It happened, only the second time in 29 years of ministry but it happened…I pulled a choir song and had to rearrange the service. Looking back it was the right thing to do and what ended up as the song order was a much better fit for the sermon….God thing.
Song Set #1
Video: Palms (from Sermon Spice…only 36 seconds but great start)
Come Now Is the Time for Worship (Brian Doerksen)
In planning I thought we would do this down, but after adding the video I realized we need to drive the arrangement to match the sound track from video
This scripture recaps the thought of the first song…really the first song reflects the scripture. The band starts intro to second song on last words of scripture.
How Can I Keep From Singing (Ed Cash, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin)
The words of the bridge make this song.
Welcome
Song Set #2
Video: God’s Way (from Sermon Spice)
Instead of using sound track on video we chose to play our next song as the sound track.
Majesty (Stuart Garrard, Martin Smith)
I love this song, however if not taken at the right tempo it can seem to drag on forever. We intentionally pushed the tempo and filled out the arrangement to give it more energy…it sang well.
Hosanna (Brooke Fraser)
The band came up with a unique intro…going straight to this song out of the same live percussion sounds that carried from last song; after a one measure hold of the last chord of previous song a four bar intro started into this song. Great idea guys…I love working with talented and creative musicians.
I Bow Down (Joel Engle)
This was a complete change of style and tempo and we did not want to break the great worship that was already taking place, so we started with no intro…just the worship leader starting to sing. (Good thing this was in a related key to previous song.) The worship leader could set the tempo and then band jump in on the second four measure phrase.
Sermon
Video Intro: Dear ClearView (created by Silverleaf Entertainment.)
Sermon
Our last Sunday in this series: Dear ClearView, a look at the letters to the seven churches as recorded in Revelation. This last sermon was a tough one for a pastor to deliver to the church he leads. But, our pastor, Mark Marshall, did a great job as he let the scripture speak for itself. It is worth a listen.
Response
It was such a heavy and personally challenging message that our pastor chose to make the invitation very reflective, giving time for people to absorb and respond according to how God was speaking to them. I love it when the sermon drives the invitation and not tradition of how we have done it before.
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This post is my participation in the blog carnival, Sunday Setlists, which can be found at The Worship Community.