Worship Confessional - Progressive Worship 3/15/09

This week our Pastor focused on how to surrender to the Lord and stand firm against temptation and the enemies accusations. The text was James 4:1-11, and the message was really strong. I really sensed God's presence in the service in a strong way. We didn't have any major problems--only a few "whoops!" moments, like an errant chord change at the start of the bridge by our lead player, or getting a little anxious and changing too quickly on another. Nothing hindered or threw off the Spirit in the service though, and His people responded!

We started off with "Let God Arise" by Chris Tomlin, which is one of my favorites by him. It is a strong song lyrically, coming primarily from Psalm 68, and it's a rocker! It wakes us all up. I just love the "full-tilt" feeling of the music, backing such a solid, biblical lyric.

After the welcome, we repeated "Let Me Sing" by Todd Fields. We just started teaching this to the congregation last week, but it has taken hold and our people were singing.

We moved from there directly into "Lord of All" by Kristian Stanfill. I prefaced the song a little bit, and I as usual, I felt a little awkward trying to explain my thoughts. I'm working on communicating better, and I felt that Sunday was a step forward for me in this regard. This song is always a strong one when we sing it. When we hit the chorus, "There is none so high and holy/King of kings, the one and only/You are adored, You are the Lord of all," it always seems like the place breaks loose. Hands shot up all over the place, and God's people were adoring Him because He is the Lord of all. To me, this song and these moments are the epitome of worship.

We finished up with "How Great is Our God" by Chris Tomlin, and the focus on the strength, power, and glory of God continued, and people always sing strong on this one. I've started to bring this one down to Bb to make it a little easier for the men to sing, and it seems like it's working. Still, it almost felt like a letdown after singing "Lord of All." I think we could repeat that song three times and it wouldn't get old!

For our invitation song, we sang Hillsong's "Mighty to Save," and it seemed to fit very well with Pastor Jay's message.  There were several people praying and coming forward, but not a lot. I think the weight of the message was still setting in at that time. It's times like those that I wish we had more time for response at the end of the service, but that is the trick of being sandwiched between two other services!

All-in-all, it was a fantastic morning of worship for our people and our team. God continues to move in a powerful way, and He is changing lives, which is what I live for.

check out other worship leaders set lists and worship confessionals at http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/03/15/sunday-setlists-34-worldwide-worship-recaps/

this is an awesome resource for worship leaders.