Another busy morning at Bethel today! But, this afternoon starts my week of vacation, so I’m feeling that start of vacation excitement as to what can all be accomplished! Just wish we had the means to carry out some of our list… Oh well… on to the setlist…
Contemporary Services
“Rising” (Paul Baloche and Matt Redman)
– I actually JUST noticed for the first time this am that Matt Redman was one of the co-writers of this one. I guess I didn’t realize that! Did he ever record it? This is a great opener, right from the Psalms!
“God Is Great” (Marty Sampson)
– This one has a tempo of 152, in other words – fast! But, in our 9:30 service we must have been at least at 160! We were flying along! 11:00 was better. Another great song – one of our congregation’s favorites!
“Our God” (Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman)
– Again, our tempo on this one was a bit too fast in the 9:30, better in the 11:00. This is the first time we’ve done this song since reading Aaron Niequist’s blog post about it (http://www.aaronniequist.com/blog/worship/did-we-just-sing-that/). I tried not to let that post change my opinion of the song. Have you read it? What are your thoughts? Honestly, I had not thought anything along the lines of what he was saying before reading it, and I’m really surprised it got so much attention! But, I think it’s a great song, and our congregation loves it!
“Your Love Never Fails” (Chris McClarney)
– This is one of my favorites right now! The band sounded great on it today, especially in the 11:00!
“Stronger” (Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan)
– I love when a a song takes on a different meaning each time you sing it! Today, that was the case with this one. We’ve used this great song before in relation to the cross and Easter, but today’s message was on facing temptation, and this song fit perfectly in that setting as well. “You are stronger. Sin is broken, you have saved me!” God really used this song today as we used it as a response to the message and there was a great response!
You can watch the video of this service, and also see the details of the service order.
Cafe Connection Service
“Rising” (Matt Redman, Paul Baloche)
“Beautiful One” (Tim Hughes)
“You Alone Can Save” (Matt Redman)
“Stronger” (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)
I led in the Cafe this morning, with a full team – percussion (cajon/congas), guitar, keyboard, vocals. It was the biggest team we’ve had yet for the Cafe. I was amazed, again, at what a great team we have that help to pull off this service each week with the setup, food prep, tech team, music team, take-down. What great volunteers!
Traditional Service
“God, Our Father, We Adore Thee”
“How Great Thou Art”
“Blessed Assurance”
“I Will Praise Him”
“What A Friend We Have In Jesus”
You can watch the video of this service, and also see the details of the service order.
This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog carnival at The Worship Community, where you can read recaps from worship services around the country.
Barry Westman 
Our congregation loves our God!
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Yes!
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I read Aaron’s blog and was shocked at his remarks. I firmly believe our God is greater… than EVERYTHING! This song is so biblically right it’s wrong to think otherwise. I’ll be honest. Being concerned of hurting others feeling by saying the Christian God is the one true God aggravates me. The bible is full of hurting others feelings in disagreement on who’s God is right. Jesus said Himself that he came to bring division in the fact that He is the only way the truth and the life.
I personally think Aaron is dead wrong on this one.
On another subject, We have the timing issue ourselves so this morning we brought in a metronome. The drummer wasn’t a big fan of it but he has a servants heart. It worked. We didn’t get off time like we were doing in practice.
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Kevin,
I couldn’t agree more!
We’ve talked about using a click track, loops, but haven’t taken that step yet. Maybe it’s time…
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Pish posh on the Aaron Niequist blog. It’s a great song. Somebody will inevitably find something wrong with any song. I know in my heart who I am singing about. And He is OUR God. Not only that, but He is MY God. It shows that we identify with Him. It also shows devotion and intimacy.
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Rob,
Exactly! I really couldn’t imagine that someone would have that kind of reaction to such a great song. We sang it out strong this morning – “Our God IS stronger!”
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