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Worship Recap - Sunday, January 22, 2012

Life Church worship team, led by Paul Shipman

INTRO
Paul Shipman did an awesome job of leading the worship team as they led us into God’s presence at Life Church this morning.

Paul was joined by Ruth at the keyboard, Lary on electric, Andrew on bass, Jeff on drums, Evan on percussion, and Ruth, Maddie, Meghann, and Twila on backing vocals.

SETLIST
1. God I Look To You – by Jenn Johnson, Bethel Church
Great new song Paul and the team introduced to us today, really fit the flow.

2. You, You Are God – by Walker Beach, Gateway Music
Love this one, and people really responded, as you can see in the video clip of the service, above.

3. Wonderful God – by Ned Davies, Hillsong
They just used the chorus of this one, I believe, and used it in around around a couple of the other songs, then with some free worship in the middle.

MESSAGE
Trey and Doug preached an excellent message about the upcoming ordination of Jeremy Pingel and Doug Davenport as elders and John Hanley as a deacon this Friday.

Trey talked about the eternal plan of God that His glory would increase, and how He does that by establishing His authority in each local church.

Doug talked to us about some of the practical aspects of what to expect and how to prepare for this very significant event, for which we will have several guests from Europe as well as other places in the U.S. in attendance.

OUTRO
I hope you had a great day with the Lord and His people. To see what happened in worship all over the place, stop by theworshipcommunity.com.

Worship Recap – Sunday, December 19, 2011

INTRO
We had a wonderful morning of worship at Life Church Sunday, with help from our junior high students, and a great word on the Holy Spirit as comforter, advocate, and encourager from Trey.

I led from the acoustic, with Ruth on keys and vocals, Jon on drums, Evan on percussion, Andrew on bass, Lary on electric, Bob on sax, and Twila and Patty on backing vocals.

Doug, Jeremy, and Tony led the meeting.

SETLIST
1. I Bow My Knee  in D
People came up around the altar as we began worship with this first song. It was really a great time of entering into the presence of God together, right from the start, ending with a spontaneous lifting of our voices singing and shouting His praise. Glorious.

2. Filled With Your Glory  in G
Sometimes when you make the turn to an upbeat tune, it feels a little contrived at first, like you have to kickstart the ‘atmospheric shift’ to rejoicing and praise. This wasn’t one of those times. When we started this song, it felt like there was something really genuine continuing on from where we’d just been, and it carried on as we moved into…

3. Sing to the King  in G
I’ve always been a fan of this tune by Billy Foote, and it brought a semi-Christmasy feel, as we, well, sang to the King!

4. Glory to God   in G – by our own Ruth Pingel. I love this song, it was written as a Christmas song, but the chorus works anytime: “Glory to God, Glory to God, Glory to God, in the highest.”

5. Higher
This Mia Feldes song was led by the junior high students from our school. This was a powerful time in God’s presence as our kids gave themselves to worship. Some of the girls solo’d and did a great job leading. I was really proud of the boys, who led out with strong young man voices on the bridge, “So great, and greatly to be praised.”  Really awesome.

There were some prophetic words brought here about what God’s doing in this group’s lives. One had to do with being an Isaac generation – a generation born by the will and power of God to those with no strength of their own to bring life.

6. Move In This Place  in Bb
Another great song from Ruth Pingel, about waiting on the Holy Spirit. We sang this song as people were gathered at the altar after hearing the word.

MESSAGE
Trey continued the series on our vision and values, bringing part 2 on the Holy Spirit.

Some highlights, based on Isa. 9 and 42, and John 14, 15, and 16:

The Holy Spirit:
  -  Is given to Jesus’ disciples
  -  Will be with us forever
  -  Will be in us
  -  Will teach us all things
  -  Will remind us of all that Jesus said
  -  Tells us all about Jesus
  -  Guides us into all truth
  -  Speaks to us what Jesus says

When speaking by the Holy Spirit, we should take care, like Jesus did, to speak according to His nature to encourage, comfort, edify, and speak to peoples’ destiny in God. This is illustrated in Heb. 10:24-25, Eph. 4:29-39, and I Cor. 14:3.

When you prophesy:
  -  Remind them of who they are in Christ
  -  Lambs need patience, become gracious
  -  Catch them doing things right
  -  Let your encouragement agree with the Holy Spirit

OUTRO
We ended with a time of coming around the altar, calling out for the comfort, power, peace, and encouragement of the Spirit of God.

I hope you had a great day with the Lord and His people as well. To see what happened in worship all over the place, stop by theworshipcommunity.com.

Worship Recap – Sunday, November 27, 2011

INTRO
I had the privilege of leading worship at home at Life Church this morning, and Jeremy Pingel preached about the Holy Spirit.

I led from the acoustic, with Bethany on keys, Jon on drums, D’Markus on bass, Lary on electric, Bob on sax, Evan on cymbals, and Paul, Amy A., and Patty on backing vocals. Chris W. and Chrissie covered audio and overhead.

Danny, Doug, Tony, and Jeremy led the meeting. Doug opened the worship time by reading from Exodus 33, with Moses vowing to God that the people of Israel will not go into the land if God’s presence is not going with them. Doug invited us to enter into the presence of God, seeking Him in worship.

SETLIST
1. All Who Are Thirsty – in F (but, since I love to play in E, I prefer to call this key – “capo 1st fret, play in E”!).
We came out of this song into a free worship time, ending with a shout of praise, before moving straight into the next one…

2. Where The Spirit Of The Lord Is – in F
We stayed in the key of F, to facilitate moving straight into it. Paul led this one, and we were going to go with electric only to start, but after raising up a congregational shout, I was ‘praying our way into the song’ using some of the words from it, and I think I started playing too, so kind of lost that effect!

People were very much engaged in this song, though, and the bridge became the touchpoint of worship  – “You’re all that we want, you’re all that we need”. Danny came up and exhorted us with these words, then we went back into the song repeating the bridge a few times, before ending with a chorus in halftime, then looping the instrumental chords, Dm7-C-Bb2, as we sang spontaneously to the Lord.

3. Holy Spirit, Rain Down – in F.
Again, stayed in the same key so we could make a smooth transition right into it, from wherever we wound up from the previous song. We haven’t done this one in quite a while, but it seemed appropriate, knowing Jeremy was preaching on the Holy Spirit.

I had been a little concerned about starting with a seeking type song, then moving into a strong declaration song, then moving back into more of a seeking song. But when we got there, it really felt right, and we found new life in this “old” song.

(Altar songs following message):

4. Spirit Touch Your Church – in A.
Another one we have not done in a long time, but really fit the altar time, as we came together to cry out to God to send His Holy Spirit to empower us again.

5. Let It Rain – in F#m.
Just threw this one in as our altar time extended, and it helped us to keep seeking God and his holy presence. I have always loved this song – it’s a great ‘go to’, and I love Michael Farren, of Pocket Full of Rocks, who wrote it. He is an awesome man of God!.

MESSAGE
Jeremy did an excellent job of talking about our being a people centered around the throne of God, and explaining the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us there and keeping us there.

He read from Hebrews 12 about everything being shaken that can be, and talked from John 14 and 16, about how the Holy Spirit helps us through the tests and trials that give us the endurance we need to receive the unshakable kingdom God’s giving us.

Jeremy also read from (among other scriptures) Revelation 4, one of John’s visions of throne-centered worship, as well as Ephesians 2, where Paul talks about our being seated together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.

OUTRO
Tony, Danny, Doug, Sherry, and John H. all helped us with exhortations as we came around the altar to pray, and to seek a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. We stayed at the altar worshiping, and praying for people for 30 minutes or so, as we sang song numbers 4 & 5 on the Setlist.

I hope you had a great day with the Lord and His people as well. to see what happened in worship all over the place, stop by theworshipcommunity.com.

Worship Recap – Sunday, November 6, 2011

INTRO
Paul and Ruth led worship today, with an altar time in the middle of it where the Spirit of God was setting people free. Trey followed with a God-filled message on the Word of God.

SETLIST
Freedom   by Michael Larsen

Deep Of Your Grace    by Mia Fieldes

Ruth sang a beautiful song of the Lord after the altar ministry, part of which you can hear at the end of the video.

MESSAGE
Trey used a lot of ‘helps’ in his message today, including a video clip from the 1953 Martin Luther film (“What if the scriptures got into the hands of every swineherd and common man, what then?” “Well, I suppose we’d have more Christians!”), and testimonies about what the Word of God has meant to people, Ruth sharing on God’s Word in worship, and 2 subjects in a swivel chair (you had to be there!).

Highlights:

Rom. 12:2  We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Otherwise, we will be conformed to the world, even though we’re saved.

I Pet 2:1 We are to desire the pure milk of the Word of God in order to grow in God. This is a step we cannot skip, or we wind up in Heb. 5:11-14 – should be teachers, still need milk.

Matt. 4  Like Jesus, we must not stop at resisting the devil when tempted by him. We must counter with the Word of God, “it is written…”  -- It’s not enough to say, “that’s a lie,” we must also declare, “and THIS is the truth!”

OUTRO
The presence of God is always with us, we know, but today was one of those days when it really, tangible felt like we were in the ‘deep of His grace.’

I hope you had an awesome time with the Lord and His people as well. Take a look at theworshipcommunity.com to see what happened in worship all over the place.

Worship Recap – Sunday, September 18, 2011

INTRO
As our church prepares to host the fall C2C conference this week, Paul Shipman did an excellent job of leading us into worship this morning, introducing Matt Gilman’s “As The Deer Pants”.

Paul was assisted by Bethany on keys, Jonathan on electric, Jeff on drums, Andrew F. on bass, Bob on sax, myself on acoustic and vocals, and Omonse, Patty, and Amy A. on backing vocals.

SETLIST

(Click titles for YouTube or iTunes links)
1. Let The Church Rise – Israel Houghton and Jonathan Stockstill.

2. Blessed Be Your Name – Matt Redman.

3. As The Deer Pants – Matt Gilman.

4. When You Walk In – Jim Stern.

5. For The Honor Of Your Name – Harold Forbis.
    We did this one as an altar song at the end of the meeting.

MESSAGE
Trey was the main ‘steersman’ for the meeting this morning, and very adeptly wove together words from Doug, Sherry, David, and Jeremy.

These four leaders encouraged us to take up the basin and towel to pour our lives out to serve our friends, both old and new, coming from other cities, states, and nations to the conference here this week.

They exhorted us to find faith to walk through the door of a new season for our church and our family of churches, and to believe God for a genuine and fresh outpouring of His Spirit.

OUTRO
Life with God is not all about meetings, conferences, etc., but there is a real sense that something is about to be initiated by the Lord Himself as we come together this week. If you’re on the way here in a few days, I look forward to seeing you. If not, please pray for us, that we will do the will of the Lord, and thank you.

I hope you had an awesome time with the Lord and His people today as well. To see what happened in worship all over the place, stop by theworshipcommunity.com.

Passing The Rain Stick

I did something today that I have never done before. I passed the baton of leadership of the worship in our local church to a young woman that I have had the pleasure of discipling and mentoring for the better part of the past 16 years.

I say ‘passed the baton’ figuratively, of course, but I did actually bestow upon her my beloved rain stick, which was given to me 17 or 18 years ago by someone who told me “every shepherd needs a staff, every worship leader needs a rain stick.” Whenever I’ve looked at it over the years, it’s reminded me of the dual role worship leaders carry – shepherding our flocks, and finding creative ways of leading others into the presence of God, to see Him and to express His infinite worth.

Ruth Pingel is now our primary worship leader. We have seen this call emerging in Ruth for some time, and today was a great day of praying for her and releasing her into this further answering of the call of God on her life. She’s incredibly gifted and anointed by God, and I’m confident she will lead us into realms of worship that we’ve not yet experienced. Praise God!

I’ve had the privilege of leading worship here for over 18 years. For the past few years, I’ve had a great team of worship leaders to work with - Ruth, Bob Floyd, and Paul Shipman -and we will continue to lead as a team, with Ruth heading it up. Trey Allemang, one of our elders, will also work closely with Ruth and the team to closely link the governmental leadership of the house with the worship leadership of the house (a subject in and of itself, which I’ll be happy to expound on – just ask me!).

As for me, Ruth said it well this morning - I am not ‘retiring,’ but being released from local worship responsibilities so that I can better serve the needs of leaders, worship leaders, and congregations in other places, as well as here locally.

I will still be leading ‘tent of meeting’ morning worship/prayer three times a week here, and I’ll still be on the schedule here and there serving with our worship team. Most of my time will be devoted to continuing to be a father type of leader to worship leaders here locally and in other places. I think I will be doing more Bible teaching as well. We’ll see what develops.

Ruth did a great job today of leading us into worship. She pulled out a couple of my songs from a few years ago (I Am Free, Worthy Is The Lamb) as well as a new one she just wrote a few weeks ago (How Majestic Is Your Name), and led us in an extended time of prophetic worship and waiting on the Lord.

It was awesome, and along with the elders, I was aware that the mantle of responsibility and authority was passing to her in that moment, even though we’d not made it ‘official’ yet.

I had the privilege of speaking today, and I talked about Family, Government, and Legacy, before the elders, myself, and others prayed for Ruth.

Here’s a link to an outline of this message. Here’s a link to an audio recording of it.

 

I hope you had a great day with the Lord and His people. See what happened in worship all over the place at theworshipcommunity.com.

Worship Recap – Sunday, August 28, 2011

INTRO
I led worship at the local Salvation Army church this morning, for my friend Dan Sullivan, who preached there today.

It was an interesting experience, and I was happy to have the privilege of serving these folks, who are all so obviously in love with the Lord!

Jon Shipman led the team at Life Church today, and I hear did a great job. Here are the songs we worshiped with at the Salvation Army service:

SETLIST
1. We Fall Down – Chris Tomlin

2. How Great is Our God – Chris Tomlin

3. Forever (God is Faithful) – Chris Tomlin

   (It was Chris Tomlin morning!)

4. Tis So Sweet (hymn), following prayer and a welcome from Dan.

5. Give Us Clean Hands – Charlie Hall

6. Doxology, following the offering (I had not sung this in years, I like it!)

7. Great is Thy Faithfulness (hymn), following Dan’s message.

MESSAGE
Dan did a great job bringing us a word of encouragement from Lamentations 3, about the faithfulness of God.

He talked about Job’s circumstances and his response to God in the midst of them, and also about his own family’s struggle this summer when their house and all their belongings were destroyed in a fire. God was faithful to Job, and He’s been faithful to the Sullivans.

OUTRO
I hope you had  a great day with the Lord and his people. To see what went on in worship all over the place, stop by theworshipcommunity.com.

Worship Recap – Sunday, July 31, 2011

INTRO
Great worship and an awesome word from Trey Allemang on hearing the voice of God at Life Church this Sunday. Tony, Roger, David, and Trey led the meeting.

I led worship from the acoustic, Ruth was on keys, Jeff on drums, D’Markus on bass, with Veeve, Amy, and Paul on backing vocals. Chris ran sound for us today, with Sam at the projector computer.

SETLIST
1. Kingdom Song – an ‘oldie’ from Darrell Evans that’s finding new life as we’ve pulled it out a couple of times recently. This transitioned really nicely right into…

2. Filled With Your Glory – from Starfield. Great song, very uplifting and inspiring.

3. Prepare the Way – from Jared Anderson’s ‘Live From My Church’ CD. I heard Jared do this one at the AllAboutWorship retreat a year ago May, and it’s been rolling around in my mind ever since. I introduced it at a prayer meeting Wednesday night, and brought it into the service this Sunday. The bridge (“let the King of Glory enter in”) is really powerful, and went to a whole other place when Paul took the vocals up an octave. I was going to, but, uh, I can’t!

We paused and worshiped/waited on God after this one, and then transitioned after briefly doing…

4. O Most High – by Mark Altrogge, which Trey requested as a lead-in to his message, “God Said…”

MESSAGE
This was a follow-up to Trey’s word on the necessity of the Word of God in our lives from last week.

God has spoken to us in His Word, and He is also speaking to us individually, ‘prophetically’ today. We must have both, but the Bible will ALWAYS be the standard for determining if what we are hearing prophetically is what “God said” or not.

We have to carefully assign “God said…” to the inspired thoughts and words we have, insuring that we are not using this as a rubber stamp to validate our own opinions or desires.

The third commandment says that we are not to take the Lord’s Name in vain – we should consider His Name as holy, and not assign it lightly to what we have to say.

John Wesley said “Do not hastily ascribe things to God…try the spirits, whether they be from God.”

Trey also talked about the need for godly counsel in hearing the voice of God. God has designed us with this need for one another’s wisdom and perspective.

OUTRO
It was a great morning. I hope you had an awesome time with the Lord and His people as well. To see what happened in worship all over the place, stop by theworshipcommunity.com

CD Review – Sojourn’s ‘The Water And The Blood’

If you’re looking for something genuinely fresh and original in the arena of Christian/Worship music (actually, just make that ‘music’ period), I suggest you get a copy of Sojourn’s recent release titled The Water And The Blood.

Here’s a video for a little background on the album, the 7th from Sojourn, that will also give you a taste of the Roots/Americana soulful feel that has been applied to 12 classic Isaac Watts hymns.

Sojourn Water And The Blood

The styles range from a kind of hauntingly soulful Americana feel (I would have used more words, but I think I reached the allowable limit) on Absent From Flesh and the title cut, The Water And The Blood, to smokey blues on From Deep Distress, then on to a little southern rock on Deep In Our Hearts, and bluegrass on Blest Be The Lamb.

My personal favorite, Early My God, is a beautiful rendition done in very simple style with one female voice and what sounds like an old upright piano (I think it sounds like that because I saw one in the recording session photo shoot).

Click here to buy this album, which is available in digital, CD, and vinyl LP formats, and for links to more information about Sojourn.

Worship Recap – Sunday, July 3, 2011

INTRO
I led worship from the acoustic today, and Tony preached about unity, living with one heart and one mind – the third in a series of foundational messages from our elders this summer (starting with Tom’s message on the plumbline and the trowel, and Trey last week on fathers training their children).

I did not do a great job of leading us technically, jumped around in the songs too much, and sent us through a couple of really herky-jerky transitions, but overall…it was a great day!

Jon was on keys, D’Markus on drums, Buddy on bass, Bob on sax, Lary on electric, and Amy A. and Patty on backing vocals.

Here was our list:

SETLIST
1. Be Magnified  -  this is a song I wrote a few years ago. It’s a good gathering-in song, as it starts with “we bow before you to worship you”, pre-chorus is “humble and broken, we wait for you” then progresses on to chorus, “be magnified O Lord of all”, all nations bowing their knees, etc., so goes through a progression from bringing ourselves to the Lord and then beginning to proclaim praise to Him.

2. Kingdom Song – we haven’t done this Darrell Evans song in a LONG time, threw it in at the last minute on D’Markus’ suggestion, to have something up-tempo and meaningful (sometimes those things are thought to be mutually exclusive). Glad we did it. Couldn’t find a YouTube link, but it’s off “Let The River Flow” CD – 1997, I think.

3. Our God – new one for us in the last few weeks. This was our ‘pinnacle’ piece today, the one we were focusing our sights on to help us see God in the way He was choosing to reveal Himself to us. I think we got there. Great song, and thanks to the team for working hard on it and following me through the maze!

4. A Mighty Fortress – Amy A. led us out on this one (beautiful! Thanks Amy!), and we moved deeper into the view of God we had from the last song.

At the end of A Mighty Fortress, we worshiped freely for a while, and then I had a couple of prophetic songs, one being a cry from our hearts to the Lord’s, and the second one being a call from Him to us (click here to hear it). It primarily had to do with God changing us as we come into His presence – changing us individually, and changing us corporately - to be like Him so we’re able to be victorious and accomplish His purposes. I remember there being a phrase in there somewhere about our being a refuge, a fortress, for the world as we allow Him to build us together as a dwelling place for His Spirit.

MESSAGE
Tony spoke about the power of living in one heart and one mind, being in agreement that our lives are to be founded on the Word of God and lived out together as His Spirit works in us. This involves the discomfort of challenging each other in love to be living God’s way, loving one another and loving the will of God enough to confront each other if it seems we are not living in a manner true to what we confess together that we believe.

We spent some time all together at the altar in commitment to the Lord before closing the meeting.

OUTRO
I hope you had a great day with the Lord and His people as well. To see what happened in worship all over the place, stop by theworshipcommunity.com