A simple way I look at worship is a conversation, a conversation between us and God. He speaks through songs, testimonies, scriptures and even silence and then we respond with singing, praise, meditation, clapping, shouting, lifting our hands and maybe even the words that Isaiah used: “here I am send me.”
I think the services at @ClearViewChurch Sunday reflected that conversation outline.
Song Set
- To God Be The Glory
-
- In this first song we see God for who He is and what He has done and our response is also found in the words of the song.
- We love using the Tommy Walker arrangement of this song. The way he changed the rhythm to 6/8 and also added a bridge section gives new life to this great hymn text.
- You’re Worthy of My Praise
-
- A familiar praise song that continues to give us a chance to respond to who God is.
- We started the chorus after the drums set up the new tempo and acoustic guitar established the key.
- Verbal Intro to the next song.
-
- Our Word study for the last few weeks has been from the first three chapters of Revelation. As an intro to the next song, I used the described scene of John’s vision of the risen Christ and his response. I also took some thoughts from the first chapter of Matt Redmans’ book “Facedown”
In his book Facedown, Matt Redman writes: Each time we gather together, we don’t just journey to a church building – we journey to the very throne of God. Here we are this morning…at the very throne of God.
For the last few weeks we have been diving into a study of the first 3 chapters of Revelation. Very early on a scene was described as, the writer John, came into the very presence of the Risen Christ. John describes the encounter: “eyes blaze like fire and whose face is shining like the sun in all its brilliance.” Overwhelmed, John shrinks to the ground in reverence and fear.
John is not the only one whose has this type of response when encountering God.
In Ezekiel the prophet beholds the “appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”His response was: ‘when I saw it I fell facedown.’
In the book of Daniel still another scene is described as Daniel himself sees a vision of the Almighty: “His face shines like lightning and whose eyes blaze like flaming torches.” Undone by this divine encounter his reaction was this: ‘I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless.’
In this room the same God is present. It is our choice whether to recognize Him and respond. With the design and layout of this room it is difficult for many of us to physically bow or fall facedown. We can however use words as a symbol of how our heart is responding. He is here:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, who is, who is to come…who never changes, who is always the same.”
- The band underscores this spoken intro with the next song.
- This song, setup by the intro, helps us see God, His holiness, and gives us a chance to respond.
- After singing this song through twice I gave the people permission to stand in silence in God’s presence and use their own words to convey to God words of praise, adoration or thanksgiving.
- Out of this time of personal prayer we jumped back into the song “You’re Worthy of My Praise” starting at the chorus, in a much slower tempo…very reflective and concluded by going back to “We Fall Down” one more time. (At this point instruments began to drop out so that at the end it was just voices.)
Welcome
Song Set
- A song of testimony, us testifying of God’s goodness and inviting others to see Him as the one who can free them.
- This is a call and challenge to respond.
- Another Tommy Walker song that could be defined as response, rewording Isaiah’s words, ‘here am I send me’ with these ‘I am Your servant speak to me.’
Sermon
- From Acts chapter 20, here we get a chance to hear God’s call to service through the words and actions of Paul.
Song
- Our final chance to respond in this service.
When you plan services do you think of them as a conversation? Listening to God and responding to what you hear?
This blog post is my contribution to the blog carnival Sunday Setlists which can be found at TheWorshipCommunity.com