Conference Setlist 10/28-10/30

This past week we had our Regional Conference for the Navigators: 370 students from around 14 different campuses (in Hawaii, California, Arizona, and Utah!) gathered in Pine Valley, CA (near San Diego) for three days to pursue God intentionally and corporately. This is an annual event but this was by far the largest amount of people that we'd ever had come! We maxed out the facilities at the camp we were at and were scrambling to find places for everyone to lay their head down at night! Praise God for an amazing problem to have to deal with: TOO MANY STUDENTS! :)

I was honored to be asked to lead worship throughout the weekend, an opportunity I jumped at! God has blessed me with this passion and our ministry at Long Beach with an overabundance of talented musicians! So I assembled a six piece band (including me: two acoustic guitarists, one electric, piano/keyboard player, bass player, and drummer) and we set to practicing and preparing.

I could go on and on about how the weekend went, but to keep it short and simple: it surpassed all my expectations! The band really came together well and I think we found that balance between not being so BAD that you're distracting but also not being so GOOD that you're distracting (i.e. making it a performance). The feedback that I got over the course of the weekend was nothing but encouraging and I'll never forget specific moments from the weekend like the first song, the various times everyone sang a-cappella ("How Great Thou Art" being the most obvious), and the ways I saw God moving and answering prayers during the extended time of worship Saturday night.

Normally when I lead worship I share the songs and link to youtube videos of the songs, but this time there's just too many! We played close to thirty different songs and repeated a few of them, so if I were to do that...well, it'd just take FOREVER. I have a compromise, however, with two aspects.

First, I've still included the list but only linked to songs that are newer or people asked me about. If you have questions about any of them, however, PLEASE let me know and I'll do my best to accommodate you!

Second, if you have Spotify you can go to my profile (click here!!) and I've put all these songs in a playlist! If you DON'T have Spotify...well, you should lol. Anyways, I hope one of these two ways will be beneficial to you!

I've organized the songs into a list that's arranged by the them of each talk they were with, since that's how I chose the songs in the first place. Again, let me know if you have any questions or anything!

Jesus
1. "Your Love Never Fails" by Chris McClarney [Jesus Culture] (Bb)
2. "In Christ Alone"by Stuart Townend (D->E)
3. "Hosanna" by Hillsong United (E)

4. "Lead Me to the Cross" by Hillsong United (D)
5. "Jesus Paid it All" modern arrangement by Alex Nifong (B)
6. "Forever Reign" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong] (C)

7. "Center" by Charlie Hall and Matt Redman (E)


The Nations
8. "The Highest and the Greatest" by Tim Hughes (Bb)
9. "Saviour of the World" by Ben Cantelon (Bb)
10. "Mighty to Save" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong] (Bb)
11. "Be Thou My Vision" (E)


Laborers
12. "Here I am to Worship" by Tim Hughes (D)
13. "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman (A)
14. "Consuming Fire" by Tim Hughes (G)
15. "I Lift My Eyes Up (Psalm 121)" by Brian Doerksen (C)

16. "Living For Your Glory"

Extended Night of Worship 

17. "Cannons" by Phil Wickham (G)
18. "You Alone" by David Crowder (C)
19. "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan (C)
20. "Nothing Is Impossible" by Planetshakers (C)
21. "Our God" by Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman (G)
22. "Your Love Never Fails" **
23. "At Your Name" by Phil Wickham and Tim Hughes (A)
24. "One Thing Remains"by Brian Johnson and Jeremy Riddle [Bethel Church] (A)
25. "Sweetly Broken" by Jeremy Riddle (C)
26. "The Lost are Found" by Sam Knock and Ben Fielding [Hillsong] (A)


The Lost
27. "I've Found a Love" by Ben Cantelon (A)
28. "At Your Name" **/"How Great is Our God"/"How Great Thou Art" (A)

29. "Rescue" by Desperation Band (C)
30. "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall (B)
31. "The Lost are Found" **

32. "Be Thou My Vision" **
33. "Our God" **
34. "Forever Reign" **

**=repeats



What song(s) were most impactful for you? Which ones had you not heard before or in a long time? Favorites?

SMT Setlist Part 1-August 24th, 2011

This week was our retreat for about 25 of our students where we planned for the upcoming semester and did some training, equipping, and praying (actually a LOT of praying!). With school starting this coming Monday, we needed to get all of our ducks in a row and plan out events and outreach strategies for the first two weeks of the semester, a very crucial time for recruiting and for meeting new students!

I led a time of worship both days of the retreat and the times served to bookend our time together-the first thing we did Wednesday Morning was worship and the last thing we did Thursday before praying over the campus in the evening was also worship. In the days leading up to the retreat I couldn't help but get excited for the opportunity! It had been several months since I had worshipped with many of these folks and I also had some new songs that have really been speaking to me over the summer that I wanted to introduce.

For the first day, I chose to focus on what God has done for us in the past, who we are, and who He is. I felt it crucial to take advantage of this time to attune all of our hearts collectively to these truths so that we could operate in light of them as we looked to the future.


Worship Set:

1. "Sweetly Broken" by Jeremy Riddle-(A)
2. "Lord, I Need You" by Chris Tomlin-(A)
3. "Forever Regin" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong]-(A)


"Sweetly Broken" is a great meditation on Christ's work on the cross, "Lord I Need You" focuses on our lack and how He meets us in that lack, and "Forever Reign" is basically praising God for attribute after attribute, truth after truth.

"Lord, I Need You" is a newer song that we sang a lot in Russia as a team and I love its simplicity: we need God. Its hymn-like quality is in large part due to its inspiration, the hymn "I Need Thee Every Hour." This is a song that I intend to lead quite often at Navs :).


Tomorrow: the set from the second day!

Tuesday Setlist-May 3, 2011

For inspiration in deciding which songs to play this week, I started with Ephesians 6:10, which says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." This was our final week in Ephesians (aside from a quick summary/wrap up next week) for our NavNites. 

With God's strength and power as a focus, the journey for the set, from our helplessness to the Crucifixtion and Resurrection to our response, crystalized. Although we are in dire need of rescue, we cannot save ourselves-its only God who can do that. Ephesians 1:19-20 tells us that this same power from 6:10 is the power that raised Christ from the dead and that Jesus predicted in John 16:33 (overcoming the world). These truths should lead us to a response of praise, exalting Christ for paying our debt and raising us up from the dead.

Worship Set:

1. "You Alone Can Rescue" by Matt Redman-(B)

2. "Death in His Grave" by John Mark McMillan-(D)
3. "Take Heart" by Joel Houston [Hillsong]-(B)
4. "Jesus Paid it All" modern arrangement by Alex Nifong (B)

5. "All to Us" by Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin- (B)
6. "Enough" by Chris Tomlin -(B)


A few notes on one of the songs: "Death in His Grave" is a recent favorite of mine, with hymn-like lyrics that border on too wordy, a unique time signature, and poetic imagery that tells the story of the Resurrection in a fresh way. John Mark McMillan (who also wrote "How He Loves") is definitely helping to lead the way in a movement to keep worship from becoming stale, formulaic, or lacking the Spirit, and I greatly respect him for that.

Tuesday Setlist-March 15, 2011

Being flexible is a key aspect of leading in any regards, but it was especially true of leading worship this past week at Navs. I had originally prepared to do all the songs at the beginning of the evening, but we ended up having a time of response to the message at the end of the night. The flow then changed from one five song set to two sets-one of four songs at the beginning and a single song to close. Thankfully the Spirit had led in a direction song-wise and one of the songs already worked perfectly!

Additionally, the setlist looked a LOT different originally (the only two that made the transition were "Forever Reign" and "Your Love Never Fails"), but in response to some personal and global circumstances I felt strongly led to use the time of worship to dwell on God's peace. From there the songs really just fell into place-some even the day of practicing with Rudy and Athena! It isn't always this clear every time I sit down to arrange a set, but I really felt Spirit-led in arranging it this time. 

The flow of the set started with us expectantly asking of God, then dwelling on God's character and God's love for us. These songs proclaim some powerful, powerful truths about God and it was amazing to watch the Spirit move in the room and use the time to impact hearts.

Worship Set:

1. "One Thirst" by Jeremy Riddle [Bethel]-(A)
2. "Beauty of Your Peace" by Tim Hughes-(C)
3. "Forever Reign" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong]-(C)
4. "Your Love Never Fails" by Chris McClarney [Jesus Culture]-(G)

5. "Always" by Kristian Stanfill [Passion]-(A)


I led and played guitar, Rudy played piano, Athena sang backup vocals and played guitar, and Mr. Steven Crawford made a cameo on the drumset. One of the biggest blessings of serving with the worship team is the opportunity to serve with such quality and qualified people week in and week out!

To walk step-by-step through the "roadmap" for the evening: "One Thirst" is an amazing request and invocation of the Spirit to come and be present in our worship in addition to being a beautiful time to prepare our hearts for what's to come. I especially wanted to sing it because Rachel had introduced it the previous week and I wanted to sing it again and really let people learn it and dwell in it for a bit. "Beauty of Your Peace" is an earnest plea for God to replace everything that is the opposite of peace and fill our lives instead with Himself. "Forever Reign" just might be my favorite worship song currently, proclaiming truth after truth after truth about God's character in the verses and then moving into a chorus and bridge of our response: running to His arms. "Your Love Never Fails" is a celebratory declaration about just what it sounds like: God's unfailing love. And "Always" proclaims a simple truth: God will always be our help, our refuge, our strength. our all.

I can't say how it was in the audience, but from my standpoint on stage it couldn't have been clearer that God was speaking to those gathered during and through the time. Every aspect of leading worship is a privilege, but one of the ones that I appreciate the most is one of the best seats in the house to watch God at work, speaking and responding to His children as they cry out to Him. Gives me chills just thinking about it :).

Sunday Setlist-Feb 27, 2011

Picking up on the theme of God being our God that we'd established Saturday morning, I chose to focus the Sunday morning worship wholly on God's greatness. Whereas on Saturday the set moved from how great He is to our response, Sunday morning we started with God's greatness and camped there for all three songs. 

Worship Set:

1.  "Mighty to Save" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong] (G)*

2. "Our God" by Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin

3. "Awesome God" by Rich Mullins 

*all songs in G

"Our God" and "Awesome God" are such a natural pairing that I really can't think of singing one without the other anymore. If you sing them as a medley it really works well-the transition is organic both musically and thematically (just like singing "How Great Thou Art" immediately after "How Great is Our God").

Both are incredibly powerful anthems: one from the previous generation of worship leader songwriters and one from the current one, but both conveying the same great truth! God reigns! He is sovereign, greater, high above us, and yet does not abuse this position. Instead, He reigns in wisdom, power and love. And with Him on OUR side, what is there to fear? As Psalm 23:4 says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me."

Selah

Desert Song: Behind the Scenes

Yesterday in my blog I quoted from Hillsong's "Desert Song" and included a link to a performance of it by Brooke Fraser and Jill McCloghry, two of Hillsong's worship leaders. Today I stumbled across the story of what happened in Jill's life in the weeks prior to that recording. It is a powerful testimony of Jill's incredible faith and trust in the midst of the most difficult of circumstances and really adds even more depth to the song itself. I've posted two videos, first posting the interview with Jill and second reposting the song itself.