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

December. Already. Wow.

Our Head Pastor Gary Costello is currently in Fiji as the main guest preacher at the Christian Mission Fellowship Youth Conference. I’m looking forward to hearing about his experiences when he gets back in a couple of weeks. This morning, Pastor Peter Abood preached an awesome message this morning on abiding in Jesus. Full of great wisdom.

Sunday AM

Music

1. Your Name High (Houston / Hillsong)
2. Happy Day (Hughes, Cantelon)
3. Rain Down (Seeley / Planetshakers)
4. This Is Our God (Morgan / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. Happy Day
…and then to close the service with the altar call, healing prayers, soaking time…
6. This Is Our God (though – as normal – it was as much singing in the Spirit as it was singing in English)

Dante led us this morning and after a few “cumulative annoyances”, overcame the obstacles and led the team in a powerful time of prayer before the service, re-preparing us to lead the worship, and we certainly brought the people to the throne room of Christ this morning. A definite continuation of the season of soaking in the Holy Spirit that we’ve been in for coming on two months now.

This evening, following a yummy dinner at the beach on this most perfect of days, Diane and I went to the see the I Heart Revolution film, “We’re All In This Together”. It profoundly affected me; I cried for a significant portion of the running time. God spoke to me through the vision, the sounds, and reconfirmed a lot of things that have been formulating for days, weeks, months, years…

One thing is certain : inaction is not an option.

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..

Today continued in the same space as last week’s meetings. Intimacy with God. Beautiful. This is one of the many things I love about corporate worship. Nothing compares.

Sunday AM

Pastor Gary preached on prayer – and blessing, humility, healing, sovereignty. Very full message, and like last week, set the scene almost an hour of free worship, healing, salvation, and humble prayer which followed.

Music

1. Salvation (Seeley / Planetshakers)
2. What The World Will Never Take (Sampson / Hillsong)
3. He Is Lord (Fielding / Hillsong)
4. To Meet You Here (Scarpato, Goodwin / Awesome Church)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. Salvation
…and to close the service…
6. To Meet You Here (only went for about 20 minutes this week)
7. Let It Rain (Farren)
8. You Deserve The Glory (Richards)

Dante led today as I had my week off, so I got to share in the congregation – a rare treat in the mornings, and one which I treasure. Dante’s heart for worship shone through and he compelled us to worship along with him. It was also great to hear him lead “To Meet You Here” for the first time in the church, after he sang lead on the recording we did last week.

Sunday PM

We missed the evening meeting this week for various reasons, but I heard some great reports afterward about the service, especially Darren rocking it up on “Glow” again, and some didjeridu too! Yeah!

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..

Um, wow. I’m speechless today. Two meetings overwhelmed by God’s presence.

Sunday AM

The message was “Freedom In Christ”, and set the scene for the 90 minutes of free worship, healing, salvations, prophecy, words of knowledge which followed.

Music

1. Your Name High (Houston / Hillsong)
2. No Reason To Hide (Crocker, Houston / Hillsong)
3. Show Me Your Glory (Murgida / Awesome Church)
4. To Meet You Here (Scarpato, Goodwin / Awesome Church)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
the Youth Camp video & testimonies
…and to close the service…as part of the 90 minutes…
5. To Meet You Here
6. Emmanuel (no idea I’m afraid)
7. I Exalt Thee (Sanchez Jr)
8. Hosanna (Tuttle)
9. Jesus Name Above All Names (Hearn)

Margaret was leading today. She led us into the throneroom and pulled down heaven into the room, fresh from the intensity of the Awesome Youth Camp last weekend (she’s one of the youth pastors). The presentation and testimonies of the kids were amazing, it’s gonna be exciting to see them put their new level of living for Christ into action! And the encounter with the presence of God at the end of the service was beautiful, including the impromptu accapella versions of those classics I listed. Beautiful, but also powerful as people were delivered and set free as we worshipped together.

Sunday PM

Tonight’s message took up where the morning left off regarding the presence of God, faith and overcoming unbelief. Powerful.

Music

1. No Reason To Hide (Crocker, Houston / Hillsong)
2. Big (Seeley / Planetshakers)
3. Lead Me To The Cross (Fraser / Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
3. Glow (Crocker, Houston / Hillsong)
…and to close the service…with Worship+ a continuation of the presence from this morning
4. With Everything (Houston / Hillsong)
5. Holy Holy (Julie Zafirian / Awesome Church)

Julie led tonight, and wow…it’s such a privilege to be led by this amazing 15 year old. She broke through tonight and was leading free-worship and prophetic worship. The final song was one that had come from free worship at the youth camp, and we were blessed to be able to share in her amazing gift too.

The youth also debuted Glow and Big tonight, and rocked the house, totally.

The team recorded To Meet You Here yesterday, and I’m really happy with the results. New guitar parts were written, meaning our electric guitarists need to work out which of the 4 parts they’ll play on Sundays now. Dante did a great job on lead vocals, and it’s possibly my favourite musical arrangement to date, though that might change tomorrow so don’t hold me to it, ok.

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. Make sure you check out the other setlists too!

Just in case you haven’t seen my last post…Diane and I weren’t at church today. We were traversing New South Wales, but if you want to see a little more of that, you can visit my last post, or wait until we have some pics up…if we got any good ones…

In the meantime, here’s the setlist for Sunday morning.  I don’t know what they played Sunday night, I’ll undoubtedly find out evenually.

1. Salvation (Seeley / Planetshakers)
2. No One Like You (David Crowder*Band)
3. Redeemer (Murgida / Harbourside)
4. Where You Go, I’ll Go (Johnson, Mohr / Bethel)

In other news, a big announcement was made at church today. From the beginning of the new financial year (1 July), we’re going to have a new name.

Of course, there’s lots of varying opinions about the impact changing your name can have on a church, and just a couple of days ago we had a great discussion with one of our very best friends (first met via Twitter, and who knows about this stuff) about some of the pros and cons. Conclusion : God is bigger than a church name.

So what is it then ?…

Well, ever since I found out what it was going to be (by virtue of being on the leadership teams which voted for the change), I’ve had a tweet worked out for how I was going to introduce it to the twitterverse.

So here it is:

Our church is changing its name. I voted for Awesomesauce Church…but the sauce had to go

Yep. This is gonna be fun. Seriously though, I’ll share a bit more of the reasoning behind our new name in coming weeks…prorably.

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

So, the biggest weekend ever in the history of our church is over. Exhausted yet exhilarated. And very very glad that it all went so smoothly we had some unexpected leisure time in the midst of it all. Praise God.

On Friday, I had the day off to prepare myself for the meeting, and came into the evening well rested and calm. This was v.good, as most other people were running on lots of nervous energy and were a bit on edge about the enormity of what was happening that night for our little church.

Dr Jerry Savelle rocked the house with a powerful service which essentially summarised his 40 years in ministry – and specifically what he’d learned about trials and applying God’s word in those times, despite what the world thinks. I’d just recently finished reading his ministry biography “In The Footsteps Of A Prophet”, so much of it was fresh in my mind…but that didn’t lessen the thrill of meeting the man briefly following the service. He was gracious and friendly (though the jet-lag was obvious too), and it was a little like meeting the Queen with key people in the church lining the room where we met to share supper, and he went around shaking hands and briefly greeting everyone.

Rewind to the meeting again though, after he preached he laid hands on everyone there.  I want to give special thanks to our church Love in Action team members who co-ordinated the packed house to move through the church building up to the front in a fast, orderly manner.  Jerry finished by laying hands on the worship team (we’d been ministering while he laid hands on the rest of the people), and the guys did well to make sure at least one instrument was always playing throughout this process.  Awesome.

On Saturday, a lot of people went to the Benny Hinn meetings, but Diane and I had some stuff to do with the sale of our home, visiting my mum, and trying to get 100 pics of stuff taken.

Then on Sunday, Rev Barry Tubbs from Kenneth Copeland Ministries preached a message on “A Little More Help”.   This message was packed so full of references that we took 3 pages of notes…or rather, Diane did, as I had to run up the back of the church to check on some minor technical hitches. Nothing world-stopping, but needed to be attended to.  And a rare weekend where this was literally the only thing that went wrong (at least that I’m aware of, and being on the board, I know about most things fairly quickly)

Barry was a truly humble man, and Diane was, I think, a little taken aback by the depth and quality of his message.

Anyway, on with the week ahead…

We’re hosting the Kenneth & Gloria Copeland conferences this coming weekend at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. So while that will be bigger than this weekend just gone, it’s not on our own church premises, and we’re also not providing the worship – just lots of volunteers and team captains. And when I say just, I mean 40% of the church volunteered. Awesome.

Music

Friday PM
1. I’m Not Ashamed (Andrew, Thomas/Hillsong)
2. Run (Houston/Hillsong)
3. Redeemer (Murgida/Harbourside)
4. All For Love / Shout Unto God (Webster, Sampson/Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. Happy Day (Hughes/Soul Survivor)
…and for the ministry/end of service
6. Rain Down – bridge only (Seeley/Planetshakers)
7. Shout Unto God (Sampson/Hillsong)
8. Run (Houston/Hillsong)

Wow! I have no words to describe how it felt to be leading an over-packed house in praise and worship. The whole team has been excited about this night since it was announced a few months ago. I was the main leader, but I got all the worship leaders to get involved in the leading – kind of like Hillsong do (surprise, surprise) – and we are likely to do more of this, it worked so well.

Apparently, Jerry was very impressed, and he was singing along, which I’m told is significant (!). Importantly, the team were all thrilled with how it went, as was our pastor…

So much so, that he decided he wanted the same team for Sunday morning, so late on Saturday I chased everyone up and got it organised.

Sunday AM
1. Salvation (Seeley/Planetshakers)
2. Happy Day (Hughes, Cantelon/Hillsong)
3. Rain Down (Seeley/Planetshakers)
4. This Is Our God (Morgan/Hillsong)
…then following tithes, offerings, news…
5. Run (Houston/Hillsong)
…and for the ministry/end of service
6. Shout Unto God – just the chords, no vocals (Sampson/Hillsong)
8. Run (Houston/Hillsong)

Dante led this morning, and is getting better and better both as a leader and a singer. He did an awesome job directing the team – including asking me for advice when he wasn’t sure. I love that too – team members willing to ask when they need help.

Our night services have been cancelled for the next couple of weeks to give everyone a chance to breathe in the midst of the busy-ness. Hallelujah! So Diane and I took advantage of the most perfect day in ages, put the top down in the car, and headed for the beautiful Blue Mountains. But Diane will be blogging about that soon…I hope… At the moment she’s a little caught up with all things Eurovision though. Fun!

And yes, Run is our pastor’s current favourite song. I might have mentioned that before. We also do it really well if I don’t say so myself. Happy Day too for that matter. Cue self-congratulations all round.

How was 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!

A quick report, because it’s been yet another great day of music, teaching, prayer and celebration as we came together and worshipped God at Harbourside.

I don’t wanna bore you with repeating the same thing every week. As I’ve said before (oops..too late…), it’s hard to convey just what happened if you weren’t there…

Do any of you feel like that when God is consistently doing big things in your church?

Am I just not trying hard enough?

Music

Sunday AM
1. Forever Praise (Goodwin/Harbourside)
2. Home (Sampson/Hillsong)
3. Rain Down (Seeley/Planetshakers)
4. You’ll Come (Fraser/Hillsong)
5. Now Is The Time (Delirious?)

Sunday PM
1. You Name High (Houston/Hillsong)
2. Stronger (Morgan, Fielding/Hillsong)
3. What The World Will Never Take (Houston/Hillsong)
…and…
4. All Day (Sampson/Hillsong)
5. Shout You Praise (Harbourside)
6. Run (kinda) (Houston/Hillsong)

The youth ran the whole meeting tonight…so it was pumping v.loudly and v.high adrenalin. I mean, even higher than normal.

Great fun, but still reverent too.

How about your Sunday?

This post is part of the Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMcKinnon.com

For the first time in…actually, I have no idea, let’s just go with ‘ever’…I was sick for our AM service today. Diane wasn’t very well either. So we slept. Still don’t like missing church for any reason (I really miss it when we’re on holidays, etc), but especially since it was one of the rare opportunities to have both of us in the congregation worshipping together since neither of us were in the team for this morning. Ah well…

I love that our team has grown to the point where I could quite literally not be in it at all if that was the direction we were heading (we’re not). I would surely (and sorely) miss being part of the worship team – the group who lead the church into God’s presence each time we meet. Just being the Music Director wouldn’t be ‘right’.

However, we were well enough for the evening service, which was great. Here’s the rundown of both anyway :

10.00am
Break Free (Hillsong)
You Deserve (Hillsong)
Lord Of Lords (Hillsong)
With All I Am (Hillsong)

and yes, as I’ve said before, we do a lot of Hillsong. There are many reasons for this – one of them being that they produce great music for contemporary churches

The morning service was dedicated to presenting our Connect Group program for 2009. I’ll have to get a copy of the presentation and the message!

5.00pm
Tell The World (Hillsong)
Stronger (Hillsong)
What The World Will Never Take (Hillsong)

The message was by one of our Forerunners ‘young adults’ pastors – titled “You’re a supernatural”, and about living our lives in the expectation of opportunity for the supernatural power we have through the Holy Spirit to be used any place any time. Heavily inspired by a recent trip to Melbourne for the Jesus Culture conference. Absolutely awesome message, and very real – no posing or preaching, just sharing real life desires and struggles and God using us anyway – when we let Him.

This set the atmosphere for a powerful time of soaking praise – yes, I do mean that and not soaking worship…

Worship+
Healer (Planetshakers)
Let It Rain (Open The Floodgates of Heaven)
Awesome God (Mullins, but our version with lots of rapping – yes, that’s right
What The World Will Never Take (Hillsong)
Tell The World (Hillsong)

A real power time tonight, and it was great to see some of the younger teens (sub-16) leading us in this. I love the diversity our Worship+ ministry brings, and the soaking praise style tonight – while a little ‘unorthodox’ – was certainly what I needed personally to be lifted out of the place of illness and weakness I’d felt in the morning. All praise to God, always!

Yesterday was Vision Sunday at Harbourside. This is always a big day, and big weekend for the Vision Team who have a meeting & dinner on Saturday too. Not much free time, but that’s OK – it’s once a year.

For long term members, it might be easy to get a bit complacent with these services as they are fairly similar each year as they go about refreshing the vision and giving the annual theme. However, I always enjoy the presentation and to have the overall goals for the year ahead specifically laid out, including obvious things like carrying out the Great Commission, etc.

I was leading the AM service, while the Ablaze Band (our youth only band) lead our night services which kicked off again for the first time in 2009. This means we are always in the congregation for night services, but we also need to monitor members are in both teams to ensure time commitments are managed well.

The AM Songs were:
Break Free (Houston, etc/Hillsong)
Happy Day (Hughes/Cantelon)
Lead Me To The Cross (Fraser/Hillsong)
Stronger (Morgan/Hillsong)

Happy Day was new for us, and it went better than our praise songs often do first time out. Sure, a lot of people already knew it, but it’s also got a fairly easy melody, esp the chorus.

With the tight schedule, my pastor asked me to be quick but not rushed, which we were, I think…and he decided to have us continue worship a little longer with the tag of Stronger. And no major or even minor stuff-ups. A great morning.

We also shared in the amazing talent of a couple of our high school students who had recently sung at the Sydney Opera House, which led to a radio spot, which led to a talent development contract with a very reputable school/agency. Yay! I’m so proud

Our evening service (or should I say ‘afternoon service’) was a more ‘normal’ format, a shorter service (usually just over an hour) to allow our free-praise Worship+ meeting to follow on immediately afterwards.

The guys did a great job and had us all excited to be in God’s house on that hot, humid evening (which admittedly was more pleasant than the morning!)

The PM songs were:
Salvation (Seeley/Planetshakers)
Run (Houston/Hillsong)
With Everything (Houston/Hillsong)

The message was on catching vision, perishing without vision, what what God does when we focus our vision on him. It focussed on Saul/Paul’s conversion quite a bit, and was an excellent way to get our night meetings started.

Worship+ involved some powerful ministry, with the songs being The Anthem (Planetshakers), and our version of Awesome God (Mullins) to finish, complete with our very own raps. Funny to see the older people in the congregation enjoying rap so much. We’re going to record this some day, I know it It was a shorter time than we’d been doing during the week, or late last year, but that’s OK; it left us hungry for more, so we’ll be back.

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 going on round here as I go about Shaping The Space.