We are spending this past Sunday and this coming Sunday revisiting some of our roots musically.  Yep, we have dusted off some of those songs that we haven’t sung in a while, or that we used to sing years ago.  It’s been kind of fun to o back and revisit some of these.

• You’re Worthy of My Praise (Ruis)
• You Never Let Go (Redman)
• Enough (Tomlin/Giglio)
• Desert Song (Fraser)
• kids story
• Rain It Down (Whittaker/Ingram/LaRue)
• message – The Zarephath Express
• Great Is Thy Faithfulness

It was great to have Pastor Chris back from his vacation this week.  He had a great message to bring to us this week – if you would like to hear it, just click on the title above.

This coming week we are studying my favorite passage in the Old Testament – 1 Kings 18:16-40 – where Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal. I can’t wait to see what Pastor Chris brings out from that story!  It’s also Communion Sunday, so I’m expecting a great time of corporate worship!

We will be singing these songs:

• Come, Now is the Time to Worship (Doerksen)
• We Will Worship You (Whittaker/Ingram)
• O Worship the King (Haydn/Grant/Tomlin)
• Blessed Be Your Name (Redman/Redman)
• kids story
• Top of Our Lungs (Bradford/Neufeld/Neufeld)
• message
• Agnus Dei (Smith)
• communion

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It would be so easy each week to say something like “we came, we set up, we sang songs, we were taught, we tore down, we left”

After all, isn’t what we do week in and week out?  We show up, we do our thing, we leave… or is it something more than that?

Is church something that is more than just a place that we show up once a week to get our weekly feeding and feel good about ourselves because we “go to church”

Uh, yeah!

Church isn’t a place.  Church isn’t a weekly fill up.  It’s not just something we “do” week after week after week.

Church is who we are.

But some weeks, it feels like a place we go to do our thing.

For me, Sunday was one of “those” days… or at least it started out that way.

But God…

I so love those words!  But God.  What would my life be if not for all the times that life was going along, but God interveined?  Things were looking down, but God turned them around?

But God stepped in and answered the prayer of my heart on Sunday.  He reached down to this insignifigant child of His and touched a heart that was stony and softened it.  He reminded me that church isn’t a job.  It isn’t “what I do” – it’s who I am and who I minister to and who I am called to love – and be loved by.

So, with that in mind, here’s what we “showed up and did” – ha!

• Glory To God Forever
• Salvation Day
• Your Mercy
• Here is Love
• kids storytime
• Every Move I Make
• announcements
• message
• The Wonderful Cross
• communion

It’s pretty hard to keep a stony heart in your chest when you are singing about the glory and majesty and mercy and love and sacrifice of the wonderful, amazing God that we serve!

After all, where would any of us be if it were not for the “but God’s” in our lives?

Wow – what a great morning of worship!  It was one of those days (for me) that you just can’t help but praise God.  I like those days.

Admittedly I wasn’t feeling it when I got to church this morning.  I had overslept (accidentaly turned the alarm OFF instead of snoozing) and was running late.  I was preparing for an extra long day with the Back to School Rally coming up after church, and I was having a really hard time waking up.  But by the time we were on the chorus of the second song I was ready to dance!

God is good!

Anywho, here’s the list:

• Salvation Day (Beeching)
• Happy Day (Jesus Culture-style)
• We Will Worship You (Whittaker)
• Here Is Love (Cook/Rees)
• kids message
• I Am Free (Egan)
• announcements
• message
• Reign In Us (Starfield)
• communion

I mean, how can you NOT be happy with Salvation Day and Happy Day back to back?  Seriously?

It was a great time of worship, and Pastor Chris followed it up with a great message on how to love your enemies a la David.

After church we headed over to President’s Elementary School for the Back to School Rally, and gave away around 500 or so backpacks filled with school supplies.  Lots of local churches and businesses joined forces to fill them and give them away – along with lots of other fun goodies at the rally.  The hot dog line at our church booth was mighty long.  I think they cooked & handed out around 400 hot dogs this afternoon!

It turned out to be a fabulous day… and now I’m tired.  It’s a good tired though, a very good tired. 

How was your weekend?

It’s a beautifully cloudy day today in Western Washington -we even got rain overnight last night.  After the temps in the upper 90′s last weekend it is a most welcome change!

It’s been a couple of busy weeks for us around here – with the church campout 2 weeks ago and Jim filling in for Pastor Chris last weekend, but I am hopeful that as we wind down to the end of Summer that things can calm down a tad but… maybe.

Ah well, onto the list:

• Salvation Day [E] (Vicky Beeching, Jonny MacIntosh, and Sarah MacIntosh)
• Hosanna (Praise is Rising [F] (Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown)
• You Never Let Go [F] (Matt Redman, Beth Redman)
• Indescribable [Bm] (Laura Story)
• kids story about Abigail
• Everyday [Ab] (Joel Houston)

This was our second week leading Salvation Day, but the first week that Pastor Chris has played it.  It worked out pretty well, but we get to work on it again for next week.  Everything else fell under the heading of “extremely well known” and it was great to see people really entering in and not having to think about how the melody goes or what the words are.

I will be glad when Summer is over though – it’s been crazy with the swinging door we have had through the Summer months with people being gone of vacation.  Although I myself have missed a week or two as well, so I can’t get on anyone too hard!

How was your service this weekend?

Wow – I hadn’t realized how long it has been since I posted a setlist!  Life has been just a tad busy I guess.  Sorry about that!

This week’s topic was centered around worry in our home groups, and the passage we were focusing on was 1Samuel 13:1-14.  It highlights a time when Saul decided to take matters into his own hands instead of waiting on Samuel, or, rather, waiting on God.

Worry and impatience.  Anxiety.

There are so many times in the Bible where this comes up and causes problems for people!

With that in mind, our setlist focused on giving our anxieties to God and keeping a heavenly focus.

• Forever [F]
• Today is the Day [F]
• Rain It Down [A]
• We Will Worship You [D]
• kids storytime
• Beautiful One [E]
• announcements
• message – Staying Small in Your Own Eyes
• Trading My Sorrows [G]

It was a really great sermon, and hopefully we got a good recording of it.  I will post it this week if so.

I really liked leading Rain it Down and We Will Worship You back to back – the first focuses on crying out to God in the midst of the storms instead of trying to run away from them, and the second calls for is to cry out when we get too comfortable, to content.  These songs remind us that we need God in both the good times and the bad – not just the bad.  It is so easy to forget about God when everything is going well… but we can’t!  Our focus needs to be fixed on Him daily.  Our desire needs to be to have a relationship with Him daily.  We need to seek His face… daily.

And that is often so hard to do!

When things aren’t going our way, it is easy to cry out to God.  It is easy to admit that we don’t have it all together.  It is easy to admit that we need Him, because we (obviously) can’t do it on our own.  We need to translate that same need to when things are going our way too.  We still need Him, and we still can’t do it all on our own.  We just so often don’t recognize our need.

We need to continually focus on Him.

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!

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!