Sunday Setlists: the Sunday before Christmas

This blog is a part of a blog carnival title Sunday Setlists, where a number of worship leaders post the songs and worship elements that were used at their church. It is a great way to gather information of what is helping engage people in worship around the country. December 20th's conversation takes place here.

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Wemade the attempt Sunday to use 90% Christmas songs in a context that helped people engage in the conversation of worship that kept with a style which is consistent with other weeks of the year.

 

Scripture

Luke 2: 12-14. The worship leader read this scripture and on the last words, ‘glory to God in the highest’ the band started intro of first song.

 

Songs

Angels We Have Heard On High

            Here we tried to capture the style of the Hillsong version of this song without adding their refrain and making it as simple for the congregation to grasp as possible. We did so this way: used the intro also as a turnaround between verses; used the traditional refrain; used the extended measures on each verse, not just the first. (key of F)

 

Oh Praise Him

            Starting on the chorus of this David Crowder song in the same tempo as the song before. We also only used the chorus and 1st verse followed by repeated refrain ending on the words “Alleluia, He is holy.” (Key of F)

 

O Little Town of Bethlehem

            To complete this set we used the third verse of this song, ‘cast out our sin and enter in.’ This thought finished painting the picture of Christ as ‘new born King’ to ‘savior King.’ (Key of F)

 

Baptism

 

Song

Offering

            This song has been used for the last two weeks. The spoken intro was a challenge to the congregation to remember the shepherds and wisemen and the gifts of worship they brought to the Christ-child and respond in worship through the words of this song.

 

Welcome

 

Song

Away In A Manger

            This Christmas season we have used a number of songs based on arrangements from the Casting Crowns Christmas recording. This week the song was Away In A Manger. The vocal team lead this song pretty much as it was recorded, splitting the voices with solos and harmonies. One difference was that we lowered the key to make it more accessible to the congregation.

 

Here I Am To Worship

            We started with the first verse as solo and then asked congregation to join on the chorus. The last portion sang of this song was the bridge: “I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sins upon the cross.’ It was intentional to leave the congregation with this thought as we moved to the sermon, which was taken from Philippians Chapter 2. (Even though it was intentional, we did not come up with the idea until the final Sunday morning run through.)

 

Sermon

            Delivered by our pastor, Mark Marshall and taken from Philippians chapter 2.The title was "the Point of No Return." It seems odd to use this scripture for a Christmas sermon but it works because it focused on the purpose of Christ’s coming to earth.

Kabul 24, a book review

Christmas Isn’t Christmas Without?