Songs I Sang On Sunday
2.2.2009Comment
Yesterday, was a good day. I mean I was rooting against the Steelers, but
Sunday was a good day. I’m in short supply of drummers & lead guitar players these days, so I’ve been having to change the instrumentation around more than normal to make it work, but I’m discovering I like the change it brings. Since “worship” tunes are all relatively similar in chords, arrangement, & lyrical content, to change the instrumentation is a nice option for bringing a bit of musical variety. I’ve also noticed I can hear the congregation singing, and they are hearing each other more, when the drums & amps aren’t blaring. That said, I’m looking forward to the full band next Sunday. But with just Piano, Acoustic, two female Vocalists and myself, here is the set we sang.
How Can I Keep From Singing – Chris Tomlin & Matt Redman
You Are My All In All – Dennis Jernigan
Give Us Clean Hands – Charlie Hall
(Sermon)
Clinging To The Cross – Tim Hughes & Martin Smith
It’s Your Blood – Michael Christ
Holy Is The Lord – Chris Tomlin & Louie Giglio
What did you sing?
Worship
1.8.2009Comment
Yesterday, I ended my blog with a pretty wide open question as to what the point of worship was in church. So today, I thought I would just post Oswald Chambers daily devotion from yesterday, from “My Utmost For His Highest” (from rbc.org) as a response. Enjoy.
He moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord —Genesis 12:8
“Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded (see Exodus 16:20 ). God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to Him so that He can make it a blessing to others.
Bethel is the symbol of fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram “pitched his tent” between the two. The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time— there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must “pitch our tents” where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life— worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God’s idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.”
Songs I Sang On Sunday
12.23.2008Comment
Yes, the pre-Christmas Eve service, consisting of a few good songs that just didn’t work for the coming Christmas Eve service, accompanied by a few appropriate worship tunes. Here’s how it went;
Angels We Have Heard on High
O Come Let Us Adore Him- traditional & Matt Redman Version
I Adore You- Phil Wickham
(Sermon)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman – The November Green Version
Humble King – Brenton Brown
King of Glory – Chris Tomlin
It would be real easy to play the first two tunes exactly the same, but I thought that might get old. So we played Angels with just a simple G to C on 4, medium groove and then played all of the half-note/ quarter-note chords on the Chorus. I liked it. O Come Let Us Adore Him, pretty straight up-tempo until going to cut time feel used by Matt Redman on one of the Passion Live CDs. Was very pleased with the way the Wickham tune closed out this set in good worship. God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, good dramatic tension, except when I flubbed the lyrics to the second verse, oh well. Was checking, out Brenton Brown’s blog, and came across this version of Humble King with a Christmas Verse, that I had never heard before, and thought this would be a good E-minor transitional song. When I finished playing this song, it just seemed to want to take me to a slow chorus of “Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and Mighty” and than we speed up the tempo, and closed out the service. It was a good morning of worship. Next-up, Christmas Eve, and I’m off next Sunday so I’ll recap that on next Monday, the 29th. Merry Christmas!
Songs I Sang On Sunday
11.3.2008Comment
So here’s a twist on my weekly column; (that I’m not sure if anyone is reading this besides Brody or cares, but I will continue to write). Yesterday I lead worship twice. The usual morning set at Elevation Church:
Practice of the Presence – Me
Be Free to Reign – Scott Cunningham & Danny Donnelly
Give Us Clean Hands – Charlie Hall
Unchanging – Chris Tomlin
Breathe – Darlene Zschech
Come Let Us Return to the Lord – Matt Redman
How Can I Keep From Singing – Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, & Ed Cash
It was fine, it was just me on acoustic, with Piano & two female vocals. It was nice. It was good. Last night I went to a potluck with my old small group and a new group that had spawned from it, and was asked to lead worship & prayer after dinner. There was about ten of us and my friend Frank brought his guitar too. It has been probably 6 months since I’ve worshipped in a small group, and I usually like to stick to familiar songs in the same key to make it easy for everyone. So we sang:
Open the Eyes of my Heart – Paul Baloche
You Alone – David Crowder
Better is One Day – Matt Redman
Some Hillsong song that Frank brought that I can’t remember.
You Never Let Go – Matt Redman
I forgot how good it is to worship so freely, away from the schedule of Sunday morning “church”. To be able to pause for open prayer, scripture reading, to lay hands on someone and pray for what they are going through was awesome. On the drive home, and sitting here right now, I am wondering how I can practically bring more of that to Sunday morning. Or just to get more of that time in my busy life. Anyone have any thoughts?
