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!

Wow – today was powerful (for me anyway).  We had a smaller group than normal (down by 4 people/5 sounds) but the worship wasn’t missing anything!

Da Liszt:

• Rain It Down [G] Carlos Whittaker
• Blessed Be Your Name [G]  Matt Redman/Beth Redman
• Here I Am, Send Me [G] Martin Anderson
• Here Is Love [D] Steve Cook/Vikki Cook/Phillip Rees
• kids story
• Counting On God [D] Jared Anderson
• announcements
• message – guest speaker
• Doxology

This was our second week doing Rain It Down, and people are really starting to pick it up.  I took a minute or so to expound on it today to help people get a little more out of it, and I hope that people were more blessed by it.  It’s such a great song to sing when you are in the midst of something.  There is just something about reaching out to God while in the middle of the storms that is so… powerful.

We followed that up with Blessed Be Your Name, again pointing out that we need to praise God in the good and the bad times.  Then we moved into Here I Am, Send Me and Here Is Love recognizing what God went through to make us His own.

Personally with the storms of life, today was just what I needed.  A reminder that God is there.  A reminder that while God never said that He would take away all of our problems, He did promise that He would be right there beside us while we are going through them – that we don’t need to fear the storm, we just need to cling ever closer to Him through the storm.

On a musical note, however, I am seriously considering raising Rain It Down a step to A – the verses are just so low for me.    The original key is C, but I know that the rest of the vocalists would pitch a fit over singing it that high…

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As always, this is part of the Sunday Setlist blog carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com – head over to see what songs are being sung at churches all over the world.

How was your worship service this weekend?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Yep, it’s that gushy, pink-and-red holiday that’s all about luuuv.  ugh.  *grin*

But on a happier note, we had a great morning at Falcon Ridge Fellowship today!  We led All Because of Jesus for the third week, and we debuted another new song today – one that I was really excited about.

We had almost everyone there this morning – we were missing our usual bass player, but David switched over and played today so the sound was great.  The best part though?  I got to sit in the congregation and take communion with Eric… and that hasn’t happened in a looooooong time.

Anywho, here’s the setlist:

• Rain It Down [G] Carlos Whittaker
• All Because Of Jesus [G] Steve Fee
  
• Glorious [Bb] Brenton Brown/Paul Baloche
• You Never Let Go [F] Matt Redman/Beth Redman
• kids storytime
• Glorious [G] Chris Tomlin/Jesse Reeves…
• announcements
• Message
• You Gave Your Life Away [E] Kathryn Scott / Paul Baloche
• Communion message
• My Chains Are Gone – chorus only

We introduced @loswhit‘s new single Rain It Down this morning, and the band was sooooo excited to do it.  It is such a fun song to sing and play, and (hopefully) that enthusiasm was contagious.  I had posted on my FB age a couple of weeks ago that we would be doing it & everyone should download it, and (fortunately) a few had done that and already knew it.  However since I know that a few will be asking where to find it I’m posting the link again – if you want to download it, head over to iTunes here.

All Because of Jesus is a great tune too, and we have a lot of fun with it.  They play it quite a bit on the local christian station up here, so most people already knew it – helpul when your teaching something new. It’s great to see most of the congregation singing along when you’ve recently introduced a song to them.   Baloche’s Glorious is like that too – people connected with that one almost immediately, and it quickly became one of the favorite songs.  I think Glorious and Here I am, Send Me are our two most requested songs.  Having both Glorious’s on the list today was a little confusing, but it worked out great.

Well, I’m off – Eric is taking me shopping for something sparkly and we have to drop the girls off at a friend’s first, (well, after we finish grouting the rest of the tile – soooooo romantic!)  so I’ll catch you later!

As always, this is part of the Sunday Setlist bloggy carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com – check it out!

So, how was your service this weekend?  Any songs you loved?  Any you loved, well, not so much?

Ever have one of those sets where you just can’t not worship?  It was like that for me yesterday.  1 brand new song, and 3 songs that we hadn’t done for a while but were great old friends.  You know, the kind that you don’t have to worry about where you go next because you know the song so well that it just comes out.

And I almost missed it.

M has had some kind of cold/flu bug for about 10 days now and I seem to have caught it on Friday night.  I spent Saturday in bed (as much as I could anyway) so that I would be abe to make it to church this weekend.  And I did make it, but it was rather touch-and-go for a bit.  The biggest problem was the sore throat that came & went.  It was gone Sunday morning, but the voice still wasn’t all there.

BUT

I am so thankful for the truth on the lyrics we sang in Baloche’s Hosanna – “when we see You, we find strength to face the day.  And in Your presence all our fears are washed away”  That was so true for me yesterday!  He gave me the strength to face the day yesterday, and I am so thankful!

Anywho, here’s the list:

• All Because Of Jesus [F]
• Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) [F]
• It Is You [A]
• Enough [F]
• kids story
• Love The Lord [D]
• message
• Lord You Have My Heart [D]
• Communion
• Doxology

All Because Of Jesus was brand new for us this weekend, but people were joining in pretty quickly.  We did it in F, however the verse was still a bit low for me (since I was sick).  I’m thinking about trying it out in G next week… or maybe A.  We’ll see how high I can convince them to go

Chris ended up leading It Is You & Enough – which was great because that meant I got to sing harmony – yay!  We haven’t done either of those songs in months and I really missed them.  It was just a morning of truly singing out praises to God and truths about Him & sending them back to Him.

We stayed very simple on Lord You Have My Heart – just 2 vocals, an acoustic and a djembe.  We sang it over the congregation while the bread and grape juice were passed out for communion and asked people to take the time to prepare their hearts and minds for the Lord’s Table.  Then Wayne shared a message about taking in Jesus’ flesh & blood into our bodies as a symbol of taking Him into ourselves.  It was pretty powerful.

After the service the girls decided that they were going to a friend’s house – and then informed all 4 parents involved!  It’s always fun when they try to do that.  Fortunately for them it worked this time!  They left with their friend and Eric & I actually got to have a date!  Honestly it was almost surreal.  He’s been out of town or pulling 14-hour days at the sales meeting for 2 weeks now, so we haven’t even seen each other at all except for last Tuesday evening.  It was so nice to get to go to lunch just with him.  We really need to do that more often…

All in all it was a great weekend – despite being sick.  Today, however, this bug seems to have pulled in the reserves and in attacking again.  Oh well, not much going on now

How was your service?

*This is part of the Sunday Setlist Bloggy Carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com – see what songs are being led all over the world!

This is part of the Sunday Setlist bloggy carnival over at The WorshipCommunity.com – check it out!

It was a fun morning today – and one that I almost didn’t make it to.  Sick kids can make things more interesting from time to time!

I did make it in, however, and I am so glad I did!  We had a sweet time of worship this morning, and it was great to see so many really entering in.

Here’s the list:

• Come, Now Is The Time To Worship
• Not To Us
• Here I Am, Send Me
• All I Have
• kids storytime
• I Am Free
• announcements
• message
• Amazing Grace

We had a full crew this morning and it was great to have everyone there.  It was a little chilly since the boiler had gone out, but they got that working and it started warming up.  Hopefully we got a good recording this week (last week’s experiment didn’t, unfortunately) so I will get that posted as soon as it’s ready.

What happened at your church this weekend?

Ever have one of those days where you’re “on” but you just aren’t feeling it?  Let me clarify… feeling the worship, yes, feeling the Spirit, yes!  But physically… well, you just aren’t at 100% (or even 75% for that matter!)

Yeah, that was me today.

I’ve been dragging for about a week (I even took a 3 hour nap the other day and still felt tired).  And I had a headache for most of yesterday which was a big sign that something is UP.  Add that to the low-grade fever I’m sure I was running off-and-on all morning and I think it’s safe to say I’m coming down with something.

Oh fraptious day.

BUT – and that’s always a big one – God is strong when we are weak!  And (especially today) I’m so thankful for that truth!

Oh, and the other benefit today?  Chris was leading most of the songs – which was really helpful when my voice threatened to stop working!

So, the list…

• Glorious (Baloche/Brown)
• God Of Wonders
• Agnus Dei
• Sweetly Broken
• kids storytime – Miracles
• Everything To God
• announcements
• message
• Communion
• Come Just As You Are
• I Love You Lord

It was a great setlist!  All songs that our congregation really seem to connect with, and we had a sweet time of worship.  We were down by a few instruments today so a couple of the songs were missing the fill that is usually played by the 2nd electric (he was playing bass today) and I missed them, but overall it sounded great.  I think we are starting to get this sound thing figured out for the most part.

We changed up Sweetly Broken today just a bit, but wow, what a difference it made!  It’s one of those songs that we love, but it has always felt a little “off”.  With the changes that Chris made though, it really felt great.  All that was missing on that one was the other guitar… it was so nice to be able to just sing the background vocals and not worry about it falling apart (not that any of us ever worry about that happening, right?)

The other high point?  I Love You Lord.  We did it simply with 3 of us singing in 3-part harmony acapella, and it really finished out the service on a great note.  I love it when that happens!

So, what happened in your service? Or, if you were part of ours, what are your thoughts? I’d love to hear about it!

**This is part of the Sunday Setlist bloggy carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com – take a look at that songs are being sung at churches all over the world! **