Sunday Setlist :: 11-29-09

Sunday was the first Sunday of the Advent season. We started a new series that will continue for 4 weeks: Eternity In Our Hearts.

Sunday's message was from Ecclesiastes 2:1 - The Search for Satisfaction. Listen to it here. Our drama team wrote original pieces for each week. This week's was awesome! Watch it here.

The highlight of the morning was a baptism we did only in the 3rd service. We normally don't do baptisms during Advent since the services are so full. I'm glad we made an exception!

My friend Matt has a son Ben who attends school in Austin. Over the past month or two, Ben met and befriended a homeless man, Wayne. Through Matt's and Ben's care in Wayne's life, Wayne came to Christ and was spending Thanksgiving in Dallas with his new friends. Wayne's baptism is a great reminder of the amazing love and pursuit of the Father.

I led worship in all 3 services this week.

1st service team: Danielle on vox, Cris on keys, Dr. Hansen on organ.

2nd-3rd service team: Aaron on drums, Brady on bass, Mitch on electric gtr, Cris on keys, Philip on acoustic gtr and vox, Danielle and vox, Travis on acoustic guitar and vox.

Setlist:

• Blessed Be Your Name - Matt Redman [Bb] (2nd and 3rd services only)
• Come Thou Long Expected Jesus - Charles Wesley [D]
• Here Is Love - Matt Redman version of the classic hymn [F]
• O Come Let Us Adore Him - Wade/Reading [F-G]
• He Is With You - Ronnie Freeman [C] (Unfortunately, Ronnie Freeman's version isn't available on iTunes. The link goes to Mandissa's version. Here are the lyrics.)
• Joy To The World - Isaac Watts [C-D]

Read set lists from other churches at FredMcKinnon.com.

Were you at the service? I would love to hear your comments or questions.

Why This Blog?

Here we go again ... This isn't the first time I've started a blog. I've blogged and used to be on MySpace, but now I'm mainly on Facebook and Twitter.

I like to use Facebook to stay connected to a wide variety of people - friends from high school, extended family, church friends, etc. Right now I have 361 friends on Facebook. The only thing they have in common is they are all my friends on Facebook. They don't share the same religious or political ideas. They can be passionate about things that are opposed. For that reason I choose to not use my Facebook as a pulpit. I want to know what's going on in their lives, and they want to know what's going on in mine. For me it's not the place to draw lines and pick sides.

I rarely update my Facebook status directly. I let Twitter do that. My tweets usually fall into one of four categories:

1) Something funny - usually said by one of my kids

2) Something irritating - It's a nice release sometimes to "vent" to the cyber-world.

3) My exercise log - Some people like this and say it encourages them. I'm sure others have stopped following me or hidden me from their feed because it gets annoying. The reason I do it is for the cyber-accountability. So far, it's worked.

4) A life update - The last time I took one of my kids to the hospital, I tweeted updates throughout the experience. Family and friends could easily stay updated and could send me encouragements. Twitter and Facebook were great for that.

So, why blog?

I get excited about blogging at first, but then I get bored with it. I also get annoyed when I read others' "deep thoughts" that feel forced. Still, I sometimes have insights or encouragements that I think could benefit others. As a worship leader/minister/teacher I want to use my experiences and my gifts to build people.

Am I afraid to take the risk of putting something out there that I think is meaningful? Probably. Do I know there are other critical people like me out there who will judge what I say? Yes. But, I've decided I need to take the risk anyway.

Another reason I'm starting this blog is for one of the staple posts I plan to do. My friend Fred McKinnon posts a Sunday Setlist on his blog weekly. He and others put their worship sets from Sunday on the blog. I'm going to post mine on this blog and link to and from Fred's. People often ask me about a particular song I did on Sunday, and I'll make that information available to people here.

If any readers have questions about worship, worship leading, or songwriting, let me know. I'll do my best to answer.

God Bless!