I am taking a much-needed week off from both of my churches this week. No singing for ten days is just what the doctor ordered. (more like 30 days, but that’s impossible…)
This past weekend, we rolled out “Until The Whole World Hears” at Central Highlands church and got a great reaction from the congregation. It’s the best song Casting Crowns has ever done, in my opinion.
This was also the first weekend that I ever played “Empty Me,” and I did it Jeremy Camp style, with the band at Central Highlands Church, and as a solo piece at Homestead Park Church.
My power ballad arrangement of “Battle Hymn Of The Republic” was very well received, honoring the veterans who served both God and country.
My voice is still in recovery mode from the weekend, but it was a fun one. FIRST, 70×7 begun recording our new cd with our new lineup, and the first song is now in the final touches stage. It’s called “THE POWER OF PRAYER.” You can listen to the first mastered version here: http://tinyurl.com/y9t6jpb
I would appreciate any feedback on this song, especially from a production standpoint.
The new lineup includes my 17-year-old son Bo on bass guitar, and his best friend Zac (also 17) on drums. Chuck Beatty is doing the guitar work. We have 50 more fully-developed songs to record!
On Saturday night, it was Pastor Appreciation day at Central Highlands, so we finished off the service with the old Bill Withers song, “Lean On Me.” I really enjoy it when the whole congregation is called forward to the front of the church.
On Sunday morning, we continued to astound the congregation at Homestead Park Church at all three services, continuing our quest to do something “new and different.” The reaction the first weekend was amazing, and it was good this weekend too. We will continue to change it up so nobody can get comfortable!
I played a couple of new “specials” on Sunday, plus one of my original songs entitled “Children of Light.” The new specials played for the first time at the church were Casting Crowns’ new hit song, “Until The Whole World Hears,” (the album comes out November 17) and Chris Tomlin’s “Made To Worship.” Both of these songs are going to make it into our rotation. The Casting Crowns song might be the best thing they’ve ever done, but I had to play it as a BALLAD on piano! (surely not what they had envisioned with that one…)
Our Sunday was UPSIDE DOWN, AND ALL AROUND. Pastor Rich at Homestead Park Church decided to shake things up, and do something completely different at our three services. The result created QUITE a buzz, and I didn’t hear a single negative comment. THREE mini sermons, THREE prayer times with altar invitations with THREE special music selections and NO ushers bringing around the offering plates. (everybody had to come up front…) NO announcements – and no semblance of our “routine” worship celebration. We also debuted the new EV Eliminator speaker stacks that I just purchased and installed in the sanctuary, complete with a fresh EQ of the mains and monitors by the best sound man in town. The sound was spectacular. Today was also the first time our church had ever heard Chris Tomlin’s “I Will Rise” and Mark Schultz’ “He is.” Even the traditional service got a healthy dose of Tomlin, Schultz, and Shust, and a touch of Third Day. (plus three hymns – they are used to THREE SONGS TOTAL!)
It was an unusual weekend for me. For the first time ever, I played SOLO in worship at Central Highlands Church on Saturday night as part of the Laity Weekend, which was planned completely by our church’s lay leaders.
I actually had OFF for the 8:15 traditional service at Homestead Park Church on Sunday morning for the first time ever. It was kind of strange not being there! However, we welcomed the pastor of our sister church in Dresden, Germany as he was our guest preacher, and his teenage son played bass guitar with our team on a couple of songs.
We introduced “Awesome Is The Lord Most High” in our prelude. It’s a Tomlin song from 2006, and people really seemed to like it. Very intuitive and simple, and lots of energy, in the key of A.
From an revamped version of a classic old song that was even sung by ELVIS (Put Your Hand In The Hand) to a hot song still on the CCM charts by a great young band. (By Your Side – Tenth Avenue North.) It was a fun weekend of worship! CHRISTMAS PLANNING finally got under way today. I’m going to be looking for some fresh material! (or writing some…)
We rolled out “Glorious One” by Steve Fee for the first time at Central Highlands and Homestead Park churches. The song was very well received at both churches, and we plan on singing it again next weekend. This was our second week singing “God Of This City,” with the congregations, and by the third chorus, the people who sing along with us were singing loudly, and the people who never seem to sing seemed pretty captivated. We fattened up the vocals a bit compared to the Tomlin version, adding a third harmony part. Great weekend of worship!
Rethink church? Rethink? YES… That’s the idea. The United Methodist Church is rethinking church, and today Pastor Rich challenged each of us to be the “Uncommon Church.” The series reflects the “10 Thousand Doors” campaign currently underway (http://www.10thousanddoors.org) and we are focused on how Jesus Christ is the door to heaven, and we, His church, are the door for others to find Jesus.
NO WONDER Steve Forbes “found religion” in 1999. Here’s a quote from Steve:
“It was people of faith who founded this country. George Washington said that ‘It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe without a Supreme Being. And it is impossible to govern … without the aide of a Supreme Being.’”
This weekend, we revisited the new Matt Redman song, “How Great Is Your Faithfulness” at both of my churches, and at Central Highlands, we rolled out my arrangement of “God Of This City” for the first time. A curious reaction to the Redman song, which I really like a lot. People didn’t seem to get into it like I thought they would, but this was only the second time they had heard it, so I am still hopeful. “God Of This City” received a very warm welcome at Central Highlands church on Saturday night!
This weekend we rolled out the new Matt Redman song, “How Great Is Your Faithfulness” at both of my churches. The song was warmly received, and we will play it again next weekend as well. You’ve got to love 6/8 worship songs, and I really like the chorus of this one. I just posted a link to this week’s worship report.
We dragged out the old RICH MULLINS tune, “That Where I Am, There You May Also Be” and gave it a country-fried feel. The people LOVED it, and so did the band. We gave them REVELATION SONG for the second consecutive week, and the anointing is definitely on that song at the moment.
We finally rolled out REVELATION SONG this weekend at Central Highlands and Homestead Park. I resisted the temptation to introduce it until we had female vocalists who were ready to give it the attention it deserves. Definitely one of the best four-chord songs I’ve ever played, and I didn’t do much to change the Gateway Worship arrangement besides the intro and ending. That’s saying something, considering they have around 50 more people on the worship platform than we do!
After a long absence, I have returned to share on the Sunday Setlists blog carnival! There have been some unbelievable blessings since I was last here, and there have also been some discouraging moments. But through it all, God has been praised, and our music ministry remains vibrant and blessed by the Holy Spirit!
OK my worshipful friends! I’m done writing my blog about this weekend – and I hope you won’t all quit your jobs and become investment bankers and mortgage brokers as a result of what you read!
All-star lineups, TOP-10 HITS, guest technical gurus, total sound reconfigurations, major discouragements stopped dead in their tracks by a single line of scripture, and A WHOLE LOT OF SINNERS in one place… THE CHURCH!
Check it out! I’ll be around to see what all of the blog carnival worship leaders were up to this weekend and hopefully leave a few comments, unless they come over and take away my computer before I can get it done!
Wow Fred!!! I got to mix our youth band before, but my view had words like “Behringer” and “Mackie” directly in front of me! It looks like you were on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise 1701-D today!
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Sunday Setlists #68 - Worship Service Recaps #sundaysetlists
November 9th, 2009 at 10:39 PMI am taking a much-needed week off from both of my churches this week. No singing for ten days is just what the doctor ordered. (more like 30 days, but that’s impossible…)
This past weekend, we rolled out “Until The Whole World Hears” at Central Highlands church and got a great reaction from the congregation. It’s the best song Casting Crowns has ever done, in my opinion.
This was also the first weekend that I ever played “Empty Me,” and I did it Jeremy Camp style, with the band at Central Highlands Church, and as a solo piece at Homestead Park Church.
My power ballad arrangement of “Battle Hymn Of The Republic” was very well received, honoring the veterans who served both God and country.
Sunday Setlists #67 - Worship Service Recaps #sundaysetlists
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:25 PMMy voice is still in recovery mode from the weekend, but it was a fun one. FIRST, 70×7 begun recording our new cd with our new lineup, and the first song is now in the final touches stage. It’s called “THE POWER OF PRAYER.” You can listen to the first mastered version here: http://tinyurl.com/y9t6jpb
I would appreciate any feedback on this song, especially from a production standpoint.
The new lineup includes my 17-year-old son Bo on bass guitar, and his best friend Zac (also 17) on drums. Chuck Beatty is doing the guitar work. We have 50 more fully-developed songs to record!
On Saturday night, it was Pastor Appreciation day at Central Highlands, so we finished off the service with the old Bill Withers song, “Lean On Me.” I really enjoy it when the whole congregation is called forward to the front of the church.
On Sunday morning, we continued to astound the congregation at Homestead Park Church at all three services, continuing our quest to do something “new and different.” The reaction the first weekend was amazing, and it was good this weekend too. We will continue to change it up so nobody can get comfortable!
I played a couple of new “specials” on Sunday, plus one of my original songs entitled “Children of Light.” The new specials played for the first time at the church were Casting Crowns’ new hit song, “Until The Whole World Hears,” (the album comes out November 17) and Chris Tomlin’s “Made To Worship.” Both of these songs are going to make it into our rotation. The Casting Crowns song might be the best thing they’ve ever done, but I had to play it as a BALLAD on piano! (surely not what they had envisioned with that one…)
Sunday Setlists #66 - Worship Service Recaps #sundaysetlists
October 25th, 2009 at 7:15 PMOur Sunday was UPSIDE DOWN, AND ALL AROUND. Pastor Rich at Homestead Park Church decided to shake things up, and do something completely different at our three services. The result created QUITE a buzz, and I didn’t hear a single negative comment. THREE mini sermons, THREE prayer times with altar invitations with THREE special music selections and NO ushers bringing around the offering plates. (everybody had to come up front…) NO announcements – and no semblance of our “routine” worship celebration. We also debuted the new EV Eliminator speaker stacks that I just purchased and installed in the sanctuary, complete with a fresh EQ of the mains and monitors by the best sound man in town. The sound was spectacular. Today was also the first time our church had ever heard Chris Tomlin’s “I Will Rise” and Mark Schultz’ “He is.” Even the traditional service got a healthy dose of Tomlin, Schultz, and Shust, and a touch of Third Day. (plus three hymns – they are used to THREE SONGS TOTAL!)
Sunday Setlists #65 - Worship Service Recaps #sundaysetlists
October 18th, 2009 at 8:32 PMIt was an unusual weekend for me. For the first time ever, I played SOLO in worship at Central Highlands Church on Saturday night as part of the Laity Weekend, which was planned completely by our church’s lay leaders.
I actually had OFF for the 8:15 traditional service at Homestead Park Church on Sunday morning for the first time ever. It was kind of strange not being there! However, we welcomed the pastor of our sister church in Dresden, Germany as he was our guest preacher, and his teenage son played bass guitar with our team on a couple of songs.
We introduced “Awesome Is The Lord Most High” in our prelude. It’s a Tomlin song from 2006, and people really seemed to like it. Very intuitive and simple, and lots of energy, in the key of A.
Sunday Setlists #64 - Worship Service Recaps (#sundaysetlists)
October 11th, 2009 at 5:35 PMFrom an revamped version of a classic old song that was even sung by ELVIS (Put Your Hand In The Hand) to a hot song still on the CCM charts by a great young band. (By Your Side – Tenth Avenue North.) It was a fun weekend of worship! CHRISTMAS PLANNING finally got under way today. I’m going to be looking for some fresh material! (or writing some…)
Sunday Setlists #63 - Worship Service Recaps
October 4th, 2009 at 6:17 PMWe rolled out “Glorious One” by Steve Fee for the first time at Central Highlands and Homestead Park churches. The song was very well received at both churches, and we plan on singing it again next weekend. This was our second week singing “God Of This City,” with the congregations, and by the third chorus, the people who sing along with us were singing loudly, and the people who never seem to sing seemed pretty captivated. We fattened up the vocals a bit compared to the Tomlin version, adding a third harmony part. Great weekend of worship!
Sunday Setlists #62 - Share Your Worship Service Recaps
September 27th, 2009 at 4:56 PMRethink church? Rethink? YES… That’s the idea. The United Methodist Church is rethinking church, and today Pastor Rich challenged each of us to be the “Uncommon Church.” The series reflects the “10 Thousand Doors” campaign currently underway (http://www.10thousanddoors.org) and we are focused on how Jesus Christ is the door to heaven, and we, His church, are the door for others to find Jesus.
Fair Tax in the Bible?
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:35 AMNO WONDER Steve Forbes “found religion” in 1999. Here’s a quote from Steve:
“It was people of faith who founded this country. George Washington said that ‘It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe without a Supreme Being. And it is impossible to govern … without the aide of a Supreme Being.’”
Sunday Setlists #61 - Worship Service Recaps
September 21st, 2009 at 10:26 PMThis weekend, we revisited the new Matt Redman song, “How Great Is Your Faithfulness” at both of my churches, and at Central Highlands, we rolled out my arrangement of “God Of This City” for the first time. A curious reaction to the Redman song, which I really like a lot. People didn’t seem to get into it like I thought they would, but this was only the second time they had heard it, so I am still hopeful. “God Of This City” received a very warm welcome at Central Highlands church on Saturday night!
Sunday Setlists #60 - Worship Confessionals #sundaysetlists
September 14th, 2009 at 12:51 PMThis weekend we rolled out the new Matt Redman song, “How Great Is Your Faithfulness” at both of my churches. The song was warmly received, and we will play it again next weekend as well. You’ve got to love 6/8 worship songs, and I really like the chorus of this one. I just posted a link to this week’s worship report.
Sunday Setlists #59 - Worship Confessionals
September 7th, 2009 at 4:05 PMWe dragged out the old RICH MULLINS tune, “That Where I Am, There You May Also Be” and gave it a country-fried feel. The people LOVED it, and so did the band. We gave them REVELATION SONG for the second consecutive week, and the anointing is definitely on that song at the moment.
Sunday Setlists #58 - Worship Service Recaps
August 31st, 2009 at 11:10 PMWe finally rolled out REVELATION SONG this weekend at Central Highlands and Homestead Park. I resisted the temptation to introduce it until we had female vocalists who were ready to give it the attention it deserves. Definitely one of the best four-chord songs I’ve ever played, and I didn’t do much to change the Gateway Worship arrangement besides the intro and ending. That’s saying something, considering they have around 50 more people on the worship platform than we do!
Sunday Setlists #57 - Worship Recaps
August 28th, 2009 at 11:16 AMThis MIGHT be the latest I’ve ever been reporting our weekend in worship! (hey, it’s only Friday…)
Sunday Setlists Week 56 - Worship Confessionals #sundaysetlists
August 17th, 2009 at 1:53 PMAnother beautiful weekend of worship at Central Highlands and Homestead Park United Methodist Churches!
Sunday Setlists #55 - Worship Service Recaps (#sundaysetlists)
August 11th, 2009 at 1:10 AMAfter a long absence, I have returned to share on the Sunday Setlists blog carnival! There have been some unbelievable blessings since I was last here, and there have also been some discouraging moments. But through it all, God has been praised, and our music ministry remains vibrant and blessed by the Holy Spirit!
Sunday Setlists #54 - Worship Service Recaps
August 11th, 2009 at 12:35 AMAfter a long absence brought about by some seemingly impossible obstacles, I have returned to post our Sunday Setlists!
Sunday Setlists #34 - Worldwide Worship Recaps
March 16th, 2009 at 1:02 AMOK my worshipful friends! I’m done writing my blog about this weekend – and I hope you won’t all quit your jobs and become investment bankers and mortgage brokers as a result of what you read!
All-star lineups, TOP-10 HITS, guest technical gurus, total sound reconfigurations, major discouragements stopped dead in their tracks by a single line of scripture, and A WHOLE LOT OF SINNERS in one place… THE CHURCH!
Check it out! I’ll be around to see what all of the blog carnival worship leaders were up to this weekend and hopefully leave a few comments, unless they come over and take away my computer before I can get it done!
Sunday Setlists #34 - Worldwide Worship Recaps
March 16th, 2009 at 12:55 AMWow Fred!!! I got to mix our youth band before, but my view had words like “Behringer” and “Mackie” directly in front of me! It looks like you were on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise 1701-D today!