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CHURCH is a place where I __________________________

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Hey Gang,

Hope you had an awesome weekend.  For those who missed the announcement last week, I’ve officially relocated the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival to it’s new home over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.  I’ll continue to post our worship service recaps here, but I’d encourage everyone to go over and see all the other recaps from other churches at the weekly “Sunday Setlists” column which is hosted “smack-dab-in-the-middle-of” the homepage at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

LINK:  http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/sunday-setlists-77/

Here’s a snapshot of our worship time at St. Simons Community Church yesterday, Jan 10, 2009:

Walk In:  “Glorious” (Paul Baloche Version)
* I first heard this song last summer at the National Worship Leader Conference.  Paul led it and Stan Endicott had a big choir backing him up, and it was just … well, “Glorious”.   The song starts off kind of slow but builds and really grows on you by the end.  It was the first time using this song at SSCC.

Opening Set:
“Love the Lord” (Lincoln Brewster) – a favorite at SSCC
“No Other Name” (Todd Fields, Northpoint Live)
*honestly, we probably “over do” this song, but it’s short, easy, and singable.  You don’t find many songs like that these days!

Middle Set:
Special Music:  “God Speaking” (Mandisa version) with our own Kim Dixon.  She did a wonderful job on this challenging song and the band did a fantastic job covering the arrangement.

Communion Set:
“Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone”
“This is the Gift of God” (Carl Cartee)
“Christ Has Risen” (Matt Maher, love, love, love, love this song!)

It seemed that the congregation was engaged and I had several comments about the special music and the closing song.  For the first time in a while, I had a complaint about volume.  This complaint came just before walking on stage to minister that evening which is frustrating.  I’m not sure why folks have to dump a complaint or suggestion on you just before you are about to minister.  For all those reading this who feel like you need to make suggestions or complaints to your ministry team, please … wait until after Sunday.

So if you’re reading this … consider leaving your own worship service recap by visiting TheWorshipCommunity.Com.  You don’t have to blog about it, you can leave your own recap right there in the comments.

2009 was a fantastic year.  I thought it would be fun to dig into Google Analytics and see if anything significant stood out for the blog during 2009.

Top Search Keywords:

fred mckinnon (duh)
palm vs blackberry (I should really write more tech posts, huh?)
nick saban arrested (haha, I love it!)
kate mcrae (keep praying for this little girl)
palm treo vs blackberry (did I mention I should write more tech compare entries?)

As for the Top 50 keywords, I’m disappointed to report that there was nothing super hilarious in there.  I always see these funny keywords and phrases people see in their stats.  My Top 50 are riddled with palm, blackberry, “bad O holy night singer”, and “how he loves us, sloppy wet kiss” references.

Visitor Loyalty:

Well, there are about 40,000 of you who visited my site once, and never returned.  Ouch.

Top Referring Sites:

Twitter, Facebook, and Google make up the Top 3.  No surprises there.

Other blog/site specific top referrers are:
1.  theworshipcommunity.com
2.  sojournmusic.com
3.  sscommunitychurch.com
4.  billychia.com
5.  mikeymo1741.blogspot.com
6.  mandythompson.com
7.  jimdrake.blogspot.com
8.  church.alltop.com
9.  withoutwax.tv
10.  richkirkpatrick.com

Top Posts:

1.  Palm Treo Versus Blackberry
2.  Sunday Setlists
3.  O Holy Night
4.  About Me
5.  How He Loves Us
6.  My Blog – Live Video Feed
7.  Who Are We Kidding?
8.  Loops:  Hosanna by Paul Baloche
9.  Hillsongs:  Faith+Hope+Love Blog Tour
10.  Healer:  Mike Guglielmucci Exposed

So there you have it!  Let’s see what happens in 2010!

Hey Folks!

It’s FRIDAY.  YEAH!
I’m excited about today, it’s the first normal Friday in a long time.  Well, normal except I have a sick kid at home.  Joy and I hope to go out and see the Sherlock Holmes flick tonight.  I hear it’s pretty good!  I’m also excited to be able to join a men’s group I do lunch with on Fridays … it’s been a while since I’ve been able to jump in on that!

Today, I thought I’d share a few resources … let’s call it “Things You Should Know”.

1.  A blog reader here recently contacted me and told me he’d been inspired to start his own blog about Worship Arts.  I checked it out, read a couple of posts, and immediately subscribed.  Add this one to your blogroll or email subscriptions:  Worship Arts Methods

2.  I added a new feature on TheWorshipCommunity.Com forums last night.  It’s a program called CometChat that allows a “Facebook Style” instant message client in the footer so you can IM your friends who are online at TheWorshipCommunity.Com Forums.

See?  Go check it out!  (you have to be logged in to chat)!

3.  I just got word that I’ll be kicking off a 3-day “blog tour” (that means I’ll post a review and song, then the next day, another person will, etc.) at the end of this month for the release of Carlos Whittaker’s new CD … so stay tuned and be ready for the very first release, right here on FredMcKinnon.Com on Tuesday, Jan 26th!

Tomorrow (Saturday) I’m going to post some stats from 2009 – where all you folks came from, your favorite posts, funny keywords you used to find this site, etc.   So be ready!

OK – so those are my 3 things … there is a ton of cool stuff happening out there.  What 3 things should I know about?

Leave your comments below!

My buddy, Joel Klampert … well, he started this conversation.  It’s one that I’ve been having “in my head” for a while.

Let’s face it.

Twitter and Facebook.  They have really changed the way we experience “community” online.

For a season, you learned what you know about me, and about what I know (which isn’t necessarily all that much) through this blog.  Now, if you follow me on Twitter (which also connects via Facebook) you get a LOT more information.

According to Google Site Analytics and Feedburner Stats …. there are more of you subscribed to and visiting this blog than ever before.  Thousands.  Can I say thanks?  Thanks.

Yet … there is less commenting and community …
I have to confess, I rarely have time to visit many of your blogs these days, but I see your tweets.  Sometimes, I click on them and read your blogs.

So … is this horse dead?  Why keep riding it?  Why keep blogging?

That’s the question I’ve asked.  Soul-searching.  Pondering.

But, I’m still doing this thing called “blogging”.  Why?

Because …

* I can’t tell you some of the stories of my kids in 140 characters or less.
* I can’t ask the questions I have about Scripture in 140 characters or less.
* I can’t share vision and invite you to be a part of in 14o characters or less.

For those who know me personally, I can’t answer the simplest question in 140 WORDS or less, much less 140 characters.  My childhood nicknames were:
Motor Mouth
Mouth of the South

So, there you have it.  292 words to explain why I can’t condense my community to 140 characters or less.

Will you help me make this blog a better community, where we can go a little deeper with one another than 140 characters allows?

Jump in.