My transformation from community

The other day I had couple of friends ask me to explain what the re:create Conference is all about and why I keep going back.  The easy thing would be to answer with things like, in my first trip to Franklin, how we got to worship with Michael W. Smith, and got to see  Meredith Andrews, or how I got sit in a room with 20 other people at EMI and receive an EP in a hand drawn brown paper bag from this new songwriter Audrey Assad, and how blown away we were by her song "Winter Snow".  How my second trip to re:create saw things like Gungor performing his masterpiece, "Beautiful Things", and a songwriter circle that included Kristian Stanfill.  I could even tell them about how the third year was even more incredible because we got to see Ed Kowalczyk perform a private concert for us, or Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb," and one of the most moving times of worship I have ever been a part of, when we got to meet the 1211 band from Gateway Church in Austin Tx.

Any one of those things would have made re:create the most incredible conference I have ever been to.  But as great as they were, they were not the most meaningful and transformative part for me.  It is becoming a part of the re:create community that has changed me, moved me and maybe saved me and my ministry.  You see, the last 6 months of my life have seen some of the lowest times that I have ever experienced. If had not been for my re:create family, I can honestly say I might not be in ministry today, or even worse.  In April, my mother passed away after being in the hospital for a few days.  It was an incredible blessing to know that there were people from all over the world praying for her.  The night before she died, I was able to show her text messages and Twitter DM's from Texas, Oregon, California, Canada, Tennessee and even Cairo of people praying for her.  It lifted both our spirits.  After her death, I was held up by the prayers and thoughts of my re:create tribe.  I got emails, and texts of encouragement as I prepared to speak and sing for my Mother's funeral mass.

This past summer, I entered into what was the worst time of depression that I have ever experienced.  It got so bad that I wrote out my resignation from the ministry on more than 2 occasions, I had no energy, and at one point, I didn't get out of bed for almost 2 days.  I felt like I was going insane.  I was afraid to tell my wife, because I knew that I couldn't lose her, or it would only get worse, even though she new something was wrong because I was taking most of my depression on her.  It was then that I reached out to a few of my tribe, asking for prayer.  Immediately I heard from all of them saying that I was covered in prayer.  I spent several hours on the phone with a friend that I have become very close to.  After a few days of crying and very open conversations, I went to a doctor and was able to get on some medication that has helped me get back to some semblance of normal.  All of this came about because I got to sit at the same table as Bill, or sitting next to Jim, or being introduced to Chuck over the phone, or hanging out and talking to Brent and Tam over an incredible steak, or praying with Jan before she went to one of the 100 countries that she ministers in, or getting to cry when we finally saw and heard that Mark was OK on Skype during a crazy time in the Cairo.  I have been transformed by the friendships and relationships that have been forged during the last 3 years at re:create.

All of this happened because of one man's love for broken, creative people.  And for that Randy, I will be forever grateful.

I say all this to ask you this.  Where are you finding transformational community?  Where do you go to be cared for?  Do you go?  Have you found transformation from a community that you are a part of?  This is my story, but I want to hear yours.  Add a comment below, or email me.

The State of My State

It's Friday, and here I sit in my Doctor's office, waiting to see him. One month ago I came to him because I was struggling with the bluest period that I had experienced in a long time.  I felt like crap, I had (have) gained a bunch of weight, and I wasn't doing my life as a husband, father, friend and pastor very well. Over the previous months, I had been an organizational, and emotional mess. I couldn't keep my thoughts together, I was forgetting things, and had a general malaise that was taking me over. Several times in the weeks leading up to my appointment, I had written out, and thrown away my resignation. I was in a very low place.

I leaned on my wife, my sons, and a few close friends, but even that didn't seem to be helping. After a few, un-Louis like conversations with people that didn't deserve them, I called and made an appointment with my friend, who is an Internist. I sent a note to my Pastors, letting them know where I was in my emotional state, and that I had an appointment to see about it. The response I got was an encouraging, loving show of support for getting the help I needed. This is, for some of those in ministry, a refreshing change from what some of my friends have experienced.

When I saw my doctor, he prescribed a new drug to add to the other medicine I was taking.

Today, as I sit here, ready to check in, feeling 2 months better, I know that there are multiple reasons for my better "state". First and foremost is the support of my family. They have put up with my crazy, told me that I was still the father and husband they loved, and were just present for me. Second, the prayers of my pastors and friends both from my church, and from all over the country that I have grown to love and count on, and third, and the part I want to encourage you to, is that, if you are struggling with depression, go see a Doctor. Let them help you.

*Warning. The following is a mini rant, and you are welcome to skip down to the next paragraph without repercussion.*

In his book, "Leading on Empty", Wayne Cordeiro says that often times, well meaning, yet totally not helpful Christians tell those of us dealing with depression to:
Confess your guilt.
Pray more.
Find a new church (Seriously? Go where you have none of the friends, and support mechanisms that you currently have, and get even more depressed because you feel even more alone?).
And, my personal favorite, "You just need more faith."
This last one, I was actually told. In the midst of one of the Bluest periods of my life, one in which it took all the faith I had just to stand up, I was told that God wasn't helping me because I didn't have enough faith. WRONG. I was being held up by God and being pointed toward the help that I needed through a Physician.  I couldn't have gotten through some days without the faith that God would still be God, and that He was holding me, pushing me and sometimes carrying me.

I say all that to say, if you are struggling with depression, please tell someone you trust, ask them to pray for you, and go see a licensed physician. Your family doctor would be a great place to start. You can get through it. Will it go away forever? I don't know, I haven't finished my life yet. But I can say that it can get better. After a year long struggle, I am getting better, with prayers, friends and medicine.

Thank you...

Thank you is a word that I am really good at saying. I have a ton of people that I serve with every day that I am very intentional about saying "thank you" to as often as possible. This comes very easy to me, because I am genuinely thankful for what people do for the ministry that I serve. I make sure that I meet one on one with at least one member of my team each week for coffee, breakfast or something. I enjoy being with them, and letting them know that they are more important to me than just for their skill as a musician, technician or singer.

I think I do thank you's pretty well... As long as I am on the thanking side and not the receiving side. I was recently on the receiving side of what was possibly the most extravagant thank you I have ever been a part of. About 6 months ago, a family in our congregation lost a family member suddenly. Our worship team was asked to play for the funeral, and we were told that the family wanted worship just like on sunday morning. After we did that, the family said thank you to all of us, saying, "we don't know how to thank you." we were honored to take part and received their thanks graciously.

That is not where the story ends though. About a month later, I was talking to the dad in this same family, and he asked me, "When does the band worship?" I told hime that a lot of times we worship in rehearsals together. He said,"no, I mean when are you guys LEAD in worship?" I couldn't Answer him. He told me that he wanted to come to rehearsal Thursday night and asked if that was ok. I said of course, and was not surprised to see him that night.

What happened next was an incredible, extravagant act of love and gratitude. When rehearsal was over, he came to me with tears in his eyes, and said I want you guys to get to worship like we get to. I want to take you, and your band to see Hillsong United in 3 weeks in Nashville. I will take care of everything. You guys just show up here at 5pm.

Well, needless to say I was speechless (which for those of you who know me...).

20 of us showed up that night, to find a big coach bus waiting on us. When we got on the bus, there was home made chicken salad sandwiches, brownies, soda and water. We were greeted with a huge smile from both the man and his wife. We got on the bus, and we just got to be together as friends. We got to take part in an amazing 3 hour time of worship and praise from the very front down on the floor. I was exhausted when we got back on the bus.

That is when the most incredible part of the night happened. The man stood up and told us that he was so moved by the time of worship that happened at his son's funeral, that he was moved to action. He said that he was going to make it his family's mission to make sure that the worship leaders in our church were able to get to worship. He said that we spend all week, every week preparing and praying so that our congregation could worship, and he wanted to give something back. That was his thank you to us. The gift of worship. The gift of the presence of God without having to worry about anything but God. No cables to check, no new songs to learn, no set up or tear down.  Just worship.

As I sit here, tears come to my eyes, not because Hillsong United was so amazing, not because the bus was so comfortable, but because we were given such an amazing gift of thanks. God taught me something in that moment. Accept this for what it is, a gift of thanks. Do not rob them of the blessing of getting to thank you for what you do. Thank you God for the gift of thanks.

I may be old...

I read a fair number of blogs written by senior pastors. Pastors of huge mega churches and small churches. Pastors with big staffs and little to no staff. I have noticed lately that I am seeing a lot of them talking about pouring into their young staff members by spending 1 on 1 time with them, mentoring them and teaching them to be better leaders. I love this trend. The only way to have great leaders in the future is for them to spend time with great leaders.

When I was in training as a Surgical Assistant, the montra of the surgical training program was, "See one, Do one, Teach one." This is a tried and true training method for several reasons. You learn by watching someone who has done it before, you learn by doing, and you learn by teaching someone else. This is great for the one being taught, and the one doing the teaching. In a teaching hospital, there are the young ones and the old ones. There are very few in the middle. This is not the case in ministry. Church staffs are made up of young, middle aged and older ministers and leaders.

I say all this to say, I may be old (ish), but I still need to be taught and mentored. Those of us in the 40 - 50 year old range need the same kind of mentoring. Part of the call of a senior leader and really, all ministry leaders is to shepherd, pastor and set up for success, his or her staff, no matter how young or old, no matter whether they are seen as senior leader material or just the one who is just good (or even just ok) at what they do.

This is an important lesson for all of us in ministry. For those of us who lead teams, we need to remember that just because that member of our team has tons of experience and is really good at what he or she does for the ministry, it doesn't mean that they don't need to be poured into as much as the newbie that needs to be trained from the ground up. Pour love into them all.

Not just a friends and family plan

Who gets your grace? Why is it that we can be so ready to extend grace to people in our family, people in our community (church or otherwise), even that guy who just stole our parking spot that we have been riding around the mall parking lot looking for for 20 minutes, and yet the minute someone gets on television and is accused of a crime, they are suddenly not worthy of grace any more.



Over the last few months, I was horrified to watch the media, and the world, call for the conviction of Casey Anthony. On the day the jury came back, horror turned to nausea. Not Guilty... Let the flame war begin. I watched as people called for Casey's death, beating and re-trial. The thing that bother me the most was the writings of people who wrote how they couldn't wait for her to die so she could spend eternity in hell.







The other story that came out of the Anthony trial was that Casey Anthony was beyond redemption, unlovable by society, and most shockingly, unlovable by God. This hurt me to my core. This is, in my opinion, in no way the way we, as followers of Christ should feel and act.
At what point did we become a people who can flippantly talk about another human being going to hell? At what point did we become a people that are blinded by indignant rage? At what point in our lives did we become a people without grace?

As a people that believe in the redemptive grace, who the person is should not matter at all in our ability to offer grace. We are not called to offer redemptive grace only to those we like, or to those who think like us or look like us. Grace is not a Friends and Family Plan.

I have a question for you. Who is beyond your grace. Who is that one person that screwed up so bad, that there is no chance for redemption? Post it in the comments below.

This post is part of a group of posts for The People of the Second Chance called Never Beyond. Please join in the conversation at POTSC.com POTSC is a group of people that believe in radical grace for all.

New set design

Greetings friends,

I wanted to share our new set design, and a little about how we built it. The set took 4 days to put together, and is built entirely out of over 200 cardboard boxes. They are stacked and glued together along the upstage wall which is 36 feet wide, and as high up as we could reach, which is 24 feet from the top down to the deck.

The longest part of the build was actually putting the boxes together, the bulk of which were put together by my son Andrew and a volunteer named Rose (a very sweet little Italian lady).

Here are a few pics from the box party.

My friend Butch brought an industrial glue gun and over 6 hours, we stacked the boxes. Here are some pictures during the build.

After all the boxes were stacked and glued, my son Aaron and I set about lighting the stage. We used 6 LED panels, and 4 bars. They are inexpensive American DJ fixtures, but they work well in our space, and besides, use what you have, right? Aaron did all the programming and I focused and helped mix color. Here is the final set look. I am really pleased by how it came out.

8.17.10 6:30am

Today is Jenny's birthday. I can not explain how much being married to her makes me a better man. She puts up with me a lot more than she should, and that is a gift. I hope today is a great day for her.

Last night when we came home after class, Jenny found a recliner in her office. It was from her sons for her birthday today. She is always looking for a comfortable place to read, and they saw it at goodwill and bought it for her. Those boys love their momma.

Happy birthday my love...

Sunday report

Today has been a pretty amazing day. It started with worship this morning. Any Sunday that we get to do a baptism is a great day, and today didn't disappoint. When we baptise a a child from our children's ministry, they bring all of the kids down, and stack them in front of the stage to watch one of there own get baptized. After the baptism, the kids usually file out during a song. Today, they lingered a little bit. I think it was because they knew the song. It was amazing to see them sing along with us. Have you ever seen a child that was mesmerized by something, and they couldn't break away from it? That is what they were like. They were singing and smiling, drawn in by worshipping.

I also started being the regular host for our 11 o'clock traditional service. I really enjoyed the service, and getting to see people that I don't get to see very much. I am really looking forward to being in there more consistently, for several reasons, mostly because I like being around the people, and being a pastor that takes call for pastoral care, I want and need to get to know the people in that service.

After lunch, I went to our local hospice facility to see Brenda Killabrew and her husband Martin. Brenda has been battling cancer for 3 years, and is at the end of her fight. She has fought valiantly, and Martin has taken such good care of her. It was an honor to get to visit with them, pray with them, and just listen. In our time together, Martin shared that one of Brenda's favorite songs was "Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)", and asked me to sing it for her at her funeral. It is always an honor to be asked to sing at a funeral or memorial service. Her suffering will end soon, I look forward to her service, and celebrating her life. I enjoyed our time together today very much.

Bishop William Willimon says that, as worship leaders, one of the things that we are called to is the pastoral care of the congregation, both in and outside of the worship service. I believe this whole heartedly, and relish the role. More about this later this week.

It truly was a great day.

later kids...

I hate this time of year

I hate this time of year. I have several reasons, both personal and professional.

First, and foremost, I hate the heat. Today, we are likely to move into triple digits, and the heat index will get over 110. This is not good for me, being a fat little Italian man. Because of this, I sweat a lot, and I don't like that.

Second, it is budget time. Now, if you know me at all, you know that I don't do numbers very well, so naturally having an important, big project, that is wrapped around numbers is maddening. I get through it, but I hate it.

This time of year also means, goals and evaluations. Every year, we sit down, individually and as a staff, and try to set goals for the coming year. I understand the importance of trying to look forward, and do what we do better. I tend to find myself writing the same things, only in different wording... except for one goal: same goal, same wording... "More pastor, less tech." This problem is for another post.

Lastly, evaluations. I get really uncomfortable sitting in a room with people, even people who I know love me, and like what I do. I always feel like I am going to have to justify every little thing that I do, which is usually not the case, but that is really stressful for me. I end up being much harder on myself than the people who are evaluating me.

This is why I hate this time of year. It will get better for me in about a month or so.

Thanks for listening to me whine.

Later kids...

I know, I know...

it has been a year (minus 1 week) since I last posted here. It isn't like there hasn't been anything to write about, I've just been lazy.

As an update, here is a list of some of the things that have happened to me in the last year, both good and not so good in not any particular order.

• This year, Jenny has been working so hard in her garden, and it has been incredible. She has always been a great cook, but since the garden started producing, she has been making some of the most amazing dishes. The best by far is the Roasted Roma Tomato Sauce. She made it for our staff this week, and they went crazy over it. I am so proud of her, and blessed by her.
• 4 weeks ago, Jenny and I started classes to finish our bachelors degrees. This has been something that we have wanted to do for a long time. It is important to us for a couple of reasons. 1) As an example to our boys that finishing school isn't a luxury anymore, it is a necessity. 2) Both of us need the piece of paper in order to feel like we have a voice in our professions.
• Our sons have grown a lot this year, and we could not be more proud. Andrew moved into the Wesley Foundation and is out on his own. It is hard to believe he is going to be a junior in college. I have seen him grow as a person, as a musician, and as a TD. Joey has started working with group called "Community Options". It is amazing to watch him work. His heart pours out every day. Watching and listening to Aaron is just crazy. In the last year, he has continued on his road to being a great musician. He is a sophomore in high school, and continues the tradition of taking really tough courses in high school. Physics, Algebra and AP US History.
• In February, I got to my annual trip to ReCreate. A time of rest, renewal and being with friends from all over the world. We talk, laugh, pray, worship and learn together. It is some of the most inspiring times of the year for me both professionally and personally. It is led, designed and hosted by my friend Randy Elrod. I was also encouraged by the artists that were there, and started a little painting and altar design. You should check it out here.
• I had to separate out 1 thing from ReCreate this year. We had a time of worship with Gungor. When I heard that they were going to be there, I was excited because Michael Gungor is a great songwriter. I had no idea how good. The hour that we spent being led and taught by him was life changing. It was laid out like a symphony, but unlike anything I had experienced before, it was a symphony extolling the beauty, love and grace of Jesus. I have since seen them again with my sons, and it was amazing again.
• One of the disappointing things this year was the fact that I didn't get to take my annual pilgrimage to see my friends Tom and Rhondell. They moved several years ago and I miss them alot. This is the first time in several years that I haven't gotten to go after Easter.
• I have had a couple of set designs that I have been pretty pleased with lately. I will post them in the next few days.
• I started walking 3 or 4 times a week several months ago with my friend Troy. We have not walked in a little over a week or so though, and I am starting to feel the repercussions. I need the exercise and the conversation.

I guess that is enough for now. Thanks for reading.

Later kids...

18 years

18 years ago, within a 2 week span, I had one of the greatest things happen to me, the birth of my 2nd son Joey, and, I had to say "see you later" to my dad. 2 weeks ago, we celebrated Joey's 18th birthday.

It doesn't seem possible that my Dad has been gone that long. It seems like we were just talking about baseball and watching the all star game together. That was one of our things that we always did, we watched the MLB All-star game. Even when I was stationed in Germany, we watched it together over the phone (It was 4am my time).

When he died, there was a huge void in my life, and there still is. He was the one that I always turned to when I had questions about taxes, or finances, anything really, he was the one that was always there when I was doing something. For years after I moved to Bowling Green, I played softball, and every once in a while I would catch myself looking in the stands to see if he was watching. My dad played semi-pro baseball in his younger days, and was quite a hitter. Here is a picture of him back in the day...

Baseball was a way of life at my house. He was the only coach I knew until I got into High School.

One of the many nice things in my life now, is that I get to see a little of my dad in each of my children. In Andrew, I see my dad because he looks like me, and in turn, like dad. He also has that drive to work hard and help people. Now Joey, who's middle name is Alfred, you have to know what you are looking for. Joey gets a mischievous look, and grin on his face right before he is going to do something to mess with someone else. My dad did the same thing. And Aaron has the same love and ability for mathematics. My dad was a wiz with numbers and so is Runt.

I wish that my son's could have known my father, or "Alf, the wonder dad", as all my friends in High School referred to him. He was a great man, and I miss him a lot.

Sunday Setlist 8.02.09

Today was a pretty great day. I was back leading today after a week off (that felt like a month). I love leading worship on Communion Sundays. We got to do a new song, started a new series, and I got a sweet gift from a friend's little boy (more on that in a minute).

Here is the Setlist...

Famous One
Welcome, sermon set up and prayer
Enough (we are going to be doing this each of the next 2 weeks as well, to tie into our sermon series)
Surrender by Marc James
Greet
Message
Communion
Potter's Hand
Announcements and Offering
Your Name (we used a video on the screens of the names of God edited by Stephen Proctor. You can get it here)
Benediction

All in all, really good day. We took an inventory this afternoon of how many man hours went into today, and came up with 130 or so. The team that we work with every week is amazing.

Now to my sweet gift this morning. My friend Joe Patterson (our Pastor of Family Ministry) and his little boy Kellen walked up to me after church. Kellen told me he wanted to sing a song for me. He put his arms out for me to pick him up, and when I did, he held my head, and put his mouth right up against my ear (like he was telling me a secret), and proceeded to sing "The Lord's Prayer" to me. He sang the whole thing. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard. Here is a picture of him...


Imagine this sweet boy singing in your ear. Precious. A perfect end to a great morning of worship.

Later kids...

This post is part of the "Sunday Setlists" blog carnival over Fred's place. Click on the graphic to see what other worship leaders had to say about their Sundays.

Just not going to be the same

Today is the funeral for my friend, Dean Maggard. Dean was a long time member of the church I currently serve, and was one of the sweetest, talking-est people I knew. He was great. Deep baritone voice, contagious laugh, big smile that you couldn't chisel off. He used to say that he had a voice and a face for radio, and that the reason he liked me was I had the same.

When we do a series of messages that are tied to Wednesday night gatherings, we call that a super series. For me, the best part of doing a super series was getting to the Wednesday night component early, before the meal started, and sitting at the table with Dean. We would sit and laugh, mostly making fun of each other and our wives. Wednesday nights will not be the same without my friend Dean. The room of 200 people or so will seem empty.

Rest in Peace my friend. We will see you later...

My first look at the Wasabi Gospel

A few weeks ago I answered a twitter from Shawn Wood about possibly getting to read his new book, “Wasabi Gospel” early, and writing about it here. To be honest, I didn’t think that I would get to participate, because I didn’t respond the very second he tweeted it (Shawn is a popular guy). I couldn't not try, as I am a big Sushi fan. Low and behold, I got the email and here I am. This is just one of many in the “Wasabi Gospel Book Bomb” on Amazon.com. You can pre-order today and get a good deal on both of Shawn's books.

Having read the entire book from virtual cover to virtual cover, I can tell you that it has caused me to re-think how I look at pieces of scripture, and not just the ones covered in the book.

I have chosen to write today, about the first chapter in this post, not just because it is, what I am sure will be, the first of several posts about the book, but because it is in the first chapter where a term that completely wrecked me came from… Preemptive Forgiveness. I have always known that Jesus died for my sins and the sins of others, but to put it in that wording brought it back to life for me.

One of the things that I struggle with is anger issues, which extend sometimes to forgiveness problems. I have in the past few days in particular, been praying about a situation and I keep going back to this quote: “We often become intoxicated by our anger, happiness, sadness, or other emotions and are left with an emotional hangover. In order to make sober decisions we must somehow separate ourselves from our emotions.” (pg 16). I haven’t perfected it by any means but I am working.

I say all that to say, go out and get this book, you won't regret it, even if it wrecks you, and it will.

Father's Day reflections

Today has done a couple things for me. The first is to remind me how blessed I am to have a family that loves me and blesses me with their talents and gifts. Note...

• My day started by seeing a drawing taped to my dresser from my middle son Joey. It made me smile. He is talented like his mother.
  
• I then got the great gift of having my oldest son, Andrew be the Front of House sound engineer for worship this morning. He is an amazing servant, and has a great ears.
  
• During church, I got to watch people be touched by a video that my beautiful wife Jenny shot and edited. She has a way of making the story jump off the screens. God gave me a gift I didn't deserve when he sent her to me.
• After worship, we had lunch together as a family, and then we sat on the couch as my youngest son, Aaron, played piano for me. He is my free spirit, easily distracted, but gifted.
  
• When he was done, he went to the computer and started to lay down piano tracks for a video that Jenny is working on.

The second thing was just how much I miss my dad. He has been gone almost 18 years, and I still miss him desperately. I wish my sons could have known him. I wish he could have been a part of their lives. I have spent my life wanting to be him.

So today has been bitter sweet for me. Mostly sweet with memories, old and new.

Later kids...

Sunday set list 6.21.09

Happy Father's Day.

Today was one of those days where I woke up late and kind of rushed to get out the door. On of those days when I hoped I hadn't left a gap unshaved on my head or face. A day where one of my vocalists, who happens to be our children's pastor, calls me and tells me he can't sing because his host for this morning is sick. A day where one of our camera ops doesn't show up and we have to put a new guy in the booth with one of the graphics computers. Sounds like a horrible day, huh?

Not at all. It was wonderful. We got to do an extra song, happy fathers day to me, and we got to hear from one of the great seasoned men of our church. All in all, no major distractions, and the congregation sang out strong, even with our numbers down just a little. I went without my in ears monitors today, and I am glad I did. My son Andrew was running FOH, and he had a really good mix today. I could hear well, and I coiuld hear the congregation too. I got a couple of compliments on his mix this morning. He is Awesome.

Here is how the day went...

"My Savior Lives"
"Mighty to Save"

Welcome, and set up
Father and Son mini testimony and prayer

"Marvelous Light"
"My Jesus, I Love Thee/Tis So Sweet" Bart Millard arrangement

Greet
Message (Our Associate Pastor, Adam, preached at our campus today, and our Senior Pastor was at our Greenwood Campus)

Announcements and Offering prayer
"Your Grace, Still Amazes Me"

Benediction

Later Kids...

This post is part of the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival on my friend Fred McKinnon's blog. Click on the logo below to see other setlists and worship reports from around the world.

Sunday set list 6.14.09

It has been a couple weeks since last we spoke friends. Here is my report from today.

We are in a series called "StoryTellers", and we are working through the parables. Today was the parable of the wedding feast. We used a video from the Free Hugs Campaign to illustrate the invitation to the party. This seSries really plays to strength of both Rick and Adam, in that they are both very comfortable with using stories in their sermons. After the service, I got to go out into the Atrium and hold a sign that said "Free Hugs". I got about 100 hugs. It was great. Being Italian, I will hug all day long.

Here is how it went...

"Forever"

Welcome and set up of the day

"Sing to the King"
"At the Cross"


Greet
Message with "Free Hugs" (see it here)
Prayer written by Mother Theresa
"Dear Lord, Help me spread your fragrance wherever I go. Flood my soul with your spirit & life. Penetrate me, possess my whole being so utterly all my life may only be a "radiance" of yours. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only you, O Lord! Let me preach you without preaching, not by words, but by my example by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to you. Amen." Mother Theresa

Announcements and Offering Prayer
"Healer" Kari Jobe version

Benediction

Later kids...

This post is part of the "Sunday Setlists" blog carnival over Fred's place. Click on the graphic to see what other worship leaders had to say about their Sundays.

Sunday set list 5.24.09

I know, it has been a long time since I posted. I have had a rough last couple weeks, not sleeping and having nightmares again. Luckily I slept pretty well last night. I needed it.

We did something that we have never done. We used a drum, click and loop track. Our drummer was out of town, and we have been wanting to try it, so we took the plunge. I have to say, it went really well. We only did 2 songs with it, but we tied them together and let the computer run. The 2 songs that we did were familiar to everyone, so they didn't have much trouble. We used Ableton Live 7 and ran it out to an M-Audio box that sent the different tracks out separately so our FOH engineer could mix them.

We also got to do a baptism today. That always gets me fired up. Makes me all jumpy and excited.

Here is the set...

"Holy is the Lord"
A prayer based on Psalm 147
"Here I Am to Worship"
Welcome
Baptism
Prayer
"Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)"
Greet
Message
Announcements and Offering
"Free to Be Me"
Commissioning of Stephen Ministers
Benediction

It was a busy Sunday, but a really good one for us. I will post later this week about what, if any, reaction we get to the loops and such.

I hope your Sunday was as fun as mine.

Later kids...

This post is part of the "Sunday Setlists" blog carnival over Fred's place. Click on the graphic to see what other worship leaders had to say about their Sundays.

Sunday set list 4.26.09

OK, so today was one of the crazier days I have had as a worship leader. First, it is always crazy when whoever is speaking has to cover both campuses. Today was Adam's turn. On days like today, we have to front end everything in the service in order to give Adam time to drive across town. At the end of the set, during the last song before offering, we had a person pass out, and the folks around him started working on him, and then they called out for a doctor. So, and this is one of the reasons I have the best band in the world, we faded out of the song we were doing, and I started praying as they worked with him, and got him into a wheel chair and out to the EMT's. When the song was over, Adam had arrived but was back stage and didn't really see what happened but heard me talking. I made the decision that that moment was not at all the time to take an offering, so we went ahead and sang a scaled back version of "Enough" and then went into the sermon bumper and sermon. We had planned to do a song at the end of the sermon anyway, so when Adam finished up, we came out and I led into the offering and did the benediction out of that. Good news is that Eric, the guy who passed out, is fine.

So here is the set list...

"Beautiful One"
"Mighty to Save"
Welcome and Sermon Set up
"Blessed Be Your Name"
"Never Let Go"
"Enough" scaled back for prayer sake
Sermon Bumper
Message
Offering
"Draw Me Close" (on the fly, thanks to my Piano player, a 25 year veteran of worship leading)
Benediction

This post is part of the "Sunday Setlists" blog carnival over Fred's place. Click on the graphic to see what other worship leaders had to say about their Sundays.

Sunday Setlist 3.29.09

Today was one of our best Sunday's ever. Even with introducing 2 new songs (not something that we normally do) the participation was great.

"Thief" (Third Day)
We started the service a little differently today, by doing a song that I would classify as a special. We did some different things lighting wise, in that we don't usually do a lot of changes during songs, and it was just me singing. It was well recieved.
Welcome and set-up
"Glorious One" (Steve Fee)
"Trading My Sorrows" (Darrel Evans)
Greet
"Today is the Day" (Lincoln Brewster"
I have been wanting to introduce this song for a while now, and the sermon and the theme for the day fit well, and after teaching them the verse and chorus, they sang right along.
Message
Offering Prayer
"Glorious Impossible" (Carl Cartee)
I heard this song for the first time when I was at Re:Create in February. It is an amazing song. It pushed me vocally in the chorus (the key is in F#), but it was well worth it. Powerful lyrics.

I have to give a great big shout out to my tech team today. They did an amazing job with all the lighting changes, and the screens looked great.

This post is part of the "Sunday Setlists" blog carnival over Fred's place. Click on the graphic to see what other worship leaders had to say about their Sundays.