II Chronicles 5:13-14 "The choir and trumpets made one voice of praise and thanks to God ...The priests couldn't even carry out their duties because of the cloud--the glory of God!--that filled The Temple of God. "
Here's a brief summary of our service this week at Life Church, Kirksville, MO. (Thanks to Ron Collinge and Lori Forbis for video's):
Ruth Pingel led worship, with Bethany on keys, myself on acoustic, Jon on drums, D'Markus on bass, Kathy K. on flute, and myself, Veeve, and Patty on vocals.
Ruth picked an awesome set of songs, especially to go with Doug Davenport's message, a continuation of our series on Romans. He was in Romans 4, and brought us a great word about living by faith in God, which was a real encouragement to our people.
Here's our setlist, a couple of which didn't make the video:
1. How Great Is Our God - in G (C. Tomlin, J. Reeves, E. Cash, Sixsteps Music, CCLI # 4348399).
2. You Deserve It - in B (Bethany Shipman, Life Church).
3. You'll Come - in D (Brooke Fraser, Hillsong, CCLI #5012583).
4. Here In My Life - in B (Mia Fieldes, Hillsong, CCLI #4869885).
5. Amazing Grace - in E, mod. to F (Public Domain).
Altar Song:
6. You Are God Alone - in A (Billy & Cindy Foote, Integrity's Hosanna! Music, CCLI #4243463).
Here's the 3rd in our series, "The Levite Principle." Click here for a PDF outline of this lesson.
These lessons are meant to used for personal or group study, particular for worship leaders and teams.
As always, I hope this will be helpful to you. Please leave a comment below, or contact me at harold@onevoiceworship.org if you have a private comment or question, or if I can be of service to you in any way.
I know it's repetitive to say "we had a great time in the presence of God" or something similar every week, but,...we do! And we did again this Sunday. God is so good to draw us near to Him again and again, and it's humbling to be able to experience His nearness with both new and longtime friends He's joined together as He's building His house.
At Life Church, we feel so blessed by God to have Veeve Holtz and the gospel worship group she's leading. They led us in worship Sunday, and what you'll see in the video is pretty much what we did from 10:00 til 12:30 - we praised and worshiped the Lord together. Thanks to Veeve, Tim, Omonse, Jeremy, Jeff, D'Markus, CJ1, CJ2 (you guys can pick who's 1 and who's 2), Briana, Andrew, and Mallory.
Here's the list:
1. Revelation Song (Jenny Lee Riddle, Gateway Create Publishing, CCLI #4447960).
2. It All Belongs To You (Damita Haddon). I really love this song. I have not found music, but there are several YouTube renderings out there, including the one I've linked to here.
3. Sing For Joy (Lamont Hiebert, Integrity Hosanna, CCLI #1861357). I could not find any online rendering of the version of this song the guys did that you'll hear in the video, but it was cranking! I loved it!
4. Awesome (William Murphy). Haven't found music on this one either, but another really powerful song - this one's a strong upbeat tune - and, again, YouTube's a good source for listening.
5. Again I Say Rejoice (Aaron Lindsey & Israel Houghton, Integrity's Praise!, CCLI #4302823). Most folks are probably familiar with this one, great song.
6. Is There Anybody Here - you won't hear much of this one on the video, but we did a march around the auditorium to this one. The YouTube link's to a Deitrick and Damita Haddon performance of the song, but as far as authorship, it's an updated version of an old spiritual tune.
As I mentioned, we wound up pretty much spending the whole service worshiping and praising the Lord, with a 'preaching interlude' from several leaders who exhorted us on the unity of the family of God, the place God's making among us for different cultures, the room in our hearts He's creating for the nations of the world as we understand that seeking Him and embracing Him involves embracing every culture on earth. In our own strength, this is impossible, but in His grace, in His love, it's not only possible, but it's the natural outcome.
Many of you may be from large, metropolitan areas where cultures either merge or collide, but here in rural Northeast Missouri, many times they just separate. Sometimes it's easy to go to other people groups throughout the world, while ignoring other cultures in everyday life in our own community. God's helping us break through spiritual strongholds so that we can be salt and light in this region. The Kingdom is coming - It's HIS house, and He's building it HIS way, which is the only way it can genuinely be built, because HE's going to inhabit it! Come Lord Jesus!
Please feel free to leave a comment. To see what happened in worship all over the place, see Fred McKinnon's worship blog at theworshipcommunity.com.
Here is Lesson 2 in the Levite Principle series - "Who Were The Levites?"
Click here for outline notes in PDF format, which are a little more in-depth than the video.
We're taking a look in this study at the tribe of Levi. As we look at their serving in the house of God in the Old Testament, we can use that as a model for our serving in the church today, particularly in the area of worship - as worship leaders, singers, and musicians.
As stated in the introduction, the Levite Principle can be summed up in two words: serving families. The Levites were a family of families who served in the house of God. Everything else - who, why, what, when, how all this happened - all relates to this primary principle. They were servants in the house of God, and they served for generation after generation together as families.
This teaching series is designed to be used as a study guide, primarily for worship leaders, singers, and musicians. Study it on your own, or feel free to utilize it for group study with your worship team.
I hope you find this series useful, and please feel free to leave a comment, or contact me at harold@onevoiceworship.org if you have private comments or questions.
We did 'worship unplugged' today (of course, everything was plugged in, just fewer people and more acoustic in nature!). Ruth Pingel led from the keyboard, with Jon Shipman and myself on acoustic guitars, and Jeff Jachura helping us out on conga and some other light percussion. This is something we've experimented with a few times over the last 3 or 4 months, and I think we'll keep doing it. It's a nice change of pace that gives us some flexibility, and our congregation responds really well. And, hey it's fun!
Clay Talton kicked the meeting off this morning with a welcome and an exhortation to worship. Ruth did a really great job of leading us in the following songs:
1. You, You Are God, in Bb (Walker Beach, Gateway Create Publishing, CCLI #4389918). Jeff started us out with conga only on this one, which worked nicely.
2. Today Is The Day, in Bb (L. Brewster, P. Baloche, Integrity, CCLI #5200924).
3. Lord of Lords, in E (Brooke Fraser, Hillsong, CCLI #4869971). I think this is the first time we've done this one, although I think a lot of people were already familiar with it. What a beautiful song of worship! We felt the gentle presence of God - David Bost, one of the guys who was leading the meeting today, described it 'God breathing in us as we breathed out worship' - and did some free worship here, leading right into the chorus of the next one...
4. We Fall Down, in E (Chris Tomlin, EMI Music, CCLI #2437367). We worshiped with this one for quite a while as well, then Ruth started out by herself on the next one...
5. Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, in C (Helen H Lemmel, Public Domain, CCLI #15960). The gentle 'breathing' in and out of worship and the presence of God continued as we quietly finished our worship time with this song. There was some prophetic singing and free worship and we transitioned to Trey, who received the offering, then to Tom for the message.
It was good to have our pastor, Tom Bedford, back with us today. He's been traveling quite a bit in the last couple of months, and although we've seen him in between trips, it was just really great to hear from him today, as he shared his heart for the family God's given us around the world - England, Sweden, Denmark, the Philippines - as well as our family of churches here in the US. It's really wonderful to think how many incredible friends God's given us - to give to, and to receive from - all over the world. This is treasure beyond compare!
Danny Dunn, who was just with our friends at the church in Fresno, CA, last week with Tom (Buck Hudson, from Sweden, was there also) talked about the heart behind Interchange, which is a family within our family of the young(er) generation of 20/30-somethings who are reaching out to establish and maintain relationship for the purpose of seeing God have His way in the church through their lives together.
Tom read from Hebrews 1 through 2:1, and spoke to us briefly about the admonition in 2:1, "So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it" [NLT]. In this season of our lives where God's expanding our vision together, not only here at Life Church, but together with the friends He's joined us to around the world, how much more careful attention should we pay to the words God is speaking to us, and to living our lives accordingly? We ended at the altar praying about this.
Thanks to Dave Krueger for videoing today. If you were there, this morning, please leave a comment - what was God saying to you today?
If you're from somewhere else, I hope you had a good day with the Lord and His people, and please feel free to leave a comment as well. To see what happened in worship today all over the place, take a look at Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlist blog at theworshipcommunity.com.
Great day at Life Church in Kirksville, MO, today. Take a look at the video recap (thanks to Jeremy for doing the filming - good job!).
Jon Shipman did a great job leading worship. He was on acoustic, with Lary on electric, Drew B. on drums, Buddy on bass, Linda on keys, Bob on sax, Kathy K. on flute, with John F., Kathie W., and Twila on vocals.
Here's this morning's setlist:
1. Give Us Clean Hearts (Charlie Hall, EMI Music, CCLI #2060208).
2. King of Majesty (Marty Sampson, Hillsong, CCLI #3324479).
3. Happy Day (B. Cantelon/T. Hughes, ThankYou Music, CCLI #4847027). I might as well just preprint this one of each week's list. We love it!
4. I Worship You (Esther Filip, Maranatha Music, CCLI #5087594).
5. Better Is One Day (Matt Redman, ThankYou Music, CCLI #1097451).
I taught on Romans chapter 2 today, continuing our series on Romans. The main points were that we all live in desparate need of God, in that none of us have a leg to stand on in our own religious righteousness before Him, and and because of that, we have no ability or permission to judge one another.
If you were there today, please leave a comment - what did God say to you this morning?
If you were somewhere else, feel free to leave a comment as well, and I hope you had a great day with the Lord and His people as well. Stop by Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlist blog at theworshipcommunity.com to see what went on in worship all over the place.
Veeve Holtz led worship today with our gospel group, and they did another fantastic job. I so appreciate these guys, some of whom are TSU college students who are becoming our good friends and part of our family. They bring a powerful anointing and a fresh way into the presence of God to us.
My friend Michael videoed the worship time for me, as I was helping to lead the meeting this morning. He did a great job, but I goofed when I set up my camera, and so the audio converted, but most of the video didn't, hence the slide/video ... montage. Yeah, that's what it is - I made a montage of our worship for you. Enjoy!
David Bost opened the meeting with a report via e-mail from our pastor, Tom Bedford, who's in England with his wife, Andrea. They had a great meeting with a group of around 90 prophetic guys. I followed David's report by encouraging us to bless the Lord for the good report from Europe, and then we read Psalm 103 together.
Veeve did an awesome job of stopping to exhort us along the way, and really drew everyone in together. During the last song, there was an incredible sense of God sweeping over as we sang those words - "it all belongs to you". It seemed like He was there to take what we were offering Him - good, bad, and otherwise.
Doug Davenport continued the teaching series on the Book of Romans that Trey Allemang began two weeks ago. Doug is a great teacher/preacher, and we got a good dose of both this morning. He took us through Romans 1:8-32. He talked to us about how the central theme of the gospel is declared so clearly in Romans, starting with 1:16-17, that righteousness comes by faith, salvation comes to all who believe the gospel. Paul was under a mandate to preach the gospel, and was not ashamed of it, realizing that the very power of God to salvation is in the declaring of it, to all who believe.
We ended the meeting with Roger Moore inviting people to come to the altar to pray with Life group and other leaders, as the worship team sang "It All Belongs To You" - actually, that's the video clip in the middle of the montage (word of the day - use it 3 times, and it's yours).
If you were there today at Life Church, please leave a comment here with your experience and thoughts on the meeting today. If you're from elsewhere, I hope you also had a great day with the Lord and His people.
Read about what happened in worship all over the place on Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlist blog at theworshipcommunity.com
Jonathan Shipman led worship today. He and the team did a great job, as you can see in the video - which includes clips from worship and personal interviews. (I know, very cool). Special thanks to my assistant videographer, Evan Forbis.
We had visitors from the Philippines with us this morning, Bobby & Noemi Pino and their oldest son Jon Rey, and Jaime and Dessie Ton, who are all in the states for a missions conference at Heartland next week. We have the privilege of having them with us for a few days as well.
Bobby shared with us about the radical change God's brought to his life over the last several years, in seeing the church as a family. He made the point that "how can two walk together unless they are agreed" has to do with knowing the will of God and agreeing with Him, and then walking together with each other to fulfill His purposes. Churches can only achieve real spiritual growth by walking together with Christ, who is the head, and our brothers and sisters, who are His body.
Jon and the team led us in these songs this morning:
1. Worshiping You - A (Jonathan Stockstill, CCLI #5097319)
2. Blessed Be Your Name - in A (Matt Redman, CCLI #3498438)
3. Let My Soul Cry Out - in G (Charity Long, from Christ's Family Church, Omaha, NE)
4. Open Up The Sky - in A (Jonathan Stockstill, CCLI #5097302)
Bobby spoke at this point, then we prayed for the whole crew from the Philippines, and several people had prophetic words for them. We also prayed for Abigail Veatch this morning, who's moving to Tacoma, WA, later this week.
Please leave a comment. Hope you had a great time with the Lord and His people as well today. Take a look at Fred McKinnon's worship blog at theworshipcommunity.com to see what went on in worship all over the place.
Here is Lesson 1 of 6 on The Levite Principle. Click here for PDF format outline notes.
I. The Levite Principle can be summed up in two words that describe who the Levites were and what they did - they were a "serving family."
II. Studying the Levites and their ministry in worship in the Tabernacle of David and the Temple of Solomon gives us a Biblical Foundation to build our understanding of worship ministry on.
III. In the remaining five posts in this series, we'll look at the following five aspects of The Levite Principle:
1. Where Did the Levites Come From?
2. Why Do Levites Serve?
3. Who Do Levites Serve?
4. How Do Levites Serve?
5. How Do Spiritual Leaders and Levites Relate?
I hope you will find this to be a helpful and encouraging study series. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question.
Our desire is to see passionate worship rise to the Lord from thousands of believers in thousands of places around the world, with such oneness of spirit that the glorious presence of God fills the church, His dwelling place in the earth, and overflows to cover the earth as water covers the sea. Our calling is to serve local church worship leaders and teams in every way possible, till that day appears.
Harold Forbis began leading worship over 25 years ago, and has been involved in leading the worship team at Life Church in Kirksville, MO, since 1994.
Harold is a gifted teacher with a father's heart toward training and helping young worship leaders, musicians, and singers in local churches around the world. A prolific songwriter, he has written well over 100 worship songs, and is never far from his acoustic guitar.
Harold attended Truman State University, and is a graduate of New Covenant School of Ministry in St. Louis. He has been married to Lori since 1983. They have one son, Evan.
About His Wife, Lori
A Los Angeles native, Lori Forbis moved to Kirksville with her family in 1991 to be part of Life Church. She is currently part of the administrative staff at the church. and teaches high school Language Arts at Life Church School.
Lori majored in Creative Writing in college but became sidetracked by accounting. She is an avid reader and prolific writer. In an effort to put her college education to good use, she maintains a popular web log about life, God and raising their son Evan, who has Down Syndrome, from a Christ-centered perspective.
