FredMcKinnon.Com

Hey Hey Hey,

Just finished a great nap on a beautiful Spring day here on St. Simons Island, GA.  This day started out with a chilly 39 but has warmed up to a near 70-degree day.  Jon Michael (my oldest, the 9-year old) finally got the bike he’s been holding out for so I’ll make this short as a family bike ride awaits me!

The place?  St. Simons Community Church

The people?  Some of the best on the planet.  Great team today.

The songs?  A great set of old and new:

Walk In:  “Washed by the Water” (NeedtoBreathe)
*love, love, love this song.  David Dantzler played acoustic and led this song today and he always nails it.

Opening Praise:  “See His Love” (Tim Hughes version)
*we’ve been doing this song frequently for years and it just stays in rotation.  Love it.  My wife loves it.  That makes it say in rotation for a LONG TIME.

Worship Set:
“Hosanna” (Hillsong) – led by one of our teenagers, Liza Odachowski.
“Psalm 63″ – written and led by my friend Russ Hutto.  You gotta check out this song, it’s so singable and the people grab it immediately.
“Step by Step” – flows perfectly from Psalm 63, a great old chorus from the Rich Mullins days.

Closing Song:
“How Deep the Father’s Love” (Stuart Townend)
*what a rich song.  Simple piano/vocal arrangement led by Todd, with the band building in on the final verse.

David’s sermon was hilarious.  I am still laughing about his fast-food examples and how his Dad messed him up by saying he was “outside playing”.  You’ll have to catch it on the podcast.

That’s a wrap.  I’m sharing this along with other worshipers all over the globe as part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” blog/twitter fest over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com – so visit there and see all of the things other worship leaders are doing … and checkout the most recent “tweets” below of other folks sharing about their services by using the “#sundaysetlists” hashtag (code) on their tweets!

Our Associate Tech Director, Chris Moncus … he’s the guy who makes our bulletin, e-bulletin, and prints master CDs for me to make the podcast, etc.  More times than not, I go back to him the week after asking for him to send me all of that stuff.  Then, he usually forwards it to me from the “Sent Mail” folder where he ALREADY DID THAT.

So, today I sent him this contract.

I do hereby confirm receipt of:
* Feb 28 bulletin
* Feb 28 master CD

If I should email you asking for these again next week, you hereby have the irrevocable right thereto by which you may call me a slacking idiot with no further retribution, cause, or consequence from said parties hereto.

Signed:
Fred McKinnon

It was a long weekend of worship at SSCC this weekend.  First I led a team from various churches on Friday and Saturday for a women’s conference with Lisa Harper.  She is an incredible speaker and we had a wonderful time worshiping with all those ladies!

Today was a great day for our “Sunday” services as well.  Here’s a recap of the songs we did.

Walk In:  “Live Again” (Tim Haynes)
*this is a bluesy song written by one of our own, and was a ton of fun to play and sing

Opening Set:
“Your Grace is Enough”
“No Other Name”

Middle Set:
“Take My Life” (Third Day version)
“In Christ Alone”
“Christ In Me”

*all of the songs today fit perfectly with our study of Colossians, the preeminence of Christ, and His grace in our lives.

Closer:
“Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone”

This is the musical portion of how we worshiped.  Want to see what other churches and leaders were doing?  Go checkout all the other recaps in the “Sunday Setlists” post at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

Today we’ve kicked off a new, 8-week series called “Deep Roots” at SSCC.  I’m excited to get into a deep teaching where we break down God’s Word, verse by verse.

Part of the creative discussions we’ve had is how we could incorporate some older creeds and songs.  Today we proclaimed “The Apostles Creed” together.  Now you may be in a church where this is done every Sunday but that’s not normal for us.  In my nearly 3-years of serving on staff as the Worship Pastor, we’ve never recited it.

Here’s how the flow of our worship service went today:

Walk In Song:
“Washed by the Water” (Needtobreathe)
Comments:  I’ve always loved this song and one of our guitarists/vocalists, David Dantzler, nails it.  It was our first time and people really got into it.

Opening Song:
“Glorious One” (Steve Fee)

After a short announcement video, I took about 4-5 minutes to discuss the history and heritage of the Apostles Creed.  I wanted to make this come alive so that it wasn’t some creed we said out loud that meant nothing.  I tried my best to put this creed into context.  It seemed like people were connecting with it and when we proclaimed it together, it was if I were saying it for the first time.

From there, I transitioned with the team directly into the traditional hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy” in the Key of C.
This made for a smooth transition from “old” to “new” with “Revelation Song” (Gateway Version) in C.
(yeah, I know, some of you saying “that’s not new!” … haha, indeed it’s a few years old now, but still a great song for our congregation!)

After Pastor David’s sermon, we closed by reinforcing what the Book of Colossians was stating … by singing “Center” (Charlie Hall), stating how Christ is the center of it all.

That’s a recap of our services.  I’m sharing this in cooperation with the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival hosted over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com, where you can see our recap along with many others!  Go check’em out!

I’m 39 years old. I will hit 40 in November.
I’ve been involved in church music since I was a kid.
I’ve been on a praise team since I was in High School.
I’ve been a worship leader (either as a volunteer or as paid staff) since the early 90’s.
I’ve been on church staff since 1995. Yep, that’s 15 years.

I am discovering a profound truth about Worship/Music Ministry.

Picking songs and leading music is a very small part of what this job is really about. This job … this ministry … it’s really about:
* leading people
* bridging gaps
* listening and learning
* being a peacemaker
* navigating through personalities and expectations
* managing volunteers
* building relationships

Playing the music and leading the singing on Sunday?

That is by far, the EASIEST PART of this job!