Okay this is a week late, but I still wanted to post some thought on our February 7 service.

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For an old trumpet player, yesterday was pretty cool. In addition to our normal instrumentation we added two trumpets, two trombones and alto sax. Adding different musical colors to a service seems to bring some new energy to the room.

Here is the setlists:

Walk-in

5 minute countdown with band jumping in with live music at the three minute mark.

Song Set #1

Introduction:
This was more of a stall than an introduction. One of the challenges we face getting people to enter our worship rooms before the service begins or on time.

Crown You With Praise
By Natalie Grant. A fun song to start service, nothing new in lyrics but accompaniment really makes it happen. It has a Latin feel so we added extra percussion and brass. In the old days of planning services this would have been called the choir call to worship.

Welcome

Song Set #2

Your Grace Is Enough
by Matt Maher. Here we used a PraiseCharts arrangement so that we could utilize the brass.

Hosanna
by Brooke Fraser. Another PraiseCharts arrangement

Prayer

Introduction
We have been working for some time to be more intentional on how we add prayer to our services. It is our desire to see people willing and have the freedom to come to the front of the stage for prayer. The resistance to this idea is more about tradition than people wanting to pray. In trying to break out of the tradition our pastor was intentional and encouraging as he introduced the prayer time. We also gave some of our people a heads-up earlier in the week that there would be a prayer time and asked them to be the ones to come down front. It was like priming an old water pump…people cam.

Prayer
During this time no one lead a public prayer. Instead we moved right into the next song, instruments playing it one time through and then vocals lead the congregation in singing.

You Are My Rescue
by T.W. Hale and Michael H. Smith.This is an original song that can be found at CCLI. If you would like a copy of the recording just let me know.

It is Well
This is a great new arrangement by Todd Fields of the timeless hymn. The new chorus really brings life to the words of the verses.

Sermon

Video Intro

Sermon

Invitation
If you have followed these blog posts for the last few weeks you know that we are seeking God on how we need to treat this time of the service. This week our pastor did an awesome job of moving past our old paradigm by ending the service in a different way. The sermon topic was very heavy and caused us all to think. He used a video clip that emphasized the main point of the day and then we had a chance to sit in silence reflecting on how we could personally respond.