Yesterday Peter, a good friend left for Washington.  Thank the Lord he arrived safely.  He graduated from ASU in December and is beginning his next stage of life at Microsoft, in redmond WA on March 2nd.  I am going to miss his harmonies most of all.  I am going to miss his friendship (although we will probably communicate more now than before).  I am praying and would ask anyone reading this to pray for peter to find a great church where he can serve.  He says he is going to keep me updated on his progress:)

Keep checking back as I am going to be updating the blog more often or just subscribe to my RSS feed.  Don’t know how?  E-mail me  jeremy@fcov.org

Interesting day…musically things were a little rough.  Tempo was a struggle all morning and it’s christmas carols and they are really gnarly to play on guitar.  

Here is the version of O Holy Night that we sang…

O holy night! the stars are brightly shining-
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and darkness pining-
Till He appeared, gift of infinite worth!
Behold the Babe in yonder manger lowly-
‘Tis God’s own Son come down in human form:
Fall on your knees before the Lord most holy!Chorus:
O night divine-O night when Christ was born!
O night divine-O night, O night divine!

With humble hearts we bow in adoration
Before this Child, gift of God’s matchless love,
Sent from on high to purchase our salvation-
That we might dwell with Him ever above.
What grace untold-to leave the bliss of glory
And die for sinners guilty and forlorn:
Fall on your knees! repeat the wondrous story!
Chorus:

O day of joy, when in eternal splendor
He shall return in His glory to reign,
When ev’ry tongue due praise to Him shall render,
His pow’r and might to all nations proclaim!
A thrill of hope our long hearts rejoices,
For soon shall dawn that glad eternal morn:
Fall on your knees! with joy lift up your voices!
Chorus:

On Thursday at practice we got to the third verse and I had never sung it before.  As I began to sing it I was thinking what will it be like when he returns to reign and ever tongue and nation proclaim.  Then I felt like I had a glimpse of that, if only for a brief moment.  Then again on Sunday as I was thinking about his glory and I just felt Him there in our worship.  This is nice…the Holy Spirit has really been inhabiting our praises lately.  I hope that this continues.

We had a great time of worship.  We had an open mic time and in the second service it went clear till the end of the service so we sang one more song, took the offering and then dismissed everyone.  Then I said if you want to stay and worship we’ll do the last two songs.  We had probably close to 60 or 70 people stay and worship and we didn’t finish until 12:30 more than 15 min. after the service is supposed to end.  

We’ve done this a few times before and we have never had that many people stay.  I hope this is a sign that our body has a growing desire to praise our heavenly father.