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Our late spring’s winter continued today, and with our Awesome Youth away at Awesome Youth Camp, we also only had the one service. And just like the camp, it was awesome too.

Sunday AM

One of our pastoral team, Peter Abood, preached a great message on peace – and more specifically living free from spiritual afflictions, the futility of seeking non-spiritual means to be free of conditions brought on by spiritual affliction, and keys to being able to have that peace. Peter is passionate about this subject, and his day-to-day ministry is all about people living free from affliction. It was good to hear him preach it too.

Music

1. Let God Arise (Tomlin, Reeves, Cash / Passion)
2. Happy Day (Hughes, Cantelon / Soul Survivor)
3. Song From Heaven (Chris Falson)
4. How Great Is Our God (Tomlin, Reeves, Cash / Passion)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. Say So (Houghton, Gungor / Lakewood)
…and to close the service…
6. Song From Heaven
7. Happy Day

With the youth away, we were about as acoustic as we get. Meaning we had no electric guitars. So it wasn’t really even close to acoustic, just a bit more laid back and relaxed, helped by the lounge-worship lilt in Song From Heaven, but still anthemic for the end of How Great Is Our God.

We had a beautiful time of prayer, Spirit-singing and soaking at the end of the service for close to an hour. It’s been a while since we had a time freely worshipping like that following the morning service, and it was humbling to be part of that move of the Spirit through the congregation. Our pastor talked about the tragedy of people feeling they need to fake their faith, putting on the “it’s all OK” mask when they’re really hurting, and prayed for that affliction of faking it to be lifted. Some people’s countenances changed in that moment. It’s also been a while since we heard a message like today’s; it was refreshing and timely.

I rarely mention when we have salvations either…but we do most Sundays. Not lots, but a steady stream. Today, another 2 were added to the Kingdom, while a few kids at youth camp gave their lives too. We had a mid-service phone link up, which was fun if unintelligible.

Finally, a note…we had no Hillsong songs today. Yes, I believe that might be a first.

What did you do today?

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.

Now celebrating 52 weeks of non-stop worship partay, over at the Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com you can read how other churches around the globe have been worshipping this week. And join the big anniversay celebration next week too!

Personally, we’ve had a huge week with moving and other such joys.  I might post about that later, though I probably did enough on Twitter anyway.

Huge is also a good way of describing our services today.  We had Pastor Suliasi Kurulo preach for both our services.  An international evangelist, he is truly one of the most gifted I’ve ever heard.  If you don’t know about him, go and do some research – you know it’s not hard.  Start by clicking on that link I put there for you.

Music

Sunday AM
1. No One Like You (David Crowder*Band)
2. My Future Decided (Houston, Douglass, Sampson / Hillsong)
3. This Is Our God (Fielding, Morgan / Hillsong)
4. How Great Is Our God (Tomlin, Cash, Giglio)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. My Future Decided (reprise)
…and for the end of service
6. This Is Our God (bridge)
7. Say So (Houghton, Gungor)

Dante led this morning, and it was we had a sweet morning. Quite a few little errors from pretty much everyone, but nothing annoying because the whole service was so fun. We had all had a big day in the recording studio yesterday recording a track for our forthcoming album (one of my songs – yay!), so it was a bit weird to be so physically tired yet so pumped for God that He overcame the circumstances so what He wanted for the service would happen.

Sunday PM
1. Run (Houston / Hillsong)
2. Kingdom Come (Fielding / Hillsong)
3. He Is Lord (Fielding / Hillsong)
4. Rain Down (Seeley / Planetshakers)
…then for the end of service…
5. You’ll Come (bridge) (Fraser / Hillsong)
6. Run (reprise)
7. Say So (reprise)

Troy led tonight, and being led into worship of Jesus with him is so cool. His love for Jesus is infectious. Following ministry time with Pastor Suli, we had a moshpit for Jesus going off.

Late update :  can’t believe I forgot to include this.  For the PM service, we had Beat It as the meet and greet music, complete with our pastor attempting the moonwalk on carpet .  I wish I had my phone ready to video that.  And I doubt it would have been getting recorded for the TV editing either.  However, rest assured I will check when Diane’s unpacked the video editing equipment again…

We also had a special treat with a team of Fijian dancers from the Sydney congregation of Christian Mission Fellowship (the church founded by Pastor Suli, and with plants across the globe). I did a post direct from church over on my Posterous blog, which you can click through too. Or, you can just watch the video I’ve embedded here.

Other Stuff

Technically the day was good apart from a muted mic at an inopportune moment this morning, but no biggie. The projector I mentioned last week was taken in for servicing and we had a loaner, which was fun for the techs from my company to mount way up there in the sky (our ceiling is about 12 metres or 40 feet high). Without moving the mounting post, it was never going to be a perfect fit, but the guys did well making the picture fit the screen. It was great to be able to see everything clearly this week, though we seem to have some signal issues I might have to get investigated.

What did you get up to today?

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. 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 ?

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

Yesterday we continued our Training for Reigning series, which has been broken up by Easter and a special message last week. It’s clear it’s preparation for the busy months and changes that are coming. And they are. Not just lip service, changes are happening in the church, in the congregation – a big shift is underway. It’s tangible. We’re ready – at least, as ready as we can be.

I was in the congregation this week for my monthly break. These seem to come around faster and faster! I was really blessed by the worship led by Dante in the morning service.
Music

Sunday AM
1. Let God Arise (Tomlin, etc/Passion)
2. Run (Houston/Hillsong)
3. At The Foot Of The Cross (Scott/Vineyard)
4. With All I Am (Morgan/Hillsong)

Sunday PM
1. Break Free (Houston, Crocker, LigertwoodHillsong)
2. Lead Me To The Cross (Fraser/Hillsong)
3. One Way (Houston, Douglass/Hillsong)
…and…
4. Let It Rain (Farren)
5. Awesome God / Perfect One (Mullins / Reddy)

Julie led last night with the help of Troy and Merv.  Julie is 14.  It was exciting to see her take this first (tentative) step into leading, and the guys did a great job of supporting her.

And that last song in the evening list…Perfect Son is a rap written by Troy (our resident rapper) which fits seamlessly with Awesome God. It’s a congregation favourite for some powerful praise!

A powerful continuation of the morning service and understanding and using the Power that lives within us.  And I really experienced it during the ministry/worship following the service.

We also had a baptism of a guy totally on fire after he’d flown out to Australia from Italy for his sister’s wedding, so his new brother in law (it gets complicated, I won’t explain – haha) had to interpret for him.  For a new believer (a few days), he had a great understanding of the Word and what baptism means.  It was beautiful to be part of this.  I love people being added to the Kingdom.

Did you meet up with God and His people this weekend?

Um, actually, there’s nothing in here at all about hills.

Except to point out, if you didn’t know, that Hillsong is so named because it’s in the Hills District of Sydney.  It used to be called Hills Christian Life Centre.  The Hills district is also a little bit hilly.

Anyway, back on track…

A number of weeks ago I mentioned in a post that at some point I may talk about why we do so much Hillsong music at Harbourside.  I have also alluded to some of the reasons in the past as well, but today I’m going to lay them out for you…just to clear up any possible confusion…

5 Reasons why Harbourside Christian Life Centre use of a LOT of Hillsong music.

1. First and foremost, our Pastor loves them.  So do our people, though I’m generalising of course.  I love them too, though I can be even more specific and say that in general (?!), I love Reuben Morgan’s and Brooke Fraser’s songs the most.

2. We are part of the Australian Christian Churches, which is the ‘new’ name for the Assemblies of God in Australia.  Hillsong is the largest church in our denomination, and produces the most music (though Planetshakers aren’t far behind).

3. While we are not Hillsong, or part of the Hillsong Network, we are (or have been*) open in ‘marketing’ our church as ‘like Hillsong’ when talking to people about what they can expect.  It therefore makes sense to include music by the only worship team to regularly have Top 5 albums in this country.  Come to think of it, unlike the US, they are just about the only Christian artist to have Top 100 albums period.  Excluding bands such as The Fray, of course.

4. Despite a lot of things I read about their music being difficult for congregations, our congregation love the weird timings and the lack of predictability (though being unpredictable can become predictable).  For instance, I am a fan of Chris Tomlin, but often I find his stuff quite safe (read: commercial).  There’s nothing wrong with that.  I am Mr Commercial Pop.  But I’m also a little bit twisted and have very diverse tastes.  I prefer what a lot of other people do – like Jesus Culture, but even more than that, I prefer Kim Walker. Period.**

5. Finally, and probably most importantly, we are encouraged to bring our own music.  Music borne from the encounters we have with Christ on a daily basis.  That’s why we’re recording a worship album this year.  I’m producing it.  Our first studio session is this Saturday.  Yay!

Who is your favourite worship artist?  Do you find it resonates with others too?

* The reason I qualified that statement : we are moving away from where we have been, and becoming less programmed.  Hillsong may well be doing this too – the reasons given for some changes to the July conference are to allow more freedom for the Holy Spirit to move.  This excites me, so I’m even more keen than usual to be there.

** You may not be aware that the expression “period” doesn’t get used in Australia.  We call that dot at the end of sentences a full stop.  It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

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

I’m still actually lost for words to describe what happened in our church services yesterday, so I’m not going to try too hard.  I’ve also not got a lot of time, but if I don’t do this now, it won’t get done.

Music
All the music was great today – band was tight, AM harmonies & feel were great, the Ablaze guys in the PM (singers) are getting better musically while their enthusiasm still makes for a powerful time – it’s all about the heart. The music set the atmosphere for what followed today, and I don’t think anyone saw it coming…

AM
1. Let God Arise (Tomlin)
2. The Freedom We Know (Houston/Hillsong)
3. Lead Me To The Cross (Fraser/Hillsong)
4. Redeemer (Murgida/Harbourside – ours again, this is the first song we’re recording next month)
5. Now Is The Time (Delirious?)

PM
Walk-in (which is something we never do, but today we did) : Fire Fall Down (Sampson/Hillsong)
1. Run (Houston/Hillsong)
2. This Is Our God (Morgan/Fielding/Hillsong)

Worship+
1. Fire Fall Down
2. Mighty To Save (Morgan/Fielding/Hillsong)
3. Let It Rain (Farren)

Message
Both AM & PM planned messages were scrapped. Our pastor had a vision early Sun AM and re-wrote his messages. This never happens. They were based on the four horns outlined in Zechariah 1; the things which hinder God’s people from seeing/hearing/walking in the vision He’s planted in our hearts…that doesn’t even begin to explain the message really. People were getting convicted and dealt with right there and then during the preaching. It will be on TV (as all our msgs are) in a few months, but that doesn’t help non-’Oz’ers. We might get a decent website with podcasts, etc someday.

Service Summary
I know I’m not doing a good job of this today. There is too much to explain and too much going on in my head. The total time we were at church yesterday was 8 hours…yes, eight. Sure, that includes pre- & post-service, but that’s still about 3 hours more than usual. Why? Because the Holy Spirit moved, there were prophecies, baptisms (which almost got forgotten because of the move of the spirit), people dancing, people weeping…it was…wow!

During these times (which basically took up most of the AM service), we free-worshipped over the bridge of Redeemer – for, um, 80 minutes, I think. I really don’t know, no one was clockwatching, hardly anyone left. Our pastor had to tell people to go home eventually. No-one wanted too.

We came back for the PM service a couple of hours later, with probably double the number who are usually at that service. The ministry / Worship+ time was … um … wow. That’s all I can say, truly.

Funny Moments
More pastors linguistic anointing:
1. Apparently, you can cut down on words by combining metaphoric and methodical into metathodical.  Who knew?
2. From Zechariah 1:21, the logical conclusion is that we should be Holy Ghost Terrorists (cue raised eyebrows, laughter and “did he really say that?” whispers).  This brought to mind Manic Street Preachers’ debut album Generation Terrorists…that’s how my brain works, everything is linked back to music in some way. 

Also, the 2nd week of the video intro was hilarious.  We practised it really well, but for the service, the tech guys started playing it before we gave the signal, so the band had to RUN to get setup so there wouldn’t be an uncomfortable gap after the end of the video intro. It was actually great for the energy of the opening praise songs, and no-one tripped on a cord or anything! Amazing  :)

Next week, we should have our new MacBookPro running the visuals – hallelujah – which will mean Diane will be stepping back from the music team to lead that for a while uintil everyone is trained up…so she might be permanently stepping back, in other words

Annoying Moments
1. We had two new Sennheiser Evolution G2 mics (and one more is still on order). Lovely. I set the levels perfectly (no really, I did) and practice was great. Then, we get out on stage for the service and the gains had been taken OTT. Why???
2. I spent the evening service down at the sound desk making sure everything was a little less earbleedingly shrill. I’m convinced our willing sound tech volunteers are deaf as well as well as having even less knowledge than my inconsiderable knowledge (?!).  I do love’em though

A church in the southern part of Sydney, known as “the Shire” (and yes, lots of hobbit jokes abound) has just rebuilt their 50 year old building. It’s one of the largest churches in Sydney (around 2,000 members), with almost half of them being teenagers, and almost all of those teens being surfers .

My wonderful wife and I decided to visit as we have friends who are members there, and our pastor was also keen to hear what their new building was like. Btw, our churches work together with a couple of others to bring 2 hours of preaching on free-to-air TV each week in Sydney, and are now also on air in Melbourne, with Brisbane being the goal for 2009.

ShireLive had their new youth pastor preaching tonight, who’s just moved over from Perth to head up the massive youth ministry at Shire. He gave a great message based on Daniel about our personal furnaces that we have to deal with…one of which will be success, so it was a great counterpoint to our own message this morning at Harbourside.

The main room now has quite steeply banked seating for just over 1,000 people, and there were probably around 600 there last night (still very much in that holiday mode with people away), most of whom were the youth getting ready for a 1 week summer camp starting tomorrow.

Service style is very very similar to Hillsong, very relaxed but still reverent, and perfectly suited to the culture of the church and the community it serves. It all felt very natural, and very “Australian”. It was immediately obvious that most members there are a bit more stereotypically Australian than our area; a lot of ours are recent-ish immigrants or 2nd generation (me being a very glaring exception).

And the music was great. The worship leader tonight was a former Australian Idol Top 12 contestant who we instantly recognised. Thankfully she’s also a wonderfully humble person and did a great job of leading us into God’s presence ready for the message.

Overall, a great time of worship…and I felt a little bit like the Secret Worshipper…who, btw, I don’t really like the idea of – how can you establish your roots firmly in a church if you’re constantly visiting others to scrutinise everything? Anyway, the site is entertaining – or rather, it usually is but at the moment they’re in the middle of redoing it and there’s none of the articles up. Oh well

The songs:
Sing Sing Sing (Chris Tomlin)
My Future Decided (Hillsong United)
He Is Lord (Hillsong)
Til I See You (Hillsong United)

Now go and check out all the other setlists and reviews on the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com.

and see what else is on my mind as I share how I’m going with Shaping The Space.

I’ll be honest…the upbeat, fast, “get-everyone-dancing-and-praising” songs felt a little flat this morning. There were people enthusiastically praising, but there were probably more who weren’t.

Then I noticed lots of very red faces.

Ahh. Summer. Days at the beach. Sunburn. Not good for ramping people up when they come into a cool dark space…

So by the time we got to the more relaxed, slower, “soak-in-God’s-presence” music, some of these people had woken up a bit more oddly enough, and the last song was quite simply an amazing sacrifice of praise. I know it blessed God at least as much as it blessed me.

Technically and practically, the morning was unremarkable. The team was on time, rehearsal was smooth except for me fluffing a few thousand words as I tried to give direction to 4 people at the same time without stopping singing, our teen drummer was back, so we had to remind him not to hit quite so hard again , our pre-service prayer time was full of faith and power. All systems normal then.

Our pastor continued his great preparation for 2009 series with a message on success and the Biblical keys to a successful life before he and his wife jetted off to Queensland to preach up there in the evening and meet with a big US ministry about us hosting a conference in May; an exciting opportunity for our church.

The songs:
Your Name High (Hillsong)
Run (Hillsong)
How Great Is Our God (Chris Tomlin – hadn’t done this in ages, so beautifully simple)
The Anthem (Planetshakers – and the planet was indeed shaken)

Don’t forget to check out all the other setlists and reviews on the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com.

and see what else is on my mind as I share how I’m going with Shaping The Space.

There has been a lot of prophecy around the world about 2009 being a significant year for all sorts of reasons. For our church, the pastor is believing it’s going to be a watershed : a year we all look back on as a major turning point.

There were several reports from the congregation that today was great musically – good levels, everything clear, harmonies blended well, nothing too overpowering. A good report