Category — .Worship

Father’s Day is such a great holiday!  It’s a chance to honor our earthly fathers and our heavenly Father that gave us life.  For those blessed enough to have a Daddy, it is a chance to take the time to thank them for teaching us and showing us a glimpse of our Father in heaven.  For those of us whose Dad’s are no longer with us, it is a chance to remember them.

Today we had a BBQ after church to honor the men in our families – and we were blessed that two of our guys were willing to man the grills to help feed everyone.  The ladies brought some tasty side dishes, and we had a housefull of people!

In our house today we are trying to have a lazy day.  The fact that it’s raining outside helps – Eric can’t go outside and do yard work!  After having a busy weekend filled with late nights, it’s kind of nice to just relax.  Eric is sitting on the couch playing scales on te guitar, A is trying to find someone to play games with her & M is playing games on the computer.  It’s quiet, which is a very good thing.

However it is days like today that remind me how much I miss my dad.  He was killed 8 years ago, and while I am thankful for a(nother) day set aside to remember him, it does make me sad that I can’t call him & wish him a Happy Father’s Day. So for those of you that have your dad’s, don’t take them for granted.  Take the five minutes to call them and let them know you care.  You never know when it may be your last chance.

But back to the point of this post… the setlist!

• Sing, Sing, Sing [A]
• You’re Worthy Of My Praise [E]
• Reign In Us [F]
• Agnus Dei [C]
• kids storytime
• Best Friend [C]
• announcements
• Message – “Red Bull may give you wings, but God gives you springs!”
• Unashamed [D]
• communion
• Amazing Grace (acapella)
  

We learned a new song today.  Quite literally.  Jennifer R found “Best Friend” Wednesday morning, we got the chart together Friday around noon, and we (as a band) put it together this morning around 9:15.  It’s a great song though, so we will be doing it again soon – just in a slightly higher key!  Sorry, but I’m still not a tenor, and no amount of making me sing at the bottom of my range will change that! 

Other than that and “Unashamed”, the songs were pretty well-known.  We taught Unashamed last week (as special music), and led it during communion today, so I’m hopeful that people are picking it up.

How was your worship service this weekend?

As always, this post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com – check it out to see what songs were sung at churches all over the world.  This week is the 100th consecutive week, whic is just kinda cool.

Wow – yesterday was such a beautiful day here in Washington – in the 70′s, bright, clear, sunny skies and just relaxing.  Today?  Well, its not raining… yet.  There is a nice breeze and it’s in the mid-60′s, but cloudy.  Overall it’s not bad though!

Today’s sermon was on Samson… on how God gives each of us gifts and on how he failed to use them to Gods glory.  Pastor Chris preached on Fatal Flaws.  In that vein, we approached our worship set through the lens of grace.

• We Will Worship You [D] (Whittaker/Ingram)
• Everlasting God [Ab] (Brown/Riley)
• Your Grace Is Enough [F] (Maher)
• Sweetly Broken [F] (Riddle)
• kids story on using our gifts to glorify God
• Everything To God [A] (Anderson)
• Message – Fatal Flaws
• Unashamed [D] (Neufeld/Neufeld/McKelvey)

We led Unashamed as special music, as we haven’t ever sung it @ FRF before, but I did see a few people singing along (which was great!)  It is my hope that everyone was able to really listen to the words and recognize once again the amazing gift that we have been given.

Hopefully we got a good recording of the sermon this week!  If so, I’ll get it linked when it’s uploaded.  If not, then it will be like the past few weeks, unfortunately.

How was your service this morning?

To see what songs were sung at churches all over the world, take a look at TheWorshipCommunity.com!

I was reading this article over at WorshipTheRock.com and it got me thinking…

Do we as a church have any of those songs?  I know that I personally have some songs that speak to me over and over and over, and I know that they will continue to speak to me in the future… that they will minister to me again and again when I need to have my spirits lifted.

But what about your church?  Are there any songs that fit that definition for your church body?

I know that for a while the song “Trading My Sorrows” fit that definition, but I’m not sure that it still does.

I’m asking for your input.  Are there songs that continually feed your spirit?  Are there songs that you feel would fit that description for your church body?

Please share…

After the amazing amount of rain that we experienced yesterday, it was so refreshing to wake up to bright sunny skies – albiet with fog floating around.  Sun, just in time for those Memrial Day BBQ’s that everyone is planning.  Let’s hope the weather continues to improve here in Washington!  It’s still a bit nippy out there today, but at least it’s not raining.

This morning our church surprised me too – there were lots of people there!  I generally expect that on a long holiday weekend we will have a much smaller attendance, but it wasn’t drastically smaller, and we even had some new people there.  Yay!

I was joking with the band this week that maybe I need to shave my head & grow a beard, because half of our songs today were written by Carlos Whittaker… and if somehow you don’t know who that is, well, you need to.  Head on over to RagamuffinSoul and get acquainted.  Hey, the topic was grace, and they just fit!

Anywho, here’s the list:

• Marvelous Light [A] (Charlie Hall)
• Jesus Saves [G] (Carlos Whittaker/Mia Fieldes/Jason Ingram)
• We Will Worship You [D]  (Carlos Whittaker/Jason Ingram)
• Grace Like Rain [Am] (Todd Agnew/Chris Collins/Edwin O. Excell/ John Newton)
• kids story
• Rain It Down [A] (Jason Ingram/Carlos Whittaker/Phillip LaRue)
• announcements
• Message – “Under New Management”
• Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) [D] (Edwin Othello Excell/Louie Giglio/John Newton/John P. Rees/Chris Tomlin)

Yep, it was a message about grace… and how desperately we need it.  Hopefully the recording worked (we have been having some issues between the recorders & the sound board – hopefully that will b resolved soon!)  If it did, I’ll post the link to it later this week.  Or you can head over to FalconRidgeFellowship.com and take a look to see if it’s posted.

Some high’s & lows…

The high point for me was split between We Will Worship You (I love how it’s quiet, then gets really, really loud!) and watching the kids learning the new motions for Rain It Down.  Miss Jennifer did a great job working them out, and the kids were really getting into them.  Overall the whole set was a high for me – they are all songs that I love to sing and have a lot of energy to them.  That and we had almost a full band again this week after a month of missing people each week.

The low point?  Looking out and wondering if I’m doing a good enough job.  Most of the songs today were either fairly new or we haven’t done them in a loooooooong time, so there were quite a few people that weren’t singing much.  I never quite know how to interperet that… do they just not know them yet, or are they a style that isn’t their “preference” or is there some other reason.  I felt that quite a bit today.

That’s my take on our service today – how was your service?

This post is part of TheWorshipCommunity.com‘s Sunday Setlist blog carnival.  Find out what songs were led at churche all over the world this weekend!

Yeah, I know.  Such a catchy title today.  What can I say

So we were once again down by a couple of people this weekend, but I think we still managed to rock the house.  Pastor Chris is visiting his kids & grandkids in the Bay area, so we were missing his guitar, and Taya is in the midst of insanity this month – she’s a teacher.  It’s May, need I say more?  Paulette is out of town, Samis in high school & it’s May (again, no explanation necessary) and Jennifer was celebrating her anniversary this weekend.

Yeah, down by a few…

However I’m really hoping the recording came out well this week, because Jim gave a fantastic sermon this morning!  It was on love.  Not the gushy romantic thing that most people think of when they hear that word, but rather on how God is love… and we need to be more like God in how we love.  Yeah… it was a convitcting one.  (don’t you just hate those?)

Anywho, here’s the list of songs we led this morning.  It was a fun day.

• Your Grace Is Enough [F] (Matt Maher)
  
• It Is You [A] (Peter Furler)
  
• Here Is Love [D] (Steve Cook/Vikki Cook/William Rees)
• We Will Worship You [D]  (Carlos Whittaker/Jason Ingram)
• kids story
• Love The Lord [D] (Lincoln Brewster)
• Communion
• Lord, Light the Fire Again [E] (Brain Doerksen)

Yeah, we kinda followed the love theme.  It worked really well too.  I took a minute towards the end of We Will Worship You to talk about it just a little, which I think helped some too.  We introduced it a few weeks ago during communion, but I hadn’t had a chance to really talk about it or explain it yet.  The cool part though?  As I was sitting down Jim told me that what I said fit in perfectly with the message he would be sharing.

I just love it when God does that!

I have to admit though… I normally wouldn’t have put something so upbeat in for communion, but it really worked well.  I was a bit surprised.  It tied up Jim’s message really well, and sent us into communion thinking about how we truly are – wretched and blind, and unable to save ourselves.

All in all, it was a great Sunday!

How was your service?

**To see what was led at churches all over the world, take a look at the Sunday Setlist blog carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com!

Yep, I’m a little late getting this one posted… sorry.

Mother’s Day… a day that has been set aside to honor those who birthed us.  Who nurtured us (birth mom’s or otherwise), and taught us how to be.

It’s a great day.

I got some really cool gifts from the girls – both handmade.  A built a little wheelbarrow for a potted plant to sit on, and M gave me a gift in a jar recipe for “Chocolate Lover’s Cookie Bars” and a little desk calendar of “I love my mummy because…” with notes she hand-wrote in.  I also got flowers from Mr. Man.  And the sun was shining… a beautiful Western Washington day in the high 60′s.

But on to the list…

• All Because of Jesus [G] Steve Fee
• Glory to God Forever [G] Beeching/Fee
• Only You [G] Andy Park
• Here I Am, Send Me [G] Martin Anderson
• kids storytime
• Jesus Saves [D] Whittaker/Fieldes/Ingram
• announcements
• message
• We Will Worship You [C] Ingram/Whittaker
• communion

Yep, it was a Fee Band & Carlos Whittaker kind of day.

We introduced Jesus Saves & We Will Worship You this weekend, one as a kids song and one as a “listen to this while you ponder communion” song.  They will be making repeat appearances in the coming weeks.

May is going to be an interesting month for us… we have at least 2 people missing each week I think.  One of our vocalists has been gone for a couple of weeks visiting family, and there has been such a huge hole there.  This week one of our electric guitarists played acoustic to fill in for the acoustic that will be gone for 3 weeks… and his missing electric left another hole in the sound.  It’s just different when the sound changes from what you have gotten used to, ya know?

Well, that was our list – what did you sing?

To see what was sung all around the world, head over to TheWorshipCommunity.com!

It seemed to have passed me by without even realizing it… May Day was yesterday!  I finally remembered and wished someone “Happy May Day” oh, around 10:00 last night.  C’est la vie.

So that makes today the day after May Day.  May 2nd.  And a beautiful day in early may it is here in Western Washington… with the snow level around 2,000 feet and the low-hanging clouds and temps in the 50′s.  Low 50′s.

Ugh.

Yes, it’s cold and blustery – but we aren’t under water, so it’s all good!

Well, I was supposed to be postinga MIA setlist this morning… I was supposed to be taking the weekend off and celebrating Mother’s Day with my mum-in-law, but we had a sick kiddo and didn’t want to spread the germs.  So, I’m posting it from the perspective of the stage, as usual.

So, without further ado… the list:

• Glorious (Paul Baloche/Brenton Brown) [Bb]
• Glory To God Forever (Steve Fee/Vicky Beeching) [G]
• God of Wonders (Marc Byrd/Steve Hindalong) [F]
• My Savior, My God (Aaron Shust/DD Greenwell) [C]
• kids story
• Counting On God (Jared Anderson) [E]
• Message – Somebody Pinch Me
• Doxology

Glorious is one of our most requested songs these days.  It seems that everyone loves singing it – and playing it (which is usually a pretty good thing!)  Having two electric guitars on that one makes it just a bit more fun too, as David plays the bridge during the intro – about an octave higher than I sing it.  It’s just kewl.

Glory to God Forever is a new song for us – we just introduced it last week – and it seems to be fairly well received so far.  It’s played quite a bit on the radio here too, so it’s fairly well known to a good chunk of the congregation already.  It was great to see a few people fully entering in this morning while we sang it (even while others were still learning the words).

Since I was planning to be gone, we had split the songs up between a few people so they could all lead together, so Art led the next two songs and I got to sing harmony (yay!)  We haven’t done God of Wonders in quite a while, and it was nice to pull it out of the file and shake off the dust a bit.  And I have to throw out kudos to our media gal – the background she found for it this morning was so stinkin’ cool.  It looked like we were flying through space and getting to see God’s extra-planetary creation up close & personal.  Everyone on stage wanted to turn around and watch it.  Good job Carol!

Scott & Julie did a great job with the kids story this morning too – Scott played the part of Peter sitting in jail wonderfully, and I think the kids had a lot of fun getting to be the angels getting him out of jail.  They were even extra quiet so they didn’t wake up the guards!

So, that was our Sunday… how was yours?

**as awlays, this is part of the Sunday Setlist Bloggy Carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com – check out what was sung all over the world this weekend!

Yep, this post is going up before our services this weekend.  Seems a little backwards, doesn’t it!

I wish I could take credit for the idea, but I can’t.  I came across this post over at Kretzu.com/blog today, and it just makes sense, so I’m going to try it.

We will have two services this weekend – one on Friday night at 7, and our regular Sunday morning service at 10.  Both will be held at the Old Arlington High School (or Highland Christian School, for those that prefer that) in the auditorium.

Here are the songs that we will be singing for Good Friday…

• Jesus Messiah (Chris Tomlin)
• The Wonderful Cross (Chris Tomlin)
• Blessed Redeemer (Casting Crowns)
• Lead Me to the Cross  (Brooke Fraser/Hillsong United)
• Nothing But The Blood  (Matt Redman)
• Jesus’ Blood  (Martin Smith/Delirious?)
• The Love of God  (Mercy Me)
• You Gave Your Life Away  (Kathryn Scott/Paul Baloche)

And these are the songs for Resurrection Sunday morning…

• Today Is The Day (Lincoln Brewster/Paul Baloche)
• All Because Of Jesus (Steve Fee)
• Glorious (Paul Baloche/Brenton Brown)
• Revelation Song (Kari Jobe – written by Jennie Lee Riddle)
• Glorious Day (Casting Crowns)
• Happy Day (Tim Hughes-sung by Steve Fee/Kim Walker)
• Marvelous Light (Charlie Hall – as sung by Christy Nockles)

These can all be found on iTunes, YouTube.com and other places.  I’m sure you can even find them on a Pandora station.  If you have them, I encourage you to listen to them before our services this weekend!

What is the reason behind posting this early?  It’s simple… worship is not something that just happens on a Sunday morning for 20 minutes or so.  Worship is what we do each day with our lives.  Worship is giving our lives over to God each minute.  Music is just a small part of that, but it is a part that can be very powerful.

If you have the time to listen through these songs – even just a few of them – you will be preparing your heart and mind for more fully bringing your worship before God when we gather together this weekend!  Personal worship is a vital part of our Christian walk, but corporate worship is also very important.  We need to gather together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to pray together, to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with one another.  We need to worship God together.

By listening to the songs in advance, you will also be more familiar with them – some of them are still newer songs to our body.  Some of them are also planned as special music, but I would love for the words to really sink into your hearts and minds – they are very powerful.  I pray that you will allow the truths that are being sung to wash over you, to seep in, and to be real in your hearts and lives.

I am really looking forward to worshiping with you this weekend.  We had such a fun rehearsal last night, and it is my hope that some of that joy that we felt will be passed along to each person that joins us this weekend.

Worshiping God through music is fun!  It brings us joy and allows us to relax into God’s presence more easily.  It is my prayer that our times of corporate worship do that for you as well.

Happy Easter!