So you’re in church, ready to commune with God, expecting the angels to worship with you as you gather with your church family corporately to honour our Lord.
To offer a tiny sacrifice compared to what Jesus’ did and does for us, continuously.
Then the music starts.
“Ugh – I don’t like this song.”
“What? We’ve done this song 5 weeks in a row!”
“Why is it so loud?”
etc.
Suddenly, worship becomes about us. Oops.
How do you break your flesh in those moments, and worship?
I’m currently producing our church worship album (should be out by Christmas) and I’m also the music director for church. That doesn’t mean I personally like everything we do. It does mean I have to make sure the music ministry is going to fit with who we are as a church as communicated by our senior pastors. Often, that means doing things somewhat differently to how I might do them myself. That’s OK…but I wasn’t always able to say that. It would sometimes rob me of my ability to worship despite…
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.
**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.
It’s been far too many weeks since my last non-Sunday-recap-based God post. Which is odd, since it has been a period where I’ve probably been more intensely immersed in all things God than I have been for a while…probably since I finished Bible College at the beginning of 2008 in fact.
I know I said at the start of this whole transition thing that I needed some laughs to lighten the journey – and there have been plenty, not to mention way more enjoyment of the process than I’d (we‘d) anticipated – but I have a bit of a problem with how little of my output on here has had anything to do with Him.
So, this week, I’m rectifying that. And I can still have a laugh at the same time, since some of the funniest times we’ve had the past few weeks have been in church or at conferences. God is good, God invented humour, God is awesomesauce … all the time.
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.
This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com. Make sure you check out the other setlists too!
Happy Mothers Day!
Every mother (including the expectant ones) in the church were given flowers and a small gift today, and individually prayed for and honoured in front of the church. Beautiful.
This week had a feeling of anticipation…and with good reason…Dr Jerry Savelle is coming this Friday. Our board meeting last week was a very exciting place to be as we worked through all the logistics (no, really…it was great).
Today was our final message on Training For Reigning, and it was a great message, with me taking a few notes for song seeds. We’ll see where they end up in the coming weeks.
Music
Sunday AM
1. You Deserve (Crocker, Dunlop/Hillsong)
2. Run (Houston/Hillsong)
3. To Meet You Here (Goodwin, Scarpato/Harbourside)
4. Where You Go, I’ll Go (Johnson, Mohr/Bethel)
While the praise was good, the worship was amazing today…To Meet You Here, which we haven’t done for a few weeks, really struck a chord with the congregation, and I could hear them singing above the band at times (which I love). Where You Go, I’ll Go has very quickly become a new congregation favourite, and watching the people worship wholeheartedly is really rewarding for me as the music direction. Oh, and I was back leading today too.
Sunday PM
1. I’m Not Ashamed (Andrew, Thomas/Hillsong)
2. Stronger (Morgan, Fielding/Hillsong)
3. For Your Glory (Pringle/C3)
…and…
4. More Than Life (Morgan/Hillsong)
5. Fire Fall Down (Sampson/Hillsong)
6. Awesome God/Perfect Son (Mullins + Reddy /Hillsong)
Merv led tonight, and is getting better and better both as a leader and a singer. Love that. The evening finished in truly awesome style with the firm favourite Awesome God mashed with our own rap Perfect Son, and then the some free-style rap praise. Gotta say, I love seeing grandmothers getting their praise on to rock-rap. I’m really looking forward to recording this song later in the year.
The Attempt At Joy-Stealing
Our church services are shown on TV in Sydney & Melbourne, which involves them being recorded on 3 cameras and then the masterful Diane creating a few 25 minute TV programs from the sermons. This morning, the cameras stopped working while the worship team was rehearsing, and none of our enthusiastic band of amateurs could get it sorted. I didn’t get a chance to have a look since I was on stage (and I’m no expert in this anyway, believe me), but suffice to say, there was no recording of the message this morning. That also meant our usual projection of the service to the creche, parent’s room and cafe areas couldn’t happen either. A few things were said in the heat of the moment which hurt a few people – and I’m not saying who on either count, just that it wasn’t me – but long story short, we (Diane and I) spent the time between services troubleshooting so that it would work for tonight. And it did.
I’m also not putting here what the problem was – suffice to say the word ‘numpty’ sprang to mind a few times. *clenchedteethgrin*
“All things work together for my good” – I grabbed those words today and held on tight. And you know, it’s true. Praise God!
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.
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.
…I’ve finally made the big time in the blogging world.
Yep…after nearly 4 months of hard slog, brilliant penmanship, superlative creativity and relentless pimping convincing people (ok, mainly tweeple) this blog might be worth a look every now and then, I’m thrilled to announce that today the number of spam comments I’ve received has finally exceeded the number of real comments.
I can hardly contain my excitement.
Uh-huh, I know…it’s incomprehensibly amazing hey.
But I need some help with something that has baffled me.
Why does THIS POST receive 92.3% of my spam? Anyone?
If I let them go there’d be almost 700 comments on that post now.
This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com. Make sure you check out the other setlists too!
Time for our weekly worship vlog aka Return of the Lipsmackers.
This week includes the singing that we hinted at last time, but you have to endure wait right til the end. Apologies for the slight distortion in there…I clearly needed to reduce the gain on my mic when I was singing (ie: be further away . Then there’s the other rubbish I did in place of harmonies. Anyway…
We had a GREAT day today…one of those that’s becoming more common; where the Holy Spirit takes over and the program gets put to the side. I. Love. This. There’s a bit about that in the vlog. Kinda.
So have a look, and share in our Easter. HE IS RISEN!
Music
Good Friday
1. Worthy Is The Lamb (Murgida/Harbourside)
2. Lead Me To The Cross (Fraser/Hillsong)
3. At The Foot Of The Cross (Ashes To Beauty) (Scott/Vineyard)
No words needed, it’s in the vlog.
Resurrection Sunday
1. Tell The World (Houston/Hillsong)
2. Happy Day (Hughes, Cantelon)
3. This Is Our God (Morgan, Fielding/Hillsong)
4. Mighty To Save (Morgan, Fielding/Hillsong)
…and…
5. The Anthem (Seeley/Planetshakers)
6. How Great Is Our God (Tomlin, etc)
…and closed with Happy Day again.
Again, it’s all in the vlog. Except to say we did a great transition from This Is Our God to Mighty To Save that was refreshing and unexpected without being confusing – it’s good to mix up arrangements a little here and there.
Other Stuff
Healing testimonies continued…this week, a young guy who broke his arm and had it in plaster testified of it being completely healed. His doctor agreed and removed the plaster after only a few days of it being on!
Today though, the key phrase was free favours from God. Read Luke 4:18-19 in the Amplified version to see what that’s all about, and have a great Easter! Today, and everyday!
This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com. Make sure you check out the other setlists too!
Look, it’s another vlog…this time with the real star of my blog, my wonderful wife.
And since there’s two of us, you get two more vloggy minutes than last week.
Diane apologises for her ‘lack of focus’. She claims she would have been better after a nap. I fail to see how
NB: if you came here during the first 12 hours of this post’s life, you would have seen my frustration with Vimeo’s completely use-free service for free accounts (ie: the vlog wasn’t here until we YouTubed it instead). I’ve since removed the lines of frustration. They were totally warranted, but not necessary, imo.
Music
AM
1. I’m Not Ashamed (Douglass/Hillsong)
2. Can I Have More Of You? (Byrne)
3. Worthy Is The Lamb (Murgida/Harbourside)
4. Hallelujah (Myrin, Sampson/Hillsong)
5. Shout You Praise (Araullo, Reddy, Orlos/Harbourside)
Our main keyboardist was off stage this week, and she came up to me afterwards saying how beautiful worship was this morning…and it was. In particular, there was a sweet time of free-worship between songs 3 & 4 – short, but powerful…
The guys from the recording session yesterday played “Shout You Praise” after church news/communion/tithes, and the discipline of a day in the studio was very obvious. This experience is really gonna help the team grow in ways they didn’t even realise they needed to.
PM
1. What The World Will Never Take (Houston, etc/Hillsong)
2. This Is Our God (Morgan, Fielding/Hillsong)
Worship+
1. With Everything (Houston/Hillsong)
2. Still (Morgan/Hillsong)
3. With All I Am (Morgan/Hillsong)
4. Run (Houston/Hillsong)
The all-Hillsong night was led by Mher, and following my subtle “hold the mic here” instructions and him getting a passion boost in the pre-service prayer, he did a great great job. I led Worship+ which was very powerful, very soothing, very big, very intimate. All those things. God is good good good.
Other Stuff
I can’t begin to tell you how exciting it is to pray for people and seeing them healed…for real. This happened twice tonight. God is totally awesome.
…I’ve finally made the big time in the blogging world.
