Sunday recap

For those of you who prayed for me yesterday, thank you so much. I felt your prayers and worship was really amazing in spite of myself.  You may have wondered what the big deal was with me.  After all, I lead every week, right? I will never forget the admonition that I received from a former Worship Pastor and mentor that I served with in Atlanta with regards to being "good" at what you do. He told me that their will always be danger for me because I am a good musician and I can get up there and "do it" without even thinking twice or asking God for help. That is a caution that I have taken to heart and I think maybe he scarred me a little bit!  We heard a powerful message from our Senior Pastor, Jeff, on not worrying..."THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD"...that is what we are supposed to say when we are tempted to worry. I've already said it a few times today!  Here was our set list....

"Happy Day"
"All Because of Jesus"
"Everlasting God"
"You Never Let Go"
"Blessed Be Your Name"

Read more recaps at Fred's Sunday Setlist Carnival.

At the plate

It's Sunday morning...very early.  I got a call late last night that our main worship leader on the other campus, Clay, is sick, which means Rob has to lead worship out there.  Normally, no big deal except today, Rob was scheduled to lead worship on my campus.  You've heard of musical chairs...how about musical worship leaders? So, I'm thinking through the worship set this morning, changing all the keys, maybe changing a song or 2. Our lead pastor, Jeff, has been on a 3-month sabbatical and just returned last week. He's doing a 3-week Message series entitled "PAUSE" starting today on our campus. He's putting our current Message series on hold while he addresses the worry, fear, and frustration that we are feeling as Americans with our current economic crisis. I'm really looking forward to this series. I've chosen "You Never Let Go" by Matt Redman as a song of reflection today - I'm pumped about that. So, if you read this before 10:30 AM  E.S.T, pray a little prayer for me.  I'm feeling ill prepared (the perfectionist in me!) But, that is usually when God does His greatest work in me...when I'm up at the plate and needing Him desperately to help me swing.

At Bat by Les Tait

Relationships, baby!

I'm a "High D/ High"I" .  I'm a Lion/Otter To summarize these attributes...I am always looking for the party all the time, but on the way to the party, I'm feeling guilty because I should be setting personal goals for myself and my children for the next 5 years(yeah, I'm messed up!). This mix has done pretty well for me in ministry because it has given me the ability to sleep at night when I do have to make tough calls, but it balances me to build relational ministry (I LOVE being with people!) The older I get and the longer I do this, the more I desire relational ministry (I'm talking to my former tech director from ATL right now as I write this blog - he called me AFTER I started this!)  When I think back about the different places of ministry that I served over the last 15 years, it's the relationships I remember not the cool sermon series' we did. It's eating Subway sandwiches every Thursday night while Winfrey and I would set the stage and talk about how to invest in our volunteers and sharing stories of wins in our ministries that week.  It's working on recording new worship songs in my little bitty apartment in NYC with Brett and being blown away at what an amazing songwriter he was. It's having dinner with my drummer  and his wife and hearing his passion to start a Christian music night on Sundays nights at a local music/bar venue on the Island.  I love being able to do the journey with others and come alongside other people in collaboration and accomplish great things personally and creatively. Without these relationships, ministry becomes a real job and I don't want a real job. It was no accident Winfrey called me while I was working on this - I needed his phone call today.  He didn't call for any reason - just wanted to say "Hey." And boy, it meant alot.

Move on

 After 2 years of watching this election unfold, it's like the media has no idea what to do now. I thought Bill Hemmer was going to start bawling saying goodbye to Carl Rove and his hourly "insights." I'm relieved. Let's move on. Sure, I'm one of those that is concerned about some of the issues that our new President built his campaign upon. However, I'm ready to see us talk about how to deal with our country's problems - instead of the cost of Palin's clothes. Let's go, people.

Proud American

How cool is it to see our country ACTUALLY taking an election seriously? I have voted every year since I could and this is the first election that I've seen my fellow Americans embrace the privilege of voting in such mass. Regardless if your guy wins, you have to be proud to see Americans acting like Americans and taking this election seriously. THIS makes me proud to be an American! I only waited 30 minutes to vote...Todd waited for 2 hours...How long did you wait?

Sunday Setlist

It's 8:30 on Monday night...cutting it close this week...
In my book, there is a pretty high standard when it comes to adding a new song to the rotation for our congregational worship (I don' t have a book, but it sounds nice). So I did something this past week that I do not normally do...I introduced 2 new worship songs.  Here was our setlist:
"Counting on God" - Jared Anderson (NEW!)
"Let Me Sing" - Todd Fields
"Because of Your Love" - Paul Baloche
"Mystery" - Charlie Hall (NEW!)
"Center" - Charlie Hall
I talked about "Mystery" a few weeks ago and I finally was ready to do it yesterday...it was such a moment. With everything going on in our world, our people really responded to "Counting on God."  This song can't help but make you feel that God is in control! Great day, great worship. I loved being a worshiper today and a musician.

This blog is a part of the Sunday Setlist Carnival at Fred's