It’s a new year! Full of new adventures, new challenges, new joys, new everything! That being said, I’ve got a lot of “new” things I hope to do and a lot of changes to old stuff as well. I’m not big on resolutions, but I do want to be big on life change. I’ll post more about that later. Maybe if I put some of my goals out in public it will make me a bit more accountable and you guys can help me! So, new starts…a new year at LIFE Church. We moved forward with our normal service times this morning and as expected, attendance was down. Lots of people sleeping in and recovering from the late night last night, I’m sure! Pastor Greg shared a great message called “Player or Participant” and it was a great challenge to start the new year. I tried to tie our set list in with the greatness of God and how with that we should run with all we have, actually get IN the game and be a player! So, here was our set…

Yours Forever (Hillsong) – This is such a fun opener declaring our allegiance to God! “God, we are YOURS forever!” And with starting the new year, it was great to be able to sing, “we’ll never be the same/our eyes won’t turn away”.

–Welcome/Announcements–

Like A Lion (Daniel Bashta/Kristian Stanfill Version) – This is a new song for LIFE Church. We did it a couple of weeks ago, so this was only our second time doing it. I love this song, especially the breaks going into the choruses! Our God is not dead, He is SURELY alive!

Glory To God Forever (Fee) – This is a favorite of LIFE Church. We’ve been doing it for a long time and it never fails to connect with the people and truly helps us engage in true worship!

Forever Reign (Hillsong) – This song was especially powerful today. I have had a horrible week this past week and was dealing some personal stuff and God really met me in this song as I was preparing for the services throughout the week. It was so refreshing and reassuring to sing “You are good when there’s nothing good in me/You are peace when my fear is crippling/You are true even in my wandering”! And then to be able to sing the chorus “I’m running to your arms, the riches of your love will always be enough”!

–Pastor Greg;’s Message–

With Everything (Hillsong) – One of my top three songs right now. My good friend Joel calls it the “Indian Song” because of the part where we do the “wo-oh-oh-oh-oh”. It’s just such a powerful song, talking about shouting for the glory of God and then doing it. It’s exactly as the scripture commands in Psalm 98, verse 4, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music”.

–Dismissal–

That was our set this week. I thought it was a great morning and I feel sorry for the people who weren’t there : ) because those of us that were there had an awesome time of corporate worship together!

Josh

*This post is part of  the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival hosted at TheWorshipCommunity.Com

Week 3 of our Marriage Killers series. Overall, it was a great week. Here’s the setlist…

All Because of Jesus (Fee)

You Are God (Chrystina L. Fincher)

Your Love Never Fails (Jesus Culture)

Rhythms of Grace (Hillsong)

–Jason’s Message–

How He Loves (John Mark McMillan)

That was our set!

Josh

Here you go…

Yours Forever (Hillsong)

All Creation Sing (Newspring Worship)

I Will Follow (Chris Tomlin)

From The Inside Out (Hillsong)

Lead Me (Sanctus Real)

–Jason’s Message–

Take My Life (Chris Tomlin)

Josh

Catching up…getting there…

Go (Hillsong)

Bless Your Name (Eddie Kirkland)

Glory To God Forever (Steve Fee)

No One Higher/The Stand (Fee/Hillsong)

–Jason’s Message–

How He Loves (John Mark McMillan)

Josh

Once again, I’m behind, so these will be short and sweet…

Break Free (Hillsong)

King Forever (Brett Younker)

Our God Is Love (Hillsong)

Forever Reign (Hillsong)

–Jason’s Message–

Not Guilty Anymore (Aaron Keyes)

There you go!

Josh

This week was different from last week. Some weeks are amazing, some weeks are tougher. This was a tougher week. Coming off the high of last week, for some reason, the energy was much lower this week. It’s interesting to me to see how worship truly is a fluid movement for God’s people. Some moments are extremely intense while others seem to be strained and forced. I’ve been leading worship for almost 15 years and it’s still a challenge and a continual learning experience to try to truly engage and lead the people of God to worship God without manipulating or playing on emotions to try to create false environments. Sorry for the theological dissertation, just some thoughts on my mind about worship.

On another note, we were able to celebrate 6 baptisms this Sunday! There are few things that excite me more in a church environment than to celebrate baptisms! Such an amazing time and an encouraging time to be able to join in with believers as they publicly proclaim and display their obedience and devotion to Christ through the act of Baptism!

Alright, I ramble on…here’s the worship set…

Yours Forever (Hillsong) – Still a fairly new song for LIFE Church. This was the 3rd time to do this song. It has caught on really well so far I think! I definitely look forward to doing it more.

–Welcome/Announcements & Baptisms–

Here and Now (Eddie Kirkland) – Another new song that we’ve been introducing. We did it for the first time a couple of weeks ago and did it again to try to reinforce it. It is a GREAT song. I love the drive and energy of it, especially the bridge!

Yours Is The Victory (Newspring Worship) – Amy led this and did a great job. One thing I’ve noticed about this song though is that sometimes it’s tough for the people to engage with it and it becomes more of a performance song rather than a corporate worship song. It’s a powerful song when people truly connect with it and worship through it!

You Never Let Go (Matt Redman) – A long time favorite of LIFE Church and of mine. In light of talking about baggage from the experiences that have happened to us, we used this a transition into the message, declaring that no matter what may happen to us, God will never let go!

–Jason’s Message–

With Everything (Hillsong) – Love, Love, Love this song. “For You our King, with everything, we will shout forth Your praise!”

That was our Sunday. Tell me about yours. If you were here, tell me about it. If you weren’t, tell me about it!

Josh

*This post is part of  the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival hosted at TheWorshipCommunity.Com

It’s amazing how I can get behind on these blog posts! Here I am a week later trying to get caught up. Sunday the 30th was an AMAZING day at LIFE Church. There are days that raise the bar, days that set the standard higher for what God is doing in our lives and in the lives of our Church and this was one of those days. We changed some things around with the flow of the service and that coupled with the power of the message and the weight of what God was doing in people’s lives made for a truly amazing time of corporate worship. Here’s the breakdown of the morning…

Suitcases (Dara Maclean) – A great song talking about how we can’t run for God when we’re holding onto the baggage of our past. We’ve got to lay it down and let God carry it! Christy did a great job leading this song!

–Welcome/Announcements–

Break Free (Hillsong) – I intro’d this song with the story of David bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to the Israelite people and how he could only go 6 steps before having to stop and worship, truly unhindered, no-baggage worship. This was our first time doing this song and I think it was VERY well received! People really seemed to resonate with this song and connect to the declaration!

Your Love Never Fails (Jesus Culture) – One of our all-time favorites. This song always goes over well, but today it really connected and the people really clung to it!

Rhythms of Grace (Hillsong) – I’ve got my top songs and this one is definitely on the list. I intro’d it this morning with  a passage from Matthew 11 (from the Message version), “Get away with me and you’ll recover your life…learn the unforced rhythms of grace”. We also did the offering as part of this song (towards the end) and reiterated that the offering is truly an act of worship. It was a great change-up and powerful way to communicate worship.

–Jason’s Message–

Not Guilty Anymore (Aaron Keyes) – Wow, wow, wow. An extremely powerful song sung from God’s perspective over us declaring that because of Jesus, we are not not guilty anymore. We are forgiven, we are free from condemnation, we are spotless! We did this song and then I dismissed everyone but gave the option for people to stay and continue singing if they’d like as we continued to play. It was amazing seeing how people stayed and wanted to continue worshipping even though the service was “over”. God’s presence and spirit were definitely here and moving and the people were truly touched and changed by the love of God in some awesome ways!

That was the set! Leave some comments!

Josh

Man oh man! Today was absolutely amazing! I can’t get over how the spirit was moving throughout LIFE Church today. I felt like last week was a bit off, kind of a “vanilla” week, but definitely not this week! Pastor Jason began our new series, mybaggagecheck.com, this morning with a message called “Getting Past The Past” and all I can say is, WOW. What a powerful message talking about the baggage of our past and how we let ourselves be so bound with what has happened to us, things we did to ourselves AND things we had no control over! Make sure to check out the LIFE Church website for the video of the message, it should be up by Monday afternoon. Now, to get to the worship set! The people of LIFE Church were singing louder than I’ve heard them in a long time. There were definitely a LOT of open hearts being moved by the Spirit of God. It’s always so awesome to be able to see, from my perspective on stage, the people responding to God in corporate worship by singing, lifting hands, and just truly pouring themselves out! LIFE Church, I’m blessed to be able to lead worship for you every week! So what was the set list? Here we go…

Rise and Sing (Fee) – This has been a LIFE Church favorite for a while and I thought fit the opening for our series perfectly. “If you were bound, but now you’re free…”. What else can you say? It was awesome hearing the people really get into this song!

–Welcome–

Here and Now (Eddie Kirkland) – This is a brand new song I learned while at Catalyst back at the first of October. I knew the first time I heard it, that I couldn’t wait to bring it back to LIFE Church and today was the day. I thought that overall, it was VERY well received and we will do it again VERY soon. Whenever we introduce a new song, I like to repeat it within a week or two to reinforce it and help it take root with the people.

No One Higher/The Stand (Fee) – We’ve been doing this song for a while now. Typically when we do it, we slide right into the full version of The Stand at the end. I love the energy that this song helps convey.

The Stand (Hillsong) – Again, about all I can say is wow. It’s amazing how people let this song speak to them and really engaged with worship through this song. I love how we took it at the end and really challenged ourselves with truly living out what we were singing, to truly stand with our hands held high and our hearts (with all their baggage) abandoned at the feet of Jesus. To stand with our souls surrendered to HIM truly saying that ALL we are is HIS!

Blessings (Laura Story) – This was a special song we did as an intro into Pastor Jason’s message. Amy led it and Chad Hodges, our Student Ministry Intern sang with her. They both did an absolutely incredible job! It was great to see how this song really affected people and how people truly connected with it. It was a perfect lead-in to the message, talking about baggage and how so many times the things we think of as tragedies and trials can turn out to be the blessings of God in disguise.

–Jason’s message–

Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone (Chris Tomlin arr.) – One of my favorite songs. It’s the traditional hymn spiced up a little bit with the modern chorus. I love how we put a southern rock spin on it as well. Again, amazing to see how this song was such a catalyst for some very true and authentic worship today!

–Offering–

Here and Now Reprise (Eddie Kirkland) – We did the chorus a couple of times then went into the driving bridge for our reprise as people were walking out.

Alright, so as you can see, I was pretty pumped about today’s services. If you were here, what was your favorite moment of worship? If you weren’t, tell me about your service or about what’s going on with you and your worship times!

Josh

God, don’t use me…but use me up! That was the theme of Pastor Jason’s message. We all talk about being used, but how many of us truly ask to be used up daily by God? For the theme of the message, we tried to streamline the worship set with songs about giving ourselves to God’s plans and God’s Kingdom. So, that being said, here’s the setlist…

Use Somebody (Kings Of Leon) – Another fun opener, a popular song that has a theme and message applicable to what we’re talking about.

–Welcome–

Your Name High (Hillsong) – “We are living to make Your name high, Jesus”. That’s our declaration. That’s the reason we’re alive. To glorify the name of Jesus!

Cannons (Phil Wickham) – This is one of Sarah Beth’s (my daughter) favorite song. I love hearing her sing this chorus as she plays around the house, “You are holy, great and mighty, the moon and the stars, eclair (declare) who you are”!

From The Inside Out (Hillsong) – Another song, praying to God to consume us “from the inside out” and to use us completely for Him!

–Pastor Jason’s Message–

Take My Life (Chris Tomlin version) – The old hymn, with an added chorus spiced up a bit. A wonderful song to declare and commit to God, “Here am I, all of me/Take my life/it’s all for thee”!

–Offering–

Your Name High (Hillsong) – A reprise of the chorus as walk-out music!

That was our setlist…tell me what you thought about it?

Josh

*This post is part of  the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival hosted at TheWorshipCommunity.Com

This will be a short catch-up post. This week was the final week of the Supernatural series and Pastor Greg shared a GREAT message on Angels.

Here’s the setlist…

Calling All Angels (Train) – It was fun doing this song, I’ve been listening to it on the radio and my iPod for years, so to be able to pull it out for our set was great!

Yours Forever (Hillsong) – It is so cool seeing the response to this song. LIFE Church absolutely loves this song. It will definitely be a staple in our repertoire!

Our God Is Love (Hillsong) – I love it, simply said, “Our God Is Love”!!

Revelation Song (Kari Jobe) – Amy did a great job leading this song (as always). Such a powerful song.

By Your Side (Tenth Avenue North) – We used this song as an intro into Pastor Greg’s message. It really helped convey the theme and the message!

–Pastor Greg’s message–

Forever Reign (Hillsong) – Another favorite of LIFE Church!

–Offering–

Yours Forever (Hillsong) – We did a reprise of the chorus as the walk-out for the end of the service.

That was our set!

Josh