Come and join in with Sunday Setlists over at FredMcKinnon.com, and see how churches around the world have been worshiping this week..

In a week when hardly anybody in their right minds will be blogging or reading them (I know this says a lot about me…) this is my last Sunday Setlists post.

On this blog.

In the next few days, I’ll be finalising some changes to my online-ness, one part of which will be the shutting down of Shaping The Space. So stay tuned for that.

Wait, no-one’s reading this…so…um…anyway…

We had a “review of 2009″ type message today, and a bit of preparing for 2010. A big part of that, in the early part of the year, will be the release of our album, which I mastered on Wednesday. Feels like a decade ago now, with Christmas in between and all that goes along with it, but it’s ready for replication and will be released in February. iTunes, etc will follow later.

Sunday AM Music

1. You Deserve (Hillsong, 2008)
2. Desert Song (Hillsong, 2008)
3. It’s Your Love (Hillsong, 2009)
4. He Is Lord (Hillsong, 2008)
…then for the tithes & offerings…
5. Give Thanks (198something)
…before the preaching
6. I Walk By Faith (C3, 1990)
…and then to close the service with the altar call…
6. Give Thanks, but then morphing in a spontaneous song, all of which went for around an hour. A wonderful time of Holy Spirit soaking.

In what is often a difficult week – mid-summer, straight after Christmas – we had most of our people there, and ready to worship & seek today. Margaret led that time of intimacy with God through music beautifully, as she always does. And the spontaneous song (yes, I recorded some as I was in the congregation…no, I’m not posting it here…it was to help the team remember how it went) was truly a blessing.

And with summer, we don’t have evening services until February 2010 either.  Just so ya know.

Note for Facebook readers : remember if I post a video or song, you’ll need to actually click through to my blog to see or listen. You know you want to.

Come and join in with Sunday Setlists over at FredMckinnon.com, and see how churches around the world have been worshiping this week..

Our season of refreshing soaking in the Holy Spirit continues at Awesome Church. We were certainly well soaked today, both in the Spirit and in the natural…with perspiration from the 42C heat (107F)!! Despite this, the people were keen to soak in the Spirit, so we did – especially at the evening service.

Sunday AM

The Actsian church message series continued today. It’s so good to be studying what the Acts church looked like and assess ourselves against that. Are we being the church as it was birthed, and therefore (I believe) as God meant it to continue? Everyone was left anticipating the 2nd part of the message, but time/heat meant it’s been carried over to next week…!

Music

1. For Your Name (Morgan, Gillies, Houston / Hillsong)
2. Happy Day (Hughes, Cantelon)
3. This Is Our God (Morgan / Hillsong)
4. Come Holy Spirit (Fletcher)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. Come Holy Spirit

I was back leading for the morning service, and apart from all going smoothly, we got lots of response from the congregation about God’s presence being “thick” during the worship. We’re all loving mixing up some of the older choruses into our sets of late. This Is Our God was particularly sweet, as we did a slightly different arrangement than usual, with more ebb and flow, and more opportunity for free-worship … which the congregation grabbed on to. It’s beautiful to lead worship and hear the congregation above the worship team. Truly amazing.

Due to the heat, we didn’t extend the service today at the morning service…but we did for the evening service, even though it was quite possibly even hotter by that point. It didn’t matter though; people wanted to worship, so they did.

Sunday PM

Tonight’s message was an insightful look into the story of Simon Peter’s encounter with Simon the Sorcerer. Looking at how people want to buy their way in to the good things of God, not understanding the price to be paid to go deeper in understanding, power, and victoriously living for Him doesn’t involve money.

Music

1. For Your Glory (Pringle, Smith / C3)
2. You’ll Come (Fraser / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
3. Come Holy Spirit
…then to finish the service (Worship+)
4. Come Holy Spirit
5. To Worship You, I Live (Houghton, Houghton / Lakewood)
6. Rain Down (Seeley / Planetshakers)

Julie led tonight, and continued to flow in the spirit of the recent meetings with some prophetic singing. I was actually called up during the Worship+ part of the evening to help lead the free-worship, particularly in Come Holy Spirit and Rain Down, both of which were in male keys, and the male singers had wanted ministry so…kinda just left the girls on stage. I love our youth – so hungry for God! It was a privilege to lead and worship with these guys tonight, and offer some sweet harmonies for To Worship You, I Live, which was debuted this evening and inspired some beautiful, uninhibited free-singing from the congregation.

I love my church!

Note for Facebook readers : remember if I post a video or song, you’ll need to actually click through to my blog to see or listen. You know you want to.

Come and join in with Sunday Setlists over at FredMckinnon.com, and see how churches around the world have been worshipping this week.

Our run of visiting preachers continued today with Pastor Allan Bagg from The Bay Christian Family Church in Cape Town, South Africa.

He preached for both meetings, and he’s an amazing teacher. He told us he was going to summarise two years of teachings on the blessing and what it really means into 2 hours, and he did it convincingly…while also fitting in time for some healing and a few miracles took place.

Average Sunday then

Music

Sunday AM
1. Run (Houston / Hillsong)
2. I Walk By Faith (Chris Falson)
3. He Is Lord (Fielding / Hillsong)
4. Where You Go, I Go (Johnson, Mohr / Bethel)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. No Reason To Hide (Crocker, Houston / Hillsong)
…and to close the service…
6. No Reason To Hide

Dante was leading worship, while Marg and I led a couple songs – Marg on He Is Lord, and me on Run and No Reason To Hide. Dante’s heart for worship is always inspirational to me, and as his Bible College mentor I also feel pride in having seen him grow as a worship leader and mentor to the younger team members too.

Sunday PM
1. No Reason To Hide (Crocker, Houston / Hillsong)
2. For Your Glory (Pringle, Smith / C3)
3. Worthy Is The Lamb (Murgida / Awesome Church)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
4. Shout You Praise (Araullo, Reddy, Oroso / Awesome Church)
…and then to close following the healing meeting (wow)
5. He Is Lord (Fielding / Hillsong)

Troy led tonight, but really it was a team effort with everyone doing their part in bringing us into the throneroom to worship the King of Kings and prepare us for the teaching and healing that took place afterwards.

There were a few more (different) technical things too – weird stuff with mic levels that just weren’t behaving. Ho hum, but there will always be capacity for distraction if we choose to be distracted, hey!

Note for Facebook readers : remember if I post a video or song, you’ll need to actually click through to my blog to see or listen. You know you want to.

Come and join in with Sunday Setlists over at FredMckinnon.com, and see how churches around the world have been worshipping this week.

Summer has made a very early appearance with temperatures hitting the mid-30s this weekend (that’s the high 90s for you farenheit users over yonder)

The AM series on guarding your tongue continued and really does make you stop and consider everything you say. I’ve always been fairly conscious of that for some reason, but I can still be far more effective at shaping my world through the words I speak and think than I have been. Convicting.

The PM message was on angelic beings, and concentrated on demystifying angels and how we as Christians (humans, created higher than the angels) have them as our helpers in ministry. There were so many verse references that I couldn’t keep up. Having been involved with territorial spiritual warfare, very little was new to me, but was a good refresher on some angelic being basics.

Music

Sunday AM
1. You Deserve (Crocker, Dunlop / Hillsong)
2. For Your Name (Morgan, Gillies, Houston / Hillsong)
3. His Glory Appears (Sampson, Zchech / Hillsong)
4. Lord Of Lords (Fraser / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. Run (Houston / Hillsong)
…and to close the service…
6. His Glory Appears (instrumental)

Marg was leading while I had a(nother) week off. I really enjoy being led to the throneroom by her leading. It was also great to have some more intimate worship songs – neither one is an anthem, which we would usually have – and it created a different atmosphere, perfect for the repentence for loose tongue talk which took place after the service. Bridgina led a song for the first time this morning on His Glory Appears and her sweet soprano suits the song perfectly.

Sunday PM
1. No Reason To Hide (Crocker, Houston / Hillsong)
2. Lead Me To The Cross (Fraser / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
3. For Your Glory (Pringle, Smith / C3)
…and then Worship+…
4. Fire Fall Down (Crocker / Hillsong
5. You Are Here (The Same Power) (Pankratz, George / Hillsong)
6. Perfect One / Awesome God (Mullins + Reddy / Awesome Church)
7. I Walk By Faith (Chris Falson)
8. No Reason To Hide

Troy led tonight, with Julie doing most of the song-leading. So. much. fun. I’m sure if we were set up to allow stage diving it would happen – in a holy way of course.

We had a few technical issues with various things this week, but nothing too insurmountable or distracting. Just quite a few little things. It’s great to feel I don’t need to fix them all though, and that the other members of the various teams are starting to get pro-active in dealing with issues.

What did Sunday hold for you?

Note for Facebook readers : remember if I post a video or song, you’ll need to actually click through to my blog to see or listen. You know you want to.

It’s the 12 month anniversary Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com, so come and celebrate by joining the party and checking the blogs of how churches around the globe have been worshipping this week.

The church leadership had our mid-year Vision Team meeting last night (and dinner…the really important part), which was good preparation for the day’s messages on the spirit of our church. We’ve grown about 15% so far this year, so it was time for a mid-year impartation of who / what / where / why. Pastor Gary took the morning service, and we had a rare treat for the evening service with Pastor Lissa taking where the morning message left off. She should preach more often.

Music

Sunday AM
1. You Deserve (Crocker, Hudson / Hillsong)
2. For Your Glory (Pringle / C3)
3. Desert Song (Fraser / Hillsong)
4. Stronger (Fielding, Morgan / Hillsong)
5. He Is Lord (Fielding / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
6. For Your Name (Gillies, Houston, Morgan / Hillsong)
…and for the end of service
7. For Your Name (reprise)

Marg led this morning, and I was meant to be having my week off but for various reasons it wasn’t to be. Not least because we decided to introduce For Your Name, which is track 2 on the new Hillsong Live Faith+Hope+Love album (read my review). I always enjoy introducing songs from new albums, because you get to see who’s been listening to them already. More people were singing along than I expected, and by the end of the service when we did it again, around half the congregation seemed to have it down. Impressive.

We also debuted an updated version of the countdown that we use for the morning services, featuring Somebody Told Me by The Killers. Very cool.

There were also some sweet moments in Desert Song when I could hear the congregation singing quite a bit more loudly than the team. I love that.

Sunday PM
1. Take It All (Crocker, Ligertwood, Sampson / Hillsong)
2. From The Inside Out (Houston / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
3. Shout You Praise (Oroso, Araullo, Reddy / Awesome Church)
…then for the end of service/Worship+…
4. From The Inside Out (reprise)
5. More Than Life (Houston / Hillsong)
6. You Are Here (The Same Power) (Pankratz, George / Hillsong)
7. Who Tha King? (Reddy, Costello, Losurdo / Awesome Church)
8. What The World Will Never Take (Crocker, Ligertwood, Sampson / Hillsong)

Mher led tonight and it was fun! The guys did some fresh twists on the arrangement for Take It All, specifically the electric guitar, gave it some new life too. The Worship+ time (which basically incorporates ministry time followed by a mini praise party) was also the best it’s been in recent weeks. And it’s been great, so that’s saying something.

Beat It returned for the meet and greet too. Sadly, the moonwalk didn’t.

Other Stuff

Despite great services, there were some technical issues which were not fun. The preaching in the morning sounded downright bizarre due to a few errors in the use of the lapel mic that I won’t go into. I spent some time with it following the service to make sure it’s as foolproof as possible, and it was fine for the evening service. However, the morning service was a little distracting for many people because of the issues.

A few of us on the leadership of various teams had an informal meeting in the cafe after church about improvements we need to make to keep honouring the growth of the church and the favour we’re experiencing. It was great to spend time with these guys as often we’re all so busy running our departments we don’t get to sit down together and share outside scheduled meetings. And as Diane was the barista for the evening, we were there a bit later than usual. In total, we spent 10 hours at church today. Just as well it’s ‘home’ huh!

Do you get distracted when technical stuff gets in the way?

Note for Facebook readers : remember if I post a video or song, you’ll need to actually click through to my blog to see or listen. You know you want to.

This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com. Now in it’s 51st week! Go and check out the other setlists too.

Being Awesome Church is awesome.  That’s all I have to say.

Well, not quite all, since there’s a lot more words on this page, but … whatever…

The message was back on the Let The Word Do The Work series (part 5 this morning and part 6 in the evening service).  The AM message was easily one of Pastor Gary’s best messages too. If you want to catch any of them, you can go to our website, and click through the TV links – search for Awesome Church, or Harbourside Live (for pre 30 June messages), and you can see low-res streaming of our TV program. Diane edits it. She rocks. I’m only slightly biased about that.  Note that the messages on TV are around 2 months behind, so today’s awesome message won’t be on until September at the earliest.

Music

Sunday AM
1. No One Like You (David Crowder*Band)
2. Run (Houston / Hillsong)
3. To Meet You Here (Goodwin, Scarpato / Awesome Church)
4. He Is Lord (Fielding / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
6. Run (reprise)
…and for the end of service
7. He Is Lord (bridge)

Coming after a full-on week at Hillsong conference, I deliberately didn’t use songs that had been sung there, because that can often fall flat if you’re expecting your 300 people to sound like 26,000 (which was the count for the last night, when Chris Tomlin led worship – go and read my posts about the conference over at my Posterous blog if you haven’t already).

The worship was sweet this morning, everything well balanced technically, and a nice sweep of anthemic through to intimate moments.  And it’s so good to hear the congregation singing when you’re on the stage, as I did several times this morning.

Sunday PM
1. Your Name High (Houston / Hillsong)
2. Show Me Your Glory (Murgida / Awesome Church)
3. You Are Here (The Same Power) (Pankrantz, George / Hillsong)
4. He Is Lord (Fielding / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. For Your Glory (Pringle / C3)

Worship+
1. With Everything (Houston / Hillsong)
2. You Are Here (The Same Power)
3. Who Tha King? (Reddy, Araullo, Costello / Awesome Church)

Merv led for the main service songs, and both songs 3 and 4 weren’t planned but came through the flow of the meeting. He Is Lord has really been resonating with our congregation since we introduced it a few weeks ago.

Troy led for Worship+, and it was a little weird. Communication problems I think. But people were still blessed so that’s all that matters. Who Tha King? will need a bit of arrangement massaging before we record it, so it’s likely to be on the schedule for September. But no matter what, it’s gonna be lots of fun pretending to be a black choir for the backing vocals

Other Stuff

We had our speakers (remember that saga) fixed and back in place today, so the ugly spare ones from my work can go back again. Happy about this. However, now our projector has decided it doesn’t like being bright. This wouldn’t normally be a big issue, but it’s mounted 15 metres up and requires scaffolding to be built in the church for servicing. When my techs looked at it 2 months ago, it was dusty but fine. Now it’s looking ttiirrreeedddd. Hopefully it’s not too much of a hassle to fix it.

Now, Diane and I are getting in some Sunday night relaxation before the onslaught of moving takes place this week. Fun!

So, what’s going on in your world? I wanna know.

Note for Facebook readers : remember if I post a video or song, you’ll need to actually click through to my blog to see or listen. You know you want to anyway.

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

I know I’m repeating myself. We had a big, awesome day in church. Of course, now that we’re called Awesome Church, every day will be a big, awesome day.

We had the honour of having Dr David van Koevering take both our meetings today. If you don’t know who he is (and you likely don’t recognise his name unless you’re an electronic music freak. Like me.), then look him up here, here, and here. You can also find lots of him on YouTube…like this simple explanation of tachyons. You all know all about them already though, right?

Music

Sunday AM
1. For Your Glory (Pringle / C3)
2. Happy Day (Hughes, Cantelon)
3. Where You Go, I Go (Johnson, Mohr / Bethel)
4. He Is Lord (Fielding / Hillsong)
5. Awesome God / Perfect Son (Mullins, Reddy)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
6. Happy Day (reprise)
…and for the end of service
7. He Is Lord (reprise)

Sunday PM
1. Shout You Praise (Orosa, Araullo, Reddy / Awesome Church)
2. You’ll Come (Fraser / Hillsong)
3. He Is Lord (Fielding / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
3. Who Tha King? (Reddy, Losurdo, Costello / Awesome Church)

Worship+
We didn’t have Worship+ in its normal format, as the ministry time from the night service extended on with Dr van Koevering’s synthesised music of the table of elements (yes, you read that right) and his plasma hand screens. Amazing. Sorry, I mean … awesome!

Other Stuff

Interesting that on a day we had a sound expert, and particularly as sounds relates to all matter (remember Switchfoot’s “Everything Is Sound” album? Title inspired by all this sort of thing), we had lots of feedback “fun” for no good reason. Not really surprising I guess, since Satan likes to play these sorts of games. In addition, there was some “fun” with the computers too. Fun all round really. And awesome, of course.

So since most people who read this probably had a relatively low-key day following Independence Day, tell me all you know about tachyons.

Note for Facebook readers : remember if I post a video or song, you’ll need to actually click through to my blog to see or listen. You know you want to anyway.

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 ?

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 ?

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

The church is still on a high from the conferences and guest speakers from the past few weeks, but more than just being on a high, we’re excited about what doors God is opening for us, and closing others too.   It’s been great having a quiet-ish week since then to soak all of it in, and prepare for moving forward – wherever that may be.

Today’s AM message was drawn on 2 Cor 8:7 (shown in the Amplified translation below) :

Now as you abound and excel and are at the front in everything – in faith, in expressing yourselves, in knowledge, in all zeal, and in your love for us – [see to it that you come to the front now and] abound and excel in this gracious work [of almsgiving] also.

and looked at what those things we are told we excel at mean…

The PM message expanded on some of the themes from the morning, partly focusing on the Hebrew word for prosperity “shalowm“. The more I think about how to describe the message, the less able I feel to do so in a short space…so I won’t. There was lots there. Like there always is.

Music

Sunday AM
1. I’m Not Ashamed (Andrew, Thomas / Hillsong)
2. Can I Have More Of You? (Byrnes)
3. Lead Me To The Cross (Fraser / Hillsong)
4. Where You Go, I’ll Go (Johnson, Mohr / Bethel)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. No One Like You (David Crowder*Band)
…and for the ministry/end of service
6. Where You Go, I’ll Go (Johnson, Mohr / Bethel)

Rachel led for the first time this morning. She’s 17 and has been in the main team since she was 14. She’s been a song leader, as opposed to a worship leader, for just on 2 years and tt was great to see her rise up a level into leadership from being a singer and No.2 keyboardist. She’d been deep in prayer about it all week, and though a little nervous, she has such a well-developed dependence on God that she did a beautiful job leading the worship today. It’s only the beginning

Sunday PM
1. For Your Glory (Pringle / C3)
2. Saving Son (Murgida / Harbourside)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
3. Shout You Praise (Orosa, Araullo, Reddy / Harbourside)

…and then for Worship+ after the service
4. For Your Glory (Pringle / C3)
5. More Than Life (Morgan / Hillsong)
6. With Everything (Houston / Hillsong)
7. Let It Rain (Farren)

Julie led tonight. She’s 15. Rachel, who led this morning, is her elder sister. I’ve said it before, but I love seeing our youth rise up as leaders. Our pastor said he remembered her as a toddler. She took it all in stride (she’s not one for attention), and did a beautiful job leading us into the throneroom.

Worship+ was quite probably the best it’s ever been as a worship encounter. Invigorating.

Taking a cue from Steff, a Sunday Setlists blogger who often includes videos of the songs in her sets, I thought I’d include this one, the title track from C3’s 2008 album. We’ve been doing this for several months now, and it’s a great upbeat song – lots of dancing happening. C3 may not be as famous as Hillsong or Planetshakers, but many would be aware of Phil Pringle’s Christian City Church international network. Semi-interesting aside : Phil Pringle and Brian Houston grew up together in New Zealand, so I’m told by a very reliable source.  Amazing to think that two of the main church leaders from the southern hemisphere were childhood friends…

Other Stuff:
No-One Like You was new for us. It went really well…except that the words for the projection were typed up in an el bizarro manner apparently, so were very hard to follow. Diane will #prorably get around to fixing those soon…

Finally, my twitter followers may know that the front fill speakers I mentioned last week were indeed a problem…they’d been blown. Unfun. No-one’s sure how it happened; no-one ever is. Thankfully, working where I do, I was able to wangle some of our hire stock and get the issue fixed until ours are repaired.

How about your weekend ?