Hey Gang,

A few years ago I started this little “blog carnival” called “Sunday Setlists” here at FredMcKinnon.Com.  After running it a year or so, I decided to let TheWorshipCommunity.Com host this weekly event.  TWC had a much bigger audience and it just made sense.

We’re delighted to share that the readers of Worship Leader magazine have selected the “Sunday Setlists” event to be included in their “Best of the Best 2011″ edition.  The magazine is out now.

Read the full press release over at TWC.
Now, I guess I should get back on the wagon and start participating in it again!

Multi-Generational Worship.

This is a buzz word these days.  We keep discussing this at our church, and how we desire to create it.  I have news for you, it’s not that easy.

We’re in the midst of ongoing, challenging,  yet fulfilling discussions about our worship culture, and we always come back to these questions:

What is “multi-generational worship”?
How do we define a “culture of worship”?

So I’m reaching out to you, my online friends.  I’d love to hear from worship leaders, pastors, and non-church leaders.  Congregants.  Moms.  Dads.  Kids.  Youth.

At the bottom of this post is a “Add a Comment” box.  How would you define “multi-generational worship” or “blended worship”.  I’d suggest checking the box that enables you to get an email reply if someone else comments on your post so that the dialog can keep going for days.

Go for it.  (Facebook friends – I’d be honored and grateful if you’d leave your comments on the blog, and not on Facebook (or both) …. by leaving them on the blog, we keep all of the conversation in one place.)

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Hey Gang,

For all of you worship leaders … when was the last time you got off the platform?  For all you church goers – when was the last time you saw your leader off-stage?

I’ve been off the platform for the past two Sundays at SSCC.

Two Sundays ago my wife and I took the weekend (sans kids, thanks to my mom!) and went away to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary together.  I tuned into our worship services via our SSCCLive.Com internet broadcast and enjoyed seeing my friend Russ Hutto lead the worship.  You could say I was truly “off” that Sunday, except for about 15 minutes of emailing and texting when our scheduled drummer for the youth service was a no-show.

Yesterday I was back at work, but off the stage.  My friend Shannon Lewis led worship for us. (read his recap of the service and the setlist on his blog) It’s so funny to hear how many people come up and say “you’re off today”?

I believe that as leaders, we have a responsibility to raise up and empower other leaders.  As we work to duplicate ourselves and multiply our efforts we have to step aside and let other leaders flourish.

This Sunday, Shannon’s leading in our main sanctuary gave me the ability to do several things:

1.  give him a chance to lead and bless our congregation with his gifts (we all lead differently, and the diversity is good)
2.  gave me a chance to mingle more with our people as they came in and connect with them relationally
3.  gave me a chance to worship in the congregation and get the much-needed perspective of what that’s like
4.  gave me the chance to observe the culture of worship in each of our venues (Tiny Town, Kid Jam Clubhouse, Youth Rooftop)

Being off the stage brings so much perspective.  From the congregation I can see how the audio mix is sounding (great job, Ben!), I can observe how people are engaging, how our lighting feels when it’s adjusted in the room, what other distractions may be occurring that we miss from the stage, etc.

Some of you are in a church where you have nobody else to lead worship.  It’s you, or it’s a CD.  I’d like to encourage you to really pray and ask God to bring in more leaders.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see who on your team may be that next leader.  Begin to mentor them.  Take the “you lead with me, I lead with you, you lead” approach.

My goal is to be completely off-platform 2-3 times per quarter.  I typically adhere to that unless I have a very specific reason for not doing it.

How about you?

(this recap is a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com each week)

Hey Friends,

My good friend Dwayne Moore at Next Level Worship is offering a free registration (a $299 value) to his online Worship Leadership Training Course.  You actually have TWO chances to win.

Requirements:
You must be available to attend the online sessions, Sept 6 – Nov 8, Tuesday, from 8:00 – 9:30 CST.
Leave a comment here sharing what you’d like to learn in this course.

I’ll do a drawing next week – and check TheWorshipCommunity.Com tomorrow for yet another change to win.  You can register to win at both sites!

Hey Gang,

As you may have heard, I’m hosting a small 3-day (really, more like 2-1/2 days!) retreat here on St. Simons Island, GA in October.  It’s called “Refuge” and it’s more of a sabbatical time of spiritual renewal than it is an equipping-resource event.

One question that I get asked over and over …

“Fred, with all the conferences out there equipping people, why should someone come to Refuge … I mean, can’t they just have their own private sabbatical any time?”

One of my favorite bloggers and leaders, Michael Hyatt, has talked about Sabbatical several times on his blog – you can checkout his posts below:

“Should You Dare to Think About a Sabbatical“?

“Six Ways to Take a Micro-Sabbatical”

Let me ask you some questions:

1.  If left to yourself, without structured help, will you really take the time to stop your merry-go-round and get off for a few days to focus?
2.  Is there value in community, and gathering with other like-minded creatives that will inspire you?
3.  Is there worth in being equipped spiritually, physically, and emotionally?
4.  Can a person who has been recharged in their inner-man return to their routine with a renewed passion, more focus, clarity, and vision?

To be totally honest, those are rhetorical questions.  Of course, the answer to all of those questions is a resounding YES!

So what we have brewing for this “Refuge” event is a real intimate time where you can:

* draw near to God, in personal solitude AND in corporate worship and teaching
* be challenged and inspired in fresh ways to make your daily walk with Christ authentic, real, and personal again
* have a safe place with licensed counselors to vent, confess, and pray
* relax and have a LOT of fun, fellowship, and let the tension and stress of leadership melt away

Someone recently told me how badly they wanted to come, but things would just be too busy.  I almost started laughing – I wanted to say EXACTLY — that’s why you NEED THIS SO BADLY.

A few things you can count on:
1.  Life will keep you busy.
2.  The disciplines of rest, prayer, worship – essentially, Sabbatical, will yield HUGE DIVIDENDS in your personal growth, leadership, and creativity.

That being said, if you’ve been on the fence about this event, I hope you’ll take that step of faith and join us.
Details at:  www.refugessi.com

Hey Gang,

Joel Klampert (visionary behind the Forge Conference) and myself (visionary behind the Refuge retreat) teamed up through the wonders of Skype to interview each other about our events.

Enjoy the details – but best of all – you can WIN a registration.  Just comment on this post, or Joel’s post (or both!) and let us know which event you’d like to attend.  (Free registration prize does not include travel or lodging).

A Joint Conference Interview from Joel Klampert on Vimeo.

Criticism and Judgment.  If you can’t take it, you’d best not get involved in worship ministry.

Let’s face it.  The musical aspect of a corporate worship service is filled with the potential for criticism:

* song selection
* style
* instrumentation and arrangement
* volume
* technology used to support (sound, lighting, visuals)

Rarely does a week go by where I’m not blessed by people who share with me how have been inspired by music and ministry.  At the same time, I’m used to getting complaints, suggestions, and criticisms.

Today was a great example.  When I walked into my office I had two pieces of mail (yeah, the real stuff in an envelope with a stamp on it) on my desk.

One envelope included a thank-you card and a sweet note about this person’s experience being so wonderful in our worship service this Sunday.

The other envelope contained a letter from a visitor filled with harsh criticism … but worse, judgment.  It was filled with harsh lines about how “I” attempted to manipulate God, etc.  If the Bible is true (and we know it is), this person has a heap of judgment “pressed down, shaken together, and running over” coming their way, as a result of what they sowed into my heart today.

So how do we handle it?

Criticism: ask yourselves a few questions:

1.  Is there anything constructive that I can learn from the information?
2.  Does this person seem to have a loving, sincere approach?
3.  Is there a relationship present, and does this person have a good understanding of our overall mission, as opposed to a 1-visit snapshot?

Judgment: there is really no place for it.  It stings.  It hurts.  To have someone accuse you of things that are very far away from your heart or motives … things that are actually offensive to your heart and motives … it just is hard to swallow.

I like to spread those out before the Lord and simply ask Him to help me know my heart, my motives, and most importantly, to know HIS heart.  I pray for the person who is clearly reacting out of some other wound or frustration, and pray that I will not allow it to take root in my soul.

There will always be critics.  Some more loving and gentle than others.  Some with information we need to hear and process.  Some who abuse any right they have to comment.

Taking offense is not an option.  It will only drag you down.

How do you process complaints or criticism?  Do you keep them to yourself or share them with your team?

Because we have multiple services at SSCC, margin isn’t something we seem to find.  Despite our many efforts, we typically end up with a worship service that is around 1:15 and is FILLED with outflow.

Songs.
Announcements.
Sermons.

That’s not such a bad thing.  After all, we gather corporately so that we can express ourselves in worship to God (typically, through songs) and be taught and built up (sermons).  Since the body is gathered, it makes sense to do some communication to inform people about what’s going on.  (announcements).

So, let’s think about that.  If you have 5 songs averaging 5 minutes each, that’s 25 minutes.  If you have a sermon averaging 35-40 minutes, now we’re up to 60-65 minutes.  Add in announcements and any kind of transition, you’ve hit your time expiration and there’s no margin.

Now before the zealots start flaming us about the clock, you have to understand — if we don’t try to wrap things up in 1:15 max, we have a logistical nightmare in the parking lots.

This Sunday was one of those rare Sundays where we had “margin”.  Our Discipleship Pastor was preaching and he came to be Sunday AM and said that his sermon would be shorter than he anticipated.  SHORTER?  Are you KIDDING ME?  He even suggested that we have some last-minute planning to allow for more worship at the end of the message.  I was totally cool with that.

The beautiful thing about margin?  You aren’t forced to use it (though we usually do) and you can choose where it comes from.

When I have margin and I know I’m entrusted to steward it, I become a different leader.
It’s not about getting through the setlist on time.
It’s not about avoiding the discussion about going over time.

This past Sunday, as I led through the song we’d selected to happen between the Announcement Break and the Sermon, that margin became invaluable.

We’d just concluded singing a beautiful worship ballad, “Waiting Here For You” from the Passion 2011 album.  Even though it was a brand new tune for our church, I could discern that the people had genuinely engaged in worship.  As the song came to a close, I couldn’t bring myself to just say a snap prayer and move on.  I knew the Holy Spirit was telling me to “wait”.

So I waited.
I prayed.
I played a light, consistent progression slowly.

I took my time.  I asked the congregation to wait.  To pray.  We seldom stop and make time for this.  It wasn’t just a dude on the stage leading a prayer for a quick Amen.  We were waiting in God’s Presence, praying, seeking, crying out.

Knowing we weren’t pressed for time, I took this a step further.  I asked the tech guys (who responded immediately and graciously) to bring up our house lights slowly.

“Who is struggling?  Who just needs a touch?  Who needs prayer?  Slip up your hand – and if you’re around someone raising their hand, just touch them, maybe on the shoulder, to let them know you are there, that you support them, and that you care.  Pray for them.  You don’t even have to ask what it’s about – just lift them up.”

It was beautiful.  I believe we could have stayed in that pause for a long time.  But it was like we stopped the motions for a while and God smiled and said “glad to see you”.

So I took the margin earlier than later.  We concluded our entire service without my adding another song.

In many cases, I’d rather add that waiting time, for prayer, for seeking … instead of yet, another song.

This makes me desperate for margin.  In my life.  In our worship services.  You don’t get it unless you work for it.

How much margin is in your worship services?  Do you feel pressed for time to squeeze everything in, or do you have ample time to wait and see what God may be doing in that moment?

Yesterday was perhaps one of the sweetest days of worship that I can recall at SSCC.  I think there are lots of reasons.  We’d just had a “Night of Worship” event the Friday night before.  We had more margin (see tomorrow’s post!) in our service plan, and the teaching focused on worship.

We opened slowly, with an older classic, “Open the Eyes of My Heart”.  I find it nice to open slowly sometimes.  Paul Baloche calls this an “on-ramp”.  It gives people a transition into worship and I could see people making that transition clearly.

To open up the top of the hour, we introduced a new, upbeat song called “We Are The Free” from Matt Redman’s newest album, “10,000 Reasons”.  I’d originally decided that although I love this song, it would never find a home in our typical sunday service.  I felt it was just too edgy and youth-driven.  It didn’t seem to fit our culture.  I had so many people from the band and congregation who’d already heard the song and really encouraged me to go for it.  To my surprise, the song was really well-received.

From that song we segued directly into super-familiar “Glory to God Forever”.

After a time of announcements, we introduced the brand new worship ballad from the Passion 2011 album, “Waiting Here For You”.  Heather, one of our team members, led this and did a beautiful job.

At the conclusion of this song, I felt a strong sense that we should just wait a moment and not rush into the sermon.  We lingered there, and before I knew it, we were praying and crying out to God.  The congregation was praying, people were praying for others who needed prayer … it was a beautiful thing that I’ll describe more fully in tomorrow’s blog post.

Our Discipleship Pastor did an incredible job teaching on worship, our response to God, and living the life of worship.

We concluded with a traditional version of “The Old Rugged Cross” with nothing but vocals and piano.  IT WAS GORGEOUS.  I loved hearing the people of God sing this classic hymn.  I also sang the deep bass line, which was stylistically different for us, but added to the traditional feel.  It was a special moment.

Transitioning out of the hymn we sang “The Song of Moses”, a newer song from some guys up in Atlanta.  It was massive and I can only say that I felt that our congregation literally walked together through this journey of worship.  It was one of my favorite Sundays!

As always, I’m sharing our worship service recap as a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event, hosted weekly at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

“Every poet and musician, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him.”.  (C.S. Lewis)

Read this.  Read it again.  Process it.

What does this speak to you?

I announced a while back that I’d finally taken the plunge to purchase an iPad2.  I confessed that it was much more of a luxury item than a necessity.  Now that I’ve used it for a couple of months, I’ve realized just how much I’ve missed by not having it sooner.

Here are 6 ways that I’ve used the iPad2 in the context of corporate worship and my job as a worship pastor.

1.  Planning Meetings:  this is a bit of a luxury, but I no longer have to haul my big MacBook Pro up the stairs and take up a lot of table space at our weekly planning meetings.  I show up with my iPad2 in hand, with quick easy access to my tunes and PlanningCenterOnline.

2.  Digital Music Stand:  there are numerous apps out there that let you store a library of .pdf files.  I haven’t even gotten that far yet, but I export our setlist from PlanningCenter as a .pdf into my DropBox account, and then open it on the iPad for a quick, easy digital music stand.  No more stacks of paper to shuffle through.  (DropBox is FREE, and if you haven’t created a free account there, you’re missing out.  Use my affiliate link so I can get more free space, please!)

3.  Remote Control:  with the “Remote” app, I can easily control my iTunes playlist from my iPad.  This has come in extremely handy when I’m at the piano or keyboard rehearsing a tune or charting out a song.  Where before I’d have to reach way over to my desk and press play w/ the mouse, scoot back to my keyboard, scoot back to stop and rewind, etc., I can do all of this with the iPad sitting on my keyboard.  From one seat at the piano or keyboard, I can load, play, rewind, repeat, scrub – making charting arrangements and learning new songs a lot easier.

4.  Yamaha M7CL StageMix App:  with this incredible, FREE app from Yamaha, I can actually connect via WiFi to our Yahama M7CL sound board and easily adjust the sound.  Granted, we’ve got an incredible tech team on hand mixing the sound, but being able to tweak my personal in-ear monitor mix from the iPad is genius.

5.  ProRemote:  ProRemote is a high-end, paid app (it’s got a hefty price tag of $99) that is a full-featured remote mixing/editing surface for all of the popular recording and looping packages, including Logic Studio, ProTools, Ableton Live, Reason, Garageband, and more.  This app is far more powerful than a simple on/off remote.  It gives you full access to almost every feature in the software itself.   Imagine being able to leave the studio console, walk into a vocal booth, record-enable a track, hit play, punch in and out recording, scrub back and listen, set location markers, and more …. by yourself, wirelessly, without an engineer sitting at the console.  All of this is possible through ProRemote.

In our studio, I’ve toggled back and forth between the iTunes Remote and ProRemote to create loops,click tracks, and full arrangements of songs.  On stage, I used ProRemote to not only control the Start/Stop of our click tracks in Ableton Live, but I also setup loop points and markers where I could easily loop or go back to a rehearsal marker with a push of a “pad” on the screen of my iPad.

6.  My Music – everywhere:  With the landing of Spotify here in the US, I can have my music, playlists, and even the playlists and music of friends available to me on my iPad instantly.  I’m not worried about syncing libraries, managing iTunes accounts, or even better – taking up precious storage space on my device.

Free Spotify accounts are by invitation only through Klout … but I have good news.  I’ve got a special link to get you in.  (Get a Klout and Spotify Account Here!)

This is a short-list of the way I’ve benefited from using the iPad2. If you’ve considered making a purchase, I hope this can help justify it.  If you already have an iPad, how do you use it in the context of your job?

Let the fun begin!

The Professional Worship Leader.

You can design a masterful flow of songs
You can recite Scripture, encourage, and effortlessly transition between songs
You can close your eyes, raise your hands, and demonstrate physical acts of worship …

all the while, your heart is far from God.

You know just where to raise the key …
You know exactly where the people will start standing because of the response to your arrangement …
You can predict precisely how the mood of the room will be …

all the while, your heart is far from God.

You can play in any key
Your vocal range is mammoth
Your repertoire is endless
Your band is flawless

all the while, your heart is far from God.

You have the look
You have the hair
You have the clothes
You can pause for tears
Stand before the crowd with no fear

all the while, your heart is far from God.

It’s become a job.  A paycheck.
You are skilled.  You can do this in your sleep.
Everyone thinks you are the best worship leader ever …

after all …

You are a “professional”.

——————————————-

Dear Worship Leaders,

Fight the tendency to minister in your own strength and skill.  Let your worship be an outflow of your heart.
There are a million things to distract us from truly being in God’s Presence, and sharing that with others.

Honestly, it’s quite easy to become the “professional” worship leader.
Sadly, many folks don’t discern the difference.

When you stand to minister, your conscience will tell you … is this overflow?  Or is this a job?

—————————————————

This 4th of July holiday threw my blogging schedule off a bit.  Excuses, Excuses!

So I’d hoped to do a thorough recap on my use of the iPad2 in our worship service but for today, the setlist recap will have to suffice.  The blog on the iPad is going to be a lot more involved.

You can view a production sheet for our July 3rd service via PlanningCenter.

Sunday, July 3rd - St. Simons Community Church

Russ Hutto opened us with the debut of “Here for You” off the new Passion 2011 album.  It was a great song and one I look forward to integrating into our services.

From there, we went into “All my Fountains” (also from Passion 2011) with the arrangement I use for hammer dulcimer.  It’s a favorite of ours, and I love playing it.

After announcements, I acknowledged the significance of the upcoming July 4 holiday and we sang “God Bless America” as a prayer, asking God for his blessing on our country.  That flowed seamlessly into “I Stand Amazed” (How Marvelous) hymn, followed by “Mighty To Save” that was more in the Laura Story-type arrangement than the Hillsong one.

We had an intense sermon about being “caged” — I’d been waiting literally for 2 years to find the right service to do the song “Pieces” by the band, Red.  This was the service.  I spent the week scoring out cello and violin parts, sequencing, tracking, and we did this song for a very powerful time to close the service.

Tons of great feedback about this closer.  I will be posting the sequences and loops soon.

As always, this recap is part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com each week!

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.

One of the many creative persons that I’ve encountered through the annual “re:create” conference is Jeff Goins.  Jeff lives in Franklin, TN (jealous!) and is an inspiring writer.  He blogs regularly at GoinsWriter.Com – one of the few blogs that I’ve got in my “must read” list these days.

Yesterday Jeff released his first e-book called “The Writer’s Manifesto”.  You can (and should) get a copy by visiting here.

For every person who considers themselves to be a “creative”:

- a musician
- a songwriter
- a screenwriter
- a blog/article author
- a visual artist
- a producer

ANYONE who has the talents and gifts to create art that inspires …

PLEASE stop and read this manifesto.

It’s very short, yet packed with heart-convicting, soul-stirring punch.

Hey Gang,

For those who may already be following our blog and twitter updates (Blog:  www.RefugeSSI.Com | Twitter:  @refugessi) this may be old news.  But it’s still exciting news and I am thrilled to post it here.

We’ve just secured Ian Morgan Cron (web | twitter) as our primary speaker and “guide” for the Refuge retreat that we’re hosting here October 23-26.  Ian is a gifted speaker, spiritual advisor, he’s an ordained priest, worship leader, songwriter, and an accomplished author.  His brand new book, “Jesus, My Father, the CIA” was just featured by Barnes & Noble, noting Ian as one of their “Discover Great New Writers” program.

My first encounter with Ian was at the re:create conference in Franklin, TN a couple of years ago.  He was there as a spiritual guide and counselor and led us through some incredibly powerful times of worship.  His sensitive way of leading us through the Eucharist was amazing and inspiring.

Ian will be speaking in several of our sessions, along with others.  Since the “Refuge” retreat is designed to be small and intimate, it’s a huge treat to be able to spend some time with him.

Here’s a short video excerpt on prayer from a recent interview Ian did:  (more videos at IanCron.Com)

I assure you, this will be time well spent.  Do you need to unwind, recharge, pull away, and hear from God?  Of course you do!  Early-bird registration is only $99 (ending June 30th!).  Checkout the “Refuge” site and register today, and bring your spouse, your staff, friends.  It will be a powerful time of rest, renewal, and restoration.

Early Bird:  $99
Dates:  October 23 (Sunday night Meet & Greet) – Wednesday, October 26th

REGISTER TODAY!

Worship Recap from St. Simons Community Church
Sunday, June 19th 2011
Posted as part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” event at TheWorshipCommunity.Com – see what other churches are doing!

Yesterday was one of those Sundays I’d characterize as a real “win” for our church in regards to our culture of leadership.  That’s because both myself, as the Worship Pastor, and my buddy and co-worker, Travis Paulding (our Full-Time Tech Director) observed while those on our teams led.

We had the privilege of hosting Aaron Keyes as a guest worship leader for a few songs yesterday.  He’s in town leading worship for a summer camp and has formed some great relationships with some folks in our church over the past years.  It was a perfect fit for him to return back to SSCC and bless us with his ministry.  Aaron and my friend Shannon Lewis are friends and I decided to let Shannon run with this one.

So, while I sat back and watched Shannon lead an incredible worship service,  co-leading with Aaron, I noticed Travis leaning back against the sound booth while his faithful volunteers made all the audio/video stuff happen.  At one point I leaned over to the volunteer running sound, Jerry, and said “man, that’s a great mix”.  I have a critical ear when it comes to mixing – and he did an incredible job.

Afterwards, my brother-in-law said to me, “I think that was the best sermon I’ve ever heard David preach”.   He was so inspired by the teaching on how a Real Man is a Life-Giver.

You can view a copy of our service flow. (thanks to PlanningCenterOnline)

Walk-In Song:  “Glory to God Forever” (Fee/Beeching)

At the top of the hour, we ran the “Dad Life” video for Father’s Day by Church on the Move.  It was hilarious! (see below)

Next, Shannon led “Our God”, followed by an introduction to Aaron Keyes.

Aaron led us with:
“Not Guilty Anymore” (my personal favorite”
“Song of Moses” (on brand new CD coming out tomorrow!)

After the sermon (you can watch it within 24 hours at sscclive.com), we closed with “Father Will You Come”.

Hey Friends,

I was reading through Psalm 49 a few weeks ago and was inspired by these verses:

7 Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
8 for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
9 that he should live on forever
and never see the pit.

(Psalm 49: 7-9, ESV)

From that passage came this new song.  So glad to finally be writing again.  Below is a rough-recording/mix of the debut at our services at SSCC.  Feel free to use in your own personal worship or corporate worship services.

“He Ransomed Me”
Words and Music by:  Fred McKinnon
©2011, HPP Publishing Company/BMI (a division of Highest Praise Productions, Inc)
CCLI# pending

Download .PDF Chord Chart

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
Deep in sin.  No hope within.
Captured by the grave.
A cost so high to set me free
No man could ever pay.

PreChorus:
Only One could e’er suffice
To pay so great a price
A life for liberty ….
He ransomed me.

Chorus:
What a price He paid.
Sacrificed, I’m saved.
By His blood, I’m free.
He ransomed me.

Verse 2:
Now I am His, and He is mine.
Received in His great Name.
Embraced by faith, His love divine
Forever I’ll proclaim.

Bridge:
No greater love has ever been shown
No greater friend has ever been known
He gave His life on Calvary’s tree
He died.  He rose to ransom me.

Well, the cat is out of the bag — officially.  I posted on Monday about our event, “Refuge” to be hosted here on St. Simons Island in October.  I’m so thrilled to hear and see the positive response to this idea of gathering for 3 days of sabbatical – leaving our stress and face-paced schedules behind to worship, pray, hear God’s voice, and yes … have a lot of fun!

I’ve spent a good bit of time casting vision for the retreat on the site at RefugeSSI.Com.  Today, I wanted to list 4 things that “Refuge” is NOT:

1.  “Refuge” is not an equipping, how-to seminar.  You won’t learn how to build a better praise team, preach a better sermon, lead a better business, or create a dynamic flow in a worship service.  The only how-to we’ll focus on is “how to care for your soul and spiritual state”.

2.  “Refuge” is not an exhaustive series of sessions.  The point of “Refuge” is to give you some space and time – we have just as much unstructured, “unhurried” time as we do sessions.  See our schedule.

3.  “Refuge” is not a budget-breaker.  $99/person does not come close to covering our actual expenses.  Through Worship International, our nonprofit, we will be buffering the budget through donations and sponsorships so that attending is accessible.

4.  “Refuge” is not a parade of Christian celebrity.  We may have a well-known guest or artist pop in … you never know.  But, our intention is not to attempt to draw people in with a big list of speakers and artists that are famous.  (Here me now – I have nothing against them, and have absolutely no issue with conferences that do have a huge lineup of celebrity-level bands and speakers – I quite enjoy hearing and seeing them, and most have been elevated to that level of influence for a good reason) … Refuge is really a vision I had to provide a space in a beautiful location for spiritual awakening.  The vision has been shared by many here in our South Georgia tribe … folks you know from twitter and blogville, like Russ Hutto, Mandy Thompson, Shannon Lewis, Chris Moncus, and Travis Paulding.

Pray for us as we endeavor to kick off our first event.  Consider joining us.  Follow the event on Twitter @refugessi and the event hashtag at #refugessi
Thanks for your support!

I’m thrilled to officially announce a dream that has been years in the making.  That dream is called:

Refuge.

On October 23 – 26, right here on beautiful St. Simons Island, GA, we will have a gathering of worshipers, leaders, and friends who share a deep need — the burning desire to enter into a 3-day sabbatical retreat so that we can draw closer to God, hear His voice, and find rest, renewal, and restoration.  One glance at the schedule for Refuge and you’ll quickly see this event is unlike most conferences or seminars.

Details will be coming throughout the Summer.  Space is limited, so take advantage of the early registration and come join us.

Please visit the Official Site and subscribe to the blog updates at:
www.RefugeSSI.Com

I’d also be grateful if you’d consider following our updates on Twitter:
Twitter ID:  @refugessi
Twitter Event Hashtag:  #refugessi

Lastly, you can “like” us on Facebook.

Right now – I’m excited, nervous, and overwhelmed – all at the same time.  I can’t wait until October.  Hope to see you there!

This past Sunday I had the privilege of co-teaching with our pastor on “Worship 101″.  In our opening set, David (our pastor) gave some reasons WHY we would worship at all.  In the second set, I joined him as we discussed various postures and expressive responses of worship.

If you fast-forward the video to around 35:00 minutes you’ll get to the tag-team portion.

SAVE THE DATE:

October 23 – October 26, 2011

On these dates, a dream will become a reality. Hosted by Fred McKinnon here on one of the most beautiful places on earth: St. Simons Island, GA.

A sabbatical-style getaway for 3 days of rest, solitude, recreation, worship, and encouragement.  For those who want to rediscover that “still, small voice”.  For those who are weary from the trials of leading.  For those who are desperate for inspiration and vision.  Designed for those in ministry but available to anyone from Pastors, Worship Leaders, Executives, to Stay-At-Home Moms.

Interested?  Stay tuned …

Brenton Brown’s new album, “Our God Is Near” just hit the market …

And I like it … A LOT.

I just published my review of the album over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com … so go check it out and let us know your thoughts if you’ve heard the record!

Great job, Brenton!

Hey Gang,

Monday I posted on our “Worship Confessional” video that we’d introduced the new song by Chris Tomlin, Nathan and Christy Nockels & Company from the Passion 2011 CD, “All My Fountains”.

Although I wasn’t there for the live recording of Passion 2011, I was present at the “Lift” event last month and experienced this song for the first time and loved it.

Our debut of this song at SSCC was extremely well-received.  I’d like to share the click-track and loop that I made for this song with you.  Enjoy!

Details:
Our Arrangement in Key of D.

*acapella Chorus intro – then start loop
*Segue, VS1, Chorus, Segue, VS2, Chorus, Segue, Bridge (4x), Chorus, Acapella Chorus, Tag

Instruments we used “LIVE” that are NOT on the click:  Acoustic (open tuned to D), 2nd Acoustic, Mandolin and Hammer Dulcimer, Bass, and Live Drums.

Instruments in the Loop:
Click
Spoken Guide
Stylus RMX Loops
Tambourine Loops
Clap Track
Organ Track
Piano Pad Guide Track

CLICK and SPOKEN GUIDE:  Panned Left
INSTRUMENTS:  Panned Right

[See post to listen to audio at www.fredmckinnon.com]
Download the loop.

If you use it, let me know how you like it!