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Had a great time at St. Simons Community Church yesterday.

Got to lead the rehearsal and set “officially” for the first time. Thanks, Fred!

I’ve been immersing myself in the song Overcome for the last few weeks, then got Jeremy Camp’s album and his version is just…wow. So, I definitely wanted to include that in our setlist this week. It went over very well. The band and vocals were solid! Thanks to Jay Sellers, Shannon Hutchison, Chris Moncus, Fred McKinnon, Brent Barbee, Cathy Blankman and Katie Fendig for making it a great “first time” leading there at SSCC.

1) My Savior Lives (New Life Worship): Key of B. Very standard upbeat rockin’ arrangement for our walk-in. I think the high energy just really set the mood for the “intensity” of the whole set. Great song.

2) Beautiful One (Hughes): Key D. Brent led out vocally on this one. We did the rocked up version of this one. It ended up being faster live than we rehearsed it, but it totally worked. Very cool!

3) Overcome (Egan): Key of A. Bamm! This song is just…like I said earlier…wow. Homerun. I think you could do it in any style you wanted and it would come out right. We rocked it up a little. I just love the bridge. GREAT song!

Fred talks a little bit about the moment over at his blog.

4) Holy & Anointed One (Barnett): Key of A. This is an oldie but goodie. We kind of mashed up the MercyMe acoustic version with the Sonic Flood version. Jay played some sweet ebo lead on it and Fred laid in some nice piano work. It’s just such a sweet, simple song. I love singing the name of Jesus.

Sermon.

5) Doxology (traditional): Key of G. Fred led out on this one. I’m not really a traditional guy and would have probably ruined the lyrics! That being said, I like to spread around lead vocals anyways!

6) Blessed Be Your Name (redman): Key of G. Does this song ever NOT work? We do it in G so that I can feature a female lead. Katie rocked it. This song just always get such great participation. I love it.

Another great Sunday worshiping the ONE who is worthy! How was your Sunday?

Last night I had the privilege of leading a Night of Worship gathering at New Life Church in Richmond Hill, GA (near Savannah). My wife, Lydia, and I use a small, intimate acoustic set up to lead for about an hour.

This was the first Night of Worship gathering that they had ever had at the church and the pastor (my good friend, Ryan Ogden), said that he really saw it becoming a regular part of their culture. Probably once month or so.

I like that.

Create an environment where people can come and sing and soak. Nice.

So I put together a 12 song set list. Brought my macbookpro to run a few loops on and set sail for a fun time of singing to God.

I decided to just go with my acoustic guitar for the first 8 songs and then brought the loops in at the end when I moved to the piano for the last 4 songs. I medleyed the last 4 songs and it flowed well.

I think people really enjoyed the night and we’ll be heading back in the future to lead worship with them again!

1) Today Is the Day (Brewster): Key A. I hadn’t done this one since leading at HOJ almost a year ago. It was a little rusty but a fun song to sing.
2) Everlasting God (Brown): Key A. I wish I’d had a full band for this one, but nevertheless it ended up flowing well.
3) All Because of Jesus (Fee): Key A. I probably won’t do this one again. It’s TOO catchy. Every time I lead it I find myself singing it for days and says and days afterwards. My wife doesn’t enjoy my constant treatment of this song because I typically sing it in a Mac Powell voice for some reason. Yea-uuuuh!
4) My Savior Lives (New Life Worship): Key A. One of my favorite upbeat songs to lead. It’s just a fun song. And the people always latch onto it and sing it out loud!

5) All We Want Is You (Evans): Key E. I just love this song. It’s now and “older” song, but it has such a great congregational chorus to sing along with it. I could hear the people singing it out. The verses are a little wordy and tricky, but if you just have one person sing them and have everyone else come in at the chorus this song has a lot of great contrast to it.
6) Blessed Be Your Name (Redman): Key A. What’s not to love about this one?
7) The Lord Reigns (Psalm 93)(Hutto Original): Key G. Fun to lead an original. This song has a pretty catchy prechorus and chorus, so it wasn’t long before people were belting it out along with us.
8) Follow After You (Psalm 63) (Hutto Original): Key G. We cut this one and moved right into the piano driven set.

9) Every Creature (Hutto Original): Key E. I wrote this one back in 03 and it seems to be a favorite wherever I introduce it. I usually spend a moment teaching the chorus (it’s a split male/female echo) part. It always goes over well.
10) Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Oldie): Key E. I just used the chorus of this one. We had just gotten finished singing “Jesus” as the chorus of the song before so I wanted to concrete the notion of putting our focus on JESUS as we wen through this medley.
11) Open The Eyes of My Heart (Baloche): Key E. Oldie but goodie. We snag through the verse part twice. Again concreting the focus on Jesus aspect of the last part of the night.
12) Holy & Anointed One (Barnett): Key E. Another “Jesus” song. I loved it. It was a great way to end the night. We sang through this song a few times and then ended with the “Jesus” line over and over.

It was a great night. I think people really enjoyed having a gathering set aside just for worship through song and music. I always enjoy leading these types of gatherings.

I felt a little rusty in a few areas (mostly the faster songs), but was really encouraged by the great response we had. Lydia did a great job of singing the harmonies she knew and just worshiping her heart out during the parts she didn’t know. I love that about her. She might not know a harmony on a song, so she just backs off the mic a little and goes to town worshiping! She is truly a great worship leader!

Today I’ll be leading in my final week at Emanuel. It’s been a great “temporary leader” time for the last 3 weeks. The folks are so nice and the band was extremely kind to me. So easy to jump right in and play along with.

They found a permanent leader. She’ll be their “song leader” which these days is about the same as worship leader, but still has a bit of a traditional shade of meaning to it.

Today, I get to co-lead with the new WL and I’m excited to be a part of launching her into her ministry.

1) Nothing But The Blood of Jesus (hymn): Key G.

2) Glory To God Forever (Fee/Beeching): Key G. I’ve not led this one out and about that often, but when I do it always goes over well.

3) Follow After You (Psalm 63)(Hutto Original): Key G. This is the “prayer” song. Which sets up a short time of prayer before the offering.

4) Beautiful One (Hughes): Key C. I haven’t done this one in a while either, but it’s a nice tune. Emanuel provided me with a list of “contemporary” songs that they knew already and this was one of them.

5) Better Is One Day (Redman): Key D. The new WL is going to be leading this one and she’s rocking it! I love when I get to sit back and let another vocalist take the lead and shine. Of course, hopefully we’ll all be shining for Jesus, but you get my point. I’ll be singing some tenor on this one.

6) The Lord Reigns (Psalm 93)(Hutto Original): Key G. We did this one two weeks ago, so I thought I’d end the service with this one. I might actually switch it up and change to a hymn to close out with. We’ll see when I get there.

Sharing Sunday setlists for two years and counting over at The Worship Community!

Second week leading at Emanuel UMC in Brunswick, GA today. Had a great time!

1) Great is Thy Faithfulness (Integrity arrangement from Praise Worship Songbook 3 1989): Key D. I love this arrangement. It takes this classic hymn/chorus and modernizes the chords a bit. At almost 20 years old, this arrangement still holds up well. It’s really a great arrangement. It’s a little old, a little new. Something for everyone.

2) Sing To The King (Foote): Key D. Pretty standard arrangement. This seems to be a popular “blended” service song, at least in my experience.

3) As The Deer (Nystrom): Key C. This was a “prayer song” – at Emanuel they use the prayer song to set up the morning prayer, which leads into the offering. I used an arrangement that I put together back when I was in college. Takes this simple song and adds a lot of color to the progressions.

The keys and piano player played the offertory.

4) Open the Eyes of My Heart (Baloche): Key D. Another one that seems to be the choice of worship bands that are moving from traditional to contemporary music even though the song itself is getting a little age on it. Still fun to sing though.

5) You Are My King (Amazing Love) (Foote): Key D. I capo’d high for this one and played in G. Gave the song some variety. We have another acoustic player, so I didn’t lose any of the mid-range by switching. One of my favorite “Passion” tunes of all time.

6) Holy & Anointed One (Barnett): Key G. Another simple arrangement of a great song. I based this arrangement on a mashup of the Sonic Flood and MercyMe arrangements. GREAT song! It’s so congregation friendly. People can’t help but sing along.

Share your Sunday Setlists at The Worship Community.com!

Today was a wonderful day at St. Simons Community Church. We missed having Fred with us but he’s raised up a really good team of leaders who are capable of leading when he’s away!

The message series on family/relationships continued today (Worth Fighting For). It’s a great series. Today’s talk was on Fighting Unforgiveness. It was a great talk. It reminded me of some of the talks Kelly Barcol from House of Joy in Valdosta, GA gave when I was on staff there.

Kim Dixon led worship this morning. We had a full band set up but only 3 vocals, which was a slight departure from the normal 4-6 vocals on stage. I really liked having the 3. There seemed to be SO much room in the mix and it was very easy to sing my part. Those of you who know me know that is how I prefer to build teams out for Sunday worship anyways, so it felt good!

1) I Have Found (Jesus Culture version): Key G. I had never played this before. Might have heard it before, but it was VERY unfamiliar to me. So much so that I felt like a total noob trying to sing and play it this week. Even after listening to and practicing by myself at home. Something about that syncopated rhythm throws me off EVERY time in the verses. But overall it went over well and Kim led it beautifully.

2) Lord, Reign In Me (Brown): Key G. I liked this one. Real catchy. Don’t tell anyone but the rhythm I was playing on it was basically Hanson’s MmmBop. It fit well into the groove layed down by our rhythm section though.

3) Hallelujah, Your Love is Amazing (Brian Doerkson version): Key D. I capo’d up on this one and played it in G. Kim was also on an acoustic so I wanted to play “around” her. I try to never play the same chord shapes or strum patterns when there’s another acoustic on the team (unless we’re around a campfire).

4) Lead Me (Sanctus Real): Key B. A Repeat from last week. This is a GREAT song for Father’s day if you haven’t picked any out yet. Listen to it and try and not be moved. Just a well written song.

5) You Are My King (Foote): Key D. The other singer on the team this morning was one of our high school girls and she rocked it this morning. She did a wonderful job of leading this song as our closer today.

How did YOUR Sunday go?