5/29/11 @ Bethel Bible Church

Haven't done one of these in awhile! Might as well, right?

JOYFUL (D)
We've been doing Brenton Brown's modern take on this classic for awhile. I love the juxtaposition of the verses-to-chorus. It seems to work great. We didn't have any keys on Sunday, so it there was lots of guitar going on!

(Call To Worship)
As soon as the first song was over, I welcomed folks and talked a bit about Ascension Sunday. That we celebrate that Jesus is ALREADY King! I don't think many Christians intentionally think of Jesus as somehow not-yet-the-king, but I do think that His lordship and rule is something that church must always be diligent about celebrating. From there, I told them we were going to sing a "war hymn" about following our Victorious King.

LEAD ON, O KING ETERNAL (D)
The guitar-heavy version of this one felt great. Normally, we have a piano carrying a lot of the riffs, but this more "rock" version seems to perfectly fit the battle-theme we were talking about. Kristen sang the verses and did a great job.

(Welcome)
For this Sunday, our youth pastor, Mark, was preaching. Mark came up on stage, welcomed folks and shared an announcement before praying. After his prayer, we asked folks to greet one another.

NEVER STOP SINGING (F)
I know it's not "cool" to love playing your own songs, but I really love how our band plays this one. I definitely missed the B3 and piano on this one, though. It felt okay, but the choruses didn't have quite enough lift.

(Intro)
We taught this song a few weeks ago, but we did a much slower version. Now, that it's been tracked in a more full-band demo, we gave it a shot. I explained that we believe that worship is formative - it shapes how we view and think of God. In fact, it is even more than just honoring God with singing...it trains us. You'd be surprised how shocking this idea is to folks. We often think of worship as something done just for the sake of the congregation in one set moment. It's not. It's more!

GOD OF EVERY MOMENT (F)
Loved playing the full version of this one. I think the current version may be a bit too short, but that could be just because I like playing it so much and don't want to stop. I do think that song is going to be a real value to our people over the next few months. Looking forward to making it a part of who we are as a people.

(Intro)
When the day was said and done, I had to say this might have been one of the scariest song transitions we did. Because "Ocean Floor" is very rock n' roll and uses a common Christian image that isn't specifically cited in scripture, it felt pretty tricky. I opened with a story about Kristen's grandmother - a story recognizing that there are moments in life that deserve loud singing. I then segued into Micah 7:18-19, where the Lord is said to cast our sins into "the sea."

OCEAN FLOOR (C)
I'm not totally sure this song went over like we thought it would, but that's okay. I didn't mind the awkwardness of saying, "Hey, having our sins washed clean deserves loud singing. So I'm about to do some loud singing." They certainly joined in, but I didn't mind modeling that aspect of Christian faith and worship.

A good day with good musicians and ministers. Thank you, Father, for the privilege of leading worship!