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Image: bcfamyours.com (Kyle Baker)

So I mentioned in this week’s worship service recap post that we opened our services at SSCC with a secular song, “When A Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge.

We don’t typically cover a lot of secular songs but from time to time we’ll choose one if it fits.  I’m all for integrating these into our corporate time if the song enhances the overall theme for the day.  In this case, the song was a perfect match to our sermon title.  I felt that overall, it was lyrically safe. Because it’s such an old standard, I felt it would be a good ice breaker.

In searching for a good image to use for this blog post I came across this image (and blog) from Kyle Baker in TN.  His post about “Secular vs Sacred” can be read here.

So what’s your take on this issue?  Should secular songs be used in church services? Leave your comments below and join the discussion.

I’m living with this song this week. It will potentially be our closer this coming Sunday, July 3rd at SSCC. Our hope is to create a tension where we can ask ourselves the hard questions:

Am I trying to do this alone?
Have I tried to be King?
Where and how am I trapped?

We’re pulling together a few string players to make this a beautiful, stirring moment.

(Today’s post is part of the “Sunday Setlists” event sponsored by TheWorshipCommunity.Com.  Checkout worship service recaps from other worship leaders!)

Hey Gang!

I’m crafting this recap at an early 5:19 AM on Monday.  I had no intentions of being up at 4:00 AM but that’s how it happened today.

Yesterday was a great service at SSCC.  The flow of our service was a bit different than normal, as we didn’t have our corporate worship through singing and music until the end of the service.

It was the final week of our “The Man Series”.  This week’s sermon title was “When A Man Loves a Woman”.

What better song to kickoff the morning than Percy’s “When A Man Loves A Woman”!  Since this is a secular song I thought it would be wise to break the ice.  This was our “walk-in” song so I just greeted everyone, explained that we were on our last week, the title, and pitched the song.  It was fun watching people laugh and smile as they casually enjoyed this all-familiar tune.  After we finished the song in the 9:00 AM service people really clapped and showed how much they enjoyed it.

We had one of our supported missionaries to East Asia with us so the first part of our service was dedicated to him.  After a well-produced video he shared about their work.

Just as David was about to get started with the sermon we interrupted him with our final spoof of the Bud Lite commercials, “Real Men of Genius”.  This week was “Mr. Golf Tournament Quiet Sign Holder Upper”.  The real humor in it was having PGA Pro Jonathan Byrd walk out on stage holding a big “Quiet” sign, accompanied my Mark Love, brother (and former caddy) of PGA Pro, Davis Love III.

Our time of corporate singing came during holy communion at the conclusion of the service.  Our communion set included:

“Remembrance” (Matt Maher/Matt Redman)
“In Christ Alone”
“He Ransomed Me” (original song I wrote last month, featured here)

“The Man Series” was a hit in our church.  I’ll miss our cool man cave setup on the stage for sure, but maybe I’ll get our Yamaha grand piano back out there.  I miss playing her!

View a copy of our service details and flow @ PlanningCenterOnline.Com.

How did it go with your services this weekend?

So as you may have read in Part 1, my wife left early Thursday AM for 4 days of bliss with one of her good friends from back home (in Gainesville, GA).  She’s hanging out w/ her family and her friend Sandy.  When Joy and Sandy are in the same zip code there is a laughter pandemic.  Something about Joy and Sandy in the same area causes a laughing revival of sorts.  It’s not unheard of for the two of them to be laughing uncontrollably, tears streaming down their faces, while everyone else just sort of looks on wondering what the heck is so funny.  To top it off, she’s hitting the night sessions of the “Forward 11″ conference.  She called last night to say that “Planetshakers” is perhaps her new favorite band.

So, I’ve got all 4 kids.  And you know what?  It’s been great.

Thursday night I decided they were old enough now to go to church with me … I didn’t need to hire a sitter for the 2+ hours I’d be rehearsing with the praise team at SSCC.  So, I ordered an extra pizza and brought the kiddos to band practice.  After we all ate our pizza with the band I escorted the kids to “The Breakfast Club”, one of the coolest rooms at SSCC – filled with couches, games, toys, and video games.  I fully expected those kids to interrupt our rehearsal with incessant tattling and reports of injury throughout the night.  They did not interrupt a single time.   Add to that the amazement that the Breakfast Club was fully in tact and not torn apart when I retrieved my kids made for a great night.

Yesterday (Friday) started off with our traditional visit to Sweet Mamas for breakfast.  For those who are reading this that may be considering coming to our “Refuge” conference this October - note the 10:00 AM call time gives ample opportunity for you to try some chocolate danishes and pork pops!

After lunch I took the kids to the 2:15 matinee of “Cars 2″.  Really enjoyed the movie.  I’m a huge “Deadliest Catch” fan so the opening scene was fantastic for me.  It opens with my favorite boat (The Northwestern) on the high seas.  I thought that was cool, but only late last night when I was watching “After the Catch” from last Tuesdays (thanks to DVR) did I realize that not only was that Sig’s boat (in cartoon format), but it was actually Sig’s VOICE on the movie!

After the flick we came home, changed clothes, and invaded the Neptune Pool on St. Simons.  I didn’t get in the water, I was too drawn in with Ian Cron’s new book:  “Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me“.  Thanks to the new iPad2, I could enjoy it digitally right by the pool.  Aaaaha, the lap of luxury.

I whipped up a batch of spaghetti, a tossed salad (of which all 4 kids finished!), and some garlic bread sticks that made for a nice evening.

So, we’re actually surviving!  Today I’ve got yard work to do – so it will be a full day of trying to get some yard work done yet keeping the kids somewhat entertained.

Completion of Day 2, Beginning of Day 3:
0 Kids Hurt/Injured
0 Items Broken beyond repair
1 Instance of me losing my temper (you know, the whole “kids, don’t talk while I’m on the phone in the car” situation?)