Sunday Setlist 5-17-09
I know, I’m late. But I have a good excuse! We drove south to a friends house and spent the afternoon at the park playing Catan. Quite fun, even if we were freezing in the 75 degree weather… yes, I was cold and it was 75F outside. Disclaimer: we were sitting in a very shady grove surrounded by big trees with a breeze blowing and we were all in tanks tops and shorts. Brrr! But I won, by 2 points if I recall. 
So, back to the service… I get so easily distracted!
The songs:
- Sing, Sing, Sing [G]
- Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) [F]
- O Worship The King [F]
- kids message
- Here I Am to Worship [E]
- announcements
- message “Why Not Take All Of Me”
- Made To Worship [F]
- Take My Life [D]
- communion message
- Lead Me To The Cross [E]
- taking the Lord’s Supper
- Reign In Us [F]
Yep, that’s a LOT of songs! The message was on worship, and was taken from the passage in 2 Samuel 6 where King David attempts to bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem (resulting in a death) – and then gets it right and is able to bring it. We moved a couple of songs to the end of the message so that people could get some “practical application” before they left, and my hope is that they left with the knowledge that worship is so much more than a few songs sung on a Sunday morning! I have to admit that I was wishing Pastor Chris had picked a different title – I kept having the old jazz chart “All Of Me” going through my head, and it was annoying. (looooong story having to do with my college jazz band and our honeymoon)
Sing Sing Sing was a new one today, and it went over really well… well, other than me starting the repeat of verse 1 with the words of verse 2… oops! Fortunately I caught it on about the 3rd word, so I saved it pretty quickly. I think I like it, and I think that a decent enough group of people knew it that it will catch on pretty quickly. That and the fact that it repeats the same thing A LOT. Repetition is a good thing when you are trying to learn something!
I read Luke 19:37-40 at this point to remind all of us why we worship God – first, we worship Him because He is worthy and deserving of our praise and adoration, and second because if we don’t do it the earth will have to! It’s a good reminder.
That flowed wonderfully into Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) which is a fav of our church. We followed that with O Worship The King (which I kept blanking out on the words for… oy!) and then had the kids come up early for their message.
For the kids song we sang Here I Am to Worship, and it was cool to see even the little ones getting into singing and clapping and doing the hand motions for it. I still struggle with the bridge, because I think we will see the true cost of our sin one day… but other than that I love the song.
The message should be live tomorrow if you’re interested (and it was a pretty good one). You can check it out here.
The band came back up and we led Made To Worship (a new one for me) and Take My Life (as sung by Chris Tomlin & Christy Nockles). It was pretty powerful. Take My Life is a song that can go on and on and on if you have the time for it… which I was really wishing we had this morning!
Jim shared a story that made communion a little easier for the kids to understand (since they were back in with us this morning) The story was about 2 boys that were friends, and one of them got sick and died. He asked his friends to continue to celebrate his birthday even after he was gone, and to look forward to the day that they would all be together again. I saw a few people wiping teary eyes by the end of it (I’ll even admit that it moved me, cold heart that I have 
We led Lead Me To The Cross while the elements were passed out (which I bumped to E this week – SO much easier to sing!) and then Jim prayed over the bread and juice and took it together.
Since it was already 11:33, we just did the 2nd bridge and chorus of Reign In Us (you know, the part that they chop off when it’s played on the radio… grrr) and sent everyone out with that.
It was a good day.
People were entering in – lifting their hands, focusing on God rather than each other, and lifting their voices to God. It was another of those days that I find it harder to “lead” because I just want to worship. I’m still trying to find that balance… and I suspect that it will take a long time to get there! I try to remember to make eye contact with those that seem to like that… but I’d much rather be in the background just singing to God than in the front.
Some thoughts on worship, since we are on the topic.
We serve a holy God… a God that deserves everything that we are! He created us to worship Him, and whether we choose Him as our object of worship or not, we will worship something. It is what we were created to do. Whatever we give our time, energy and money to is what we worship… there is a saying that you can tell what someone worships by looking at their bank account. You can also tell by watching how they live out their lives.
I know that I have been guilty lately of letting other things take that place in my life, and I haven’t been living out my life as an act of worship every day. Just take a look at my living room to see the lack of excellence there! Actually, don’t. It’s embarrassing.
At our home group this week we were asked the following question: What is an idol in your life? Even though Eric laughed at the truth in it, I had to admit that the internet can at times become an idol rather than a tool. There are days that begin and end with me sitting here with the laptop open and running, facebook or twitter going strong. The internet is NOT supposed to be the beginning and the end in my life, God is! He is the alpha and omega, but I have allowed something else to take that position from time to time. That realization came on Friday as I was leaving a meeting with Pastor Chris. Oy! How easy it is to allow other things take too much of our precious time!
So, I will be working on that.
As much as I will miss constant updates of some new-found friends and acquaintances I have found on twitter and facebook, I will not be allowing myself to spend quite as much time there. I need to nip this in the bud (so to speak) before it completely takes over my life! Oh, and I really need to get the house picked up. No, really. I have family coming for a visit next month, and I’m sure they would appreciate sleeping on a futon that isn’t piled high with junk and having a shower that’s clean and shiny to use. And a bathroom that isn’t full of piled up laundry. And we need clothes to wear.
So, that is my confession for the week, as well as my prayer request – that I will be able to control the urge to be constantly online, to be constantly checking for status updates and new tweets, and to actually get work done! I also pray that I will let God be the beginning and ending of my day… that I will let Him guide me from the moment I open my eyes and throughout my day to whatever He has for me.
And now I have a question for you…
How do you define worship?
I’m looking forward to reading the answers…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wow… that was a long one! If you made it this far, congrats! And thanks for reading…
Did I mention that we had Vietnamese Spring rolls for lunch? Or were they Summer rolls… not sure. They were the hard-rice-stuff-dipped-in-water wrapped ones – very fresh, very yummy. That’s the treat for anyone that made it all the way through!
As always, part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist blog carnival!
12 comments
(good song set).
as a musician, it’s difficult for me to separate worship from music, although i have learned/am learning that the greatest form of worship is in the surrendering of ALL of ourselves ALL the time. we’re not compartmentalized beings. yet we somehow try to compartmentalize our worship and service to the Lord apart from everything else we do in our everday lives.
i’ve been holding onto this little phrase: “bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.”
A great recap Jennifer!
And the fumbled words…I did that in Happy Day for a line in v1. Thankfully, the congregation were singing so loudly, no-one noticed. Praise God
And the idol thing – yes, constantly need to keep that in check!
And Vietnamese rolls – yum – as long as there aren’t any nuts in them, which is always a risk with Vietnamese…
The nuts are not a problem when you are rolling your own… which is the best way to have them! Fried tofu, cucumber, carrot, sauteed mushrooms & onions, Thai basil, lettuce and sprouts. With a homemade fish sauce blend and sweet chili sauce. The only problem is how long they DON’T keep you full… But they are oh, so very good.
Great set. “Made to Worship” is a favorite of mine. Love, love, love “Lead Me to the Cross”! What a great communion song.
Wow you are right, that is a lot of songs. Some really good picks.
I know all that happens is not necessarily your choice so I want you know this is not focused at you. Just venting my feelings. My motto has always been “if no one makes me aware there is a problem, how can I change it? (if I determine I’m willing to change it). Wished we would have sang “Take My Life” in it’s original tune/arrangement. I was so bummed, I didn’t even sing most of it. It’s hard to sing it as worship when it’s unfamiliar. It would be nice to sing at least some of the hymns in their original form. Speaking of hymns, we sing way less than we used to. Another bummer for me.
Volume was borderline again. Wish’d I’d brought my ear plugs. Over all, ours has not been bad. I just don’t understand why churches think they need to BLAST music. God is not deaf and I don’t want to be. I’ve seen at least 4 news reports in the last year or two about loud music causing hearing damage. God gave me the ability to hear and I prefer to be a good steward by preserving it as long as possible.
I don’t remember your word fumbles. If people focus on that, then they’re focusing on the wrong thing. If that’s what they want to dwell on, then let’s have them take your place. You’re brave enough to be up there; you sacrifice your time and energy (and sometimes with headaches), you far surpass me and deserve some grace. I hate headaches. Had one migraine in my life and never want another. You need to focus on pleasing God and no one else. Have a good day.
I didn’t notice any fumbled words.
Lory – Thank you for sharing! Yeah, I was a little concerned about the volume yesterday, but we had a LOT of instruments up there. It’s so hard to judge with the vast change between an empty wooden box and a full one (which our building is). I’m glad to hear that the fumbles weren’t as noticeable as they felt! I’ll pass on the request for more hymns (I’m with you on that one) and we’ll see if we can convince you-know-who. Have a good week!
Kit – I think Lead Me To The Cross is our pastor’s favorite communion song (I think we do it at least once a month per his request). Every time it’s different tho – sometimes 1 guitar, sometimes just a voice & keyboard (AMAZING that way!) and sometimes with the full band. It’s such a great song.
Great post.
Wow, lots of songs this week. Cool list. We do Reign in Us in G…except for annoying the guitar players, I wonder if F would work better for us? Hmmmm, so many ideas come from these setlists.
For 2 of our guitars we have a capo version in D for anything in F. Then they aren’t annoyed
F is a better range for most of our vocalists and congregation, so I dropped it. I prefer G myself, but then I’m the only soprano…
Amen! Worship needs to be our life lived out to Him… but that is so hard to remember – and to do – some days!
Leave a Comment