Posts Tagged ‘Ben Cantelon’

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Set List, 01/21 – 01/22/12 Fellowship Bible Church

January 22, 2012

This weekend, we returned to finish our heaven series, “Heaven Revealed.”  Joe shared about the purpose of heaven and how we can be prepared for heaven. I really loved spending the time this weekend trying to get our hearts and minds around a clearer vision of heaven. You can listen to the entire message here.

Here’s our service plan from this weekend:

Time of Preparation/Prayer
“Jesus You” (E) [Bill Horn]
Call To Worship
“Sing To The King” (E) [Billy Foote, Charles Silvester Horne]
Welcome/Greeting Time
“Happy Day” (B) [Ben Cantelon, Tim Hughes]
“Glorious Day” (B) [Michael Bleecker, J. Wilbur Chapman]
“Jesus Paid It All” (B) [Elvina M. Hall, John Thomas Grape, Alex Nifong]
Message – “Heaven Revealed, Pt. 2″ [Joe Hishmeh]
“Revelation Song” (C) [Jennie Lee Riddle]
Offering/Announcements
Dismissal


“Jesus You” – We sang this song as our preparation song this weekend. This is an original song that came from a study of the book of Romans, especially chapters three through five. We sang it for the preparation time this week because the song ends by pointing to eternity: “Now Death, where is your sting?/ You send me home, where forever I will sing/ You, Jesus, You.” We have no need to fear death if we are in Christ. Death only sends us to our true home – the presence of Jesus.

“Sing To The King” – This was our opener this week. This song was used because it points to Christ’s ultimate victory, which gives us the promise of a future together with Him in heaven. The focus of this song certainly gives reason for celebration!

“Happy Day” – We sang this song primarily because of the second verse: “When I stand in that place/ Free at last, meeting face to face/ I am Yours, Jesus, You are mine/ Endless joy and perfect peace/ Earthly pain finally will cease/ Celebrate, Jesus is alive/ He’s alive!” Once again, it is because of the salvation we have in Christ that we can look forward in anticipation of the day when we see Jesus face to face. All tears and sorrow will be gone, and we will experience a joy that defies description!

“Glorious Day” – This song is still fairly new to our congregation, being that we only started singing it a few weeks ago. You can read more of my thoughts on the song here. This week, we decided to bring it down another half-step to B to see if it would be even easier for our congregation to sing.

“Jesus Paid It All” – This song is a staple for our church, and we sang it because it celebrates the one who resurrected us from spiritual death – Jesus Christ. He is the reason we have life. He is the one who has saved us. We did not (and could not) save ourselves. We owe all thanks, praise, and honor to Him. He is the one who paid our debt and raised these lives up from the dead!

“Revelation Song” – This was our response song this weekend. It was one that I had planned on doing for this series when we first started talking about it, and when we sang it for the “Heaven Is For Real” event this past Sunday night, it became a natural tie to this weekend as we concluded our formal discussion on heaven in our services this weekend.

This weekend was really powerful, and we experienced the presence of Christ as we worshiped in our services. Our team did a great job, and our congregation sang like crazy, which was exciting to witness. I am overwhelmed by the goodness of Christ in His promise of heaven for us. I can’t wait to see Him face to face.

I hope you had a great weekend of worship wherever you were!

In the Son,
Bill

p.s. don’t forget to check out The Worship Community!

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Set List, 12/31/11 – 01/01/12 Fellowship Bible Church

January 1, 2012

This weekend, we began a two-part series on heaven called “Heaven Revealed.” Joe shared about the biblical picture of heaven. Joe shared details about the perfection, key person, and people of  heaven. It reminded us all of the place that is prepared for us, and the hope that we have because of it. You can listen to the entire message here.

Here’s our service plan from this weekend:

Time of Preparation/Prayer
“Beautiful” (D) [Phil Wickham]
Welcome/Greeting Time
“Happy Day” (Bb) [Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon]
“Everlasting God” (Bb) [Brenton Brown]
“Forever Reign” (Bb) [Jason Ingram, Reuben Morgan]
“Lord of All” (Bb) [Kristian Stanfill]
Message – “Heaven Revealed, Pt. 1″ [Joe Hishmeh]
Offering/Announcements
“Beautiful” (D) [Phil Wickham]
Dismissal


“Beautiful” – We sang this song both as our preparation song and as our response song this weekend. We did it differently in the respective positions in the service. I love this song. I love how it communicates what the Lord has done and is going to do in the story of redemption. It begins by describing how God’s creation displays His glory, then describes what Jesus accomplished on the cross, and finishes by describing the day when we enter into heaven and see the Lord face-to-face. This song moves me as I imagine that day. I’ve posted about this song before here.

“Happy Day” – We opened our services this weekend with this song. We sang this song because it clearly connected the ideas of redemption and heaven. The second verse points specifically to the day when we see Jesus in heaven. Another reason we sang this song was because of the occasion. Since Sunday was New Year’s Day, we anticipated some tired people for our morning services, and this song brought some crucial energy to our gathering and helped us get going.

“Everlasting God” – This song is a staple for us at Fellowship, and it was a great way for us to focus on the fact that our God is eternal. If we have been born again, we will be together with Him for eternity. We find our hope and our life in who He is – the everlasting God.

“Forever Reign” – For eternity, the substance of our song will be the name of Jesus. As those He has redeemed, He is everything to us. He is the one who rescued us. He is the one who made a way for us. He is our source of life and hope. He is the reason we have eternal life. It is all because of Him. Forever, we will sing His praise, because He is the one who is worthy of it all.

“Lord of All” – We connected this song with “Forever Reign” as the ideas are really tied together. Scripture says (in Philippians 2:8-11) that because Jesus humbled Himself to death on a cross, the Father has given Him “the name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” He is worthy of all worship, because there is no one who compares with Him. He is matchless in glory, honor, and power.

Our team did a great job. We had a lot of fun and tried We had two new team members this weekend, and one who came back from some maternity leave, and it was great to have them all contributing. This weekend was a first for me, in that we had to lead on both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Doing services on both Saturdays and Sundays has some unique challenges on weekends like this (just like last weekend’s Christmas Eve/Day combination), but it was special to end one year and begin the next together with our church.

I hop you had a great weekend of worship wherever you were! Happy New Year!

In the Son,
Bill

p.s. don’t forget to check out The Worship Community!

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Set List, 10/29 – 10/30/11 Fellowship Bible Church

October 30, 2011

This weekend, we focused on John 14, examining the Holy Spirit and how He changes the way we live and face reality in this life. You can listen to the entire message here. Because of the focus of the message this week, our call to worship came from selections from Psalm 107 (an awesome psalm!), which helps us to remember all the ways God has been with us and for us. It helps us to recall the faithfulness of our God. He is so good to us. I challenged our congregation to focus on things that the Lord has done in our lives, from redemption to walking with us through a difficult time, and to dwell on those moments as we sang out to our God. This was something that the Lord laid on my heart as we were rehearsing. As we were singing “You Never Let Go” and “Never Once,” I found myself recalling God’s faithfulness in bringing my family and I to this church. I remembered God’s faithfulness in our journey after Hurricane Katrina moved us out of New Orleans. As these things were at the front of my mind, I was overwhelmed with thanksgiving and praise because of what the Lord had done. He is faithful. This became the focus of our time of worshiping through singing together. Psalm 107 ends by saying, “Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord” (Psalm 107:43 ESV).

Here’s our service plan from this weekend:

Time of Preparation/Prayer
“Jesus, You” (E) [original]
 Welcome/Greeting Time
Call to Worship – Psalm 107
“Happy Day” (Bb) [Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon]
“You Never Let Go” (Bb) [Matt Redman, Beth Redman]
“God Is Able” (Bb) [Reuben Morgan, Ben Fielding]
“Never Once” (Bb) [Matt Redman, Jason Ingram, Tim Wanstall]
Prayer
Message – John 14 [Joe Hishmeh]
Offering/Video/Announcements
Response/Closing Time
“‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus” (E) [Louisa M. R. Steed, William James Kirkpatrick]
 Dismissal

“Jesus, You” – We opened our preparation time with this song again this week. I want our congregation to know it, because at the very least, it is helpful for us to focus on the gospel and to remember clearly what the Lord has done for us. As the book of Romans lays out clearly, we were dead and without hope–enemies of God–yet Jesus came to rescue us by dying in our place and rising again victorious over sin and death. Because of what He has done for us, our song for eternity will be one that sings the name of Jesus, our redeemer.

“Happy Day” – This song is a great opening song that helps to put the focus immediately on the gospel of redemption. It is very familiar for our congregation, and I think it resonates with many of us.

“You Never Let Go” – This song remains one of my favorites. We haven’t sung this together in a while, so it was good to pick it back up this weekend. I love the reminder in this song of Jesus’ promise to believers, recounted in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” There is great comfort, peace, and assurance in that promise, and it is one that we really need to remember as we make the journey through our lives with Jesus. Because

“God Is Able” – We taught this song a couple of months ago, and I think it was a great fit for this weekend’s focus because of it’s repeated emphasis on God’s continual presence with us. I really enjoy this song, and I think our congregation has connected well with it, so we will continue to sing it together in the future.

“Never Once” – Similar to the previous two songs, this song emphasizes God’s presence with us and His faithfulness to us as His children. When we look back on our lives in Christ, we will be able to look back on our lives and see that God was always with us, and never, at any point, did we walk alone.

“‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus” – We responded to God’s Word with this song. This is a favorite hymn of mine, because it sings about the blessing of the relationship we have with Jesus when we are trusting Him fully. The benefits of knowing and trusting Jesus are the same that the Spirit provides in us, and that is why we sang this song as the response. We will only experience the blessing of truly knowing Jesus through His Spirit when we trust Him.

All around, this was a great weekend of worshiping our Savior. Our team did a fantastic job, and I’m thankful for what the Lord is doing in us.

I hope you had a great weekend of worship wherever you were.

In the Son,

Bill

p.s. don’t forget to check out The Worship Community!

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Set List, 08/06 – 08/07/11 Fellowship Bible Church

August 7, 2011

This weekend David Hinkle preached from the book of Ruth to talk about God’s mission and how it has involved His people throughout history. The message was title “Legacy,” and he talked about how we can become a part of God’s overarching purpose in this world. One of his main points was that we were born at this time to be involved in this specific part of God’s plan – sending us out to tell the world about His Son, Jesus. It was a challenging reminder of the calling on our lives as rescued believers in Jesus Christ. We have a mission.

For this week’s message, we focused on the gospel, mission, pursuing God, redemption, and the new covenant. Each of these songs carries at least one of these elements in it.

Here’s our set from this weekend:

Pre-Service – “Kingdom” (A) [Kristian Stanfill]
Call To Worship/Prayer
“Happy Day” (Bb) [Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon]
Welcome/Offering/Announcements/Greeting Time
“Let Me Sing” (Bb) [Todd Fields]
“Forever Reign” (Bb) [Jason Ingram, Reuben Morgan]
 Message – “Legacy” [David Hinkle]
Communion Song – “Rock of Ages” (Bb) [Augustus M. Toplady, Thomas Hastings]
Response – “Son of God” [Jon Neufeld, Tim Neufeld] 

This weekend was another good weekend of worship. One highlight for me was seeing one of our young guys, Anthony Dake, jump in on drums and do a fantastic job. He played like a champ, and served our congregation well. I look forward to having him in there again soon. Part of our vision for our worship ministry is to build into our younger guys and gals and teach them early on what it’s all about and how to lead worship through music, with authenticity and excellence. Our NextGen Worship Leader, Erik Oldberg, does a fantastic job with these guys, and even in the six months I have been here, I have seen huge growth in each of them. I am thankful for his leadership and passion for worship.

“Kingdom” – This song was a great fit for the theme of the weekend, but it is a little tricky for most of our congregation to sing with, which is why it was in the pre-service slot. It really communicates that it is our responsibility and calling to carry the truth of the gospel to the world, and to invade the darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. I love the message of this song.

“Happy Day” – This is now a standard for our congregation, and it has been a while since we sang it together. I love what it communicates about Jesus’ victory over sin and death, and how our eternal destiny has been permanently affected by His work on the cross and His resurrection.

“Let Me Sing” – We began teaching this song a few weeks ago, and this was our refresher week, to solidify it in our congregation’s memory. This song supported the theme of the weekend with the idea of us shining as lights in the darkness as an act of worship, in response to the amazing sacrifice that Christ made for us. In my mind, this is the most significant reason we have to worship, to obey, and to give of ourselves – Christ gave first, and did so in a marvelous way.

“Forever Reign” – We bracketed the message with this song, or parts of it anyway. The bridge and chorus really helped to communicate the drive of the message, for us to pursue Jesus Christ and His purposes with everything we have.

“Rock of Ages” – This hymn arrangement is from a band called Ascend The Hill, on their album of reworked hymns, Take The World But Give Me Jesus. The first time I heard it, I was immediately struck by the powerful lyric, and the simple arrangement, which added great power and emotion to the truth of the lyric. The lyric conveys the desperation we should all have for the saving work of Christ. We are completely hopeless without His help and His rescuing us. We sang this song during communion, and it was very appropriate in that slot. Here’s the lyric:

Rock of Ages
Augustus M. Toplady, Thomas Hastings

VERSE 1
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.

VERSE 2
Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
These for sin could not atone
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

VERSE 3
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to Thy fountain fly
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

VERSE 4
While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown
And behold Thee on Thy throne
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

“Son of God” – We finished the service by singing this great song to our Savior. It actually ended up being more fitting than I thought it would be, because of the way that David emphasized the covenant and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us. The ends of each verse spoke to these elements, singing directly about the cross and then in the second verse about how Christ fulfilled prophecy and how He is coming again for His church. I think it was a solid way to end our times together this weekend.

I am so thankful to be a part of this great church, and for the opportunity to grow together in worshiping our King. I hope you had a great weekend of worship as well. Check out The Worship Community to see what other worshipers experienced and why.

Let me know your thoughts! I love reading your opinions and feedback.

In the Son,

Bill

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Set List, 05/28 – 05/29/11 Fellowship Bible Church

May 29, 2011

This week, we focused on Philippians 2:1-11, and dealt with putting others ahead of ourselves. It was a challenging message for those of us who are prone to selfishness (me!), and called us to the selflessness of Christ, who emptied Himself and became obedient even to death on a cross, so that we could be redeemed. As a result, Scripture says, God has exalted Him and given Him the name which is above all names, that at His name, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. In a similar way, the Bible says that the one who wants to find his own life must first lose it. May we all lay our lives down for the kingdom of God and His purposes, and in doing so, may we find our true life in Him.

Here’s our set from this weekend:

Pre-Service – “Happy Day” (Bb) [Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon]
Call to Worship – Revelation 4:8, 11
“Our God” (G) [Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves]
Welcome/ Video/ Offering/ Announcements/ Prayer/ Greeting
“You Never Let Go” (Bb) [Matt Redman]
“Desert Song” (D) [Brooke Fraser]
Scripture reading – Philippians 2:3
“Lead Me to the Cross” (D) [Brooke Fraser]
Message – “An Appraisal of Attitude” [Joe Hishmeh]
Response – “Jesus Messiah” (G) [Daniel Carson, Jesse Reeves, Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash]

We began in the pre-service time with “Happy Day,” and I chose this song because it got us thinking about the cross, and what it accomplished for us. We benefited immensely because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross, yet He paid for our redemption with great suffering and anguish. He gave up His right to grasp His equality with God, and laid it down in obedience and willing sacrifice. He was generous with His own life, and had the attitude fo a servant rather than one of entitlement.

In the call to worship, practiced the command to “ascribe” praise and to the Lord. This means to attribute to God the truth about who He is and what He has done. I searched and struggled to find a passage that encapsulated this idea concisely, and I felt very comfortable with Revelation 4:8, 11 (ESV) -

Holy, holy, holy,
is the Lord God Almighty
Who was and is and is to come!
Worthy are You,
our Lord and God,
To receive glory and
honor and power,
For You created all things,
And by Your will they existed
and were created.

We read this together as a congregation with this phrasing, and I think it set our hearts on Jesus’ surpassing worth and glory. I am feeling more and more compelled to point our people to Scripture and for us to read it together and respond together in different ways. I would guess that worship doesn’t get much more “Biblical” than that… I hope we begin to make the connection between these explicit worship directives and the ones that call us to worship by living our lives for our King and His kingdom, loving Him and loving our neighbor.

We immediately moved into “Our God,” because we just finished talking about the creative power of our God, and this song emphasizes some of that aspect in reference to miracles and His omnipotence. I love how this song resonates with God’s people, as we declare His greatness and power together, and then recognize that this same great and powerful God is for us. He is for His people, and He loves us, cares for us, and protects us. At the end of this song, I felt led to have all the instruments drop out as our people sang out the chorus, and it was a sweet moment that I didn’t want to end. It felt a little funny jumping from that into the announcements, but who cares?!?! We’re here to worship together, and it’s never too early to do so.

After the announcements, we led out with “You Never Let Go.” This was our third week singing this song together, and the chorus has taken on new meaning for our congregation (especially the Saturday night group) after last weekend, where we had to take shelter from funnel clouds in the area. I think we are getting this as a congregation, and God is reminding us of His faithfulness through it. Our congregation sings this song so well together. I am so thrilled with how we are responding to God together.

Then, Kelsey Thomsen led us in singing “Desert Song” and “Lead Me to the Cross.” This was Kelsey’s last weekend leading with us (for a while, at least), because she is heading off to physician assistant school this summer. It was a little bittersweet as a result, but I have enjoyed getting to see Kelsey’s heart for God’s people in worship over these past few months. I know God has great things in store for her and her ministry through worship. These songs spoke to the point of trusting in God no matter what, and obeying Him regardless of how afraid we may be. He is worthy of our lives’ obedience, no matter how we feel about it. He is worthy of our lives being give for the purpose of expanding His kingdom and His fame in the earth.

We responded to Joe’s challenging message with “Jesus Messiah,” which speaks clearly of Jesus’ laying down of His life for us. He is our model and example of sacrifice and of being a servant. When we look to Him, we see the pattern of our calling. We see what we are to be in Him. This song continues to grow on me, as I reminded of 2 Corinthians 5:21 and other verses which speak of the ridiculous gift Jesus has given us through His grace and through the cross. He is so good to us. May we be so generous with our own lives.

We had a few difficulties on Saturday night. One team member thought he was on for next weekend, and as a result, wasn’t able to get to rehearsal until an hour after we started. We ended up finishing our preparation very close to the start of the first service, and I forgot to communicate with the team that Kelsey was going to share before “Desert Song.” When I turned to look at Kelsey, the rhythm section jumped into the song, and the rest of us had to catch up. It was a minor train wreck, but we got back on track, and I believe God was glorified in spite of the problems. It has made me evaluate our lines of communication, both prior to and during the weekend. We can always improve. Sunday went very smoothly, and I was proud of how our team pressed on and kept trying to improve throughout the weekend, despite a slightly frustrating start. I am so thankful for the team of people we have here at Fellowship.

Overall, it was a powerful weekend of worship. I love it (sometimes begrudgingly), when God moves and works in our midst, when it seems like we have made it difficult. It just goes to show that we cannot manufacture worship. We cannot force it to happen. We cannot make people experience God. We are powerless to change lives at the heart level. Only God can do that. And He does. What we can do is be available and be humbled before our King, and trust that He will work in our midst. We can give Him our best and do what we can to facilitate (literally, “make it easy”) for our people to engage God in our worship gatherings. Let us serve our God and our people by trusting in our God and giving our best for Him and for them. He will take care of everything else.

I hope you had a great weekend of worship wherever you were (and hopefully didn’t have the problems we did!). Be sure to check out The Worship Community to see what other leaders and team members experienced in their worship gatherings this weekend. To God be all the glory!

In the Son,

Bill

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Set List, 04/22 – 04/24/11 Fellowship Bible Church

April 24, 2011

Jesus is risen! He has conquered sin and death, and He reigns forevermore. This weekend holds so much meaning for the church, and it was truly a joy to celebrate Christ’s resurrection together. This weekend, we had two services on Good Friday, and then six Easter services through Saturday and Sunday (two on Saturday and four on Sunday). It was a marathon, but it was completely worth it. I am so proud of our team for stepping up and serving with excellence in all of the services, giving their best for our Savior and His church.

Here’s our set from Good Friday:

“Jesus Messiah” (G) [Chris Tomlin, Daniel Carson, Jesse Reeves, and Ed Cash]
“Because of Your Love” (G) [Phil Wickham]
“Lamb of God“ (G) [Bill Horn]
Message – “The Heroic Rescue of Humanity: Jesus the Savior” [Joe Hishmeh]
Response – “The Wonderful Cross” [Isaac Watts, Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Lowell Mason, J.D. Watts]
Communion Intro
“Nothing But The Blood” [Matt Redman]
“You Saw Me” [Mia Fieldes, Ben Fielding, and Reuben Morgan]
Taking of the elements
Dismissal 

And here’s how we celebrated the resurrection in our Easter services:

Pre-service – “God is Alive” (A) [Steve Fee and Eddie Kirkland]
Call to worship – Mark 16:4-6
“Happy Day” (Bb) [Tim Hughes and Ben Cantelon]
Welcome/ Offering/ Announcements/ Greeting time
“You Alone Can Rescue” (Bb) [Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin]
“Stronger” (Bb) [Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan]
Message – “The Heroic Rescue of Humanity: Jesus the Restorer” [Joe Hishmeh]
Response – “Jesus Paid It All” [John Thomas Grape, Elvina M. Hall, and Alex Nifong]
Dismissal – Joe Hishmeh

I am thrilled with how this weekend’s services went. Our Good Friday services were sweet times of reflection on the cross and on Jesus sacrifice for us. We used a distinct instrumentation for the service, with predominantly acoustic instruments. We had two standard acoustics, a high-strung acoustic (Nashville tuning), viola, fretless bass, and a percussion set up for our drummer with djembe and cajon and a few toys. It was very organic in the way that we put the songs together and in the way we presented it. I thought it came across the way we wanted, and people were pointed to the cross. We had the large, wooden cross lit in all red, and the band was all in black in the background on the stage, and that helped to communicate the desired focus for the evening. In all, it was a strong and sincere evening. Good Friday is one of my favorite occasions for worship, as we praise our Savior for His great sacrifice on our behalf–in our place, for our sins.

One Easter, we pulled out the stops, and pushed things forward a bit with some new elements. We opened the pre-service time with “God is Alive,” and we used a brand-new element in our context: our drummer, Jordan, is a master beat producer, and he brought out his Akai MPC 4000 to create a loop to play underneath the whole song, which would be brought into focus during the intro and the breaks. I was giddy when he put it all together and we started to play together as a band. It was such a fresh addition to what we have been doing, and it is and element that I have wanted to incorporate (in any worship setting) for years. The click track was step one to getting to this point, and we got here a lot quicker than I anticipated. It was pretty special to finally experience it in that way. I thought it added even more energy to an already exciting song. It was a perfect moment for me, as we sang out “Everyone/ Glorify the risen Son/ The Holy One has overcome/ Jesus is alive/ The enemy/ Is broken underneath His feet/ Death is crushed in victory/ Jesus is alive/ Jesus is alive.” It’s a beautiful thing!

We followed the call to worship with “Happy Day,” which felt like a great fit for the weekend. This song was a little more familiar to our congregation, so they sang out and participated more than on “God is Alive” (which is part of why we did “God is Alive” in the pre-service slot). I love the truth in this song, and I think it is one of Tim Hughes’ best songs. He captures the gospel message clearly and simply. The verses say it well: “The greatest day in history/ Death is beaten, You have rescued me/ Sing out, Jesus is alive/ The empty cross, the empty grave/ Life eternal, You have won the day/ Shout it out, Jesus is alive/ He’s alive!”

After the welcome time, we moved to “You Alone Can Rescue” and “Stronger,” which are two songs that focus on God’s unique ability to save us and rescue us from sin and death, and to give us eternal life. I love the choruses of each of the songs. “You Alone Can Rescue” sings, “You alone can rescue/ You alone can save/ You alone can lift us from the grave/ You came down to find us/ Led us out of death/ To You alone belong the highest praise.” In particular, my favorite line is the one that describes the divine condescension, His coming down to find us and leading us out of death. I am moved as I sing those words. This song really took hold with me as Matt Redman led at a week-long event in Daytona Beach last summer, and the weight of these words really landed. It remains a powerful expression of worship for me. The chorus of “Stronger” sings, “You are stronger/ You are stronger/ Sin is broken/ You have saved me/ It is written/ Christ is risen/ Jesus, You are Lord of all.” This echoes Scripture in a few places, one of which is Philippians 2, where Paul writes that “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:8-11 NASB).  Because of Jesus’ humble and obedient sacrifice to conquer sin and death, He now has the name which is above every name. He is Lord of all, and worthy of being worshiped as such.

We finished the service by responding with “Jesus Paid It All,” but we did it a little differently than we had previously. We treated the original hymn in a very standard way. We played it in a way that would be very familiar for guests and regular attenders alike, in a gentle and slowly building manner. Then, we finished with an instrumental chorus, with the piano playing the melody. When we landed on the tonic chord (Bb), we let it ring out, and then quietly sang Alex Nifong’s added chorus: “O praise the One/ Who paid my debt/ And raised this life/ Up from the dead.” We went from gentle to full-bore in a matter of moments, and it was a powerful moment as we declared praise and truth about our risen King, who has also given us life when we were dead in our sins and transgressions (Eph. 2). It was a great fit with Joe’s message this weekend, which talked about two ways to live – either submitted to Jesus as the true King by faith and trust in His finished work on the cross to make things right; or attempting to reign over our own lives and to make things right on our own, unsuccessfully.

Our Easter weekend has been a true highlight of my time with Fellowship thus far. I can’t wait for us to continue to develop things and build from here. We have an amazing Worship and Arts team here, and I love their servant hearts. God is doing great things among us. He is alive and moving in His church!

I hope you had a great weekend of worship wherever you were. Be sure to check out The Worship Community to see what other leaders and team members experienced in their worship gatherings this weekend.

In the name of the risen Son!

Bill

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Set List, 03/05 – 03/06/11 Fellowship Bible Church

March 6, 2011

Here’s our set from this week:

Pre-Service: “Happy Day” [Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon]
Call to Worship – Psalm 66:1-4
“Hosanna (Praise is Rising)” [Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown]
Welcome/Announcements/Greeting
“You Alone Can Rescue” [Matt Redman, Jonas Myrin]
“It is Well” [Todd Fields, Horatio G. Spafford]
Message – I Believe We Respond: Salvation
Lord’s Supper – “Just As I Am” [Charlotte Elliott, William Bradbury]
Response – “Jesus Messiah” [Daniel Carson, Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, and Jesse Reeves]

This was another great weekend of worship, and we continue to build momentum. People continue to participate more, and respond to worship God through music and the Word. I am also learning more about, and getting more connected with, our people and our team. I am happy with our progress, and with what is happening when we gather each week. This week we also celebrated the Lord’s Supper/communion, which is always a sweet time where we focus on remembering what God has done to redeem us. It was especially significant this week, because it followed Joe’s talk about salvation, and how we respond in faith and repentance to what Jesus Christ has done for us.

We repeated “Happy Day” in the pre-service section again this week, because it is still fairly new to our people, and because it was particularly fitting for the focus this week. I enjoy this song, if only for the fact that it is simple and happy song of thanksgiving for what Christ has done. It sings of the gospel clearly in a celebrative way, and I think that is the song’s greatest value. We followed the call to worship with “Hosanna (Praise is Rising),” which is a great song to follow the call to worship. It has a feeling of preparation and entering into God’s presence, and sings clearly of some of the proper motives and responses in worship: “Hosanna, Hosanna/ You are the God who saves us/ Worthy of all our praises/ Hosanna, Hosanna/ Come have your way among us/ We welcome You here, Lord Jesus.”

We also continued teaching “You Alone Can Rescue,” and our people took hold of it more. It was a great fit for our focus this weekend, as we focused on how salvation is the work of God alone, and we place our trust and confidence in His finished work. I love this song. It’s not the music that makes it exciting, either. It is purely the lyric of this song that is overwhelming. Jesus is our only rescue. This will be a song that the church sings for a while.

We brought back Todd Fields’ arrangement of “It Is Well,” which is one of my favorite modern hymn arrangements. He preserved the melody of Horatio Spafford’s original, but added a fitting chorus which captures the spirit of the song well. It serves as a strong declaration of confidence and hope in Christ, through anything that we experience in this life. The guitar part that Fields has written is really interesting, too, which only adds to the value of this song. When we come to the original chorus at the end of the song, it is beautiful to hear the congregation singing out so strongly.

We used the great hymn “Just As I Am” for the time during the Lord’s Supper, and we arranged it in a Sufjan Stevens-ish kind of way–with a slow swing to it, organ with Leslie on it, and minimal percussion. It was another great fit for the focus this weekend. I was unsure of how we would arrange it going into the weekend, but the team came up with some nice ideas and instrumentation to make it work nicely.

We finished the weekend off with “Jesus Messiah,” which was perfect. I cannot claim credit for this one, because it was the result of some changes late in the planning, and I needed a song to plug the hole, and thought this would work. It connected with Joe’s message in more ways than I can count, and coming out of the Lord’s Supper only added to its impact. The more I sing this song, the more I enjoy it and its message.

It was a great weekend, and I’m excited about how things continue here with Fellowship Bible Church!

I hope you had a great weekend of worship wherever you were!

Bill

Sunday Set Lists

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Set List, 02/26 – 02/27/11 Fellowship Bible Church

February 27, 2011

Here’s our set from this weekend:

“All Because of Jesus” (A) [Steve Fee]
Call to Worship
“Happy Day” (Bb) [Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon]
Welcome/Announcements/Greeting Time
“Jesus Messiah” (G) [Daniel Carson, Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Jesse Reeves]
“You Alone Can Rescue” (Bb) [Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman]
“Jesus Paid It All” (Bb) [John Thomas Grape, Elvina M. Hall, Alex Nifong]
Message – “I Believe God Acted – Redemption” [David Hinkle]
Response – “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” (Eb) [Louie Giglio, Chris Tomlin, John Newton, Edwin O. Excell, John P. Rees]

I feel like this week was another step forward for our team and our congregation. We took more steps to make it easier to participate – we brought some songs down to a lower key, and we were more intentional about teaching new material. It seemed like there was more participation overall in each of the four services, which is exciting and encouraging. The team felt locked-in (most of the time), and I felt like we were engaged in worship as we were leading the congregation, as well.

We brought “All Because of Jesus” down to the key of A from the usual key of B, and we brought “Happy Day” down to Bb from B. Both were good moves, as the people sang out more on both. When I took a close look at the lead sheets this week, I noticed that both of these songs had parts of the melody that went well beyond the range of the “normal” voice, from C to C. We brought them both down to get them close. They still weren’t entirely in the desired range, but if we lowered them much more, the verses would bottom out! That’s one of the biggest problems with some modern worship songs – the low verses and high choruses make it difficult to get them into a normal person’s vocal range. We’ll keep working on it, though!

“Jesus Messiah” is one of the 21 songs we have done more than five times over the past year, and therefore is one that I would be safe in saying we know as a congregation. It showed as people sang it out and connected with God through it. I love the lyric of this song, as it really declares the gospel clearly, and finishes it all off with the simple, powerful bridge: “All our hope is in You/ All our hope is in You/ All the glory to You, God/ The Light of the world.” Jesus is our only hope of salvation. Enough said.

Also, this week we introduced “You Alone Can Rescue” by Jonas Myrin and Matt Redman. When I initially heard this song done live by Matt Redman, I was very excited about it, but when I heard the recorded version, I was a little underwhelmed, so I put it off for a while. However, when Matt led at Student Life in Daytona this past summer, I was reminded again how powerful this song is. It is a simple lyric, but proclaims a powerful truth – that Jesus is the only one who can save us. Here’s the lyric:

Verse 1
Who, O Lord, could save themselves
Their own soul could heal
Our shame was deeper than the sea
Your grace is deeper still

Chorus
And You alone can rescue, You alone can save
You alone can lift us from the grave
You came down to find us, led us out of death
To You alone belongs the highest praise

Verse 2
You, O Lord, have made a way
The great divide You healed
For when our hearts were far away
Your love went further still
Yes, Your love goes further still

Bridge
We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes
You’re the giver of life
We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes
You’re the giver of life

Even typing the lyric of this song is bringing me to tears. What a beautiful expression of confidence in Christ alone for our rescue and salvation. We have no hope apart from Him! His humble, loving sacrifice is the only way for us to be rescued; the fact that He chose to redeem us at such a great cost to Himself is overwhelming. This song brings this into clear focus, and is a beautiful expression of thanksgiving and recognition of the work of Jesus Christ to save us. He, and He alone, is the one who can rescue, who can save us, who can lift us from the grave. This is because He is the one who came down to find us a lead us out of death. Scripture says that Jesus’ efforts to rescue us are the reason God has given Him the name above every name (Philippians 2). I know this is the reason I worship Him. He is so good, while I am still so undeserving of it. My life is completely dependent on His grace and finished work of the cross.

We bracketed the message about our redemption with Alex Nifong’s arrangement of “Jesus Paid It All” and Tomlin’s “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone).” These two songs never get old to me, because there is beauty in the simplicity of their declarations. I never tire of singing, “O praise the One who paid my debt/ And raised this life up from the dead.” On “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” Kelsey Thomsen and I traded off on the verse. She did a great job leading, and I think it facilitated a very powerful moment of worship, especially after David’s weighty message about our redemption. I loved his words about what God has done to rescue us! We owe it all to Jesus Christ, who made a way where there was no way.

I love my church, and I am very excited about what is going on around here. We are learning and growing together, and we are pursuing Jesus Christ and His gospel. Jesus, and His work to redeem us, was truly lifted high this weekend. I am so grateful for how He has rescued us. He is truly my only hope!

I hope you had a great weekend of worship wherever you were.

Jesus alone is worthy!

Bill

Sunday Set Lists

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Set List, Sunday 09/12/10 Church at the Mall

September 16, 2010

Sorry I didn’t do a recap sooner. It’s been an insane week. Quickly, here’s our set from last Sunday:

“Say Say” [Kristian Stanfill, Christy Nockels, Chris Tomlin]
“Happy Day” [Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon]
“Blessed Be Your Name” [Matt and Beth Redman]
“Let Me Sing” [Todd Fields]
“You Never Let Go” [Matt and Beth Redman]
INV – “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” [Louie Giglio, Chris Tomlin, John Newton, Edwin O. Excell, John P. Rees]
OFF – “Our God” [Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, et al]

This past Sunday was another great week of worship together. God is moving, and it’s exciting to be a part of it all. This week, we’re in the middle of our church’s first original evangelistic production, Thanatos, and God is moving in that as well. People are coming to Jesus and coming back to Jesus in droves. I believe this is a hint of revival, the likes of which I have not have the privilege of witnessing before.

Praise God for His power and working, and His choosing to use broken vessels for His amazing purposes.

I hope you had a great day of worship wherever you were this week.

As always, check out Sunday Set Lists at www.theworshipcommunity.com.

In the Son,
Bill

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