We had a wonderful morning of worship this morning at Bethel! We introduced “I Will Follow” in the Contemporary Services, and Pastor Jamie did an excellent job bringing a message on “A Call To Action” in Pastor Tim’s absence. This post is part of the Sunday Setlists blog carnival at The Worship Community, where you can read recaps of other worship services around the country.
Contemporary Service
Aside from a few issues with our cameras acting up, things went great in these services today! Our whole team did a fantastic job, and there was an extra sense of anticipation and excitement about worship today! I love it when God’s presence is so evident, and today that was the case.
We tried one other new thing today. Usually one of the other pastors comes up to pray for the offering, and then we either sing, or do something else during the offering. I’ve always felt that breaks up the music time of the service, so today, I just prayed for the offering in between two songs and went right into the next song. Along with saving a few minutes in the service, it also seemed to flow very naturally. How do you handle the offering in your services?
You can watch the video of this service and see the Planning Center details.
“Love the Lord” (Lincoln Brewster)
“Matchless” (Aaron Shust)
“More Than Amazing” (Lincoln Brewster and Mia Fieldes)
– What a great song! If you’re not familiar with this one from Lincoln’s latest CD, check it out! So many powerful truths of who Jesus is on the verses, then just a simple response on the chorus – “You are amazing, more than amazing, forever our God, You are amazing!” The bridge sneaks in a reference back to the familiar hymn – “Oh, how marvelous, oh how wonderful…”
“I Will Follow” (Jason Ingram, Reuben Morgan, and Chris Tomlin)
– This was the first time I have led this song in the Contemporary, and I thought it went well! It fit great with today’s theme, and the team pulled it off! Go rock organ – thanks, Jan!
“Mighty To Save” (Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan)
– Bekah did a super job on the first verse solo today, and that just set the tone for the whole song. People really engaged on this song today, and it was so cool to see people responding to the message with such excitement!
Cafe Connection Service
It’s been a while, but I led in this service this morning. We had a much smaller team, of course, but we did the same songs as in the Contemporary with keyboard, percussion, guitar/ukulele/mandolin/acoustic bass (all one guy!), and vocals. I had a bit of a stressful morning during this time, because our camera guy for the Traditional Service wasn’t there, so I had to run from leading in the Cafe over to the sanctuary to run cameras for the message, and back to the Cafe to lead the last song! I made it, though!
Our drummer, Elias, made a great suggestion about this service! I have wanted to try to incorporate loops into our team, and he pointed out that this service would be a great place to try it out! He’s right! We’ll try just about anything in this service (as you’ve noticed from the previous videos…). I have my homework, though, because we really have not done much with tracks and loops – the most we’ve done is play along to an I-Worship video. You can see the Planning Center details for this service.
“Love the Lord” (Lincoln Brewster)
“I Will Follow” (Jason Ingram, Reuben Morgan, and Chris Tomlin)
“More Than Amazing” (Lincoln Brewster and Mia Fieldes)
“Mighty To Save” (Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan)
Traditional Service
Randy led the team in this service today. Thanks, Randy! From what I heard the whole team did a fine job, and things went well. You can watch the video and see the Planning Center details for this service.
“I Will Sing Of My Redeemer”
“All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”
“Rejoice the Lord is King”
“Heaven Came Down”
“Let Your Heart Be Broken”
“Send the Light”
Barry Westman 
We sing 2 songs, then offeratory, then the rest of our song set. We play a song instrumentally while they’re passin’ the plates. I don’t think there’s any way around the stop-start-stop of introducing it, praying, and people walking around. One thing I’ve had to remind myself is that the offering is a type of worship as well.
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Jeff,
Yeah, you’re right – there’s no way around it. When I prayed before the offering on Sunday, it seemed to help, rather than someone else coming up to do it. Also, I was able to transition into it from the previous song, and transition into the next song, as well as remind people how the offering is just another way we can worship Him. Thanks for the comment!
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Regarding offering: we currently do the offering after the first song, and during that time, one of our pastors deals with announcements and then greeting. It feels a little disjointed, and it’s something I would like to fix…
At my previous church, we did the offering after the message and led a song during that time. I liked that a little more, but it still had its challenges.
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Thanks!
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Thanks for your recap. Good stuff, man!
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Thanks, Bill!
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We actually don’t have to worry about the offering. We don’t collect it during the service. We have offering boxes in our lobby, so people do it before or after the service. They started doing that before I got there, but I like it. One less thing we have to deal with during the service and also helps the service flow much better.
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Thanks, Ryan! Yeah, that’s how we do it in our Cafe service, but we haven’t tried that yet in our Contemporary. We’ve talked about it though! Thanks for the reminder!
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