6/19/11 @ Bethel Bible Church

Sorry this post is so late...I was sick Monday & Tuesday, so blogging definitely fell off the radar!

Good day at Bethel! Even though it was about 1,000 degrees outside, we had good crowds and lots of great worship & teaching! I was especially glad to hear Ross share with our folks Bethel's vision for helping other churches. (You can hit up our podcast on iTunes to hear it!)

Here's what we did!

BRAND NEW DAY (E)
This is definitely a favorite...heck, it's got a nice bluesy slide part...why wouldn't we love it? It's a weird one to start with simply because it starts w/ just an electric guitar part, which isn't always the best option for the start of a service. This week, we added a footswitch to our metronome, which helped. (We don't use clicks live, but we do rehearse with them.) The footswitch allowed our drummer to give the band a click to reference to start. Once we were in it, he cut the metronome off so we could groove.

Call To Worship
Song #2 was in the same key as song #1 so I had our keyboard/organ player go right to a nice, spacey pad at the end of "Brand New Day". As he played some nice, ambient stuff, I read Psalm 96:8-12. Since song #2 starts with just a vocal line, it worked pretty well. Plus, it made our whole opening block very smooth.

RISING (E)
I love this song, but it always feels weird right at first. There's a lot of chord movement, some interesting droning tones, and a very specific groove. I think the band nailed this one, though. Crowd in first service was a bit more into it.

Welcome
Drawing a complete blank on what Ross said during this time. Sorry.

MADE US ALIVE (A)
This rocker from Village Church has become a staple, but we struggled a bit with the tempo this go 'round...I had to rap the bridge FAST. There's a nice guitar riff, but it's pretty mid-range...we have 2 electrics this week, so the other player was able to add some higher register stuff that worked.

REDEEMED, RESTORED, FORGIVEN (A)
Second week to do this one. Started it immediately after the previous song. Drum roll in was perfect. I think our congregation is feeling this one. It will be interesting to see how quickly it catches on. The band especially nailed some nice drops and builds toward the end of the song.

Story
Although "The Church's One Foundation" is an old song, lots of people don't know it. I had done a little research during the week and spoke about it's origins. Since we're in a series about Jesus leading by example, this song was a good reminder that with Christ our foundation, we can rest on His promises.

THE CHURCH'S ONE FOUNDATION (E)
The version I found of this song was simply acoustic guitar and voices. At rehearsal, we worked on building the tune toward a little chorus I attached to the song. It was probably some of the smoothest playing our band's done to date. We opted to lift the dynamic in each of the musical interludes, which is always tricky. The band handled it well.

Sermon
The sermon was a big one. Ross preached an amazing Father's Day message that was missional and Kingdom honoring. He ended the sermon with a pretty big "announcement." Ross shared that the pastors and elders of the church believe that God has called to become a planting church. In the second service, Ross a bit more obvious announcement....WE WILL PLANT A CHURCH! You can hear it here.

Video
After the service, our outreach director invited people to fill out a guest form and shared this video about two folks at Bethel who are on mission!



One very busy...but very good...day!