Songs We Sing - 03/21 - 03/22/15 - Fellowship Bible Church

This weekend, we continued in our series through Mark, called "Follow." We looked at Peter's denials of Jesus, and at what we can learn from him when we fall. It was a beautiful reminder of our need for grace in our own lives, and our need to give grace to others in our lives.

Here are our songs from this weekend:

"Every New Day" [Five Iron Frenzy]
"Faithful One" [Original]
"In Tenderness" [W. Spencer Walton, Adoniram J. Gordon, Nate Garvey]
"Your Great Name" [Michael Neale, Krissy Nordhoff]
"Forever Reign" [Reuben Morgan, Jason Ingram]
"Rejoice" [Dustin Kensrue, Stuart Townend]

This weekend was incredibly fun. We had a brass section on the team, and Ronnie, Haley, and David did a fantastic job with it. On top of that, Ronnie had suggested the Five Iron Frenzy song, "Every New Day" for this weekend, and this was a song that I have always wanted to try to play with a band. It was such a blast to play it together. The overarching theme for all of the singing this weekend was also the passage I shared to open the service:

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness."  - Lamentations 3:22-23

It was beautiful to see how it all came together, and to share in the encouragement of the gospel this weekend. Even when we stumble and fall, He is faithful, and He will pick us back up. May we leave a legacy of the gospel of grace for others in our lives.

Set List, 06/09 - 06/10/12 - Fellowship Bible Church

This weekend, David Hinkle preached about abiding in Christ from 1 John. This was our second week walking through 1 John together in our "Love In Christ" series, and we have been reading through the entire letter each week to become very familiar with it. In his message, David emphasized the certainty and security that we have because of what Christ has done for us, and our resulting relationship and fellowship with Christ. It was a beautiful and powerful reminder of our covenant relationship with God. You can listen to the entire message here. For the music this week, we focused on God's faithfulness, God's grace toward us, the finished work of the cross, and the call for us to be completely confident in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. We have nothing to fear in Him. Here's our service plan from this weekend:

"Faithful One" (G) [Original] Welcome/Greeting Time "Hallelujah To My King" (E) [Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown] "He Has Done It All" (G) [Andy Cherry, Jason Ingram] "You Have Overcome" (G) [Bill Horn, Erik Oldberg] Message - "Love In Christ: Abide" [David Hinkle] Offering "You Never Let Go" (Bb) [Matt Redman] Announcements Dismissal

"Faithful One" - This is an original song that we introduced to our congregation a few weekends ago. It declares the truth that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). In my mind, this is one of the crucial attributes of our Lord, because it means that He will not change His mind about us when we are in Christ. His Word is binding and unchanging, because it comes from Him. This is the reason that we can trust His promises.

"Hallelujah To My King" - This song is a simple song of praise to God for all that He has done for us. My favorite verse is the second, which sings of God's amazing grace and mercy in adopting us as sons and daughters, even when we were enemies.

"He Has Done It All" - This is a new song that I have been itching to introduce to our church for a few months. I first heard it February at the re:create conference during our night of worship with several Essential Worship artists. One of them was completely new to me: Andy Cherry. I hadn't heard any of his songs before that night, but several of his songs really resonated with me, especially this one. It declares with confidence that we are secure in what Christ has done for us. The chorus sings, "Love tells me/ It is finished, He accomplished/ What no one could, He has done it all/ Everything has been made complete/ In Him I belong, He has done it all."  Unfortunately, it's not really streaming anywhere for you to hear it, so you'll have to just pick up the album (it's worth it, believe me). I love this song, and our church joined in singing it pretty well. I think our congregation will participate in it more as we continue singing it together. This one is a keeper.

"You Have Overcome" - This is an original song that we introduced around Easter, and it is one that is simply about the gospel and what Jesus Christ accomplished for us. He has overcome sin and death and redeemed us to everlasting life. We can place our complete trust in Him; He is so worthy of our praise.

"You Never Let Go" - In response to the message, we sang this song of faith. Regardless of the circumstances we face in this life, God is with us, and He is worthy of our praise. He is faithful to His covenant toward us.

This weekend was a pretty good weekend. I didn't feel like we were as tight as I would have liked, but we sang songs that centered on the gospel and that pointed our confidence to Christ alone, which is what ultimately matters most. Christ was exalted, and I feel that we were all encouraged by the reminder that Jesus never fails and never neglects His covenant toward us. We can be assured and confident in our Savior!

I hope you had a great weekend of worship wherever you were!

In the Son, Bill p.s. don't forget to check out The Worship Community!

Set List, 05/26 - 05/27/12 - Fellowship Bible Church

This weekend, we focused on a Memorial Day-related theme, "On the Other Side of Sacrifice: Freedom in Christ." Joe shared from Galatians 5 about true freedom from sin, and freedom to love and serve Christ and others. It was a great reminder of the peace that we have because of God's grace through the gospel. You can listen to the entire message here. For the music this week, we continued to sing songs that remind us of God's power and love for us, demonstrated by His sacrifice for us. We are free because He has set us free! Here's our service plan from this weekend:

"Faithful One" (G) [Original] Welcome/Greeting Time "Blessed Be Your Name" (Bb) [Matt Redman, Beth Redman] "Let Me Sing" (Bb) [Todd Fields] "Lord of All" (Bb) [Kristian Stanfill] "How Great Is Our God" (Chorus Only) (Bb) [Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash] Message - "Freedom In Christ" [Joe Hishmeh] Video - "God's Pie" Offering/Announcements "'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus" (F#) [William James Kirkpatrick, Louisa M. R. Stead] Dismissal

"Faithful One" - This is an original song that we introduced to our congregation this weekend. My wife has been telling me to teach it here for months, and I finally put it in a service. It is a simple song that speaks of the Lord as "The Faithful One." It is pretty uptempo at 175 bpm... Our congregation sang it well and participated in it together, so we'll probably continue to use this song in worship.

"Blessed Be Your Name" - We sang this song after reading Psalm 72:18-19 together. This song is a powerful declaration of trust and worship, no matter what circumstances we may face in this life. Jesus is with us, He is faithful, and He is worthy of our worship.

"Let Me Sing" - We sang this song to connect the ideas of Christ's sacrifice with the proper response to that sacrifice, which is offering our lives as living sacrifices to Him. He is worthy of all we have to give, because of who He is and what He has done for us. My constant prayer for our congregation is that we would all catch this truth, and lay our lives down for Him and His kingdom.

"Lord of All"/"How Great Is Our God" - This is one of my favorites, and one of our congregation's favorites, as well. We tagged "How Great Is Our God" at the end, since they have nearly identical chord progressions in their choruses, and they have very connected themes. We sang these songs to remember the power, the uniqueness, and the worth of our great God, and to worship Him for those things. I always say that when we see God as He is - high and lifted up - we cannot remain the same.

"'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus" - In response to the message, we sang this great hymn of dependence and trust in Jesus. This was my personal arrangement of it for guitar, and it has more of a country/gospel feel to it. We ended it all by singing the chorus together a cappella with four-part harmony. It was a great moment.

This weekend was an incredible weekend. I am so blessed and encouraged from our time spent worshiping together. We did some new things this weekend, and I think they had a big impact. First, we installed acoustic "clouds" in our ceiling area. These are basically reflective acoustic panels (ours are made of high-grade plywood) suspended at different heights to help give the room more of a live sound, which ultimately helps make the congregation's voices louder in the room. In the past it was frustrating to not be able to hear one another when we are singing because the room was so dampened. There was a big difference this weekend, and it was very moving to hear the congregation so well! It is a beautiful thing!

Also, we gave mics to two of our band members to add a few voices during some of the stronger parts of songs during the set. I also think this added a lot to certain parts of our service. I love being a part of this growing church as we pursue our Savior together!

I hope you had a great weekend of worship wherever you were!

In the Son, Bill p.s. don't forget to check out The Worship Community!

Set List, Sunday 10/17/10 Church at the Mall

Here's our set from yesterday: "Faithful One" [original] "Say, Say" [Kristian Stanfill, Christy Nockels, Chris Tomlin] "Our God" [Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, et al] "Hosanna" [Brooke Fraser, arr. by Starfield] "Cannons" [Phil Wickham] Message - "It's Your Serve--Be Missional" [Pastor Jay] INV - "Mighty to Save" [Reuben Morgan, Ben Fielding]

This week, the focus of the morning was "Be Missional," so I took the angle of God's glory and fame, and our call to spread the news of His salvation and glory to the world. We often think of worship as merely something that happens within the church for the benefit of the church. However, when we worship the Lord like He deserves to be worshiped--in spirit and in truth--we are declaring the truth, which has transformational power. This affects not only the church, but also anyone who witnesses it. Moreover, if we live our lives for the purpose of worshiping our King, we are essentially telling others the truth of His greatness. Worship then results in us being missional, as we seek to exalt Jesus in everything we do. We will tell other people about Him, and love people like Him. We will seek opportunities to get more people involved in worshiping Him by placing their trust in Him, because He deserves the worship of every single being on this earth. In short, true worship will result in the mission of the church being fulfilled. As Jesus said, "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).

I hope you had a great day of worship wherever you were.

In the Son,

Bill

The Worship Community | Sunday Set Lists

Set List, Sunday 08/22/10 Church at the Mall

Currently watching: Toy Story This morning was a great day of worship with Church at the Mall. Here's our set for today:

"Faithful One" [original] "Holy is the Lord" [Chris Tomlin] "Beautiful" [Phil Wickham] "Revelation Song" [Jennie Lee Riddle] "Lord of All" [Kristian Stanfill] Message: "Catching a Glimpse of the Glory of God" [Dr. Jay Dennis] Invitation: "Never Be the Same" [original] "Glorious" [Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown]

This morning everything came together in a beautiful way. I was thrilled that Pastor Jay was going to be spending this week focusing on the glory of God, because there is so much you can do to emphasize that through the worship music. It isn't difficult to find worship songs that deal with the glory of God.

Pastor Jay had requested that we learn Paul Baloche's "Glorious," because it would fit well with this message. This was a song I have wanted to introduce for almost a year now, since Paul played it for the state convention's Worship Expo which was held at our facilities last year. It's a captivating song, with a solid lyric and some unique melody ideas. There are points where the melody is almost haunting. I love it.

We also brought back our arrangement of Phil Wickham's "Beautiful," which powerfully incorporates the theme of God's glory through creation, the cross, and eternity. I've said this before, but the lyric of the fourth verse always moves me when the church sings it together: "When we arrive at eternity's shore/ Where death is just a memory and tears are no more/ We'll enter in as the wedding bells ring/ Your bride will come together and we'll sing, You're beautiful."

It all came together well, and I believe God was truly exalted by the church this morning. As we lifted up His praise, we encountered Him in a beautiful and powerful way. God is so worthy.

I hope you had a great day of worship wherever you were this weekend!

Bill

As always, check out www.theworshipcommunity.com and Sunday Set Lists to see what other leaders did this week in their faith communities.

Set List, Sunday 04/18/10 Church at the Mall

(Well, I just typed most of a post, and hit the track pad with the palm of my hand, clicking on a link and erasing everything I'd typed. This one may be shorter…) Here's our set for this week:

"Faithful One" [original] "Cannons" [Phil Wickham] "Indescribable" [Laura Story, Jesse Reeves] "Lord of All" [Kristian Stanfill] "You Never Let Go" [Matt and Beth Redman] "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)" [w/ add. chorus by Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, Jesse Reaves, et al] "Your Name" [Paul Baloche and Glenn Packiam]

This week, we did something different. We went ALL acoustic. Every instrument was an acoustic instrument. Corey played the cajon (Spanish for "box"), Melanie played piano, Sal played high-strung acoustic (which has nothing to do with coffee), our friend Zack Nethercutt played cello, and Andrew and I played acoustic. It was fun to wail away on our guitars, like it should be done.

This week took me back to my roots, when I started getting involved and then leading worship in music over 15 years ago. It was never a well-produced band with electric guitars, drums, keyboards, and bass. It was usually just three to seven acoustic guitars and possibly a djembe for percussion. Its value was not in the production or the performance. It was in the sincerity and the intimacy. This is what this weekend was like for me. It was a return to the heart of the matter and the central focus of worship- Jesus Christ. That was my purpose in the whole thing, and judging from what some people have told me, they got it. I had two comments from the morning that confirmed this. One of the pastors said that by the time we finished, God was glorified. That is the mother of all compliments for a worshiper. I told him, "That is what I live for." I want nothing more than all of us to say that God was glorified when all is said and done. I don't care that people enjoy the music, if they miss God and His glory in the whole thing! I care about doing it well, but that is not the end goal. The end goal is ALWAYS the glorifying of our Lord Jesus Christ. The second comment was from one of our people, who said that it really helped to put things in perspective. That's what I hoped for. It's all too easy to get used to having all the big production, with the loud drums and guitars, and the driving, energizing music, and to think that is what is necessary to engage God in worship. This morning was a necessary break from the pattern to jar us all back on track. The point is to glorify God, not rock and roll (even though I love that part of it, too.)

Two things stood out to me about the morning. The first was Zack on cello. He did a fantastic job, and his passion for his instrument really came through. We had a ton of fun playing together, and I can't wait to get him back in there and playing again soon. The second thing was the people singing. I have never heard our church sing so loud! The youth have added so much to our service, too. It was awesome to hear all of their sweet voices lifting praise to God. There was a moment at the end of "You Never Let Go" where everything dropped out it was just the cello and our voices, and it was so beautiful.

It was a great day for our worship team and for our church, in my opinion. I hope we can do it again soon. I am thankful for Pastor Jay supporting me in taking a chance and trying something different. It was a beautiful thing. I hope you had a great week of worship, wherever you were. Next week, we’re going to continue to try some new things, just to keep us all on our toes!

Glory to God!

Bill

Be sure to check out Sunday Set Lists over at www.theworshipcommunity.com, to see what other leaders and team members have to say about their worship experiences all over the globe!