Barry Westman

I just had to let you guys know about an amazing event coming up on May 19-21, 2011 at Grace Church in Overland Park, KS. The All About Worship Retreat is being put on by the guys at All About Worship. Wisdom Moon and Ben AbuSaada host the All About Worship Podcast, a great resource for worship leaders! They also have an excellent website with tons of resources for worship leaders including the podcast, CD Reviews, worship leading articles and videos.

Last year, they put on the first All About Worship Retreat, and I was so glad that I went! We were able to spend some quality time with Tommy Walker, Darrell Evans, Jared Anderson, Michael Farren from Pocket Full of Rocks, as well as some other amazing worship leaders from around the country. It was a small group of around 60 of us there, so we really were able to get some one on one interaction with these guys, as well as form bonds and friendships with other attendees. I still keep up with many of them via Facebook, Twitter.

I was so glad to see that they were going to have another retreat next year! I’ve already registered for it, and it looks great! But, since they do have to limit the registrations to about 60, I would register early if you’re considering attending this year. You can go to the retreat website, which is worshipretreat.org for all the details.

This year, they are bringing back Michael Farren from Pocket Full of Rocks, but this year the entire band will be there! Also, Brenton Brown, writer of such great songs as “Everlasting God”, “Lord Reign in Me” and “Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) will be one of the worship leaders, along with worship leader Sarah Reeves.

As I said, I would register early, since the size is limited. You won’t be disappointed!!

My pastor friend, Mark Kraakevik, shared this picture recently and it got me thinking. Take a look at this map and see where you fall in this debate. You can see a full-size image of the map here. Also, click on the image below to see it full-size.

I grew up in Minnesota, so my whole childhood I called it pop. I thought “soda” sounded so funny! Now I live in WI, and according to the map, right on the edge of pop/soda. I do hear quite a bit of both around here, so I guess that makes sense now. I have no idea why the eastern part of WI would call it soda, though. Seems kind of random…

But, what’s even stranger is why the whole southern part of the US would call it Coke!? So Pepsi is Coke? Mountain Dew is Coke? Someone from the south please explain this to me… And does anyone know why the north/south split? What’s the history there? Now I’m curious…

Please enlighten me!

Today we had our annual Bethel At The Rock service at one of the parks here in Janesville.  Our day started early with hauling the equipment down to the park and setting up. With our new portable sound system from our Cafe Service, it made setup much easier today. After a lengthy sound check (we are now so used to using Avioms that using floor monitors and live sound now prove to be quite troublesome…), we were ready to go.

Prelude (15 minutes before as people were walking in)

Everday (Joel Houston)

Amazing Grace (Instrumental)
– This was kind of an impromptu last-minute addition today! As we were getting things setup, the band just started to noodle around playing Amazing Grace, and I thought they sounded so good, I asked them to play it during the prelude! With electric guitar lead, bass, guitar, drums and keys it sounded great!

Your Love Never Fails (Chris McClarney)
– A great song!!

Songs during the service:

Awesome Is The Lord Most High (Chris Tomlin)

Glory To God Forever (Steve Fee and Vicky Beeching)

You Alone Can Rescue (Matt Redman, Matt Maher)

Hold Us Together (Matt Maher)
– This was our special this morning we did during the offering. I had wanted to do this song for a long time, but was just waiting for the right combination of who would be singing it, and the right location. With Eric nailing the vocal part, the great band,  and the baptism service, it seemed liked the perfect day to do it!!

Mighty To Save (Reuben Morgan)
We ended the service with hearing the testimonies of the 11 people who were going to be baptized, which was way cool! The people’s ages ranged from 9 to 70’s, with a husband, wife, and son. The park was right next to the Rock River, so it was perfect for the baptism service.

After that celebration, we had our Hog Roast meal right there at the park. Great food and fun fellowship!

Days like this are always so much more work than the normal day, but it was so worth it! Being outside in God’s beautiful creation, the excitement of having the whole church together for 1 service, and just the whole atmosphere of today made it a wonderful day!

This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog on The Worship Community, where you can read what happened at other churches around the country today!

Just a little video from this past summer – Olivia riding her bike, and Emily asking a question about Noah. It didn’t seem so humorous as I was taping it, but watching it back, it’s actually a pretty good picture of what life can be like staying on top of 3 kids (2 in this video). Hope you enjoy!

Last Tuesday we had a bad windstorm here, and we lost a huge branch from one of the trees in our front yard. The tree fell first on our roof, then bounced off and landed on our car.  Needless to say, when my wife called me at work and said a tree fell on our car, I raced home, only to find this huge chunk of the biggest tree in our yard had broken off and was covering our Envoy. At first glance, I was sure the roof would have been crushed, windows broken or worse.

Our neighbor Terry came out, and said that he was in his shower, and he heard a huge sound, so he thought he would come out to see what it was. Tina and the kids were inside when it happened, and they said it sounded horrible when it fell. They could hear something hit the roof first, then slide off.

After calling the insurance company, and figuring out what we should do, Terry offered to help us get rid of the tree. He owns a chainsaw, so we started cutting it up and dragging the pieces into our front yard.  As we carefully uncovered the car, we were amazed to see no damage to the structure of the car, and only minor scratches on the sides and back.  There was one little ding on the side, but nothing horrible. We have a $100 deductible with our insurance, so everything else should be covered.

After looking at the pictures and video, we realized how close it came to doing so much more damage. It could have been so much worse! So, we’re just praising God that He spared us from anyone getting hurt, or doing so much more damage to our car.

Here’s a video and some pics from the event.

This morning’s worship services at Bethel went very well! This was the first Sunday after our series on our new “Connect-Grow-Serve-Go Discipleship Process”, and Pastor Jamie did a great job on a message about living a life of purity and holiness. His point was that if we’re living lives that are not pleasing to God, this whole process we just learned about will be useless. We’ve had some marriages at Bethel recently that have been falling apart, and I think our church needed to hear this message right now. I was back from a week of vacation, so I felt refreshed and excited about the morning!

We started each of our services in a unique (for us), but powerful way! We used a countdown, and then as soon as we reached zero, I used the “Obstacles” video from Shift Worship. This was such a powerful video about what possible obstacles there might be in  your life that need to be addressed before worship – unforgiveness, anger, unconfessed sin. With music by Page CXVI, this was a perfect way to start a service. Immediately following the video, I had Zack play guitar quietly, and asked people to spend a couple minutes in prayer and reflection, based on the questions in the video. We transitioned right from Zack’s guitar playing into our first song.  It was something different, fresh, and it seemed like people really responded well to it.

Contemporary Service

Stronger (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)
– Following the Obstacles video, this song seemed very appropriate as we praised Him for being stronger than all those things that can get in the way of our worship – “You are stronger, sin is broken”!!

Only A God Like You (Tommy Walker)
– One of my favorites by Tommy, and one of church’s favorites as well (which is always nice…)

Wholly Yours (David Crowder)
– This isn’t a new song, but it was the first time we’ve used it.  I love the song, and with Pastor Jamie’s focus on holiness, I thought it was a good week to use it. We passed out the solos, and our group did it as a special. They all did a great job!

Remembrance (Communion Song) (Matt Maher and Matt Redman)
– This is one of my favorite new songs for communion. It has been recorded by both Matt Maher and Matt Redman on their recent albums.  We used the vocal harmonies from Matt Maher’s recording, but followed the music more closely to Matt Redman’s version. Great song!

Beautiful the Blood (Steve Fee and Louie Giglio)
– With a writing combination of Steve Fee and Louie Giglio, you know it has to be a great song, and it is! Another new song that we’ve started to use for communion, this one is well written, with each part – the verses, pre-chorus, chorus and tag all having great qualities!

Click here to watch our LiveStream video of this service.

Cafe Connection (Video Venue Service)

Our summer youth intern, Nathan, was the worship leader in this service today, and he chose the songs and led the service. It’s been great to have him around, both for the great job that he did with our youth, and for his wonderful musical skills he used while he was here! This was his last Sunday with us, though, as his time is up, and we recently just voted in a new youth pastor, who starts in a week!

Better Is One Day (Matt Redman)

Enough (Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio)

How Deep the Father’s Love For Us (Stuart Townend)
– This is one of my favorite songs to use for Communion, with the rich theology and beauty in the lyrics, combined with that moving melody. Great!

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) (Chris Tomlin)

Traditional Service

Jesus, I Come
And, Can It Be
Whiter Than Snow
Lead Me to Calvary
Glory To His Name

My Sunday recap will be a bit shorter this week, because I’ve actually been on vacation this past week in Minnesota! It was a great week spent with family and friends.  I had three great teams leading the services this week at church, and they all did a great job! This Sunday was also exciting because we had a candidate for a new youth pastor, along with our Burger Bash after church. This was the last Sunday in our series on our new Discipleship Process – Connect, Grow, Serve, Go. The Go theme today focused on living a lifestyle of evangelism. I missed all of those activities, but I was able to watch the Livestream from this morning, and saw that our teams did great!

We also used another video testimony from one of our members, Bruce, this morning about how God has called him to Go into the world. He has an amazing story, and is so comfortable sharing Christ with others. What a great example!!

Contemporary Worship Team

Marv led the team this morning, and the whole team did great. Watch the livestream video of this service. Here are the songs we used:

My Savior Lives (Jon Egan and Glenn Packiam)

Glory To God Forever (Steve Fee and Vicky Beeching)

How Great Is Our God (Chris Tomlin)

God of Justice (Tim Hughes)

Shine (Matt Redman)

Cafe Connection Cafe Service

Adam led the team this morning in our video cafe service this morning. We were short a percussion player today, so we had a pretty small  team. Here are the songs they used:

Glory to God Forever (Steve Fee and Vicky Beeching)

God of Wonders (Marc Byrd and Steve Hindalong)

Your Love, Oh Lord (Mac Powell)

God You Reign (Lincoln Brewster)

Traditional Worship Service

Rick led the team today for our Traditional Service. Besides leading the hymns, he also sang a great song as a solo about how we may be the only Jesus that people ever see.  Watch the Livestream video of this service. Here are the hymns:

Praise To the Lord the Almighty
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
Love Lifted Me
So Send I You
Send the Light

This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog share at The Worship Community. Thanks for reading. How did your service go?

It’s been a very nice week so far at Grandma and Grandpa’s house here in Minnesota. Grandma and Grandpa are actually my parents, Olive and Elaine Westman, but with the kids now, we’re always going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  It’s been very relaxing, with very little going on.  We arrived Tuesday night, and had some sloppy joes with the family. My sisters, Barb and Sharon were here, along with my sister-in-law Donna and the girls, Tori, Julia and Caitlin, and Sharon’s husband Roberto.  Emily had been spending a few weeks here, so it was nice to see her again! Emily and Jillian, Sharon’s daughter, Jillian and Emily had prepared a special birthday song and dance for Olivia, so we were treated to our first performance of the week.

Wednesday and Thursday were both very relaxing days, with nothing much going on. Grandma made us a delicious breakfast both mornings, and then we just spent the day relaxing at the house, playing games, Wii, reading, and taking it easy. It really has felt like a true vacation.

Friday we went over to Jeanette’s house and spent the day with Jessica, Mike and Josie; Sarah Rose and Rebecca; and Jeanette. It was bitter-sweet since it was the first gathering on Tina’s side of the family without Jerome. His presence was missed greatly!  We had a fun time playing ladderball and other outdoor games.  We had a great lunch, and then steaks and burgers on the grill for dinner.

Today is Saturday, and it’s a special day since it’s Olivia’s 7th Birthday! She spent the night at Jillian’s house, so I haven’t even seen her yet! But, we’re celebrating Grandpa’s 87th birthday, and Olivia’s 7th birthday later this afternoon.  Tina is making some nice signs to hang up for her birthday.

My Dad actually just finished writing a book about his life called “From Arrowheads to Golf Balls”. For years now, we’ve always asked him to write his stories down that he would share with us.  Well, he finally did, and it’s been so neat to read about his childhood and our ancestry. He tells about how my great-great-grandparents (on both sides) came over from Sweden and settled here in this area. It’s been amazing to read about our family heritage, and even back then the dependence on God, and the faith of our fore-fathers. So cool!

We head home tomorrow late morning. It’s been a great week! It’s always frustrating when resources are tight on vacation, but God always provides what we need. I know He’ll provide a way for us to get the gas we need to get home tomorrow, for food along the way, and to make it to Wednesday.

We had a wonderful day today at Bethel! We are going through a sermon series on our new Discipleship Process – “Connect, Grow, Serve, Go”.  Serve was up today, and like last week, we had a shorter (45 minutes, or so we planned) service, followed by our Ministry Fair. At the Fair, each ministry of the church had a table with information about the ministry, and chance to sign-up for more information or to serve.   It was great! We had many new people sign up to serve in a ministry, and tons of people walk through and take a look.

But, with only a 45 minute service, the music elements were very short! Especially when we added in an element at the last minute that took about 5 minutes, and things ran long. I had planned 4 songs in the service, and only ended up doing 2 1/2 in one, and 2 in the other.  But, we’re used to being flexible, and the team did a great job rolling with the changes.

We also had a really neat testimony via video from Tamera, a woman in our church who shared how God has called her to serve in the church

Cafe Connection Video Cafe Service

This was an incredibly special service because today, Zack was the worship leader! Zack is a soon-to-be-senior in high school. It’s been so neat to see him grow and mature both musically and spiritually over the last few years. He’s led a few songs in the last few weeks, but today was the first day that he chose the songs, planned the transitions, planned out the song arrangements, led the rehearsal and this morning led the congregation in worship. He did a great job!!

Songs (we had to skip the last one because of time):
Because of Your Love (Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown)
Indescribable (Laura Story)
Mighty To Save (Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan)

Contemporary Service

I was excited to introduce a new song this morning, “Forever Reign”, off the new Hillsong CD. One of our members has been called into the ministry and is leaving to pastor a church, so we had commissioning service this morning. It was one of those happy-sad situations. Happy that God has called them and provided a place for them to serve, but sad to see them go. Again, I had 4 songs planned, but things didn’t go exactly as planned today. Click here to watch a video of this service.

Songs:
Love the Lord (Lincoln Brewster)
– No electric on this one today, but Zack did a great job filling in on acoustic for the solo part.

Our God (Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin)
– We started this song a bit differently today. As we were finishing up “Love the Lord”,  I just continued in G, and went right into the Bridge of “Our God”, building that up a few times, then going into the song.

Forever Reign (Jason Ingram, Reuben Morgan)
– Love this song! I’ve been humming it ever since our rehearsal on Thursday! We’ve rehearsed a few times in the Worship Choir rehearsal, so it was nice to see some people out in the congregation actually worshipping along with us as we introduced the song today. I’m sure this is one that we’ll do a lot!

What Can I Do (Paul Baloche,  Graham Kendrick)
– This was planned for our closing song, but we never got around to doing it, since we went way over time in the first part of our service, and we were supposed to end early for people to go down to the Ministry Fair.

Traditional Service

Since I was involved with the Cafe service this morning on keys, I wasn’t in this service today, but Rob led the service this morning. Thanks, Rob! Click here to watch the video of this service.

Songs:
We Come, O Christ, To You
Praise Him, Praise Him
The Longer I Serve Him
Make Me A Blessing

Thanks for reading. This is my contribution to the Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at The Worship Community.