Hi Guys, and Happy New Year. It's been so long since I done one of these! I was back at MBC for the first time this decade tonight. I've had a bit of a crazy time recently with work, some nocturnalism/insomnia and a new blog project - but it is GREAT to be back singing again, helping to lead others into prayer and praise to God with the amazingly gifted teams at both MBC and Powerpoint.
We've started a series called 'Fly' at MBC.
Tonight was a lot of opening up to the Holy Spirit and you know I love seeing people's lives being changed from not just knowing about God, but actually knowing God better.
Because of this, we had a lot of spontaneous add-ons to songs, and I can't remember where they go (the um, disadvantage of being 'in the moment' and more focused on God so I have not having quite as much of a clue what songs I was singing or how I was singing them, I just remember how much I was meaning them as I sang).
So the main songs:
There Is A Redeemer - Keith Green
I Stand Amazed in the Presence - Charles H. Gabriel/Chris Tomlin
Because of Your Love - Phil Wickham
Receive Our Adoration (chorus only) - Brenton Brown
All Who Are Thirsty - Brenton Brown/Glenn Robertson
Consuming Fire - Tim Hughes
Surrender - Marc James
More Love, More Power - Jude Del Hierro
Better Is One Day - Matt Redman
This Is Our God - Reuben Morgan
Almighty One - Neil Costley
Somewhere we had a little bit of 'Worship the Lord' by Al Gordon (bridge and chorus only) too.
We had a longer than usual second set because of an extended time of prayer ministry plus communion!
Very ably lead by Neil on vox & acoustic guitar (yes the guy who wrote that last song...it's great, we have several gifted songwriters in our church and you should hear their songs) with the help of the rest of our band - Hannah on keys, Rory on electric guitar, Crooksy on bass, me on the BVs and Tom on the drums in the wee glasshouse.
Not a hitch, if we forget the part where I was standing outside in the freezing cold for a good 10 minutes, phoning a certain worship pastor (ahem) and ringing the doorbell (press and hold rrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggg) about 10 times. Yeah. I wasn't mad about that at all. 'I just thought you were running late' says Mr Worship Pastor.
Don't worry they apologised. I forgave them.
Luckily it wasn't snowing or raining at the time, because I might have had a little more trouble with the whole grace and forgiveness thing. Tee hee hee.
On another note, something on my mind throughout the service, was Haiti. Been praying a lot, and tomorrow I'm going to be giving a donation to the Red Cross Appeal, and plan to give to the Compassion appeal once I get January's wages. I wrote a little bit about it earlier this week, and have links for various appeals. Click here to jump over to it.
Was excellent last night - thanks for your contribution.
ReplyDeleteI laughed a bit at your "(the um, disadvantage of being 'in the moment' ..." paragraph - I've been thinking/reading a bit over the last couple of days about worship and worship music, and particularly about the need to balance the engagement of both heart and head as we worship - both absolutely necessary. I laugh because I think we have moments of the opposite problems (okay, not problems exactly, but couldn't think of a better word!) - you occasionally have the 'lost in the moment' (heart > head) problem, whereas I tend to get hung up on/distracted by exactly what the words mean/whether they make sense/ooh, I like that bit of music/etc (head > heart).
Is the Phil Wickham one a new one for MBC? Was slightly ambivalent about it - great words, but I thought the chorus melody/music could have gone somewhere so much greater. Agree about Neil's song though - I like it more every time we sing it.
Keep it up!
J
I think it's a recent one the Phil Wickham song, I don't think I've sung it at MBC before as part of a worship band anyways.
ReplyDeleteI think I work around the mind/head part more during practice - at home & before 'service' - so that I can just be in the moment and focusing more on God and discerning his spirit of where to go next (e.g. whether to sing into the mic or away from it etc) so I can 'lose' myself in worship so to speak.
I think what I was trying to say (hmm need to edit that paragraph) in my nausea/headache state last night when I wrote this, is that I know that I meant it, because when I'm singing I'm singing and praying in my head to God. But if you asked me afterwards to remember all the technical details like whether Neil did a guitar solo or what order the songs came in, I couldn't remember because I wasn't thinking 'oh, must remember we sang that chorus from this song so I can let everyone know on my 'Sunday setlist' post!