Set List, Sunday 06/13/10 Church at the Mall

Reflections on the progressive worship service from Sunday, 06/13/10 at Church at the Mall. Jesus' blood covers us, heals us, washes us, and defends us even today!

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Set List, Sunday 05/23/10 Church at the Mall

Here's our set from this morning: "God is Alive" [Steve Fee/Eddie Kirkland] "All Because of Jesus" [Steve Fee] "It is Well" [Horatio Spatford w/ add. chorus by Todd Fields] "Beautiful the Blood" [Steve Fee] "Jesus Paid It All" [trad. w/ add. chorus by Alex Nifong] INV "Mighty to Save" [Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan] "You're the Only One" [original]

It was good to be back with the band and the church family today. I returned from vacation last night, and we jumped right back in this morning. It was a little bumpy, and my voice was pretty weak from not singing for almost a week and a half. However, I was really enjoying being back with the band, and we went after it this morning.

The song, "Beautiful the Blood" is one of my favorites, as it paints a great picture of contrasts between the beauty and pain of Christ's suffering in our place. He gave us the most amazing gift! If you have not heard this song, you need to.

The highlight for me was how God orchestrated some of the planning. I recently finished the song, "You're the Only One" (demo coming soon), and I noticed that Pastor Jay was going to be sharing about "Succeeding in Stinking Situations," talking about walking with the Lord through the difficult times of trial. I really felt the need to wrap up the writing of the song because I thought it would fit really well with his message, and it did. It was almost scary how Jay, who had not heard the song yet, used some of the exact wording of the song's lyric. God is so good, and He really works in spite of me. I love being a part of what He is doing, and how He moves me in my planning and preparation. Other than breaking a string on the new song, I thought it went really well, and the band did a great job making it feel right.

I hope you had a great day of worship wherever you were. God is at work!

Bill

p.s. be sure to check out Sunday Set Lists over at www.theworshipcommunity.com to see what other leaders and team members had to say about their services this week.

Set List, 02/14/10 Church at the Mall

Here's our set from this morning:

"Kingdom" [Kristian Stanfill] "God is Alive" [Steve Fee and Eddie Kirkland] "Beautiful the Blood" [Steve Fee] "Lord of All" [Kristian Stanfill] "True Love" [Phil Wickham] Message: "5 Love Secrets" by Pastor Jay Response: "I Want to Love You" [Todd Fields] Offertory: "Love is Not a Fight" [Warren Barfield]

I was ready for today. I have been looking forward to it on many levels. We had the entire youth group in the service this morning, which was awesome. Today was billed as "I Love My Church" Sunday, where every Connect Group made it a point to bring their friends with them, and to get people to identify what is about their church that they love. Today was also Pastor Jay's 14th anniversary as pastor of Church at the Mall. My first day as the worship lead for this great church was his 10th anniversary celebration, which means that I have been leading for this church for 4 years today. It's hard to believe. At any rate, there were a lot of reasons to be excited about today, and it really was.

There were quite a few mishaps, be it technical or performance-oriented. Each of us had a mistake in the band, except for our keyboardist, Amanda and our pianist, Melanie. I got thrown off by a miscue, and proceeded to sing the wrong line in the second verse of "Beautiful the Blood." We could not, for the life of us, find our groove on "God is Alive" with the click. "Lord of All" was right on (this one continues to be a favorite for me and for our people), and so was "True Love." Our Pastor was pulling in the parking lot with this song blasting on his car stereo. I love it. It was a perfect fit with his message today. I love how the Spirit makes it all fit together so beautifully.

The biggest technical mishap was at the beginning of the offertory, where we did "Love is Not a Fight" by Warren Barfield, which is an  amazing song. When I went to begin the acoustic-only introduction, there was only noise. Nothing was getting through but static. Of course, at this point, everyone in the room is watching me try and figure it out. I unplugged my mute box send to my tuner, which didn't help. I then jiggled the XLR cables on either side of the mute box, and it came on extremely loud, because my sound man had boosted it to try and get anything. However, because I unplugged my tuner, it was a different, crazier-sounding static. Meanwhile, our executive pastor, Steve, brought a mic out to put in front of the guitar to go old-school. Right as he got it set up, everything was fixed with my guitar, and we got rolling. I had to say something, so I joked, "Sorry about that!" and everyone (thankfully) laughed along. The song went great after that. It is really a beautiful, honest, and powerful song about love. It was borne out of adversity. See the story here.

It was just that kind of a morning. It seemed and felt like the enemy was trying to interfere with what went on today. God was certainly at work. During the prayer time, Jay called on the men of the church to pray and ask God to help them be the men He has called them to be for their families. Dozens of men came down to the altar to pray in the middle of the service. It was a beautiful thing to witness. The people responded powerfully in worship of our King, and that was also very encouraging and a reminder that it doesn't depend on everything going perfectly. I struggle with that, because of my perfectionism, but in the end God receives the glory because He is the one who makes the spiritual happen. I cannot manufacture it, nor can anyone else on the team. We can only facilitate. While it doesn't alleviate our responsibility to lead and to plan, that is truly a freeing thing.

I love my church, and I am so thankful that the Lord has brought me here. Happy Valentine's Day, by the way.

All the Glory belongs to Him,

Bill

p.s. be sure to check out Sunday Set Lists at www.theworshipcommunity.com to see what other churches/leaders did this morning.

Set List for 1/17/10, FBC @ the Mall

This morning, we had our first really "good" morning of the year. People were back from vacation or Christmas break, and there was energy in the room! I felt really good about how everything went, and we only had a few hiccups along the way. We introduced Phil Wickham's "True Love," which is a fantastic song with a fantastic lyric. It provides a beautiful summation of the gospel, and it is done in a very fresh and thought-provoking way. If you haven't heard it, you need to.

We also brought back a newer song that we taught a few months back, "Salvation's Chorus," off of North Point Live's Louder Than Creation. This is a fantastic lyric with solid, up tempo music. I love this song, even though I get tied in knots trying to keep the lyric straight! I love remembering the idea that the redeemed believers are the only ones who can sing that song to God, not even the angels really get it!

"Let Me Sing" has become one of my favorite songs. The chorus sings: "Let me sing/ Louder than creation to You/ for the pain You bore in Your body/ to bring my soul to You." I love the clear statement about how Christ suffered for us, to bring us to God. Beautiful!

Anyway, here's the set:

"Kingdom" (A) - Kristian Stanfill "Salvation's Chorus" (A) - Todd Fields "Glory to God Forever" (A) - Fee "Mighty to Save" (A) - Reuben Morgan, Ben Fielding "True Love" (C) - Phil Wickham Response: "Nothing But the Blood (Your Blood)" (B) - Matt Redman "Let Me Sing" (Bb) - Todd Fields

It was a great morning of worship, paired with Pastor Jay's message answering the rest of the 48 questions about Hell. It was powerful stuff. There were several people who came forward at the end of the service to profess their new faith in Jesus Christ. Lots of new life around our church. It's a beautiful thing.

Be sure to check out other worship leaders' set lists and comments at Fred McKinnon's Worship Community.

Glory to God!

Bill

Set List for Sunday, 1/10/10 - FBC @ the Mall

Yesterday was interesting. We had a business meeting as part of all of our services, so that made the turnaround between services pretty tricky. Pastor Jay began a series about Hell, and began to answer a list of 48 questions regarding the reality of Hell. It's some very cool stuff. We also tried a few different things, and it was fun to branch out a little bit. Here's the set:

"Faithful One" (original) - G "Cannons" (Phil Wickham) - G "You Never Let Go" (Matt and Beth Redman) - Bb "Beautiful the Blood" (Steve Fee) - B "Lord of Lords" (Brooke Fraser) - E INV - "Nothing But the Blood" (Matt Redman) - B

On "Beautiful the Blood," we tried some backgrounds which had the lyric as part of the motion, something that Northpoint and Passion and Co. do a lot. Obviously, it becomes very important to stay in tempo, or you'll get ahead of or behind your lyric. We were doing well with the click, but we dumped it at the beginning of the chorus. We stayed with the background well until we got to the bridge/ending ("How beautiful You are/ How merciful You are/ How glorious You are/ Christ our Savior"), which has an sixteenth note kick pattern that really speeds it along naturally if you aren't playing with the click, which is what happened yesterday. We ended up almost a bar ahead by the end. Oh well. We tried something new, and we learned a lot from it. We'll try it again soon.

Emily Dennis did a great job singing lead on "Lord of Lords," which is a fantastic song, and really dealt well with the subject matter for the morning. I love the lyric of that song! I had originally planned on "Lead Me to the Cross" (another tune by the talented Brooke Fraser), but changed it at rehearsal, because we all felt that "Lord of Lords" was the right choice. I love having a team that thinks in terms of worship and ministry to the Body of Christ, and not about which songs they enjoy playing the most.

"Nothing But the Blood" by Matt Redman continues to be one of my favorite songs, especially for an invitation. The lyric is so solid, and it communicates what Christ accomplished in some fresh terms that really make you think. I can't help but think of the Portuguese version of this song, by Fernandinho which adds a bridge, "Eu so livre/Eu so livre/Nada alem do sangue, nada alem do sangue, de Jesus" (I am alive/I am alive/Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood of Jesus). Just thinking about the way the church (Igreja da Paz) in Brazil sings it gets me excited. I wish I could think of a way to make it work in English. It doesn't quite have the same feel.

All in all, it was a solid morning. The congregation was present, despite the cold morning. God is so gracious.

Check out some other leaders' Sunday set lists at Fred McKinnon's Worship Community.

Have a great week! May God bless you richly with the knowledge of Him and His presence.