Monday Setlist- 03/18/13

It's been a while since I did this kind of update, but I led worship this past week at Navs and thought I could kill two birds with one stone: update the blog and talk about one of my favorite subjects :)

That subject is worship music, and specifically NEW worship music. At Navs this week Mikey spoke on generosity, and so I picked songs that talked about God's love for us and our response. That's where generosity needs to start for us.

Something I've been chewing on recently is that everything we do should be done out of overflow. We not only love because He first loved us: we have compassion because we were shown compassion, we comfort because we've been comforted, we forgive because we've been forgiven, etc. Being generous is no different. We need to start with how generous God has been towards us.

I introduced a new song this week: "Once and For All" from the latest Passion cd. The chorus is a simple statement of our beliefs as Christians. There's something powerful about declaring something in song, together, that people have believed for millennia (from the Nicene and Apostles' creeds and beyond). The chorus says:

We believe our God is Jesus
We believe that he is Lord
We believe that he has saved us
From sin and death
Once and for all

Simple, beautiful, and True.


Here's the rest of the setlist.

1. "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman-(A)
2. "One Thing Remains" by Brian Johnson and Jeremy Riddle [Jesus Culture]-(A)
3. "Once and For All by Chris Tomlin-(G)
4. "Lord I Give You My Heart" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong]-(G)
5. "Surrender" by Marc James [Vineyard]-(G)

Sunday Setlist- 04/15/12

This weekend I had the privilege to lead worship at Centenary United Methodist Church in Modesto, CA, with a group of amazingly talented friends. The core of the band (Rachel, Brian, Christopher, and myself) is the same as the group that led worship for our regional Navigator conference back in the Fall, and the new additions (Peter and Katie) are welcome ones :)

As we thought about where to take the set and planned it out, Rachel and I chose to concentrate on God's name. Isaiah 26:8 has been a guiding verse this past year. It says:

In the path of your judgements,
O LORD, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
are the desire of our soul. (ESV)

We also aimed to mix more familiar songs with newer songs. The thread that ran through the songs then was opening with adoration and blessing God's name, singing and shouting his name, exalting him as the Name Above All Names, declaring that our hearts will sing no other name, and literally singing and extolling his name again before closing with a request to stir us up again.

1. "Blessed be Your Name" by Matt Redman (A)
2. "At Your Name" by Tim Hughes and Phil Wickham (A)
3. "How Great is Our God" by Chris Tomlin (A)


4. "Forever Reign" by Hillsong (B)
5. "Your Name" by Paul Baloche (B)


6. "Consuming Fire" by Tim Hughes (E)
7. "Come Thou Fount" (E)




The weekend was both a ton of fun and very successful! Thanks to everyone that helped make it happen!

Visiting the USC Navs!!

This past week I was invited by Steven, the Campus Director of the Navs at USC, to come and do worship for their Nav Nite. Because classes don't start until tomorrow at CSULB and most of our students weren't in the area yet, I was able to take advantage of this opportunity to spend time with my friends investing in another expression of the Navigators here in SoCal.

Because their ministry is a newer ministry (only re-established a year and a half ago) than ours, I went with a "shorter is better" philosophy for this set. Better to keep things simple and not wear out your welcome!

The text for the teaching that week was Philippians 1:1-11, so I chose three songs that centered around the themes of God's creative and regenerative work in our lives and our response of glorifying Him. "Cannons" embodied both of those elements: the creator God who established the world with but a breath and our response to him in the phrase "All glory, honor power is yours, amen." "Glory to God"...well, that one's pretty self-explanatory. Again, the emphasis is on our response to the Creator God giving us breath to breathe and praise his name.

Why did I choose this specific focus? Philippians 1:6 says, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" and verse 11 says that this change leading towards purity and blamelessness is to be "to the glory and praise of God." A pretty beautiful truth, no?

As a closing song, I chose one that I'd never done before: "Beautiful Things" by Gungor. I don't know about you, but sometimes I look at myself and doubt that God could use someone like me for his purposes. That's why I absolutely love the chorus of the song:

You make beautiful things :: You make beautiful things out of the dust :: You make beautiful things :: You make beautiful things out of us

If God could create the entire universe out of nothing and then make humans from the dust...well, maybe, just maybe, he could create something out of the mess that my life resembles sometimes!

Sidenote: While playing the worship set, we had all the lights except the projector (which had a predominantly black background) out: I couldn't really see my chord charts or lyrics! Thankfully 1) these are songs I'm fairly familiar with and 2) they aren't terribly complex either!


Worship Set:


1. "Cannons" by Phil Wickham (G)
2. "Glory To God" by Steve Fee (G)
3. "Beautful Things" by Gungor (C)




Does your view of  God as Creator affect your day-to-day experience? Do you have trouble believing he could do a work in your life even though he created everything in existence?

Weekend Setlist

This past weekend The Sunland Navigators hosted an conference for college juniors and seniors called EDGE Preview.  Over the course of the weekend many different post-college opportunities with The Navigators were presented, but the overall focus was on trusting God wherever he takes you, not just if it's in ministry and not just specifically with The Navs.

I had the privilege of leading worship the second morning for the group of 115 or so students and staff. The setup was two guitars, two vocalists, and that's pretty much it. Fun story about the morning: about half an hour or so before our set I discovered that the output jack had fallen INTO my guitar! I had to enlist one of our students with smaller hands and arms than me to reach inside my guitar (after I'd taken all the strings off!) and reposition the jack. Thankfully the screw wasn't hard to track down and we had enough time to perform the "operation" and get my guitar back into playing shape before the set! (It was still kinda crazy to have my guitar basically having open heart surgery though! Thanks Cherenda! :D)

For the set I chose to focus on God's promises, his power, and our response. "You Said" by shane & shane is about one of the most Navigator (especially Sunland Navigator) friendly songs you'll come across: It's all about claiming God's promises, uses imagery from Psalm 2:8 and Matt 9:35-38, and is all about God's glory reaching the Nations. "At Your Name" is a recent favorite of mine...there's something that just works about literally shouting "Yahweh" and dwelling on his might that's...well, powerful. And singing "Living for Your Glory" can be a powerful time of reflection and earnest prayer where we surrender again to God's will (see my friend Caitlin's blog for an example!).



1. "You Said" by Shane & Shane (G)
2. "At Your Name" by Tim Hughes and Phil Wickham (A)
3. "Living for Your Glory" by Tim Hughes (D)




What promises from God are you having trouble believing? What problem are you currently facing that is too big for him? What areas of your life do you need to surrender to him to live completely for His glory?


God, help me to believe your promises, your power, and your purposes. May I seek you and your kingdom first, before all others. 

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?

Monday Setlist-Unplugged! August 29, 2011

Our first NavNite of the year was last Monday, and from a musical standpoint we had a few challenges. The room we meet in is currently being remodeled and just earlier that day that had put in some drywall. Because of the construction we had no sound equipment-no speakers, no moniters, no tvs for powerpoint and no mics.

Worship at that particular NavNite was "unplugged"-we had two acoustic guitars and a djembe (as well as some printed out lyrics for everyone). This is not the ideal setup for leading over 80 people in corporate worship, but we definitely made do. It helped that many of the songs were familiar ones.

One of the highlights of the night happened before worship even began-as we were warming up and practicing Abby Chi, the 6 year old daughter of some of our staff, danced her little heart out to the music! It was a powerful and striking reminder of what it looks like to be so caught up in and unashamed of our worship that we go for it completely and without reservation.

We opened with a single song and then had a five song set after announcements, which seems to be the setup that we'll be going with for the foreseeable future. Especially for the first few NavNites of the semester, we felt it'd be good to wait on having times of reflection or response.

Worship Set:

1. "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall-(G)

2. "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman-(A)
3. "You Alone Can Rescue" by Matt Redman-(A)
4. "Lord, I Need You"-by Chris Tomlin-(A)
5. "Forever Reign"-by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong]-(C)
6. "Everything"-by Tim Hughes (C)

When leading an acoustic set, it becomes very obvious very quickly which songs people know, which songs people like (i.e. sing along to), and which songs fall into both categories. When you have a sound system and mics, any songs people don't know or don't sing along to can be compensated for. Everyone can at least hear the music and the lyrics. However, without that "safety net" of louder sound, it can be a question of projecting so people can hear or a fairly awkward couple of minutes until the next song.

That said, an acoustic set can also lead to incredibly powerful times of corporate worship where you find yourself not leading the worship but participating as everybody sings together. Last Monday we definitely experienced that at various points, but it was undeniable during "Forever Reign" that there was something special/unique going on. No sooner were the first two words ("You are...") out of my mouth than I found myself not leading the song anymore. From the third word of the song ("good") till the end, the room was filled with everyone's voices as we sang about the truths of God's attributes and the response of our hearts to His love. "Forever Reign" is a song that is near and dear to my heart and I couldn't be happier that it's a song that people in our ministry have really latched onto.

Thematically, I wanted to start the semester just dwelling on our need for God-He is the one who rescued us, He will remain faithful to us, He is all we need, and He is the one that we must run to and make our everything. Jesus is the only answer-there's a reason we're focusing on Him this semester in our times in the Word together!

SMT Setlist Part 2-August 25th, 2011

After a focus on God's work in the past, who we are, and who He is, I chose on the second day to pick up where we'd left off: focusing again on our need for God, praising Him, and then turning to the future and God's power to accomplish great things. That's a lot of thematic ground to cover in half an hour of total playing/singing time spread out over two days, but I didn't let that stop me :).

Worship Set:

1. "Lord, I Need You" by Chris Tomlin-(A)
2. "10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)" by Matt Redman-(G)
3. "Mighty to Save" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong]-(G)


Repeating "Lord, I Need You" after singing it the previous day also was a very intentional decision so that these students would already know the song when we sang it on the first NavNite. This proved even more important than I initially thought, as I'll get to in the next post! Short story: technical hurdles lol. When teaching a new song, there's a fine line to walk between playing it enough times that people pick it up and playing it so many times that they get sick of it!

With "10,000 Reasons" also being a new song, I felt it very important to finish with a familiar song. "Mighty to Save" fit the bill perfectly, conveying the truth that I wanted to focus on while putting people in a place where they could sing the words from recall instead of having to read them.


If you haven't yet, check out both "Lord, I Need You" and "10,000 Reasons" by clicking the titles and watching the youtube videos! The entire summer I've been listening to them again and again and again-I can't get enough :)

Later this week: the setlist from our first NavNite on Monday!!

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

Saturday Setlist-Feb 26, 2011

Today and tomorrow I'll be sharing my setlists from a weekend Navigators short-term missions conference that I attended where I was asked to lead worship for about 10 minutes each morning.  Students from all over our region came to Irvine, CA, for instruction and training in how to fundraise and prepare for the various three to five week trips that our region has organized for this summer, in addition to meeting their team leaders and teammates for the first time and beginning to bond as a unit. This is a critical time for our groups-potentially frightening and overwhelming but ALSO potentially encouraging, inspiring, and stretching.

I was torn between introducing new songs or sticking with established songs, but ended up choosing songs that 1) focused on God's power, strength, and our response and 2) were familiar enough that people could sing without PowerPoint.  Familiar songs seemed the best avenue during a weekend overflowing with new information. With all the obstacles that students and staff will face in preparation for and during the various trips, it's critical to bring the focus back to God and His power, His strength, and His heart for the nations. It's only with His help that we'll be able to accomplish anything-but once we realize that we have it, what could stand against us?


Worship Set:

1. "How Great is Our God" by Chris Tomlin (G)*
2. "Lord I Give You My Heart" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong]
3. "The Stand" by Joel Houston [Hillsong]

*all songs in G


For Saturday, the setlist roadmap was starting with God's greatness and moving into our response-He should be the motivation for everything that we do. I also wanted to introduce the theme that God is our God on Saturday in order to pick up on that theme the next morning. God is great and high above us, but He's personal and chooses to love us even though we don't deserve it. As Paul might say, this is a trustworthy saying-Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom we are chief (1 Tim 1:15).

Tuesday Setlist-Feb 15, 2011

This week at Navs I didn't actually lead worship, but I played guitar and sang some backup vocals/harmonies, so I'm gonna go ahead and share the setlist and some thoughts about it. I think that this will be the way that I proceed for the rest of the semester-if that ends up being the case then this will be a biweekly feature. Huzzah for some consistency here! haha

We're going through Ephesians at Navs this semester, and this week Don's message was on God's grace, focusing on Ephesians 2:1-10. Briefly, the first week Don used as an intro week (1:1-2), the second week Don taught on God's blessings (1:3-14), and last week I spoke on Paul's first prayer for the Ephesians (1:15-23). 

With the theme in mind, Rachel and I chose songs that would help us all meditate on some of the truths of God's grace and our response to His free gift to us. (Well, Rachel chose most of the songs. I had input with one or two of them and the overall order.) In creating a roadmap for the set, we started with the fact that we're destitute and unable to save ourselves-only God can rescue us. He has enough grace for us all though, and along with that grace a compassion, love, and heart for us. These truths should lead us to response-thanks for His love, saving, healing, etc. and also praise that "spills from [our] lips, flowing onto the feet of [Christ, our] King."

Worship Set:

1. "You Alone Can Rescue" by Matt Redman-(Ab)
2. "Your Grace Is Enough" by Matt Maher-(C)
3. "Gracious and Compassionate" by Vineyard-(Ab)
4. "Thank You for Hearing Me" by Sinead O'Connor-(Ab)
5. "I Asked You for Life" by Kim Walker [Jesus Culture]-(Ab)


In addition to Rachel and I both playing guitar (with different intonations to create a fuller, richer sound), we were blessed to have Tammy play violin and Ernest play cajon. Tammy was a trooper for playing all the songs in Ab, a [comparatively] more difficult or less common key if your instrument isn't easily capo'd and you need to actually know some actual music theory (we guitarists are so lucky to be able to "cheat" and capo to get into difficult/obscure keys but play familiar chord shapes).

The combination of all the different instruments definitely led to more of a feeling of us being a team and not just a group of different people doing worship occasionally. Hopefully/prayerfully this will continue over the coming weeks!

Praise God for His gift of grace for all of us! He truly deserves all of the love and all of the honor that we can bring!

Tuesday Setlist-Jan 25, 2011

I'm starting a recurring feature here on the blog: Tuesday Setlists. Many of the worship blogs and websites that I frequent have a recurring feature of their own called Sunday Setlists where they share what songs they chose to sing at their respective churches. I lead worship at Navs and we meet on Tuesdays, so I wanted to be able to share the same information but personalize the title.

Note: This won't be a weekly feature. I don't lead worship at Navs every week (we rotate between a few worship leaders) and so it'll only be following weeks that I lead. Also, if you liked a song last night or haven't heard one, just click on it and it'll take you to youtube.

Worship Set:

1. "Joyful/The One Who Saves" by Brenton Brown-(C)

2. "Mighty to Save" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong]-(G)

3. "Nothing but the Blood" by Matt Redman (G)

4. "Because of Your Love" by Phil Wickham (G)

5. "One Thing Remains" by Brian Johnson and Jeremy Riddle [Jesus Culture]-(Bb)

Sometimes the Spirit leads and a set just comes together-this was one of those weeks. Starting with the idea for a medley of "Nothing but the Blood" and "Because of Your Love," I really felt God impressing on my heart the importance to take this time of worship during our first NavNite of the semester to focus on the work that He accomplished on the cross and the way that shows His love for us.

The focus on that theme of the power of God's love and His rescue of us hit home for me in a powerful way once I realized how all the songs worked together. The bridge of "The One Who Saves" says it simply and beautifully: "Jesus, You are my rescue." "Mighty to Save" praises God's status as the "Author of Salvation" the entire time, from the verses to the powerful chorus and through the earnest cry in the bridge. "Nothing But the Blood" and "Because of Your Love" zero in on the fact that Christ's sacrifice for us is accomplished only through the cross: "Because of your cross my debt is paid :: Because of your blood my sins are washed away." And to tie everything together thematically is the bridge from "One Thing Remains":

In death, in life, I'm confident and

covered by the power of Your great love

My debt is paid, there's nothing that

Can separate my heart from Your great love

Don Allen shared Psalm 18:19 later in the evening after worship and I feel it summed up everything that I felt the Spirit communicating as I prepared the setlist and also during the time of worship itself. Psalm 18:19 says: "He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me." David is specifically referring to God delivering Him from Saul, but how true this passage is of us as well! God has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us to His kingdom (Colossians 1:13-14) because of His great love for us! Amazing grace indeed.