OneVoiceWorship.Org

Sunday Setlist - Oct. 25, 2009

Another great day in the Lord with friends and family at Life Church in Kirksville, MO, today.

This was our fourth Sunday service with an 85dB ceiling we set for ourselves, and hey - it's getting easier! Today we did it with full instrumentation and four mic'd singers, and maintained an 83-85 average, with an 88 spike. It's amazing to be able to really hear yourself, harmonies, etc. (more info on that here).

Here are the songs we did today -

Walk-in:  You Are Great / Psalm 86 instrumental

1. You Are Great / Psalm 86 - in G (Harold Forbis, OneVoiceWorship.Org, CCLI #5612859, listen to mp3, get chord chart)

2. Forever - in G (Chris Tomlin, EMI Christian Music Publishing, CCLI #3148428)

3. Your Unfailing Grace  - in G (Harold Forbis, OneVoiceWorship.Org, CCLI #5612938)

4. Like You Jesus - in G (Rita Springer, Kindred Joy Music, CCLI #3480409)

Altar: Like You Jesus

No sense changing keys if you don't have to, right? We did You Are Great and Forever as a medley, which worked nicely. After a couple of exhortations, we did Your Unfailing Grace which is a song I wrote a few years ago about living in the grace and mercy of God, that frees us from the power of sin.

That was more of a proclamation song about what God's done for us, which led kind of naturally into Like You Jesus, a heart cry to be like Him, to enter into the life of the work He's done for us. We haven't done this one in a while, but it really resonated with us this morning, which is why we came back to it for an altar call at the end of the meeting.

Our pastor, Tom Bedford, spoke this morning, challenging us from 2 Tim. 3:12, Rom. 1:16-17, and Eph. 4:11-18 to choose to live godly lives, being willing to suffer the persecution promised as a result. The church is to be the voice of truth in the world, proclaiming the love of Jesus, and the good news of the gospel of Christ. This includes loving people enough to tell them the truth about their natural condition - sin - so they can avoid their natural destination - hell. Compromise not only robs us of our fellowship with the Lord, but it robs people He loves and died to save of their ability to see Him, and ultimately of their salvation.

We ended the meeting today at the altar, recommitting our lives to living God's way for the sake of revealing Him in the earth to those around us.

Hope you had a great day as well. Read about what happened in worship all over the place, at Fred McKinnon's worship blog carnival.

No Bad Hair Days

Does it sound egotistical to say that I don't have bad hair days?

I don't mean it that way - I just have hair that I don't have to mess with. If I keep it cut, I just wash it every day, dry it for 10 seconds, run my hand through it, it falls into place. I spray it a little to keep it there - boom, I'm done. I changed styles a few years ago - from swept backward to swept forward. I used to run my hand through it backwards, and it fell into place. So I started running my hand through it forward and it fell into place. Same process, same result.

Until now...

Now I'm experimenting, and I'm having some bad hair days. I want to look a little more 'today', while still acknowledging my eligibility for AARP membership. Now, it's not terrible, but by comparison, it's unpredictable, and I'm having to spend a little more time on it. I can't tell exactly what I want to do with my hair, so it doesn't just fall into place anymore. I know, though, that when I find something I like, I'll...well, I'll like it. It will have been worth the experimenting, bad hair days and all.

I think I'm at that same place with worship right now...

We're doing something in our corporate church worship times that's different for us - we're trying not to drive people out of the room with painfully high volume (I know, I know, it's brilliant - why didn't we think of this before!?). We're trying to hold it to a maximum decibel level of 85dBA. Most sources say it's safe to listen to this volume level for 8 continuous hours (and the music part of our worship hardly ever goes that long, so we should be in good shape!).

Now, that's a significantly lower volume level than we have typically run over the years. We're used to the rock concert feel, and having to shout at each other at lunch to cut through the leftover ringing in our ears. So this is real change for us, and we're experimenting a little, to figure out how to get the result we're after.

We are trying to bring our overall stage volume down --

•  I actually played my acoustic guitar Sunday with no monitor (I heard it 'acoustically'. Strange sensation).
• We didn't have a bass guitar this past week. 
• We're talking about doing without drums periodically (Lord, is this you?).  
• We're training our singers to really think about vocal blending, and trying other instrumental mixing, matching, and minimizing.

I think this is about more than worshiping more quietly...

First of all, we don't want less intensity, just a little less volume. We haven't suddenly become enlightened on the evil of amplified instruments. Its just that 1) We've gotten used to letting loudness signal (maybe sometimes substitute for) passion, and 2) It's just been way too loud!

So 'same process, same result' is not going to work for us right now. We have to find new ways of coming to the presence of God with real passion and intensity, without flipping the 'kick it up!' switch we're so used to. We can't see exactly how to do this yet, and so as we try new things, it may not all 'fall into place'. It's not terrible, but it's unpredictable, and we may have to spend a little more time on it.

But I know when we find something HE likes...we'll like it. Actually, I think God likes the fact that we're in the process, we're in pursuit of Him, and He will help us find new ways up the mountain.

And if we have a few 'bad hair' days in the meantime, so what? We're on a journey, we'll be okay!

Question: what area of your life do find God encouraging you to risk having 'bad hair' days in, for the sake of finding Him in new ways?

Heart Of Worship 8 - A Joyful Heart

Heart Of Worship - A Joyful Heart from Harold Forbis on Vimeo.

Sunday Setlist - 10/18/2009

A lot of our folks were down in Pittsburg, KS, today, hanging around after a wedding there yesterday (congratulations Jonathan and Katie!), so we were down a little in numbers, but not in spirit.

Rebecca Charles led worship today, and did a great job. She's led individual songs before, but today was the first time we've had her pick the list, lead the rehearsal, and lead us through the set in the meeting. She really did an excellent job. I joined Rebecca on backing vocals and acoustic, with Ruth on keys, D'Markus on drums, Twila, Kathy H., and Amy B on vocals, Lary on electric, and Bob on sax. We did without a bass today, to help with the sound level.

We are in our third week shooting for an 85dBA sound ceiling during the service, which is interesting. This involves more than just "turning it down". It seems like God's helping us acquire more tools on our belt than just volume when we need to turn up the intensity. Maybe I'll blog about it later this week (actually, I did! take a look here).

Here were the songs today:

1. Word of God Speak - in D (Bart Millard & Pete Kipley, Simpleville Music, CCLI# 3912788)

2. Rise Up!- in G (Harold Forbis, OneVoiceWorship.Org, CCLI# 2742650)

3. Son of God - in C (Marty Sampson & Lincoln Brewster, Hillsongs/Integrity, CCLI# 3452781) 

4. Still - in C (Reuben Morgan, Hillsongs, CCLI# 3940963)

We had a real holy moment at the end of this set, as we were doing what the song "Still" was calling for - "I will be still and know you are God", and in the second verse,"Find rest my soul in Christ alone, know His power in quietness and trust."

Trey Allemang taught us this morning on water baptism, and did a very thorough job. This is actually something we've probably talked about and taught about way too little, but Trey really helped us today.

Hope you had a good morning as well. If you were at Life Church this morning, what do you think about the lower volume? 

If you're from elsewhere, hope you had a great Sunday morning as well. Please feel free to leave a comment. Take a look at what went on all over the place at Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlists. Have a great week! 

Sunday Setlist - 10/11/2009

The worship team at Life Church had a 35-degree hayride and hot dog roast at the Jones’ farm last night. It was a great time of fellowship, and has nothing whatsoever to do with this morning’s service – just took an opportunity to throw that in!

 

Paul Shipman led worship today, along with Twila, Rebecca, Jeff, Jon, Andrew, Bob, Lary, Meghann, Kathy K., and Kathy H. They did a great job, after working through some technical issues in rehearsal – we’re working on bringing our decibel level down to an 85dBa peak, which is quite a feat! I was out in the congregation today, and it sounded great, with Danny D. doing a really solid job on the board.

 

Here are the songs from today’s service:

 

1. On Christ the Solid Rock (Edmund Simon Lorenz, Public Domain)

 

This is one of a repertoire of about a half dozen or so hymns that we pull out from time to time, and it was just so appropriate and moving this morning. I grew up with hymns (from the Broadman Hymnal – you know, the one Paul and Silas used), and we really should incorporate a LOT more. There’s just no reason to miss out on the rich theological heritage many of them can bring us. Also, there’s something timelessly powerful about knowing you’re singing and proclaiming what saints in other generations have. (see Gary Durbin’s post).

 

2. You, You Are God (Walker Beach, Gateway Publishing, CCLI# 4389918).

 

We’ve done this song several times since introducing in early summer, and it’s just a great entering-in proclamation. I love it.

 

3. Consuming Fire (Tim Hughes, ThankYou Music, CCLI# 3818569).

 

Haven’t done this one in a while, but it was also very appropriate this morning. We ended our worship time repeating the prayer of the bridge, “stir it up in our hearts, a passion for Your Name.”

 

Doug Davenport spoke to us this morning, exhorting us that God has a part for each of us to play, and makes us gifts to the body to play those roles.

 

This was beautifully illustrated prior to the message by honoring the lives of two of our family members who are now with Jesus – a 10-year-old girl, and an 86-year-old man. Plaques were presented to help us remember the parts they played, and the legacy they left us of loving, giving, and serving others.

 

As Doug began his message, he had 12-yr-old Charis B. come share a picture God gave her that caused her to go to her friends to repent to them and to pray with them during chapel a couple of weeks ago. It was of a puzzle with many pieces, which represented the Body of Christ, and the reality of the need to live in love with each other in order be fit together properly.

 

Eph. 2:19-22, 1 Cor.12 were foundational scriptures Doug then used to encourage us to know that no one's left out of the picture. We all have been placed together intentionally with the grace to carry out the design of God for our lives. In fact, not only CAN we be a part of the picture, but the picture willbe incomplete without each one of us in place. When you're putting a puzzle together, there are big gaps and holes in the picture, and a large jumbled pile of individual pieces set to the side. Whatever the picture is, it won't be fully revealed till every part's out of the pile and in it's place.

 

We ended with an altar of acknowledging our desire to submit the Lord’s desire and design for each of (all of) our lives.

 

Paul and the team finished us out with one last song as we were leaving:

 

4. Knowing You (Graham Kendrick, Make Way Music, CCLI# 1045238).

 

If you’re from Life Church, feel free to add a comment about the service today. If you’re from elsewhere, hope you had a great day as well. Leave a comment, and we’ll read about what happened at your place on Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlist worship blog. God bless!

Sunday Setlist - 10/04/2009

We had a lot of visitors with us today, which was awesome. Some I knew, some were here for the first time (or they've been there before, but I just don't know them yet!). Jason and Eleanor Benson from Casper, WY, and their girls were here visiting friends and family this weekend. Eleanor's parents and sisters are part of our church family. She mostly grew up here, and Jason and Eleanor both went to our Bible college a few years ago. Jason lived with my family for a short time, and is a real son in the faith to me, I love this guy. He led one of his songs for/with us this morning, which really helped us.

We had some technical difficulties in rehearsal - monitor send with a short in it (my acoustic), so Dan Bedford, our audio guy today, and Jon Shipman spent half the rehearsal on and off trying to chase it down. You know, it just goes that way sometimes. Fortunately, I don't care if I can hear myself playing or not, so it was only bothersome because of the sudden sound spike when it would cut in. Dan worked through it in a steady-as-she-goes way, and got us through in fine shape!

We started the meeting today with our church administrative pastor, David Bost, talking to us about a move of God's Spirit that happened in our church school's chapel Friday. A 50-minute meeting had turned into 4 hours in the presence of God, as kids were repenting, being filled with the Holy Spirit, just generally being met by God however He desired.

We began to worship the Lord upon hearing this news, and continued on into these songs:

1. Today Is The Day (Lincoln Brewster & Paul Baloche, Integrity, CCLI@ 5200924)

We did this one in Bb (so I could sing it), and it went great, people were really rejoicing. We transitioned into the next one as I handed off my guitar and mic to Jason so he could introduce his song "You Are God" to us -

2. You Are God (Jason Benson, hear it here).

This is a great song. My son Evan's been playing it in a loop for an hour since we've been home. "Shout it out, shout it out, shout that you are God!" is the 'hook' line in the chorus. It is a really fun song to play and sing, and our folks really went with it. Thanks Jason!

3. When I Think About The Lord (James Huey, CFN Music, CCLI# 2834496)

Veeve Holtz led this one, and it really captured our hearts with thankfulness to God. We came back to it at the end in saying goodbye to some friends, and I think we probably could have camped here for a while longer. It may have been that we should have ended worship with this one. Woulda, shoulda, coulda...

4. All The Heavens (Reuben Morgan, Hillsongs, CCLI# 3490585)

I love this song. People worshiped with it, but like I mentioned above, it may have been one song too many. Of course, if the worst thing we do this week is worship God too long on Sunday morning, it will be a pretty good week!

Jeremy Pingel (who happens to be Jason Benson's brother-in-law - hey, it's northeast Missouri, we're all related back in there somewhere) brought an excellent word on the goodness of God, encouraging us primarily from Psalm 73 to trust in the goodness of God, and seek Him till we find Him in all things.

The young(er) guys did a great job leading the meeting today. David Bost, Danny Dunn, Jeremy, and our pastor Tom Bedford were all on the stage, but I don't think Tom ever had the mic, till we had Randy and Darlene Holliday come up to say goodbye, as they are moving on to the next God-assignment, in Hannibal, MO. We prayed, cried, talked, sang, etc., and a good time was had by all. 

If you're from Life Church, please leave a comment about your take on the meeting today. If you're from elsewhere, feel free to say hello or otherwise comment. Either way, check out what happened in churches all over the place this morning at Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlist blog carnival.