Hey, You! Get Into My Choir! (Sunday Setlist 02-02-14)

The stage at Northside Baptist Church's building (without the worshipers.) 

As I write this, it is Wednesday night and I'm still smiling thinking about this past Sunday.
You see, we did something a little different than the norm.

I forced some people to sing in the church choir Sunday morning.

Well, maybe not forced, but pressured them into it for sure.

I'd done this a few years ago at my former church and it went well, so I tried it again.

Wednesday night in choir rehearsal, I explained to the choir what we'd be doing.  I told them that, Sunday, everyone would just sit with their families, then during the fellowship portion of the service, they were to each bring someone into the choir loft with them. I knew this would cause people to laugh and cut up and have conversations like:

Congregant : "I'm not going up there!"
Choir member: "Why not? Do you not love Jesus?"

Once we were all in place, I'd take a few minutes to discuss worship and how important it is that we smile and worship with more than just our words...

If we are just singing the words on the screen, that's not worship. That's just singing.
Worship has to start with our heart,
that overflows into our thoughts,
then that overflows into our facial expressions and voices.

Sunday, when our impromptu choir began singing "Shout To The Lord" (a song I felt confident everyone would be familiar with), I was blown away by the volume and by the great sound the choir had. Many of our choir members chose people to bring up that had been in the choir before or who they knew could sing well.
It sounded great! I was blown away by both the beautiful harmonies and the expressions of worship in smiles, raised hands, etc. It was a day of worship I won't soon forget.

Big thanks to Tonya Rice for posting the video to facebook.

There were other great moments in the service too.
Here's a full list of what we did Sunday...
click the song title to go to lifeway and hear the exact version we did.
                                                                       

Sunday School Report/Announcements - John                                                                       

Sing To The King                                                           

Come Christians, Join to Sing     (An updated arrangement of a good old hymn)

Welcome / Prayer / Kids Message - David                                                       

Lord, Reign In Me                                                                                   

Choir Special - Shout To The Lord                                                                  

The Wonderful Cross                                                               

Offertory Prayer                                                                                                    

Offertory Interlude                                                                                               

Message - David

Invitation - Wherever He Leads I'll Go

Closing Prayer

Looking back on this, I see that I was very 1990's in my song choices.
But that's ok with me. I wanted to stick with songs most people would be familiar with.
It was a good day worshiping God with my church family.

How would you react if someone forced you onstage on Sunday morning?

This post is part of the blog carnival at TheWorshipCommunity.com. You can go here to see what other churches are doing in their services around the world.

New Year's Day 2014 - A Video

I considered sitting on my rear all day today and watching the "website I've never heard of" sponsored "bowl game that doesn't matter."

Instead, I decided to join the kids in the yard for a lot of fast and furious fun. I chose wisely.

I hope you enjoy this recap as much as we did filming it.

 

 

Sunday Setlist 12-08-13

First, a quick recap, since I haven't blogged much recently.
In mid-September of this year my family and I started on a new journey when I accepted a full time ministry position at Northside Baptist in Jasper, AL.

-My first Sunday was September 22nd. This church for years has worshiped with a blended worship style using only piano and organ.
-My second Sunday, the organist (who had played here for 50+ years)  turned in her resignation. Upon receiving this news, I was afraid I had done something to offend her, but she quickly let me and the church know she felt like it was just the right time. As usual, God has a way of working these things out, because that same week we filled the position from within the church and began discussing the possibility of adding a keyboard.
-My 6th Sunday, we added guitar and percussion to the praise band.
-My 11th Sunday, we added the keyboard we'd been researching. (We chose the Kawai MP6 for it's ease of use and great sound.)

-Yesterday, my 12th Sunday at Northside, we added another percussionist and our other percussionist played mandolin some (and will likely play bass soon.) Have I mentioned the fact that the Northside church family is dripping with musical talent? I should have. I'm looking forward to utilizing all these soloists and musicians more in the future.

I am LOVING this process, every part of it:
-Getting to know the folks here.
-Working with our 40-50 voice choir.
-Adding people to the praise band, allowing more folks to be a part of the worship leading process.
-Working with the sound guys to get the best possible sound from our system.
-Watching the church family worship God and enjoy the music.

There is still a growing list of things I want to accomplish.
This list seems to get longer everyday. A few of these things I'm working on include:
-Evaluating the current sound system to see if it can meet our growing needs. Comparing options for either a hearback system or maybe just getting a new digital board with personal monitor iphone app capabilities.
-Adding a full drum kit and bass player. The only thing holding this up is the sound system issues.
-Incorporating a vocal praise team.
-Continuing to tweak the service flow.

While we work through all of those, we continue to strive to glorify God in our services every week.
Here's what we did to accomplish that yesterday, along with a  few notes...
__________________________________________________________________________
Prelude - Organ  (I said we got a keyboard. I never said we got rid of the organ.)
Sunday School Report - John

Sing To The King (Billy James Foote)
O Come All Ye Faithful (contemporary hymn arrangement)

Welcome / Prayer - David

Fellowship Song  - Angels From The Realms of Glory (contemporary hymn arrangement)

Children's Message - David

Your Name (Paul Baloche) w/ new Christmas themed 1st verse from Baloche's Christmas album.
Looking back, I think I should have done the chorus to this another time or two. Based on the raised hands and worshipful expressions in the room, I think people were really connecting with it.
Cornerstone (Hillsong)
This was our first time to sing this as a congregation. The youth choir sang it a month or so ago for the first time at Northside. I was a little surprised how many people sang out on it since it was new. It went great.  I had planned ahead of time to trim the 3rd verse and choruses at the end. But, when doing it, it felt like we ended too soon. I definitely wish I had kept the song going longer.

Offertory Prayer

Choir Special - Do You Hear What I Hear? w/ solo by Jill Bailey.
This was the first time our choir and praise band did a song together. It sounded great. We've been having some choir mic issues in recent weeks (mostly because I moved the choir mics a month ago and they didn't perform as well where I put them.) but this week we tried something new with the mics. Based on feedback I've received so far, it sounded great to others too.

Message - David
Invitation: I Have Decided To Follow Jesus (Hymn)
Closing Prayer
Postlude - Organ
______________________________________________________________________

I continue to see how God has led my family and I to Northside. I know we're where He wants us to be.
We're looking forward to seeing what He has in store for us here in the weeks, months, and  years to come.

Want to get updates on all my posts? You can like Tales From Street Road on facebook.

This post is part of the blog carnival at TheWorshipCommunity.com. You can go here to see what other churches are doing in their services around the world.

10 Questions I Have About My New Job

Have you heard I got a new job?
No?
Then you must not follow me on social media.
I've kind of talked about it a lot.
Too Much?
Maybe.
But alas, I continue....

I worked out most of the details regarding my new position during the interview process, but now that I'm only a few days from actually starting, I've realized I have some more important questions about my new position. Most of these are rhetorical and don't require an actual answer. But you Northside folks feel free to answer any that you can.

1- The New Thor movie comes out in early November. Will I have met and friended a group of fellow nerds by then to go see it with me?

2 - Will someone be offended that, instead of the typical "footprints in the sand", I'll have this framed poster hanging in my office?

3 - How many times during the first month will I turn the wrong way off of Street Road when heading to work?

4 - In my 15+ years of driving an hour to work, I've gotten pretty good at getting important tasks accomplished from the car. You have to learn to be productive when you're in the car for 2 hours a day. Now that my commute will only be about 1/3 as long as it used to, when am I supposed to watch all those shows on netflix listen to all those podcasts that I used to while commuting?

5 - Will the Northside family be interested in going to Cricket County?

The cast of Westwood's 2010 play "Christmas in Cricket County"... and my farmer's tan.

6 - I've got to decide which senior adult woman to adopt as my grandmother. How will I figure out who is the best cook? (I know the answer to this one. Eat a meal with them all.)

7 - It is very important  that  I  that my boys figure out who is the candy man. Every church has one right? You've got to know the man who will slip you a piece of candy when you shake his hand on Sunday morning.

8 - Will Gavin and Ethan do well in the Northside children's choir? Their musical tastes are pretty varied.

9 - Who at Northside will Kristi have a "special"* relationship with like she did with Joseph at Westwood?

I know I used this pic yesterday. It's too good not to use again.

10 -  Do the folks at Northside have any idea what they've gotten themselves into?

I know I said 10 questions. But this just has to be included.

11 - On my first night there, someone asked me, in front of the whole church, if people who live in the community where I live "fight your chickens before you cook 'em." I knew right then we'd get along just fine. But still it's worth asking.....

Do I have any idea what I've gotten myself into?


*special = love / hate

Sunday Setlist - September 8th 2013 - Goodbyes, Tears, and Laughs.

I'll admit, this should probably be 3 or maybe even 4 separate posts, but I'd rather just get it all out there because all this happened on the same day.

This past Sunday was my last day on staff at Westwood Baptist Church.
When planning the Sunday morning service, I really wanted to take the focus off of me completely, but it was hard not to pick some of my favorite songs knowing it would be the last time I'd lead them with this group of worshipers.

Here's what we did, and why, along with some video clips. (Thanks to my mother in law, Karen, for the videos)

Special Music: Deep Down (Selah)- Kara Kinnaird, Heather Potts, and myself.
We had done this song together a few times over the past couple years. My life was threatened by at least 4 people if I didn't include it one of my last Sundays.


Days Of Elijah (Darlene Zschech)
I had never heard this song prior to joining Westwood in 2001. It was one of our favorites then and still gets everyone on their feet when we sing it. Such a powerful song that focuses on our returning Savior. I especially love the drum solo we always start with.


My Savior, My God (Aaron Shust)
I picked this one for two reasons..1.It is a solid worship song the church knows well that would be a little more mellow that the previous two songs. 2. Because of the first line of the verse. "I am not skilled to understand what God has willed what God has planned. I only know at His right hand stand one who is my Savior." I teared up for the first time that morning singing that line. Trusting in Him as my family makes this transition.

Welcome / Announcements / Fellowship
As I looked over the announcements to be made, I purposefully skipped mentioning my ordination or farewell fellowship to take place that night. It just felt a little self serving to say anything about it. I was tempted to say "There's some kind of fellowship tonight. I heard rumor that people like cheesecake." But I avoided that temptation and didn't say anything.

One thing that I did out of the ordinary is I paused to take some pics of everyone. I even went as far as to say "Bear with me while I do this. But then again, if you don't like it, what are you going to do? fire me?"
I was not expecting my hands to begin shaking as I took the pics. They started shaking because the realization that this is the last time I'll see this view hit me like a ton of bricks. So I apologize that these pics are so blurry.

Power In His Blood Medley (HYMNS)
This is just an arrangement of hymns that I put together years ago. I love hearing the Westwood musicians jam on this. I wouldn't generally describe them as southern, but they know how to groove on this when asked. Lots of fun and a perfect song of celebration while coming out of a fellowship time.


10,000 Reasons (Matt Redman)
Love this song. Picked it because of all the reasons I have to Praise God.


Offertory Prayer

Choir Special: Saved (Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir)  - Solo by Kara Kinnaird
As soon as knew when my last Sunday at Westwood would be, I asked Kara to sing this song. It's one of my absolute favorites and I love to hear her sing it.

Your Name (Baloche)

Message: Bro. Steve

Invitation: I Surrender All (HYMN)
Closing Chorus: Sing To The King  (Billy Foote)

It was a special day to all, as evidenced by this picture of The Lovely Kristi and Joseph hugging. THIS IS A MIRACLE YA'LL.

That service was very powerful to me. I was encouraged. I was spiritually fed. I was led in worship by the musicians, the choir, the praise team, and the congregation. I am SO thankful for every day I was allowed to serve this church family.

Now on to Sunday night...
Sunday night I was ordained into full time ministry.

I thought it might be emotional because I was leaving but the emotion I felt was also fueled by the seriousness of the service and...
knowing that all these people were praying for me, praying with me, supporting me,
knowing that God had clearly let me know His will and that I was following it,
knowing that my Dad would have been bursting with pride if He had been there,
It was all very moving.

I'll admit... I cried like a baby.
But tried to hide it as I looked towards the floor in prayer most of the time.
(Note To Self: The next time you participate in an ordination service make sure the candidate has tissues nearby in case he becomes a teary/snotty mess.)

I will never forget some of the things the men said to me as they prayed with me.

(I guess I could have laid down on the step and looked a little more like Jabba The Hut. {sigh} Oh well, I guess I'll keep my weight comments for another blog entry.)


I will also never forget the words that my "best good friend" Joseph shared with me as he challenged me during the charge to the candidate.

Not only did he encourage me to be myself and not compare myself to other worship leaders, but he also ended by sort of singing and dancing the song "Brother Friend" including the part where you say "you're my beginning and my end" and point to your butt.
It was precious.
Sorry, no video is available.

The day ended with a farewell fellowship. We were given lots of encouraging words and hugs. We were also given a ton of cards and unexpected gifts. It was a fun time with lots of laughs. But it was also very special for me and my family.

One of my favorite ladies at WBC, Mrs. Elaine Fuller, asked me if I would accept this rose. I'd be a fool not to. I'm definitely going to miss her, Mrs. Olive, Mrs. Maxine, and many others who have been special to me over the years.

As we left there that evening, I walked into the main office, removed my church keys from my key ring, and placed them in my empty office mailbox for the office staff to find the next morning. We walked out of the office with no one else around.
We climbed into the car and started to leave. Instead of just pulling out onto the road, I took a right turn, taking us all the way around the building one last time. The boys asked me what was wrong.
I was crying.
Kristi was crying.
We were holding hands and I drove.
I explained to the boys we were just thinking about the past. This church ministered to us when Ethan was born, when Gavin was born, when Kristi's Grandfather passed away, when my father and grandmother passed away, and every other day over the past almost 13 years that we've been members.
I explained to them how excited I am about our future and about what God is doing with our family.

By the time I was done talking we were almost out on the highway.
I think that's when Kristi said something like...
Can you believe that idiot (Joseph) ended his talk with "Brother Friend?!?"
It was the perfect way to stop the tears and starts the laughs.

This post is part of the blog carnival at TheWorshipCommunity.com. You can go here to see what other churches are doing in their services around the world.