This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com. Go and check out the other setlists too!

A big day…probably not bigger than normal, but Diane and I had a big theological/doctrinal discussion between the services which made the 4 hours in between feel like about 4 minutes.

But I’m not gonna go into that here. You’ve all got lives, and we often have theological &/or doctrinal discussions – they just don’t usually effectively last all day.

Both services continued our “Let The Word Do The Work” series. Diane noted with the editing that needs to be done for the TV program, this series could well end up getting into double-digits by the time it makes the small screen.

Music

Sunday AM
1. Can I Have More Of You? (Byrnes)
2. Let God Arise (Tomlin, Reeves, Cash)
3. Lord Of Lords (Fraser / Hillsong)
4. He Is Lord (Fielding / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. Let God Arise (reprise)
…and for the ministry/end of service
6. He Is Lord (reprise)

Rachael led today, and did a good job. She’s now rostered on to lead once per month, which means that in most months, each of the worship leaders will lead once per month. But back to the music. The transition between the first and second songs was particularly seamless (as I’ve noted in the past, transitions are something we do well…this one was just really nice, where we started the drum roll which opens Let God Arise as the closing beat for Can I Have More Of You…it drew lots of appreciation from the congregation, and I enjoyed it as it’s good to keep trying new arrangement tweaks; often transitions provide great opportunities to do this.)

He Is Lord was new for us, and the people worshipped freely and openly, as it is definitely one of the most loved songs from Hillsong’s 2008 album This Is Our God. Loved by our congregation anyway.

Sunday PM
1. Tell The World (Douglass, Houston, Sampson / Hillsong)
2. Show Me Your Glory (Murgida / Harbourside)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
3. Who Tha King? (Reddy, Losurdo, Costello / Harbourside)

Troy led tonight, and the undoubted highlight was the new rap the youth had put together based on a poem/declaration written by our pastor. It. was. hot, and reminiscent of Run DMC’s Down With The King album (and the drums were more than a little like their Walk This Way fusion as well) It will definitely make its way on to our album. A friend noted our album is going to be very varied. It sure is, but that accurately reflects our church too. Hyper eclectic.

Worship+
1. Stronger (Morgan / Hillsong)
2. You Are Here (The Same Power) (Pankratz, George / Hillsong)
3. Who Tha King? (reprise)

Short and sweet tonight as the message went a fair bit longer than our evening services often do (though I had no idea at the time – it didn’t feel long), it was still a great time of soaking worship with all of the singers taking turns leading…though Troy’s voice was spent by the time of the rap reprise, so we danced for that instead. Lots of fun.

Other Stuff

Half way through the practice/soundcheck this morning, it became evident there was a problem with front of house sound. That problem was that there was no sound. Oh dear. Turns out there was a ‘problem’ with the digital processing unit. I quickly did some bypass wiring to get sound in some of the FOH speakers, emailed my company’s database to release an unlock code for me for the unit, and spent some time after the service resetting and getting the wires back in place. Potential for being frazzled and stressed was nicely averted by the confidence I knew I could (a) rig up a suitable alternative, and (b) ultimately fix the problem.

What did the weekend hold for you ?

So today (being Saturday where we are), as this post goes live Diane and I are en route to the gorgeous Hunter Valley with some friends from church on a day trip to enjoy the marvellous array of wineries and providores.

Yum.

But enough about that. If it gets blogged, hopefully it will be on Diane’s…since hers is supposed to be about food and such.

Back here though, I’ve got part 2 of the Dare posts and more of that “eeww” style humour.

Again, Facebook readers will need to click through to my blog to see the video.

I know it’s lazy of me to keep putting up advertising, but, in my defence (cos someone has to…what with people nicking my sexy mug for their avatars an’ all), this – like all the others I put up – never fails to make me laugh.

And, as the title suggests, there’s another one coming tomorrow.

Gotta keep myself amused while I write (program) Christian electronica masterpieces in the early evening hours down under before Twitter comes back to life, don’t I.

And yes, I am (now) aware that Michael Jackson has died.  (Isn’t post scheduling fun!)  Farrah Fawcett too for that matter, though that is now old news.  It is all very sad, but no more newsworthy than a gazillion other things which happen every day in our tragic fallen world.  I am undoubtedly a fan of Michael’s older music (ok, it’s all fairly old now).  He has a rich legacy of musical brilliance that I hope will shine brighter than his el bizarro life. I also hope he met Jesus, but I don’t know yet.  One day.

Facebook viewers will need to click through to my blog though…since videos don’t auto embed there from the blog-as-Facebook-notes application yada yada…

I’m a fairly upbeat, positive kinda guy by nature.

I’ve always been able to see the good in all things.

Even this.

Free publicity for my awesome hair, stunning cheekbones and winning smile.

And, now that I’ve changed my gravatar, a reminder of my old one for all 6 of you who are following this poor chap.

This diver dude who decided my pic would make a cool avatar. Without asking me. Hmmm.

Anyway, as I tweeted this morning, before I even knew it was live happy week (I’ve been a little lax in keeping up this week, sorry), remember this:

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God”
1 Thes 5:18, NKJV
Notice, it doesn’t say FOR everything, but IN everything.

And for me, living a life of thankfulness is what happiness is all about.

So live happy – this week, and every week.

And be thankful someone thinks your avi is so hot they just have to nick it for themselves!

Note : I acknowledge this MAY be an error at Twitter and not theft. Still, good happy post, huh!

This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com. Go and check out the other setlists too!

Firstly, it’s not Father’s Day in Australia. That doesn’t happen until September. I have no idea why. But it at least explains why there’s no mention of it anywhere else in this post, huh.

I really don’t know how to describe today. On the one hand, Diane was unwell and stayed home to sleep. And on the other, our encounter with God in both today’s meetings was precious, rejuvenating, beautiful…but incomplete because I wasn’t sharing it with my wife. *sigh*

One day, and I hope it will be soon, the messages from our church will be available as vodcasts on iTunes. Then I won’t need to try and cursorily summarise them here

The AM message was part 2 of the “Let The Word Do The Work” series, and it was one of those messages that was filled with lightbulb moments.

For some scant details on the PM message…have a look further down the page, under the PM music section. Just mixing it up a little.

Music

Sunday AM
1. Happy Day (Hughes, Cantelon)
2. For Your Glory (Pringle / C3)
3. Lord Of Lords (Fraser / Hillsong)
4. Worthy Is The Lamb (Murgida / Harbourside)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. Forever Praise (Goodwin / Harbourside)
…and for the ministry/end of service
6. Let It Rain (Farren)

Margaret led this morning, pulling down heaven into the room in the most awesome of ways. Her exhortations were exactly right for the service today, and all the songs fit together this morning perfectly…with both the opening upbeat songs having a similar-ish feel, and both the slower songs being in 3/4 time. I don’t know about you, but songs in 3/4 time (apart from making me want to waltz on the stage) always seem to get the congregation worshipping more intimately, passionately.

Question: Do you find there are time signatures that just click better with your congregations ?

The ministry time included some lots of spontaneous worship in tongues and meditating on Jesus’ name. After which, no-one wanted to go. It always amuses me when that happens. “Come on people, you’ll be back again in a couple of hours…go and get some lunch.”

And after being the hit of the evening service last week, the riffing on Men at Work’s Down Under become the meet ‘n’ greet background music once again. However, as I was on stage, I got to do my very best exceptionally bad Colin Hay impersonation and sing about chundering men. Fun though.

Another question : do you, my readers from across the globe, know what “where women glow and men chunder” means?  Is that an appropriate question to ask in a worship post? Whatever…it’s been asked…too late now.  And it’s my blog anyway; I’ll ask what I like

Sunday PM
1. Salvation (Seeley / Planetshakers)
2. This Is Our God (Morgan, Fielding / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
3. Shout You Praise (Orosa, Araullo, Reddy / Harbourside)

Julie led yet again tonight, even though she didn’t vocally lead any of the songs. She handled this really well, and she’s gonna be a great worship leader well before she turns 16 at this rate.

We didn’t have Worship+ tonight, as after the message and altar call, Pastor played us a song called There Is A King In You from the Donald Lawrence album The Law Of Confession, Part 1, which I talked about last week…so have a look in that post for more information…or Google him, or find him up in iTunes…or watch listen to the video mp3-masquerading-as-a-video of the song that closed our service. Click through to YouTube to find some more of his stuff too.

Other Stuff

Um, I think I covered most of this in other places. Like, under the hyper extended music section above. As I said…mixing it up a bit. Or just not organised. You choose.

So what did you get up to today ?

Some of you may know that I went to boarding school for my secondary school education.

In the vast majority of cases, kids seem to dislike this immensely. But as I’m a freak, I loved it.

Sure, I missed home every now and then…but in general…I cherished the opportunities that were being presented to me.

I grew up in a small country town, and by going to boarding school, I was living in the big city at the age of 12. And by city I mean Brisbane, which was always known as a big country town anyway…though with a million or so people, it was still huge to me. I moved into an old army barracks which was the Schilling Boarding House at St Peters Lutheran College in 1986, along with 36 other guys aged from 11 through 17.

Fun times for the fat kid with a poncy voice, a dislike of rugby, soccer football, cricket and all the other national sports of Australia, a love of the arts and a propensity to sing all. the. time.

So right about about now, you’re possibly wondering how on earth I loved this experience…

It’s because boarding school showed me what life was like for Jesus. Kinda.

Now before you all think I’ve gone completely loopy (don’t. say. a word.), let me explain.

This is not some kinda holier than thou post, nor a woe is me post.  Just a Jesus-as-the-ultimate-role-model-human post. A lot of my personal experience at boarding school reflected Jesus’ personal experience in his life too. But I’m not going to list Scriptures to back this up; I’ve gotta leave some of the work for you after all.

For everything I’ve listed here, my name could easily be put in the place of Jesus.

1. Jesus was ostracized
2. Jesus was respected
3. Jesus was tortured
4. Jesus was loved
5. Jesus was talked about
6. Jesus had girls sit at his feet
7. Jesus spent a lot of time alone

‘Course, Jesus was also without sin, and I wasn’t then and I’m not now. But I am redeemed, blameless, and carry no guilt.

Thing is, if we’re serious about Jesus being Lord of our lives, we should be able to see reflections of His life in our daily lives too. It’s just gonna happen.

So…do you?

This really is too bizarre for words. Really.

Go here for the full horror.

Or just sit back and watch this (very poor quality) video showing the lightning speed with which you can twitter using a Commodore 64.

Yes, a Commodore 64.

This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com. Go and check out the other setlists too!

Amazing how missing a week in your home church makes you so hungry to be back there when it really is home.  And it is home.

We started a new series of AM messages titled “Let The Word Do The Work”, so over the past few weeks we’ve also been playing some of the awesome gospel stylings of Donald Lawrence and the Tri-City Singers before and after the meetings. If you look up iTunes you’ll find him, and we’ve been playing his 2009 album The Law Of Confession, Part 1. (I can only link to the Aussie iTunes store…which isn’t much use for most of you who read this…so I haven’t done it. I’m sure you’ll cope.)  Good good stuff, and so far removed from what we could achieve in our team with our whiter-than-whiteness for most of the team.  Oh, and part 1 of the message series was great too – looking forward to the rest!

The PM service was about debt cancellation, and was both informative and inspirational. A good thing.

Music

Sunday AM
1. Break Free (Houston, Ligertwood Crocker / Hillsong)
2. No One Like You (David Crowder*Band)
3. To Meet You Here (Scarpato, Goodwin / Harbourside)
4. This Is Our God (Morgan / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. Now Is The Time (Delirious?)
…and for the ministry/end of service
6. This Is Our God (Morgan / Hillsong)
7. Run (Houston / Hillsong)

I was leading again for the first time in three weeks, and it was good fun. I muffed some lyrics in No One Like You, and the drummer set the tempo at about 2 gazillion BPM, but it was still hilariously fun and the congregation are continuing to love this song. The slow songs today were particularly sweet – we had some solid 5 part harmony again, and a virtually acapella chorus in “To Meet You Here” – and I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m looking forward to when we record this song.

Talking of recording, I played the team the rough mix from Saturday’s recording session of “Redeemer”. Everyone was as excited as I was with the result, and Margaret (the writer and lead vocalist) said it’s just as she imagined it when she wrote it. We did some very cool choir things in the studio that have come out really sweetly. Two tracks down, and this novice producer is very happy

Sunday PM
1. Tell The World (Douglass, Houston, Sampson / Hillsong)
2. Hosanna (Fraser / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
3. Say So (Houghton, Gungor)

…and then for Worship+ after the service
4. Awesome God / Perfect Son (Mullins, Reddy / Harbourside)
5. Stronger (Morgan, Fielding / Hillsong)
6. More Than Life (Morgan / Hillsong)
7. For Your Glory (Pringle / C3)

Julie led again tonight, and as I mentioned last time, she’s 15. However, even more exciting was seeing 13 year old Matil do a stunning job song leading for “Hosanna”. Blown away.

Troy led for Worship+, and did a great job as always.

Other Stuff

For the meet & greet fill-in riff, the team tonight played Men at Work’s “Down Under”.  Very funny, since none of them were even born when it came out.  Of course, our former rock band leader pastor started singing it, including the “where women glow and men chunder line”…naturally.  Very very funny.  He even finished by saying “ok, now let’s get back to holy”.  Ha!

Our pastor also talked to Diane at length about a possible ministry opportunity which might be coming up. It would be a paid position. This is unfathomably exciting, but I’ll leave her to share (or not share) further details at this stage…(btw, you should know that she’s far more likely not to share anything)

How about your weekend ?

As some of you may have picked up along the way, I’m an accountant in my former professional incarnation. As COO, I still overlook the finance department of my company, but it’s not the core focus of my attention. PTL/FTW/etc.

Australia’s financial (or fiscal, or tax, year) ends on 30 June. 30 June 2009 will be special as it will be the last day of my first 6 months of blogging. And days don’t get more special than that.

In the meantime though, some more shrewd Aussie marketing.

There is nothing better than an advertisement that is both a full-blown musical and the invention of a new annual event.

Swineflu continues to wreak havoc across our country. And by ‘across’ I mean the south-eastern state of Victoria, where nearly 80% of the cases have been recorded.  Weird.  We have gone from 30 to 1,300+ cases in 2 weeks, there’s only 30,000 cases world-wide, and Australia – a country with ~0.3% of the world population, has ~4.3% of the total cases…perhaps pandemic is an accurate description for us?

Anyway, this post has nothing to do with that  … you can find loads of information about it at various other netstinations (yep, the el crapola word making doesn’t let up), so I’m not gonna stir up any more paranoia than I already have. **

What’s really going to be in lockdown is our worship team, who are going to be holed up in the studio Saturday working on our second recording session.

For me, that means approximately 14 hours in the studio, praying, working with the engineer, praying, co-ordinating who’s coming and going, praying, making sure everything is brilliant.

Oh -  and praying – did I mention that bit?

All of this is great, but it also involves sacrificing precious time with my marvellous wife. And the sacrifice is getting bigger over the next few months as we go from one session a month to two sessions starting in August, aiming to wrap up recording in mid-November for a mid-December release.

In the meantime, we personally have that small issue of moving in July too. Yay!

We’ve been talking about recording our original songs for years (and years) so I am excited that this year it’s not just talk, but the sacrifice still hurts.

I know, I know … that’s what sacrifice is all about. 

Apart from losing out on time with Diane, one of the things that I’m personally sacrificing is spending more time on my personal writing and recording goals.  So, if anyone finds that extra day per week that I’ve seen getting talked about on the interwebs recently, please send me the code for that too.

What sacrifices do you make to pursue dreams?

**Seriously, do pray for our country, and especially Victoria, as this flu continues to worsen its grip on that state and the physical and mental well-being of its residents. Thanks.