Sunday Setlists – Week #31

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Sunday Setlists
St. Simons Community Church, 2/22/09

Great day of worship at SSCC.  I posted a question on Twitter earlier that said, “is it coincidence that on a Sunday we get more than normal complaints about the volume, the crowd was more engaged the ever”?.  Thanks to those of you who replied – I’d love your thoughts in the comments section below.  Basically, I had a discussion with one of our leaders who ushers and he said that the music was great, but that many more people complained about the volume than normal.  Ironically, today was perhaps the most active I’ve ever seen our congregation in worship.  They were shouting, singing, clapping, and really expressing themselves in worship,  I wasn’t “cheering” them on either – it was all spontaneous.

I would say that turning up the volume helped (and I’ve been saying that over and over, so I’d love to be able to say “see, I’m right”), but Travis mixed today and said overall, the decibel level of the music was LOWER than usual.

Our service was structured a bit differently today as we were celebrating Communion and wanted to have time to worship during and after this sacrament.  I’ve often commented that I’d rather have more music AFTER the sermon than BEFORE it, though it usually doesn’t work that way.  I’m so tempted to try it more often, but honestly – in most cases (and I mean in my 15+ years of leading worship, not just at SSCC) the Pastor usually goes longer since they “appear” to have more time, and we just have a longer sermon with less worship.  Exended worship that happens AFTER the teaching of God’s Word always seems to be more passionate and sincere, though.

That’s what we did today.  Here’s a run down – song titles are linked to iTunes where available.
Link to our PlanningCenterOnline.Com Service Plan:
http://www.planningcenteronline.com/plans/443644/public

Walk in:
Bluegrass/Country instrumental version of “Are You Washed in the Blood” (we only got to do this prior to the 11:00)
We Shall See the King (old gospel song, from Lindell Cooley’s “Revival in Brownsville” CD, years ago)

Opening Song:
Glorious (Martha Munizzi)

We used a new Ableton Live loop I created for this song.  The loop only includes congas and horns, but fills in the song nicely.  Having this on a click really forced us to keep the song laid back on the tempo.  I tracked this around 98 bpm and could feel myself wanting to rush it all day.  Our drummer and bassist teased me saying how great it was to FINALLY sing that song at not only the CORRECT tempo, but CONSISTENTLY at the same tempo!  Point taken.

Loop Links:  (OK, I clearly made some goofs, especially on the keyboard part, but ran out of time – there are no effects either.  I played the keyboard part live, so that channel was muted in Ableton for us today).

Audio Loop: (download)
[audio:https://www.fredmckinnon.com/media/glorious.mp3]

* Download .Zip package  for Ableton Live *

“Jesus Messiah”
This was not a natural segue and was the result of a different song being removed due to time issues.  I started with pads, and said a few words to start this song, which helped w/ the awkward transition.  This song went over HUGE and people really sang.

“Sermon”
It’s Personal – 4th and final week of this evangelistic series.  Again, many people professed Christ today in our services.  Praise God.

Communion and Worship
“This is the Gift of God” (Carl Cartee)
(currently featured at WorshipSource.Com)

“Jesus Paid it All” (Northpoint Live)

After communion, we did a corporate declaration of salvation.  We never do readings like this, but it was powerful.  The band was in the Key of E, and we held a low, 1-chord … and slowly built with the drums, walking up the scale.  (download the declaration)
I – ii – iii – IV – V – vi – vii – I

The music grew and grew as we progressed up the scale reading this declaration together as a body.  I could hear the crowd getting more and more excited as they declared the reading, and as it finally ended, we went immediately into the big drum intro of “Sing to the King” which closed out our service.  To say it was “powerful” is an understatement.  People were shouting, jumping, singing, clapping, and celebrating like I’ve never seen before in my life at SSCC.

Finally, as we closed the service we jumped into the full vocal version of the Bluegrass/Country style arrangement of “Are You Washed in the Blood”.

In closing – I want to say this.  I was pretty insecure about my song selection today – I head some joking and comments from within the band and staff about the selections being “old, hoky, throwback” … pick your cheesy term … and yeah … I was like “OK, God, I hope this works”.  I really felt that I’d prayerfully put together a setlist that would build into the Word, Communion, and Celebration.

Here’s a response I just got via email from one of our worshipers who will remain “nameless”:

” … The very first song seemed like everyone wanted to dance, including me!  Then the “Jesus Messiah’ song was great.  I also loved how we worshiped during & after communion with the slower song that segued into the chorus (that right now I can’t think of the words) that just flowed from what we were celebrating & what David had been preaching on.  Today the Holy Spirit was definitely working.
The worship team seemed especially effective today without drawing attention to themselves, if that makes sense.  Their voices were strong but they seemed to be in the background worshipping along with us.  I do not have a voice for singing but like you said , if the music is loud enough , we feel more like singing along & I felt that was happening today.  In fact , I would say that I sang louder & with more feeling today than I ever have in my life!!  Of course, there was no one in front of me so I felt freer.  People do feel freer to sing if they think no one will hear them, unless they have great voices.
Today was absolutely awesome from all angles, I heard nothing but good, people were touched, lives were changed & we are were encouraged… “

PRAISE GOD for this!

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