Real Worship

Stevenage (am)

It was family service and we changed things about a bit in Stevenage this week.  We started with the following songs:

• Good Morning (Phil & Heather Joel) Mike
• Lord You Are Good (Israel Houghton) Teash
• Be Lifted Up (Paul Oakley) Ali

Good Morning is the first track from Phil Joel’s “Deliberate Kids” CD.  The children abslutely love this song; it’s so much fun.  Even some of the adults wern’t able to resist the urge to tap their toes, clap their hands, or even shake their hips in a general, “lets twist again”-type fashion!

After the first song, Rachel stood up & said that God wanted to remind us that His banner over us was love (Song of Solomon 2:4), which turned out to be a really fitting encouragement.

The theme this week was about growing through the storm.  Five people stood up in turn and each spoke; either about storms which they’ve experienced personally and through which they’ve known God’s sustaining presence and grown as a result; or about what they believe God to be saying to us concerning what we do during storms (either try to protect ourselves from them, or turn to Him).

During one particularly poignant testimony, one of the ladies quoted the following scripture, which aptly summarised what God was saying through the service:

¹⁷ Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
¹⁸ Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ The LORD God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.

To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments. (Habakkuk 3:17-19, New King James Version)

We closed the service with 2 songs:

• Your Spirit Moves Me (Mike Ellis) Mike
• Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman) Ali

The first song is brooding in style; it’s purpose was to facilitate a time of reflection, concerning following the leading of the Holy Spirit.  The second song brought a very appropriate end to our time together – celebrating God, no matter what the circumstance!

Exeter (pm)

We had a great time in Exeter this week.  Right from the outset, there was a buoyancy to the worship, as we offered wholehearted devotion.  We sang the following songs to start:

• Open The Eyes Of My Heart (Paul Baloche)
• Be Lifted Up (Paul Oakley)
• Here I Am To Worship (Tim Hughes)
• I Exalt Thee (Pete Sanchez Jr)
• Lord You Have My Heart (Martin Smith)

We were in the key of E (capo 2 D) throughout.  As normal, the worship doesn’t end when the song does; the music carries on, accompanied by the heartfelt cries & impassioned prayers & praise of those present.  During one particular time of extended worship (after, “Be Lifted Up”), one of the ladies was praying aloud; I can’t remember exactly what she was praying, but it caused me to change the song we were to sing next.

“Here I Am To Worship” was originally further down the list, but the lyric  fitted so well with what she had just prayed.  We spent a while repeating the chorus (venturing once into the bridge); we didn’t sing the verses, but rather carried on playing the chorus progression, alternating between the lyric & improvised worship.

We flowed from that into the anthemic, “I Exalt Thee” before quietly starting, “Lord You Have My Heart”.  Though it started quietly, it most certainly didn’t finish that way!  The song culminated in us repeating the the chorus:

I will praise You Lord

I will sing of love come down

And as You show Your face

We’ll see Your glory here

We could not only have continued, but also “kicked it up a notch” at that point.  Instead, Mark spoke to us about being “storm proof” – a word that was partly inspired by the lady who testified in Stevenage in the morning (who quoted the verses from Habakkuk).

At the end of his preach, we had a time of prayer, asking God to help us, so that when we hit a storm, our main concern would be that people see Jesus.  While we were praying, I played the following song (which we went on to sing to finish):

• The More I Seek You (Zach Neese)

Links:

This post can also be found in the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com

Since writing the last “Sunday Set List” post, I’ve been wondering what part my expectation plays in what happens during a time of worship (or in anything else for that matter).  As I wrote about my preparation time for worship and how a particular song stood out; and then about how worship took off during that same song in the service, I began to wonder how much of that was because of my expectation?

Why did worship take off at that point?  Had God decided beforehand that he wanted to do something during that song?  Was it because I’d believed He wanted us to sing the song and expected something to happen?  Had we reached a point of critical mass, where enough of the believers gathered had gotten to the place where we were more aware of God’s presence than our own circumstances, so creating a momentum?  What part did others’ expectancy play?  Perhaps all of the above were contributory factors.

As the cartoon above (courtesy of ASBO Jesus) suggests, are our expectations sometimes misplaced or misguided?

I believe that our expectancy plays a part in worship.  I’m curious as to what others might think or have experienced.

Let me know & join the discussion!

Stevenage (am)

I was having the Sunday off from Stevenage this week.  I’ve asked Ali to write a recap; when he sends it through, I’ll update the post.  Meanwhile, if you were there, why not post a comment.  I’m keen to hear how it went.

Exeter (pm)

The songs we sang in Exeter this week were:

• God Of Wonders (Marc Byrd, Steve Hindalong)
• For Who You Are (Marty Sampson)
• Dove’s Eyes (Rick Pino)
• Better Is One Day (Matt Redman)
• Facedown (Matt Redman)

When I’m preparing for a time of corporate worship, there will sometimes be one song which stands out.  When that happens, I will usually build the list around it.  This week, that song was “Dove’s Eyes”.

The first two songs both went well; by that I mean people were connecting with God.  During the next song however, something sweet happened.  The lyrics are quite intimate and as we sang through the chorus, (singing of how much we love Him) I began to get a sense of how much He loves us; it was quite overwhelming and I failed spectacularly to communicate it to everyone present; nevertheless, I knew God was wanting us to know & experience afresh a deep sense of His love for us – and I believe others sensed that too.

We spent some time in “free worship” (improvising our own words and melodies) over the chords of Bb & C; using those chords meant that we could drift in and out of the next two songs which both have the same progression in places.  During this time there was also a prophetic word which I thought confirmed what we sensed earlier and also lined up with the teaching which Mark had prepared.

I love it when different people come with different pieces of the puzzle which fit together to make a beautiful picture.

Links:

This post can also be found in the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com

As a church family, we have been on a tremendous rollercoaster ride over the past few years.  We’ve been rediscovering God’s grace, His passion for His church and His heart for relationships (how we relate to Him & to others).  At the end of his message last Sunday, Mark read out the following statement adapted from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 & Galations 5:22-24 (from The Message translation) as a vision of what church life could be:

Church life never gives up, cares more for others than for self; we don’t want what belongs to others.  We don’t strut and display a swelled head, we don’t force ourselves on others, we are not a “me first” family; we don’t fly off the handle, we don’t keep score of the sins of others, we don’t revel when others grovel, but we take pleasure in the flowering of truth; put up with anything, trust God always, always look for the best, never look back, but keep going to the end.  What is more, we have a growing affection for others, exuberance about life as well as serenity in a mad world.  We have developed a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.  We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.  We know that legalism is helpless in bringing this life about; in fact it only gets in the way.  Because we belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good — crucified.

I’m reminded of the verses in I John 4:19-21 where the writer states that we cannot love the God we can’t see if we don’t love the brother we can see; also in John 13:34-35, Jesus said that our love for one another would be how all men would know that we were His disciples.

“Oh God, let the worship I bring be an authentic expression of the love you gave to me; and let that same love flow freely from me to those around me.”

Stevenage (am)

Wow, what an awesome morning!  Mark stood up to pray at the start of the service; the band began to improvise around the chords of A & D; everyone joined in – praying, worshiping (in English, in tongues), singing – a beautiful, harmonious symphony; and that’s where we stayed for the next 30 minutes or so.

There was an ebb & flow of worship, prayer & prophecy; crescendos that were powerful & passionate followed by times of beautiful, quiet intimacy – all interspersed with words of prophecy and encouragements from scripture (4 or 5 different people sharing what God was saying to them).  We would worship, God would say something to us, we would respond & then worship some more… (& so it continued).

There was no script; we communed with God.  Of course, the set list was “thrown out of the window”; of the six songs originally planned, the only one we sang was:

• Mighty To Save (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan) Mike

Lyrically, the song fitted with the prophetic words that were brought and with parts of the teaching from Mark (though it wasn’t planned that way).

The teaching will probably become the first part of a new series called, “Real Life, Real Church”.  Starting with Jesus’ mandate in John 10:10 to bring us “…life… to the full”, we looked at what He meant when He said “life” (as opposed to our definition); then contrasted John 12:23-26, where Jesus warned against holding on to & loving our own (selfish) lives & how that destroys us compared to living His (selfless) life.

Exeter (pm)

We began with some improvised, “free” worship in the key of E which led straight into the first song:

• You Are Good (Israel Houghton)

We ended the song with a “big finish”; the band holding the last chord while everyone cried out, “You Are Good!” – applauding God, declaring His greatness and shouting His praise.  At the end of the crescendo, I started playing the intro to the next song (which we played in the key of A – making for a smooth transition between the 2 songs):

• For Who You Are (Marty Sampson)

It was a high energy start to the service and people were most definitely engaging.

Wile we were singing this song, a line from the verse stood out to me:

Waiting here patiently

Just to hear Your still small voice again

We quietened the music and I felt impressed to say that God wanted to speak with us and that we needed to spend some time listening – which we did.

Sandra shared a picture she saw; it was of a little child, running care-free through a field, holding her father’s hand; describing the sense of excitement the child felt.  We spent some time in that space.  We sang of our desire to run to Him & hold His hand; He spoke to us about wanting to remove the chains & heavy burdens that hindered us.

We sang two more songs:

• King Of Glory (Brad Avery, David Carr, Mac Powell, Mark Lee, Tai Anderson)
• Your Love Is Like (Rick Pino)

It was funny that after spending time singing about us running to God, the first  line of the next song to sing was:

Who is this King of Glory

That pursues me with His love

The last song was a beautifully intimate response, reveling in His love as we sang:

Your love is like the ocean

I’m drowning in Your presence

Getting lost in the gaze of Your eyes

Getting lost in the warmth of Your smile

Links:

This post can also be found in the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com