A visit back to my old church...

To see “confessionals” from other worship leaders in the world, please follow this link: http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/03/22/sunday-setlists-35/

Special thanks to Fred M for putting this forum together.

I spent yesterday morning at a church near my home at which I was the worship pastor almost 2 years ago. It was absolutely great to be back and to have the opportunity to be on the worship team and do the message.

We were not able to have a worship team practice because I was in Quebec city for March break. The team graciously agreed to get to the church at 9 in the morning to have a practice before the service and it went quite well considering I had to teach our pianist one of the songs. Luckily, he’s a strong pianist and picked up the song after about a minute of playing through it.

The opening songs of the morning were done with me on the djembe, 4 vocalists (myself included), piano and bass. I had spent the evening before practicing the djembe for about an hour to get my drum intros for both songs down pat and even though I got them done just fine in the run through, somehow pre-service jitters got the best of me and I did a so-so job with both the songs. Luckily the other instrumentalists propped me up and the vocalists saved me from my lyrical blunders.

After the welcome and intro, we broke into a 4-song set with a regular church band setup - bass, guitar, drums, piano and vocalists which I thought went much better than the previous set. I messed up only one of the intros, but all in all it was a strong worship set with strong singing, playing and cue giving. My drummer, who plays with a local alternative rock band, was quite delicate with his touch on the drums which was awesome because the room in which the services happen is not very large and seats about 200 people. He’s been known to blow us away in our 2000-seat sanctuary and I was quite nervous with him coming into this smaller venue; so hearing him play at a high level of skill and not drive everybody out of the room was quite something.

My previous church is not a very expressive congregation and while I worked there it took me a while to be able to know whether they were really engaged with what I was doing or not. For the first few minutes of our time I had to mentally bring back to memory the lessons that I learnt there because I now serve in a church that can be very expressive in worship. From my place on the stage I felt that the majority of people present were engaged and expressive (in their conservative baptist way) through the whole set and there was a clear sense of worship, connectedness and God’s presence in our midst.

The congregation is very passionate about missions and this was evident through the prayer time and the interview after the message of one of the members of the congregation that is going to the Dominican republic for a season under the “Compassion Canada” umbrella. I think it’s awesome to see that this small congregation is committed to making an impact in the world regardless of the fact that they may not seem to have the influence and resources of other larger churches. As you can tell, I am completely sold on the fact that the church has to constantly be missional and being in a service where our mission and charge as followers of Christ is front and central AND celebrated was moving for me.

The interview portion before the message went longer than I had anticipated and I started to get extremely nervous before I was to go up and give it, but after I was prayed over and launched into it, I felt a calmness come over me. My message was part of a series that they are walking through on Jesus’ uncommon teachings and I chose a passage that is very personal for me because it is one that I personally struggle to follow - Matthew 5: 38 - 42. I was done in about 20 minutes and we ended with prayer, song and a dismissal.

I have many close friends at this church because I joined it at a time in my life when I was in desperate need for deep and authentic connections. I was hugged more times last sunday than I have been hugged at the church I now serve (not a criticism, just an observation) and I was moved by the love and well wishes that all my friends still at this church have for me. It was incredibly refreshing to be able to share this worship experience with them last sunday and shall DEFINITELY be a highlight of mine this year.

This is a basic run through of our service structure

Countdown video and CD Music

Better is one day (E) - Djembe intro; no other drums

Be thou my vision (D) - djembe intro; no other drums

Welcome and intro

Love the Lord (G)

Beautiful one (D) - my own funk-infused version

He is yahweh (F) - drum intro, drum interlude, Xhosa adlibs in the concluding choruses. I LOVE this song and from the loud singing, I think the congregation does too

Your name (G) - faster than most teams would play it.

Prayer

Offering, announcements, interview

Message

Made me glad (A) - concluding song

This is the band that I was privileged to play with:

Piano: Graham W

Drums: Jordan P

Bass: Stephanie T

Vocalists: Mike T, Adrienne S, Evelyn M

I played the djembe and switched to acoustic guitar for the rest of the service.

Service at another church

This sunday's confessional is not about my own service because for the first time this year, I was not even at my own church or leading worship. I had the privilege of visiting a church in the city that I know recently did a media and sound upgrade and even though I had led worship at a smaller event at the church, I wanted to be able to see how they pull it all together during a service.

You quickly see that the drums on the stage are in a sound isolation booth - I'm pretty sure it's the clearsonic one - and so I decided that we would sit closer to the drums because I NEED my drums to be loud in order to enjoy the worship experience. Turns out I made a good decision to sit close to the drums because even though I could hear them, they were not as "present" as I would prefer them to be. Now I know why some of the people at my church want to lynch me... heh!

I was also immediately envious (not the first time) of the triple 16:9 HD screens above the stage and impressed with the graphics theme and countdown that tied the bulletin and on-screen presentation together. The whole PA system is bose branded. Hmm... not jealous about that! I was also slightly jealous that they have the fancy motorized lights. I'm not "lighting savvy" but because I have to give some thought to lighting cues at my own church and watch our lighting volunteers work hard to keep up with my ever-evolving stage setup, I have a clear sense when the lights are fancier than the ones we get to play with at woodvale; and when the service started, I could quickly tell that they had somebody working the lights who knew what they were doing.

I'm not sure what I thought about the stage layout, but from the start of the song list, you can tell that there is a reason why they have it that way and its because of the movement of the singers. I actually think that the way they had the singers move to their various positions on the stage through the course of the music was a great idea - one that I shall NOT be using, but one that worked well for what they were doing. During the announcements, the founding pastor mentioned that no two services are the same at the church I was visiting and so it could be that the stage setup is different next week... who knows? Another pang of jealousy as I wish that I could have as deep a pool of creative people.

They did not have song titles, so below is what I think the names of the songs in the set were - just the one set by the way. No offering music or closing song

This was the basic line up:

Welcome and intro

For who you are

I will search (much faster than I would play it... but I understand because it's the second song in the set)

verbal schpiel

Everlasting God

My Jesus I love thee (nice touch and EXUBERANT singing from the congregation)

Hope will rise (never heard it before. LOVED it)

Transition to special song written for the series they were walking through on Wisdom

I know love (special song to close off the teaching series - started sounding like a country song, but ended up taking on a more black-gospel-type flair... loved it too)

Offering, announcements

Video transition

Message - 2 main things stuck with me: Focus on the who (Jesus) not on the what (what comes as a function of being in relationship with him or in christian community) and "Will what you are building your life on last after you are gone?" Great message and I'm envious that the lead pastor can show up on stage in jeans (!!!!!). That's a near mortal sin in our church. Heh!

Dismissal

I found the presentation from beginning to end - greeters, bulletin, on-screen announcements, countdown video (that reset - i noticed! heh!), song selection, instrument execution, transitions, etc... to be very polished and at the same time accessible. I think this is a good thing because sometimes the polished look and feel ends up feeling plastic and disingenuous. It was great to be able to visit a church service in which I was able to worship (its a big thing for me) and be encouraged by the music and the message. I'll definitely visit again on a sunday that I am not working and I am in town!

Next sunday, another church!

No worship team this week for me...

I am off from work this week because I am going on holiday starting today actually... I rarely get to visit other churches because of my job and I am looking forward to visiting a church in our city that recently did a sound and media upgrade.

I got to lead in their facility in september last year, but leading is different from actually being in the audience and seeing how it all comes together... plus I am sure I lead rather differently than their in-house brew of worship. It's going to be FUN!

It was also nice to not have to be at the church on Wednesday evening for worship team practice. I never get to spend wednesdays at home!

And in other random news, I was removed from the worship confessionals list... weird!

Remo Black Earth

For most of 2008, I had the secret dream of owning my own Remo black earth SKYNDEEP djembe and finally got one with the help of my wife and her parents over Christmas. After playing it for 4 hours straight and being banned to the basement, I finally figured out a few ways to make it sound decent and to lead a worship set while playing the instrument.

In true "Paulo Style", I jumped right in the deep end and after a week of learning to play the instrument, I led the music during our first service of the year on the djembe with just an acoustic guitar and bass accompanying the vocals. Interesting times... heh! I ended up leading worship for all of January from the djembe and acoustic-leaning band for half the worship set and then switching to a now traditional-sounding electric-leaning band for the rest of the music.

Most of the people that spoke with me about the new sound that I was trying out seemed to be happy that we were experimenting with more than just a linear guitar - drums - keyboard sound. Some were not sure what they thought, though... and in true Canadian fashion, did everything to make sure that they did not make a comment that could be construed in any way as offensive.

I think I'll try it again soon... but before I do I'd like to get into a drumming circle in town. Anybody know of one?

March 8, 2009

My first time doing a "Worship confessional"

I felt "meh" about the service yesterday. Our execution - band, exuberant choir, production team and mini ensemble were all great... but something was off for me. I think it was because we had just spent the day before at an AMAZING team retreat - all 70-something of us and I had done most of the facilitation at it.

There seemed to be a disconnect with the congregation which was particularly evident when we sang "mighty to save" (which happens to be a woodvale favorite) before the message. Our pastor even MENTIONED it and then asked us to do it all again! Sigh!

Message was from Zephaniah 3: 14 - 17 and communion followed. Not much else to say about that...

Our song list is below:

I will search (Israel and Meleasa Houghton) - E (I sing the lower octave)

Welcome and intro

It is you (Peter Furler) - D - my own rendition of the song; more jazz funk than rocked out like the newsboys version

Now that you're near (Marty Sampson) - E

You are good (Israel Houghton) - A - same version that Travis Cottrell does... more singable for the congregation

(Above 2 medleyed)

In Christ alone (With the solid rock) (Keith Getty, Stuart Townend)- E flat to E - Travis Cottrell version

Offering

Mighty to save (Ruben Morgan, Ben Fielding) - A

Message

Communion

Lord I run to you (Tommy Walker) - A

Need you here (Ruben Morgan) - A

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Band: Tim - Drums, Glen - Bass, Joel - Guitar, Dhartie - Violin, Yan - Cello, Josue - Flute, Paulo - Piano, Anna - Choir director, Vocals - Julia (S), Evelyn (S), Jacinda (A), Patricia (T), Doug (T, B)

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See other worship leaders set lists here