FredMcKinnon.Com

Yesterday I blogged about how I changed a lyric in Jonathan Stockstill’s (Deluge) “Open Up the Sky”.  I only changed one word but it was enough to make the song singable in corporate worship for me.  Jonathan even sanctioned the change!

Today I’d like to as you …

“What worship song lyrics really bother you”?

Do me a favor – comment, and then share this link on Facebook, Retweet on Twitter, etc.  Let’s get the community rolling here again!

When you say “praise Him in the dance” and think of incorporating “dance” as an act of praise … what comes to mind?

How about this?  1300+ people from a church in Budapest Hungary rehearsed this dance and came together and “danced” to celebrate Easter Sunday.  What’s even cooler?  They are organizing the same thing for Easter 2011 … worldwide.  For more info, visit www.uptofaith.com

Hey Gang,

In the vein of “Follow Friday” … I’d like to introduce you to a couple of new sites that I’d recommend:

www.churchleaders.com – a new site for, well, you guessed it … Church Leaders!  This site is already packed with incredible content and has a slick look and feel.  You never know, you just might find some worship articles from me in there soon!

www.patrickeades.com – This is a local guy .. the Executive Director of our local Care Net (aka Crisis Pregnancy Center).  But Patrick is new to blogging, but not new to ministry, leadership, and vision.  He’s a great friend, an incredible leader, and visionary.  His blog will be in your top blogs for leadership and family insights.  He and his family are very close to our hearts … Patrick will stir you with insights into leadership, the pro-life movement, family matters, and more.  Plus, the guy is hilarious.  I mean, really … who else has “The Sex Man” as his nickname?

OK, so first … what is this #sundaysetlists thing in my blog post title?

It’s called a “hash tag” … a way to tag or identify a blog or twitter post so that people can know it’s subject, keywords, or you can even search twitter based on them.

“Sunday Setlists” is an event that started right here on FredMcKinnon.Com, but has since transferred over to TheWorshipCommunity.Com – where people post a recap of their worship services each week.  Be sure and check out the other posts.

So, on to my recap of our worship service at SSCC for Sunday, August 15th.

Wow.  I can’t express how incredible it was.  We have never conducted a baptism during our worship services in the building … they have always been special gatherings, outside, at some place with a pool.  We had our first baptism service yesterday, which was a complete surprise to most of those who attend our church.  The bigger surprise; however, was that we were prepared to baptize anyone who wanted to be baptized … spontaneously.

We opened up with a couple of songs:

“I Have Found” (Kim Walker)
“Mighty to Save” (Hillsong)

Then, David (our pastor) taught on salvation and baptism.  It was a shorter, 25-minute sermon.  Then he basically challenged people to respond.  We were ready with the excuses.  We had stacks of brand new shorts and T-shirts of all sizes.  We had undergarments.  Personal Products.  Hair dryers.  Combs.  Photographers.  Videographers.  There was really no reason to NOT respond …

And respond they did.  Between the two services, countless people confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord, and +/- 126 people got baptized.

Young, old.
White, black.
American, Chinese.

I’m still blown away … we played instrumental music, sang a bit, worshiped the whole time, and simply let the music “ebb and flow” with the baptisms.  Makes for some tired feet … a good 1-1/2 hours into the service and still seeing people lined up all the way down the wall of the church, waiting for their turn to publicly demonstrate their faith in Christ.

And that’s a recap for our church.  How about yours?

Hey Everybody!

Yesterday (Sunday, August 8th) was my first time back on the stage, leading worship at SSCC, in a couple of weeks.  It was great to be back.  We started a new series called “Small Steps, Big Faith” and our service didn’t have a “sermon” … just a flow of worship, testimonies, and communion.  Well, we did “kind of” have an impromptu sermon during our 9:00 AM service when one of the pastors lost track of time in his 5-minute “setup” … which turned into 25 minutes!

Thankfully, a little “Campfire Meeting” backstage after that service helped us workout the timing kinks and we nailed the flow in the 11:00 AM service.

Walk In Song:
“Washed by the Water” (NeedtoBreathe)

“Glorious” (Paul Baloche)
“For All You’ve Done” (Hillsongs)
“Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone” (Hillsongs)

*Testimony:  I shared a faith-building testimony about prayer.
*Testimony:  One of our pastors, Steve, shared a faith-building story about how God called him into ministry.

“Great is Thy Faithfulness” (Traditional Hymn Version)
*The Lord’s Prayer (corporate prayer)

Communion:
“You Gave Your Life Away” (Baloche)
“Jesus Paid it All” (Northpoint Live Version)
“Christ is Risen” (Matt Maher)

From a technical standpoint, we used a cool backing lyrics video for “Christ is Risen”, which required us to play this song to a click.  The animated lyrics and backgrounds were powerful and added a nice visual dynamic to the worship experience on that song.

We wrapped up our Sunday with a big, family “Beach Night” on St. Simons Island – it was a great day celebrating with other Believers here in the area!

This recap is a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com.