First of all, we changed the instrumental package for this weekend to a very acoustic set-up. We had one acoustic guitar, one high strung acoustic guitar (the high strings from a 12 string acoustic guitar set), cello, acoustic bass/stand-up bass, cajon, piano and Rhodes.  It was stellar!

We started the service linked up with all the campuses playing an instrumental version of Hillsong’s “From the Inside Out” featuring the cello.  This took place during the count down clock.  We then went into a two song worship package of Jeremy Camp’s version of “Beautiful One” and Chris Tomlin’s “Your Grace is Enough”.

We then had a time of baby dedication followed by a special video moment honoring mothers.  From there we brought out some stools and a few of the instruments creating a more intimate setting.  For the second week we sang “You Are Great” written by a buddy of mine, John Larson, who is the worship pastor at Church in the Highlands – Birmingham, AL.  It’s a great song.  We followed it with a couple choruses of “How Great Thou Art”.

Finally, we pulled out a song I found a few years ago by an artist named M.D. West entitled “Mother’s Day”.  It’s a really great song for all the moms and grandmothers.  I changed a couple lyrics so it would fit better in our environment.  You can check out the video HERE.

So, there it is! Thanks for taking a look at this post.  Check out theWorshipCommunity site and the Sunday Set List blog to see what other leaders are doing around the globe.

“Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who doesn’t
swear by what is false.” – Psalm 24:3-4

The Heart.  Obviously, I am not talking about the muscle in your chest that pumps blood to all the parts of your body. But the Biblical understanding of the heart, as defined by Vines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words… “man’s entire mental and moral activity, both the rational and the emotional elements…the seat of physical life.”

Throughout scripture we see the heart is extremely important to God.  Jesse brought all his sons and lined them up in front of Samuel.  Samuel had come to anoint the new king of Israel.  Samuel saw the strong physic of the eldest son and thought for sure this was the one.  However God rebukes Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7…”Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”   When Jesus was questioned about the greatest commandment in Luke 10:27 He answered “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…”

The heart is central to our worship of God.  In the book of Proverbs, the writer gives a strong exhortation to guard the heart. In chapter 4 verses 23-27 we see this challenge.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk from your lips.
Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.
Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.
Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”

The Bible tells us that our enemy, Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8).  As Christ followers and It is important for us to be on guard to not allow the enemy to have a foothold in our lives.  In this passage from Proverbs there are three keys that the writer gives for guarding the heart.

1.  Guard your mouth. The Bible is clear that what comes out of our mouths is evidence of what is in our heart (Matthew 12:34).  If you want to know the condition of your heart, pay attention to the way you talk.  Are the things that come from your lips consistent with things that are pleasing to God. In James 3:10-11 we read “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and saltwater flow from the same spring?  I know that I was convicted early on in my faith walk to be careful about the things that I even joke about.  Here is a good rule…If it is inappropriate to do, it is inappropriate to talk about.  I could go on here, but I hope you get the point.

2.  Guard your eyes. Matthew 6:22 says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.  The focus/desire of our eyes will determine the focus/desire of our heart.  In reality, issues of lust and greed start with what the eye sees.  Job declared in Chapter 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eye not to look lustfully on a girl.” Recently, my wife talked about this verse with my then 10 year old son.  When she asked about places that he has to hold to this covenant, he answered “the beach”.  My wife then asked what he did to keep the covenant.  He replied, “I just go and dig holes”.  In reality, all of us, like my son, need to have a plan to change the focus of our eyes.  Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 to fix our thoughts on things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise.  As the old saying goes, “Garbage in, Garbage out”.  Our hearts are like sponges, what we soak up will be squeezed out.  As Christ followers we need to be careful of the movies and TV shows that we watch, Internet sites that we visit, and the tabloids that we read.

3.  Guard your path. Where you go can influences what you do. So, flee from the places where your temptation dwells.  To many times people put themselves in compromising situations without any thought.  King David, the man after God’s own heart, put himself in a compromising place when he was up on the roof.  I would think that he probably didn’t have a clue that he might see Bathsheba, but then again, maybe he should have known that there could have been some women out bathing in the evening?  I have to believe that looking back on the circumstances, that David probably wished he had never been on the roof that night.  As believers we have a responsibility to be salt and light to a dark and bland world.  However,  we need to be wise about the places that we try to shine.  Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.

My desire is to remain teachable by the Holy Spirit.  I do not want sin issues of my heart to keep me from  experiencing the presence of God in my daily life of worship. I want to do all that I can to present my heart pure before God.

The worship this weekend was really special.  We changed up the instrumentation by adding a violin, mandolin and percussion.  It gave a different feel to our normal rock-oriented worship.  I felt like God revealed himself in a sweet yet powerful way.  As it turned out, the entire worship package centered around the names of God.  Even during the 9 AM service as Pastor Todd prayed over the people, there was the recounting of the God’s names.  I just believe that God loves when we sing and speak His name.  It was awesome.

So, here are the songs that we sang.  We started with Hillsong’s “For Who You Are” as the link-up song between all the campuses.   This is always a congregational favorite.  After a time of welcome from Pastor Todd, we went into Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown’s “Rock of Ages You Will Stand”.  This is a cool take on the old gospel song “Rock of Ages”.  It sounded stellar with the mandolin and violin carrying the hook.  From there, I took a little time to pray and exhort and then into “Your Name” by Paul Baloche and Glenn Packiam.  What a fantastic song.  I split the vocal leadership on this song with Belinda Telemague, who just knows how to lead people in worship.  From here we went into Charlie Hall’s arrangement of “How Great Thou Art”

The highlight of the musical side of worship was our offering moment.  We did a song called “Names of God” by Laurell Hubick.  I had never heard this song until one of the ladies from our dance ministry brought it to me.  Let me just say, it was powerful.  Kristin Neumann started the moment with an awesome scripture monologue, Ansley Kicklighter did an amazing job singing the song, Emily Baird and Novik Inge Hier created a beautiful choreographed dance piece to go along with it, Peter Licata from our creative media team created a great video piece for it and then the simplicity of the piano, violin and percussion created a perfect setting for the song.  I posted a video so you can see it.

Well, that was the set list.  I have included links on Amazon so that you can add the music to your own personal worship play list.  Thanks for taking a look at this post.  Check out theWorshipCommunity site and the Sunday Set List blog to see what other leaders are doing around the globe.

DAY FIVE

It is official (as long as the volcano cooperates) I am heading home tomorrow. So that means this will “most likely” be my last post from here in Stockholm. Although I am soooooooo excited to get home to be with My wife and kids and church, there is a part of me that is a little sad to leave this city. Maybe it is because of my friendship with Pastor Andreas or just what God is doing here, but I feel like I will be leaving brothers and sisters from here at Hillsong Stockholm. Well on to the news of the day. It was a pretty relaxed day. Pastor Todd and I took the morning to ourselves. He went running and I slept. I think the timezone thing caught up to me. Or, it could have been the talking to my wife and kids at 1:00 AM local time on skype. Whatever it was, I liked it.

I met up with Pastor Todd at around 11:30 AM and we went wandering through the city. At about 1:00 PM we met up with Pastor Andreas and grabbed sushi for lunch and talked church for a good while. After a little more driving around the city, taking in sites, we came back to the hotel. Pastor Todd went and did some work, and I went after that last minute gift purchase for my wife.

We met back up with Pastor Andreas at 7:00 PM and went to Daniel Petersson’s, a friend of Andreas, home. Daniel is, I think, what we know as the Secret Service in the States, for the Swedish government. He is a fantastic guy and has a huge heart for God. Peder “the Count” and Simon (two of the leaders from Hillsong Stockholm) came over as well and we watched the Swedish Hockey League playoffs. I am not certain, but I think HV71 won the game. If so, it is a good thing seeing that it is Daniel’s favorite team and when praying for the food, I threw in a request for God to have favor on them.

The underlying plot for the day was actually happening back home as some of the finest ladies on the Christ Fellowship Staff (LaDonna Carroll, Lindsey Leslie, and Patricia Hendrix) were working to find a way for Pastor Todd and I to make it home. They succeeded and we are flying home tomorrow. Ironically, we will be flying on Iceland Air with a layover in Iceland.

Seeing that I will be arriving back in West Palm Beach at 12:30 AM local time, this will be my last “Travel Log” post. Thank you for everyone who followed my adventures each day. I hope it was interesting.

DAY FOUR

It is pretty hard to believe that this is only the fourth day of our time in Sweden.  I just received an email from British Airways informing me that our flight is canceled for tomorrow.  Big surprise!  So, we are still stranded in Europe, but at least we have friends in the city.  Now on to my report on the day.

Today was just plain awesome.  Pastor Todd and I had such a good time being with and pouring into the church.  This morning the church hosted a leadership meeting for all of their key leaders.  Pastor Todd taught them for 2 one hour sessions.  He did such a great job, and the people just soaked it in.

After the leadership meeting, I had the privilege of eating lunch with Eric Liljero, the worship pastor for Hillsong Stockholm.  What a great guy and servant.  He treated me to my first actual traditional Swedish meal, meatballs and mash potatoes.  It was delicious.  From there Eric and I and Andreas (oversees the media) went out to the peoples square and filmed “Church News”.  This is a weekly announcement piece that plays during the offering time.  It was very cool.  Eric did everything in Swedish and then I would reply in English as if I knew what he was saying.  At the very end I said 2 sentences in “brilliant” Swedish.  The church all got a good laugh.

From there is was on to worship team rehearsal.  At first, I felt a bit out of my element, but it was all good by the time service started.  The first service started at 4:00 PM and the second at 6:00 PM.  It was so much fun leading with the Hillsong worship team.  They are all great musicians and worship leaders.  Pastor Todd spoke at both services.  He did such an amazing job.  I so  proud of him.  He really connected with the people.  So, the services were really amazing.  They baptized 4 or 5 people during the 6 PM service.  It was very cool!  The church meets in a night club so they brought in a big inflatable swimming pool and put it at the back of the seating.  Pastor Andreas, from the platform, did all the pastoral speaking part of the baptism and then the connect group leaders would actually dunk the individual.  It was like a big party.  After each baptism, the band kicked into a groove and everyone clapped for the individual in rhythm to the band. Here is the link to the Hillsong Stockholm Flicker photstream.  Not sure if they are up yet, but there will be some great photos posted from the services today.

After services, we went for a nice dinner with Pastor Andreas, Eric Liljero and Tobias (one of the great young leaders).  So that was the day.  Not sure when we will be able to leave Stockholm or Europe for that matter.  So I’ll keep updating you of the activities of the day.  Until tomorrow,  Chow.

DAY THREE

Well, it is the end of another day.  This was such a great day.  So much happened that it will be hard to fit it into this short post, so I will give you the highlights.  After a good Swedish breakfast in the hotel restaurant, I was able to go back down to “Old City” and make a few last minute purchases for my wife and kids.  Guys, I don’t know about you, but I am always a bit intimidated buying stuff for my wife.  It is a lot of pressure.  I think I found her the perfect thing.

From there, we went to an area on the coast of Sweden for lunch at a nice little restaurant.  There we met with Pastor Andreas and seven of his key leaders for a time of question and answer.  It was awesome to watch Pastor Todd pour into these young leaders and to see them soak it in as well.  We spent a couple hours just fellowshipping together.  It was a fantastic time.

After our lunch meeting, Pastor Todd and I had some free time to walk around the city and just kind of take it in.  It was also at this time that we realized we not only needed to make plans how and if we were going to get out of Sweden back to London for our next assignment, but also how we were going to get back to the United States if the volcano continued to cause issues.  We got a plan.  We will see what happens.  At this point we are going to be here in Sweden a little longer than expected unless things change pretty quickly.

So, one of the funniest things happened.   As we were walking down the street I notice this guy is standing in a glass phone booth relieving himself.  Just out there for the whole world to see.  So, Pastor Todd decides he needs to take a picture of the situation on his iPhone.  Unfortunately for Pastor Todd, the guy sees him taking the picture and kind of doesn’t like it so much.  He comes out of the phone both and approaches Pastor Todd saying something.  I thought for sure Pastor Todd was going to get beat up. God protected him.  I think Pastor Todd used the whole “I don’t speak Swedish” line to get himself out of it.  All I could do is laugh.

Finally we ended the night with a nice dinner with Pastor Andreas.  Okay, all I can say is the Swedes have some really good restaurants.  The place we ate at tonight was called SMAK.  I think it means Taste.  The idea of the restaurant is that you chose your meal based on tastes.  So we each selected 7 courses from the menu.  Each course built on and complimented the previous course.  They were each very small servings.  It was actually very amazing.

So, now I am back at the hotel and getting ready to go to church with my church family via our online campus.  I never get to do this, so I am very excited.  Tomorrow is going to be another great day of serving the people of Hillsongs Stockholm.  I hope you will check out my post.  Until then, blessings!

DAY TWO

Day two is almost over. All that is left is to give you a little glimpse of the day and then I will brush my teeth and go to bed. Although the day started out a little sketchy, it turn out to be a lot of fun. I woke up at 6:30 AM local time (12:30 AM EST) and could not get back to sleep. So, I got up and got ready for the day. When I went outside the hotel, the weather did not cooperate with my wardrobe. It was raining and very cold. I went back up to the room and changed clothes. After a couple hours of milling around the room and practicing worship music for the weekend I decided to head over to the McDonald’s and grab some breakfast. I arrived at a couple minutes before 10:00 AM. The McDonald’s is very modern with cool LCD screens with pictures of all the food selections. Good thing, because the breakfast options are very different and everything is in Swedish. Just as I was about to point to the item I wanted, the screens instantly switched for lunch options. So, I ended up having a quarter pounder and fries for breakfast.

The weather got better throughout the day, but it remained pretty cold.  We had the privilege to tour the city for most of the day.  Stockholm is a very beautiful city.  We went to what is called the “Old City” (it’s the oldest part of the city).  Very cool streets that for the most part only made pedestrian traffic possible.  We also, had the opportunity to take a tour of the Royal Castle.   From there we went to the newer part of Stockholm and did a little shopping.  For those of you who do not know, I love to clothes shop.  Stockholm is a very bad place to have this problem.  Finally, we ate a late dinner at a place called Kungsholmen.  This may have been one of the coolest restaurants that I have had the opportunity to eat at.  It basically was 6 or 7 restaurants all in one building.  Now I am back at our hotel Scandic  Malmen.

Pastor Andreas has a true servant by the name of Erik Jenefeldt who has been looking after us.  He has really inspired me in how he loves his pastor, his church and has shown tremendous care for us.  Well.  That is it for the day.  I added some pictures to from yesterday.  Hope you check back again tomorrow.  Blessings!

DAY ONE

It is 10:26 PM in Stockholm.  That is 4:26 PM back home in much warmer South Florida.  The first day of my trip has been absolutely amazing.  We left Miami International Airport at 5:15 PM.  The flight was pretty good.  I finally had the opportunity to watch Avatar.  I have to say, I really enjoyed it.  I did not sleep very well on the remainder of the flight, so when we arrived in London at 6:30 AM local time (1:30 AM EST), I was whipped.  Very interesting…as we exited the plane, it was surrounded by fire trucks.  We were not sure what was going on.  It was only after walking through the Heathrow Airport (which by the way is very clean and very quiet) did we hear about the big volcano.  We boarded our flight to Stockholm.  Soon after leaving Heathrow, they shut down all flights in and out of the airport because of the volcanic ash.  Funny, we landed in Stockholm and soon after we landed they shut down that airport as well.  There is a little uncertainty as to when any airports in this part of Europe will reopen.   The last time this volcano erupted, it supposedly lasted for a very long time.

While on the flight to Stockholm, I recognized that the worship pastor from Hillsong London, Peter Wilson, was across the aisle from me sleeping like a log.  We connected after the flight landed and I had a great time getting to know him.  Pastor Andreas Nielsen and his assistant Eric “collected” us at the airport and took us to a very nice lunch and then to our hotel.  Their hospitality has been amazing.  Pastor Todd and I decided we probably needed to get some rest before the evening.  I laid down at around 2:30 PM, thinking I could get an hour nap.  Unfortunately for me one of my “beloved” worship community members decided to call me (3 times) at 3:00 PM, so my nap was over.

Pastor Todd and I took a little self-guided tour through the city.  I love Stockholm.  It is beautiful and the people seem very friendly.  We then met up with Pastor Andreas and spent some time talking about the church.  The evening ended with a great night of worship led by Peter Wilson and the Hillsong Stockholm worship team.  God showed up in a big way.  One very nice surprise was being able to see one of my favorite students of all my years in student ministry, Hannah Pettingill.  She is now living here in Sweden.  She came to the worship event to see us.  It was so great.

Well that is it for today.  Hope you will stop by again tomorrow.  Blessings!

We started the service with Chris Tomlin’s “Not to Us” (Key of G) as the link-up song between the campuses.  This is an older song, but it is still a favorite for our congregation.  After a time of welcome (from our Royal Palm campus) we launched into a Christ Fellowship original tune “In Your Love” (key of F), written by our Stuart campus worship pastor, Drew Middleton.  After a short prayer and scripture we went into “Your Great Name” (key of Bb) by Micheal Neale.  This is the second weekend for this song.  It is such a great anthem and the congregation really responds to it.  At the end of the song, we brought it down to a pre-chorus and chorus of Miriam Webster’s “Made Me Glad” (key of Bb/C) with just Acoustic Guitar and keys and then the band kicked into the rest of the song.  Finally, for the offering song, I sang Pocket Full of Rocks “Come As You Are”.  What a great song with great lyrics!

“You can come as you are
With all your broken pieces all your shameful scars
The pain you hold in your heart bring it all to Jesus
You can come as you are “

So there it is.  Thanks for taking a look at this post.  Check out theWorshipCommunity site and the Sunday Set List blog to see what other leaders are doing around the globe.

“No Ordinary Love” was produced by Chuck Hemann on Soul Deep Records. The project was released worldwide on March 16, 2010 through HolyCultureDownload.com and all major digital outlets (iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Rhapsody, Zune, etc.).  Since the end of 1999, Rawsrvnt has made it his mandate to share God’s radical and unconditional love with people all over the world.  So, for the release of his latest record, Rawsrvnt felt it was only fitting to title his new work with the theme of his mission, “No Ordinary Love”.

To be Honest, I am not really a huge fan of hip-hop/rap music.  However, when I popped this project on my iPhone and started listening, I was hooked. “No Ordinary Love” is filled with a fresh sound which includes creative takes on some very familiar worship songs like “Here I Am to Worship” and “Holiness” featuring newly signed Sparrow Recording artist Audrey Assad.  One of my favorite tunes is his take of Sade’s award winning “No Ordinary Love” featuring the vocals of Stellar and Dove Award Nominee Lisa McClendon.  There is something for everyone on this project.   From Rawsrvnt’s laid back grooves on tracks like “Speak” featuring Bobby Tinsley and “Flossin’ ( Urban Dictionary = to show off) Him”, to the genre of Reggae on “The Almighty” and the aggressive, rock worship of my favorite track “On Fire”, this project has a lot of variety.

I have had the privilege to get to know Rawsrvnt and his heart for God.  “No Ordinary Love” oozes with his passion and personality.  I would encourage you to pick up this project.  Rawsrvnt is the real deal!  If you would like to book Rawsrvnt for an event,  I have added his contact info below.  I have also attached a video of Rawsrvnt and myself performing a cover of Brandon Heath’s “Give Me Your Eyes”.  So, I end this post the way Rawsrvnt ends all his emails to me…Peace in Jesus!!

Booking Contact
Soul Deep Ministries
P.O. Box 14307
North Palm Beach, FL 33408-4307
(561) 307-7723
booking@rawsrvnt.com
www.rawsrvnt.com

The Gardens campus worship experience was huge with a fantastic worship team that consisted of full band, brass section, huge worship choir, vocal team, and dancers.  It was pure energy.

So, here is how it all went down.  The service started with a new instrumental arrangement of the old Hillsong tune “My Redeemer Lives”.  Very high energy with a killer sax solo.  Right out of the opener we launched into Chris Tomlin’s “Let God Arise”.  and then into the CF original song “Set Free”.  Greg Reade, who wrote the song led out and did a great job.

After a welcome from our Lead Pastors, Tom and Todd Mullins, we did Lincoln Brewster’s “Give Him Praise”.  Very Fun! Charbel Khadij and Belienda Telemaque and the choir rocked it out. The choir loved doing a little rockspel (a cross between rock and gospel).  Our dance team came out  half way through the song and busted it.

Next, we had a student read a series of scriptures to set up the next worship package of “The Stand” by Hillsong United and a couple choruses and bridges of Chris Tomlin’s “How Great is Our God”.  “The Stand” is a perfect worship song for Easter as the lyrics declare a response of complete surrender for the cross of Christ.

Finally, after a brief promo video for our new message series “Doubters Anonymous”, the choir performed a Harold Ross arrangement of Chris Tomlin’s song “I Will Rise” medlied with the chorus of Hillsong’s “Worthy is the Lamb”.  This is just an amazing choir song.

Thanks for taking a look at this post.  Take a look at the pictures below and Check out theWorshipCommunity site and the Sunday Set List blog to see what other leaders are doing around the globe.

Photography by Nathan Carrol and CJ Lanier

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The Bible teaches us to declare our praises to God.  Psalm 66:1 tells us to “Shout for joy to God”.  Psalm 96:2-4 says, “Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day”.  Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;  He is to be feared above all gods.”  I like to think of worship as a continual prayer to God.  God loves it when He hears the praises of His people.  During an instrumental moment or the end of a song, while you are clapping to the Lord, go ahead and speak to Him. Tell Him how awesome He is.  Praise Him for His gift of salvation.  Thank Him for the mercy and grace he has given to you.  Acknowledge the blessings in your life.  Restate His Names to Him.  Praise Him for His promises and declare your Faith in Him.  Just speak out your praises.

Another way that the Bible teaches us to declare our praise is by singing “new songs” to the Lord.  Psalm 96:1 tells us to “Sing to the Lord a new song.”  Actually, in the book of Psalms, we are told 6 times to sing new songs to the Lord.  Even in the book of Revelation, they sing a new song to God.  Some people may feel they are not “singers” or “song writers”.  That’s okay.  God is not judging the quality of your songs to Him, He is listening to hear the love from your heart.  So, go ahead and take the risk.  During those times where the instruments are playing a solo or vamping, begin to sing your own song to God.  It doesn’t matter what the melody is.  Just let it flow out of you.  You may ask, “What do I say?”  Say what is in your heart.  It can be a simple praise song like “I love you Jesus”, Thank You, Lord”, “You are worthy of my praise”, “I praise You God”.  It may be a song of surrender, “I give it all to you Lord”, or of desperation, “I need you God”.  The point is that it is YOUR song, written by you, only to Him.

So, this weekend, you may be given the opportunity for some “free time” in worship.  What will you do with it?  I encourage you to declare your personal praise to your Father.  Why not sing to Him a brand new song…… the song that is in your heart.

Attribution License

This year, like every year, was pretty amazing.  The message started with a pre-recorded message piece by our Lead Pastor, Tom Mullins, that he just recently shot in the Garden of Gethsemane in Israel.  The rest of the message was a live teaching about the power of the cross.  At the end of the message there is was an opportunity for the congregation to come to a physical cross, located at the front of the auditorium, and nail their sins.  It is was opportunity for some to reaffirm the power of the cross in their lives and for others to deal with sin issues in their lives.

Kristin Neuman

So here is the set list for this weekend.  I have linked each song to itunes so that you can add them to your music library.

BECAUSE OF YOUR LOVE (G) - We started with this Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown song as the link up song (all campuses sing together).  Our congregation seems to love this song.  The chorus is powerful and easy to sing.

YOU WILL REIGN (D) (Watch Video) – This is a CF original song that we have been singing for the last few weeks.   During this song, there were 6 large crosses carried from the back of the auditorium and laid against the platform.  It was powerful singing the lyrics to the chorus…

“On the cross He took my place
By His blood all my sins are washed away
He bore the nails and conquered the grave
Death could not contain our God;
Forever He will reign”

Andy Moceri

THE WONDERFUL CROSS (D) – After setting up communion with scripture and prayer, the ushers served the elements to the congregation as we sang this Chris Tomlin version of the old Isaac Watts hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”.

I CLING TO THE CROSS (E) - For the offering song, I sang this Paul Baloche/Matt Redman tune.  I really love the lyric of this song.  There is such a lift when it goes into a chorus of the familiar song  “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”.

“The cross before me the world behind me
I won’t turn back I won’t turn back”

Following the message while people were coming and spending time at the cross, we continued singing songs focused on the cross.  Here is a list of some of the songs that we sang at the various services.

CF members nailing their sins to the cross

LEAD ME TO THE CROSS (G)
NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS (D)
GRACE FLOWS DOWN (D)
AMAZING GRACE (MY CHAINS ARE GONE) (E)
AMAZING LOVE (YOU ARE MY KING) (E)
THIS IS OUR GOD (Hillsong) (E)

Thanks for taking a look at this post.  Check out theWorshipCommunity site and the Sunday Set List blog to see what other leaders are doing around the globe.

I remember a situation that happened a couple years ago, during a choir rehearsal, where this conflict of impact and intent rared it’s ugly head.  While working with the tenor section, the altos where getting a bit too noisy.  So, I looked over at the alto section and said something like, “Please keep it down while I am working with the tenors.”  Unfortunately, one of the ladies in the alto section felt that I was looking right at her and talking directly to her.  It impacted her in such a negative way that she quit the choir and became somewhat hostile toward me.  I was clueless as to what had happened.  It was not until a couple months later that she revealed her feelings to my wife.  How sad that my intent was simply to get the alto section to quiet down, but she internalized it as if I was speaking directly to her.  As a result the relationship between her and the worship ministry was temporarily hurt.  There have been other times where the way a question is answered, or the way that correction is received is different than the intent of the answer or the heart of the correction.

The truth is that I do not communicate perfectly all the time.  Actually, there are a lot of times that I probably blow it.  My wife and I have learned to navigate these times of misunderstanding by acknowledging it as soon as it happens.  I might say something and it is obvious that it has negatively impacted her.  When I notice it I will respond with something like “I realize that impacted you differently than what I intended.  My intention was…”  This simple piece of communication gives the opportunity to point out the awkwardness of the moment by addressing it head on.  Sometimes, I won’t see it and Lisa, my wife, will say something like, “I know that this wasn’t your intention, but what you just said impacted me this way…”  This graciously gives me the opportunity to re-communicate in a better way, and/or to apologize for saying it in a hurtful way.

Regardless if it is in a personal relationship or as a leader of a ministry or organization, understanding that people do not always receive communication the way we intend it can be very helpful.  It doesn’t take much to read body language to see if our communication is impacting people in a positive or negative way.  Here are a few things you can do if you realize that there’s a miss between your intent and your impact on a colleague, a friend, or someone at home.

1.   Ask yourself these questions:

• What just happened?
• What was my part in it?
• Where can I take responsibility?
• How do I clean this up?

2.  Take action to correct the misunderstanding of impact and intent as quickly as you can:

• Be honest about your intention.
• Recognize how it impacted the individual
• Discuss how you could have handled it differently.
• Take responsibility for your actions.