#SundaySetlist #InHisImage

We started a new series last week titled 'In His Image' discussing the topic of Creation and beginnings.  So far it's been a great series.  This week focused on the thought God created us for the purpose to bring Him glory!  We rearranged the service quite a bit and I lead just on acoustic.  No drums, or electric guitar, or bass.  It was completely different from what I have done since I've started but it was great to be able to hear the church sing their hearts out!  We laid the service out so that instead of the music being a preparation of the heart for the sermon, we put the sermon right at the beginning, that made the worship a response to the Word.  It actually turned out great!  I love to hear the voices of many proclaiming the love of Christ in a unified song.

This is our #sundaysetlist

Welcome - Josh (lead Pastor)

Video Buffer - The G.O.S.P.E.L (life in 6 words) 

Message - In His Image: Creation (Josh - Lead Pastor)

Worship Set
  - From the Inside Out (Hillsong)

  - God of Wonders (Third Day version)

      - Scripture reading: Necia DiTrapani - Psalm 19.1-9,14

  - How Great is Our God (Tomlin)

  - Doxology (Crowder Version)

Closing & Announcements (Josh - Lead Pastor)

We are excited where this series is headed.  If you are interested in the series, feel free to listen to our Evident Church Podcast on iTunes

#SundaySetlist

This morning we had amazing service! It was our baptism Celebration service so instead of having a message and a typical layout, we focused the entire morning on the baptisms.  We had songs that were geared toward washing our sins away and our redemption in Christ.  What we envisioned was 'BIG,' massive celebration and I would consider it a successful service.  Here's our #Sundaysetlist.

Video - Baptism (http://rv.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/15480/Baptism)

Welcome - Rosalie (our children's director)
    She gave a small presentation explaining what baptism is using a naked barbie ken and peanut butter.  We try to cover our sins with stuff (going to church, good deeds) but God is the only thing that can wash us clean.  It was a great intro to the service

Worship Song - Our God is Greater (Tomlin) - B
    We wanted HUGE!  We started off with the band doing a driving beat while I coached the church describing why today was a celebration.  This is where we wanted to "raise the temperature" of the room.  I backed my coaching from Psalm 100 - Shout for joy, all the Earth.  We even did some shouting.  We had great congregation participation this morning!

Baptisms - 5 people!
   We had 2 sets. We had each person read a short story they had written about their lives, conversion and calling to baptism.  Some of the stories were very emotional.  It was an amazing addition to the service.  Some of the people being baptized were younger, and this was a great way to help them understand what they were doing.  We had each participant go through a booklet describing what baptism is and some questions to help them write their story.

Worship Songs
    Forever Reign - B (Hillsong)
    Jesus Messiah - B (Tomlin)
        Once again, the theme was Huge!  Another word I would use is passionate.  I would say that since I've been a worship leader at Evident this was the most united and participative the church has been in worship.  At one point I think the kids (1st grade and up were in the service with us this morning) were actually singing louder than the adults! I would step back away from the mic and just bask in the sound of the congregation proclaiming their worship.  It was an amazing sound!

Baptisms - 5 people! 
    We borrowed a portable baptism and had it set up basically at the bottom of the stage in the center of the room.  If felt as if the baptism was the center of attention for the morning, which is exactly what we wanted.  It was a lot of work for a portable church but the payoff for this type of service was very great!

Closing Worship Song - Happy Day - C (Fee)
    This was a great song to close the day of celebration.  Once again BIG.  I did some more coaching at the beginning of the song to help the congregation sing from their hearts.

Announcements/Offering/Closing
    We ended after the song with just a few announcements (small groups, Offering - which was basically at the back door, drop it on your way out, and a few other things).  Once the congregation was dismissed we played a few lines of Happy day and officially ended the service.


It was an amazing day.  The baptisms were amazing, the worship was amazing and the atmosphere of the entire morning was very upbeat and full of excitement!  One thing I wish we would have thought of was having a small graphic of the people getting baptized. We also had trouble mic'ing the people in the baptism (trying to be as safe as possible).  Things for the future, but all in all, a great day.

#SundaySetlist

In the Worship Leader blogging world there is a following titled #sundaysetlist where worship leaders will post about their sunday worship services and tweet the songs that they did. I am going to start sharing about once a series or so what we are doing on sundays to first, help me reflect on what all happened in our worship service, and also as a resource if someone else wants to incorporate what we are doing.  I have gotten many different ideas from others who have posted their #sundaysetlist and I hope when I post on ours, we can give ideas to others.

Right now we are in the middle of our series Multiply.  This series is all based out of Matthew 28, the great commission.  We are focusing on the idea of discipleship, which can be broad, but we have to have a strong foundation on what we believe "go and make disciples" means.  Last week Pastor Josh Hossler (our lead pastor) laid some groundwork explaining before we can make disciples we first need to make sure that we know what we are to be discipling.  We must examine ourselves and ask the tough question "are we modeling what Christ considers a good disciple to be?"  This week Pastor Bill Hossler, the president of the Missionary Church (as well as Josh's dad),  gave us some strong challenges.  He gave us some of the different aspects of what the Missionary Church believes "discipleship" is.  For me this series hits home because I am a Pastor of Worship & Discipleship.  I believe when it comes to discipleship the best way is with others!  We see discipleship from our small groups, mentoring those not as spiritually mature as ourselves, even doing life together serving in a particular ministry you see true discipleship.  If you feel you need discipleship, you need to be involved in your local church!

Here is our worship flow:

Welcome 

   Lord, Almighty - Kristian Stanfill version

Worship Set

   Not to Us - Passion version
       Scripture References: Psalm 115.1 & Psalm 66.1f
 
   Hosanna - Hillsong United version
 
   Jesus Messiah - Chris Tomlin version

Announcements - Tony


Message - Bill Hossler

   Multiply (week 2 of series)

Offering & Closing Song

   From the Inside Out - Hillsong United version

Dismiss - Tony

Things I'm working on as a WL:

  - We start at 10.30a and it seems most people don't come in until around 10.40a or 10.45a.  I want to create an atmosphere of anticipation and excitement.  For me, I am so excited about our Sunday gatherings and I want to make every minute as intentional as I can.  I want to share that desire with the congregation so I am starting to lead us into worship as soon as I can and follow the worship set with announcements instead of having them at the beginning.

  - I want to see our congregation engaged in worship.  So many times I've been in services where I have had worship leaders basically give a "performance" and I want the congregation to be actively involved in our worship.  To achieve this I have been giving vocal cues for them to sing and I back away from the mic.  Also, I have used some scripture verses to "coach" them as we are in worship.  So far we have had a great response from the church as far as participation. 

Getting Settled In

Just thought I would give a small update with some pictures of our new place.  We are doing well and the house is completely unpacked and we are loving it!  We are so lucky to be here and there have been many doors God has opened up for us to make it happen.  I started working at the church on Tuesday and have already met with some of the worship band members and I am starting to get used to my responsibilities at the church.  I am excited about Sunday's worship service, which will introduce us to the church as a whole.  I led worship once in October, but since then the church has switched locations so it will be different.  The church is a "portable church" which means they meet somewhere other than their own facility.  Every sunday morning they set up the whole church from the children's classrooms all the way to the sound system and chairs in the main room.  It's exciting to be part of that.  Here is a short video of what they do...

This is at the other school that they were meeting in.  The reason they are meeting in schools is because it's so expensive for property up here, it is the cheapest route to go.  There are many churches that meet in other's facilities in this area.

  So.. back to our house... Here are some pictures of what we have done with the place.  It is very spacious!  Technically it's a condo (there are other houses connected on both sides of ours) but it's so massive that we don't even realize it.  I didn't take a picture of the backyard, but there is a 20'x12' deck on the back and a pond with fountains.  Very nice.  The weather up here has been incredibly warm and I'm sure that we will see snow soon.  As for now, we will enjoy the 35-45 degree weather :)  Please keep us in your prayers as we still get settled in and make more connections with people in the church.  We are doing well and loving life right now!

This is the Entryway when you walk in the house.  To the left is the stairs to the basement

 One of my favorite rooms in the house... the garage, which for now fits all our toys in there!

 Master bedroom.  We painted the blue.  There is a big window with a great view of the pond. The Master bathroom is on the right.

 This is the hallway between the two bedrooms and a full guest bathroom, which is very purple. :) The closets in the master bathroom are huge!  Ashley loves all the storage space in the house.  You can see we were still unpacking the guest bedroom when this picture was taken :)

Kitchen. Ashley making cookies, pj patiently waiting for cookies. :) I am standing in the laundry room, which has a huge pantry and a door to the garage.

 Guest bedroom.  There is also a desk in the room, but I couldn't fit it in the picture.

 My new office.  Love this!

 My new desk.  The MacBook Pro on the left is my new work computer.

 Picture of how big the basement is. Room for a pool table :)

 Home theater. nuff' said :)