Church services for 26 July, 2009

NEW REHEARSAL TIMES START NEXT WEEK!
7.50am sound, 8am band, data and worship leader, 8.15am backups
3.50pm sound, 4pm band, data and worship leader, 4.15pm backups

Well, this week didn't need much motivation from our behalf, being the launch of the 40 Days of Purpose. What an exciting message the simulcast was! And how exciting it was to play in a band made of mainly ministry team members! Thanks, McKees and Max for filling up the rest of the team. The main thing that I felt in this team was that we all have already bought the vision, we all had heads for worship, we all knew where each of us was at. We met in unity and worship and the music followed. What a great model. Glorfying God, Serving Others, Ministering Excellently.

10am and 6pm services
For All You've Done
I Can Sing of Your Love Forever
Welcome / prayer /communion
Simulcast of 40 Days of Purpose
I Can Only Imagine

I think that the "dictatorship" style of leadership was demonstrated well here (that is, a worship team is not a democracy, but a dictatorship run by the Worship Leader). The songs flowed, and as we had one run in the morning, the evening also opened up to further exploration of song structure.

Sound wise, I was happy with my foldback, however worship directing-wise, I couldn't get a whole sense of the service. I don't know how that could be rectified. I enjoyed playing rhythmically with the bass, perhaps I could have listened to the kick more. I thought that the drums were sensitively played.

Thanks to those who don't normally play in the team, you all did a stellar job! I think we could have done with more rehearsal, and we will know that for next time.

I hope that there will be a next time, with this team. It was such a positive experience. Love you all!

What did you think?

Church services for 19 July, 2009

New rehearsal schedule starts 2 August

This week saw the conclusion of the launching the new vision of the church. Thanks to the worship leaders who both prepared for this weeks in advance. I think that the thoughtfulness and planning you did showed in relatively smooth and worshipful services. Also thanks to those who did serve this week, and came to the all-in. You committed lots of time to this ministry this week. Thanks for your faithfulness. Again, such a professional delivery of the music and tech this week. It is an honour each week to work with you all. Some of you came from gigs the night before, and others from other busy weeks with social / work / family commitments, and yet none of your lack of energy translated in your worship time.

10am service
Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah
Hear Our Praises
Lord Most High
Welcome
Let Your Presence Fall
There is a Redeemer
Prayer / Communion
Sermon
God of This City

What great leading from the piano. Thanks for the strength throughout the band. It is a shame that we did run out of time, and didn't prepare fully for the service. This is a great example of why we are changing the rehearsal times. With the extra time, we would have practised the new song thoroughly, sung through the entire songs to help the data projectionist, and then had a good break in which to refresh and prepare for the service, both personally and for the congregation. Having said that, I think that the service worked well. Please tell me your thoughts.


6pm service
Agnus Dei
How Great is Our God
Welcome / prayer
Your Love is Amazing
Mighty to Save
Word of God Speak
communion
sermon
God of This City

Well, I think the gamble worked at the start. What do you think? Great pulling into worship for the congregation with the lights, the image and then the music start. I think that the fact that people were getting into worshipful, slower songs at the start was a testament to the team for preparing for worship well. Then, shock horror, we did faster songs in the middle. Nice change, I thought. Tight band, and great vocals. I love this team! Glad you are all still together next roster. Although I thought that the drums could have been louder sometimes, I thought the mix was great, the data invisible (which it should be) and a team who pointed to God rather than themselves. Comment on all of this, please!

Love you all, have a great week.

Church services for 12 July, 2009

ALL - IN THIS SUNDAY 2-4pm.
SONGS TO BE LEARNED:
"HE IS LORD" AND "UNSHAKEABLE"

This week saw our senior pastor share the first part of the new vision for the church. There was a sense of anticipation and excitement around these services, and I thought the worship leaders prepared well and created a great atmosphere.

10am service

Crown Him With Many Crowns
Majestic
welcome / interview
Amazing Love (You are my King)
For the Cause
Prayer / communion
Reading / sermon
God of this City

6pm service

Look What You've Done
Blessed be Your Name
Majestic
Welcome / interview / prayer
How Great is Our God
Communion
sermon
God of this City

I'd like to comment on both services at once as they are relevant to both.

From where I was standing (in the congregation in the morning, behind keyboard at night) I thought that the music and tech was of a great standard. I know from my own playing that there were some things that I could improve on and you all are good enough to know where you also can improve (although only small areas). So keep on keeping on improving, won't you. And I could continue in this blog patting you on the back, for which there is merit, but I will settle for saying it is an absolute honour working with you all excellent musicians and tech crew, what a standard we have at church. Amazing.

I have been thinking about as we improve in this ministry (and I can see that we are doing that), we also need to improve in the worship / spiritual side of it as well. Music is such a great vessel and such a beautiful art form that it is good to use it to create what we want. And in general, the worship team members are really good at doing this. But as I have discussed before, if we leave the congregation behind, then we have missed the point. I must say here that I think that we haven't been leaving the congregation behind, and that some great worship occurred as a result of the music on Sunday.

As we prepare for worship on a Sunday, let's focus on the God that gave us the gift, not just the beautiful music that we can create. I am also talking to myself here, as I like to make a habit of making every performance I do, whether worship music or in the secular world, be an offering of worship to God. Sometimes I forget, though, and think that music is just my trade, and I do the job and go home. I want to remember (and hope that you remember also) that it is an absolute honour to have such a cool skill as music (and supporting tech) to use to worship God. And not only that, to lead others in worship. How absolutely amazing and such a big responsibility.

So how do we do this? Simple. Keep talking to God, reading his word, worshipping him in everything that you do. We are all leaders (not just the worship leaders) in the team, so we need to lead by example. Make a habit of shooting up a prayer before you play anything in any context to say "this is for you, God. I hope you like it, thanks for the gift, please help me do my job".

As this church gets bigger and stronger, we can't have weaknesses, particularly in this area. Keep up your good work.

Romans 12:1 (The Message) So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

I'd love your feedback, comment on the blog (you'll just need to sign in with a Google account). Love you all. See you Sunday at the all-in.

Church services for 5 July, 2009

REMEMBER ALL-IN JULY 19 2-4pm

This week saw the final installment of the txt:me series on scripture. The past few weeks we have been centred around 2 Peter 3:16-17. What a challenging but encouraging time for the church. Keep up your daily readings, and your SOAP practices!

The middle weekend of the winter school holidays (apart from new year) is notoriously hard to roster. And as this is the time that many people fall ill, we were really light on morning and night. But, thanks to all of your hard work, and gracious attitudes, I believe that we achieved what we were aiming for.

10am service
Majestic
Sing to the Lord
How Great is Our God
welcome - mission spot
Prayer
Oh the Mercy of God
communion
Sermon
Purify my Heart

Wow, what a hard task the morning service was! After the songs were picked, we then had no piano and no drums. Apart from the second song, which is really drum driven, I thought that we got through the rest well. I tried to get the congregation clapping, but was restricted by my hands on the keys! I heard some great comments about how they liked a change in sound. Perhaps we sould look at that more, if the worship leader can work with that! Song choice again, so apt. Thanks. And thanks too, to the tech support. The new keys organ patch was so sweet in FOH!

6pm service
Ever more
God of Wonders
welcome / mission spot
From the Inside Out
Lord of Lords
prayer / communion
sermon
Your Love O Lord

The rehearsal for this was quite efficient, I thought. There will be a new rehearsal plan out which will be discussed in the all-in, so the singers in particular won't be hanging around unnecessarily. The energy levels were appropriate, I thought, after we discussed it in the rehearsal. Thanks for you all being worship leaders up there on Sunday. The music worked well, and had smooth transitions. Worship leader, I encourage you to look at the roster and start to prayerfully marinate ideas for your next leading, so you don't feel pressured the week leading up to it. Great job, everyone.

Thanks a lot for this week, I love serving alongside you all, what an honour. Have a great week.

Church services for 28 June, 2009

ALL-IN July 19th 2-4pm
Black Cat recording
all welcome this Friday
from 8pm at the Portico

This week's theme was the penultimate installment of the TXT: ME series - "Scripture is useful for correcting". Nice song choices in both services to support this. Thanks to both services' teams for working on crafting the songs well. I believe this is the next step in making the worship experience better.

10am service
To God Be the Glory
For All You've Done
Open the Eyes
Welcome
Your Love O Lord
Prayer / Communion
Sermon
Jesus Messiah

Be warned, am team, the rehearsals are about to start earlier! Come to July 19 2-4pm all-in to hear the details. Thanks for the beautiful communion music. I have heard nice comments about it this week.

This week was well presented and as a whole delivered on creating a worshipful atmosphere. A couple of points I'd like to make is to make sure that the backups stick to the one harmony or at least agree on the vertical structure of the song (that is the positions of the harmonies). Thanks for listening to the CD and learning the added colours in the recordings. That made for nice flourishes. Also, make sure, band, that you watch the worship leader, as a few rehearsed cues were missed by the drummer. Perhaps we need to turn the kit a bit more towards the stage. And in particular the hymns, make sure data operator that you are on top of changing the slides, there is nothing more scary than leading a hymn where you don't know the next words!

Having said that, these are minor points, and I think it is all to do with attention and preparation. All in all great service.

6pm service
Take It All
You'll Come
Hosanna
Welcome
Mighty to Save
Prayer / Communion
Sermon
Word of God Speak
Open the Eyes of My Heart

Being part of this team, I felt a great sense of unity and worship. Thanks to the leader for creating that atmosphere. And I stand corrected, we could do Take It All, and well!. Stellar lineup I must say. Excellence and worship - that is what we're aiming for, isn't it? All in all, thanks for the preparation by the leader, and I felt that I personally was stretched to the limits of my ability (and memory!) but we pulled it off. I am loving the fact that the worship leaders are taking these services into their own.

The other thing that we are aiming for is to lead the congregation. And that means that they need to follow. I don't actually have an opinion on whether this happened, as I was concentrating on my job. What do you all think? It was a gamble, I think, to have so many solo breaks and so far I have had a couple of mixed reactions. Some absolutely loved it and felt they worshipped more, some felt bit more traditional about it and didn't worship more. I'd love to hear your feedback.

Thanks to the backup who brought it on herself to share in Word of God Speak. It was fantastic. And perhaps the answer to feeling comfortable in solo breaks or instrumental intro and outros is to direct what to to which is what you did in this song.

But you can't deny that the quality was there, the sound was good, and having a musician / sound person on data is so helpful! Be warned, we are tightening up the rehearsal schedule, come to the July 19th all in where it will be explained fully.

Thanks team, love you all!

Church services for 21 June, 2009

The morning service was led by our wonderful team of children and their leaders. It was a fantastic service, and thanks to those who put the hours of effort into making it happen.

I will only comment on the PM service this week as it was the only one I had a hand in!

6pm service
There's a Saving One
Look What You've Done
Welcome
Hosanna
Prayer / Communion
Sermon
Every Day

I thought that this service was fantastic. It brought the Spirit of God into the service time. Something wonderful happens when people are obedient to their calling. Well done to the team for leading us in worship.

I thought that after the band listened down to the bass that it sounded more unified, and therefore more powerful. Keep going with that, and never stop listening! Great work with the different colours that came out, from the IMPROVISING PIANO (I told you you could do it!) to the different guitars. Nice work for the worship leader, too, for playing when you could and leaving it to the band when not. That is mature listening and decision making.

Vocally it sounded good. Again, the worship leader doesn't have to sing or play the whole time, just as long as someone else does. Really clear leading, particularly in the final song. Keep it up. Girls, nice rehearsal suggestions. It's nice to have people there who really know the songs. You also respected the worship leader role too. I encourage you to continue to learn harmonies. It will take the sound to the next level.

I have put you on as a team in the next roster so think about what you might like to do in the service. Perhaps you have an item that you might want to present sometime. Be prayerful in your song choices, I will contact you closer to the time.

But above all, keep praying, keep reading the Bible, keep listening to God. That is where worship starts, and without that, you can't lead worship.

Be encouraged, you did a fantastic job.