Set List, 07/30 - 07/31/11 Fellowship Bible Church

This weekend our pastor, Joe Hishmeh, preached from Philippians 4:14-23 to talk about "An Appraisal of Giving." It was a challenging message regarding stewardship and generosity in our lives, with the proper perspective on our resources being that God is the giver and owner of those things anyway. Also, we can give in such a way as to give God the glory He deserves, in an act of worship through giving. I believe we were all called through the word to live simply so we could all be more generous, for the purpose of advancing the kingdom of God, and investing in the things that last: God, His Word, and people. For our song selection process, we emphasized how God gave first. He demonstrated His great love for us by giving Jesus to die in our place for our sins (John 3:16-17). Our giving is merely a response to His goodness and love for us.

Here's our set from this weekend:

Pre-Service - "All Because of Jesus" (Bb) [Steve Fee] Call To Worship/Prayer "Blessed Be Your Name" (Bb) [Matt Redman, Beth Redman] Welcome/Offering/Announcements/Greeting Time "I Stand Amazed" (D) [Charles Hutchinson Gabriel] "Lord of Lords" (D) [Brooke Fraser] "Jesus Paid It All" (B) [Elvina Mabel Hall, John Thomas Grape, Alex Nifong] Message - "An Appraisal of Giving (Philippians 4:14-23)" [Joe Hishmeh] Response - "Take My Life And Let It Be" [Frances Ridley Havergal, Henri Abraham Cesar Malan] 

This weekend was a good weekend of worship. We tried a few new things and stretched a little, and I think it was healthy for the church and for the team. For one, I played electric guitar for the majority of our worship set. I definitely felt stretched. Becky Tindell did a great job on rhythm acoustic guitar and leading.

"All Because of Jesus" - This song is a solid part of our worship vocabulary, and our congregation always engages with it and participates. This song served the purpose of reminding us that everything we have is because of God's grace and goodness. This idea is foundational for us to understand what generosity really means.

"Blessed Be Your Name" - This song was used primarily for the bridge: "You give and take away/ You give and take away/ My heart will choose to say/ Lord, blessed be Your name." We

"I Stand Amazed" - Becky Tindell led this song, and she did a great job. She is one of our newest leaders, and she has been faithfully serving and leading with our Children's ministry called the Mountain. This was the first time I have had this song in a "girl" key, and I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed being able to play lead on this one, in particular. I love the chord progressions of both the verse and the chorus, and it makes room for some interesting melodic lines.

"Lord of Lords" - Becky also led this song. I love how this song helps us to picture the throne room of heaven, and to see Jesus as the Lamb of God seated on that throne.

"Jesus Paid It All" - This song is a staple here, and one that our congregation still connects with well. This song reminded us again that Jesus gave first, and our giving of our lives in obedience and worship is right response to who He is and what He has done.

"Take My Life And Let It Be" - This hymn was chosen mainly for the final verse, which speaks to our money and our mind being given as an act of worship to our King. I love how the congregation sings out on this song, and I think it something we need to reflect on frequently - that all aspects of our lives would be dedicated to worshiping Jesus.

I was encouraged by this weekend, and really enjoyed our times of worship together. May we be generous with our lives for the King and for His kingdom.

I hope you had a great weekend of worship as well. Check out The Worship Community to see what other worshipers experienced and why.

Let me know your thoughts! I love your opinions and feedback.

In the Son,

Bill

Set List, 05/09/10 Church at the Mall

Currently Listening to my printer... Here's our set for this past Sunday:

"Happy Day" [Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon] "Salvation is Here" [Joel Houston] "Everlasting God" [Brenton Brown] "Lord of All" [Kristian Stanfill] "How Great is Our God" [Chris Tomlin and co.] INV: "I Will Go" [Starfield] OFF: "Because of Your Love" [Phil Wickham] This week we had a good day of worship. Dr. Jerry Haag, president of the Florida Baptist Children's Homes shared a message about taking care of the orphans, and it was very powerful. He incorporated many stories about his experiences with the organization, and the many orphaned children around the world to whom he has had the chance to minister. God's hand in the planning was evident, as our invitation/response song, "I Will Go," was a perfect way to close the message, with the lyric singing,

Verse 1 To the desperate eyes and reaching hands To the suffering and the need To the ones the world has cast aside Where you want me I will be

Chorus I will go, I will go, I will go, Lord send me To the world, to the lost, to the poor and hungry Take everything I am, I'm clay within Your hands I will go, I will go, send me

Verse 2 Let me not be blind with privilege Give me eyes to see the pain Let the blessing You've poured out on me Not be spent on me in vain Let this life be used for change

Bridge I wanna live for You Go where You lead me I wanna follow You

This song is quickly becoming one of my favorites, because it is such an earnest cry and prayer for our obedience as the Body of Christ, that we would be His hands and His feet to the world around us.

It was a good Mother's Day service, and God was glorified by it. I pray that people heed the call to take care of the helpless. May we all heed that call!

Have a great week. I hope you had a great week of worship, wherever you were this week!

I will be on vacation next Sunday, so there won't be any updates next week. I'll be unplugged for a while, which is long overdue.

Bill

P.S. make sure to check out Sunday Set Lists over at www.theworshipcommunity.com, to see what other leaders did this past week.

bill

Haiti Relief

PLEASE HELP NOW! COMPASSION IS ONE OF THE MOST ESTABLISHED AND EFFECTIVE NEEDS-MEETING ORGANIZATIONS IN EXISTENCE TODAY. THEY HAVE AN INFRASTRUCTURE IN PLACE NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER, AND NEED OUR HELP TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE THERE. READ ON FOR DETAILS...

WHERE TO GIVE:

HERE

WHY GIVE TO COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL:

FINANCIAL INTEGRITY: The FBI is warning of several Haiti charity scams that have popped up in the wake of this earthquake. http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/01/13/haiti.charity.scams/

They are suggesting that donations only be made to organizations monitored and rated by CharityNavigator.org and The American Institute of Philanthropy. Both organizations have given Compassion International their highest approval ranking. Compassion International is the only non-profit in it’s category to receive eight consecutive years of four star rating from CharityNavigator.org.

Links regarding Compassion International’s financial integrity:

FIRST RESPONDER: In this disaster it is crucial that first responders receive support quickly. Because Compassion International ministers through local churches to meet the needs of that church’s neighbors, and because these church partners are respected aid workers in their communities, Compassion is uniquely positioned to assess and meet the needs of it’s sponsored children quickly. This is an advantage of our church-based model in practice for more than 50 years.

IN JESUS’ NAME: Compassion International does not accept government funds which could at times restrict our ability to meet the physical and spiritual needs of children in Jesus’ name. Because of this Compassion International’s primary financial support comes from individual donors.

HOW DONATIONS WILL BE USED:

All funds raised in response to the Haiti earthquake will be used immediately to provide for Compassion-assisted children and families affected by this crisis. Any funds raised in excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future disaster relief efforts.

You can provide immediate relief today.

  • $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
  • $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
  • $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
  • $210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
  • $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
  • $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families’ needs.
  • $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
  • $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.

THANK YOU FOR TAKING TIME TO READ THIS.

BILL

Worship and Generosity

Today was really cool. Our church is getting ready for a Christmas music presentation, so our stage is in complete disarray. This was the impetus for us to try an acoustic setup for the band, with two acoustics, a piano, and a cajon (a wooden box that the drummer sits on and thumps the front of in different ways to get various percussive sounds). It had a completely different feel for us at our 930 service, but to me, it was refreshing. This next week it will only be me on acoustic, and I'm excited about that, too. I think anytime we can tear things down and get to the real heart of the matter, it re-focuses us and reminds us what is truly important. In terms of worship through music, the things that are often enjoyable (high-energy, lead electric guitars, full drums, etc.) are not essential. The problem is that we often get our wires crossed and begin to think of the things we enjoy as necessary for us to worship, which is way off the mark. I'm not talking about style issues, because I do think there is a lot of validity to those issues, which is part of why I do what I do. However, the presentation within those formats doesn't necessarily need all the flash and whatnot. It needs to be focused on Jesus, it needs to be true, and in my honest opinion, it should be done well to avoid distractions.

Another really cool thing about today was something Jay led during the invitation time. He had single parents with kids at home, and parents whose spouses were serving in the military all stand up, and then asked our church members to go to them and be a blessing to them during Christmas. He suggested helping through prayer, through gifts, through presence, through encouragement, and the like. It was a beautiful thing to see the church reaching out to each other, when the absence of significant others is more glaring than usual. The message was essentially on generosity, and I thought this was a great demonstration of that idea. I hope those families are richly blessed because of it.

This afternoon, I'm feeling a bit helpless, because my wife and my children are all sick, and there's not a whole lot I can do about it. I can only help where I can, and do what I can do, and pray they all get better. I don't think it's a bad thing to feel this way. It is ultimately the reality of the situation. I am powerless to affect many things, and this is one of them. Meanwhile I'm trying to juggle all my class work which is due tomorrow, and planning on working through the night, just so I can be available to help with whoever wakes up in the middle of the night and needs something. The Lord is faithful.

Have a great week.

b