FredMcKinnon.Com

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

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.

Wednesday, July 14 2010

Last night, millions of viewers said “farewell” to a guy named Captain Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie. Although he passed away in February 2010, the rest of us experienced his passing via the “reality TV show”, “Deadliest Catch“.

I’m not sure when I got hooked on this show … and I don’t quite understand why I will watch the same thing (cussing, smoking, throwing hooks, and pulling in crab pots) for hours upon hours.  I’m intrigued by the personalities.  Overwhelmed by the work.  Energized by the risk.  Captivated by the rewards.

Captain Phil was quite the case.  Supposedly, he was the exact same kind of person “off the camera” as “on the camera” … the same guy before and after their “fame” from being on TV.

Captain Phil … he smoked like a train, cussed like a sailor (oh, wait, essentially, he was a sailor, or a fisherman, at least!) … fought with his crew, fought with his kids … yet, was clearly a compassionate, loving man.  My wife and I were in tears as he loved his boys, showed them deep affection, and told them the four words that EVERY BOY WANTS TO HEAR FROM THEIR FATHERS:

“I’m Proud Of You”.

So … why this eulogy over a guy I never met?  I’ll tell you – Captain Phil represents something very powerful to me.  He represents the kind of guy that Jesus sought out to be His disciples.

18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.19 And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.  (Matthew 4:18-19, ESV, YouVersion.Com)

We hear all the stories of how Simon Peter must have been.   We infer from the stories in the Bible that Peter was rough, tough .. I bet he had quite the mouth on him.  I bet he could fight with the best of them, and could beat anybody in poker.

I bet when Simon Peter dropped his nets and followed Jesus … that his personality, and perhaps, even his habits, didn’t change overnight.

He wasn’t in a suit.
He wasn’t carrying His Bible in a leather case with a cross on it.
He wasn’t speaking King James.
He probably wasn’t clean shaven and polished.

He was ROUGH around the EDGES.

Jesus wanted Him.  Jesus called Him.  Of all the righteous, religious, uppity-fancy people walking the earth … and Jesus chose people like Simon Peter … like the tax collectors … the prostitutes … and yes, people like Captain Phil.

Did Captain Phil know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior?   Well, I doubt any of us can answer that for sure.  Before you fire off your comments about how a Christian would never use that language, just stop and consider what I’ve written above.  Maybe you don’t smoke and cuss … but those are outward expressions of a sinful nature (and perhaps, just culture and physical addictions) … and I bet if you wrote down your less-visible “inward” sins … you’d back down …

All I can say is … I hope he did … ’cause I’d like to go fishing with him in heaven.

Farewell, Captain Phil Harris.

We enjoyed a great time of worship at SSCC yesterday.  We were in Week 4 of our “Prevail” series on spiritual warfare.  Pastor David taught about the “breastplate of righteousness” and challenged us in some big ways.

As far as the musical aspect of our time of worship, here’s a snapshot of what we did:

Walk-in:

“When We All Get to Heaven” – a fun arrangement I made where we open it up in the old, traditional style, acapella.  Then, we rip into a funky version that is a blast to play, and after singing all 4 verses and the Chorus, we end the song with a campmeeting-style, double-time backbeat Chorus.  Always gets the people excited.

Opening Song:

“No Other Name” – Todd Fields/Northpoint Live arrangement.  This is always a great go-to song for a shorter, 3-minute opener that rightly brings attention to the Name of Jesus.

Middle Set:

After a short teaching (ie. 1 minute) on the word “hosanna” and what it means, we sang back-to-back “Hosanna” songs …

“Hosanna” (Paul Baloche/Brenton Brown)
“Hosanna” (Hillsong)

Then, the band left the stage and I moved to the grand piano where we did an intimate, reflective arrangement of “Sanctuary” (Lord Prepare Me) with piano, vocal, and acoustic guitar.

After the sermon we closed with the old Vineyard song, “Take My Life” (aka “Holiness”) by Scott Underwood.

Loved leading this week.  You can watch our services live or “on demand” at www.sscclive.com.

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