I love coming back to lead worship after missing a week. One of our Senior Pastor's desires is for every leader to take at least one Sunday a quarter off. Admittedly it's not been something I've done, but this year I've missed two Sundays and it's been extremely rewarding. Special thanks to my fellow worship leading buddy, Foley, for stepping up. So...this week I was back...
Tim kicked off a new series called Choices. This study through the book of Ruth coincides with a companion small group study guide that our new Discipleship Pastor, Doug Howey, put together. Each week Tim will talk about several different choices in life we're all faced with. This week he talked about choosing Family. Check out week one's message here.
Due to this past Sunday being our Prospective Members class, Tim had to take off immediately following the offertory song at the close of the service. This left me at the helm of closing out the service and greeting folks at the banner (this is a sort of landmark we use in the auditorium in the back corner with the Grace logo and "Worship Center" printed below it). I really enjoy getting this opportunity to meet new people. I had so many encouraging comments from folks about the worship time at Grace...thank you to all who have been so gracious and appreciative. It means more than you know for our team to hear how you are truly connecting with the Lord during the music.
A funny thing happened at the banner...I reunited with a co-worker I haven't seen since 1992 or so. I was SHOCKED to see him standing there to say hi. When I last saw Jason, I was nowhere near being a follower of Christ. I always knew he was a believer, not because of him thumping me with a Bible, but because of his kindness and generousity he showed me back when I was 18 years old. Apparently someone he knows has been going to Grace and they've been inviting him to come check us out. In their description of the worship, they said my name (or attempted to...my last name's a bit tricky) and Jason knew right away who it was. It's amazing how God brings people back across your path. I'd thought of Jason off and on throughout the years and it was so cool to see him again. Hope he comes back! On to the music...
Every time our band pulls out a new song I am amazed. I don't know right now if there's a song these guys can't tackle. When I scheduled the song Point of Difference by Hillsong United, I thought it would be a great tune for our current weekend series. With lyrics like:
As we lift up our eyes
Fill our hearts with Your Fire
In a world the same we'll be the different
The difference
Call us out let the world see You are God
And this hope is ours
It fits perfectly with our desire to be called out from the world making the ultimate choice to follow God's direction. Hearing how busy and "phrasy" the tune is, I wasn't sure how this would go over. And our team nailed it. I have to repent of my doubting our team's abilities...after all...if they can play Transiberrean Orchestra music as they did last Christmas...surely they can tackle pretty much anything. Great job to the team for the hard work. We'll see if the church can grab hold of this tune. It's defintely one of the harder songs to sing corporately.
This weekend we also introduced the church to our newest member of the worship team. Meredith joined our vocalists and did amazing. She's got a great voice but more importantly, a servant's heart. If you Gracers get a chance, be sure to say hi to this Alabama native. I'm excited to see how God uses her on the worship team at Grace. Another great addition to our great vocalist team!
Here's this week's worship setlist. Don't forget you can purchase the song on iTunes by clicking the title:
- Sing to the King (E) by Candi Pearson
- God with Us (B) by MercyMe
- Jesus Paid it All (B) Kristian Stanfill version
- God of this City (B) by BlueTree. We did the Passion/Tomlin version
- Point of Difference (B) by Hillsong United
Now...you won't want to miss next Sunday. Seriously...we've got a little surprise for the music portion of the worship service. Hope you enjoy it!
Check out other worship leader recaps from around the world at Fred McKinnon's site here.
-Babu
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