Sunday Recap – September 25, 2011

Contemporary Services

This morning we were in Romans 10 with a message called “When It’s Good To Be Wrong”, focusing our salvation in grace alone.  “This Is How We Know” was a nice opener to set the focus on the cross, and God’s grace.  “At Your Name” is a new song by Phil Wickham that I think will quickly become a favorite with its very singable chorus, bridge and verses.  It’s been a while, but we pulled out “Victory” again this morning from the last Gateway Worship album.  I love that song, and it led perfectly into Pastor Tim’s message about God’s grace.  We closed with “Your Grace Is Enough”, and after a tempo adjustment to the click between services, the second time through went much better!  Our 9:30 service was full of little glitches, with the sound, instruments, you name it. My pedal on my keyboard didn’t work, and man is that distracting! It really threw me off today! It worked about half the time. My mind really was focused on that.  The 11:00 service went much better, and the pedal actually worked. Time for a new one! You can watch the video of this service and also see the Planning Center details.

Cafe Connection Service

I led in the Cafe this week from the keyboard, along with Denise on vocals (1st time – she did great!), Jake on bass and tambourine, and Zack on percussion.  We had nearly a full house today – love that this service is growing!  We also highlighted the new “Courageous” movie coming out this Friday. We’re taking a group to the movie, and providing childcare at the church. Looks like a great movie! You can see the Planning Center details for this service.

Traditional Service

  • Praise To The Lord, the Almighty
  • O Worship The King
  • At The Name Of Jesus
  • Blessed Be The Name
  • Grace Greater Than Our Sing
  • Wonderful Grace Of Jesus
Rick led the team in this service today, since I was in the Cafe.  Dee played a beautiful piano solo for the offertory, and the team did super on the hymns today.  You can watch the video of this service and see the Planning Center details.
This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog at The Worship Community, where worship leaders share service recaps from this week.

Sunday Recap – September 18, 2011

Contemporary Services

God is faithful! That was our theme today, as we continued our walk through Romans.  It was also a worship choir day, and the kickoff of our new “KICKS” program for kids. It was quite a day!  “Better Than Life” is one of our team’s favorites, with the funky beat, tight harmonies, swaying choir and powerful lyrics that remind us He is better than anything!  “The Lord Reigns” went well, and the click track from Praise Charts added some cool new sounds.  We introduced “Never Once” today from Matt Redman’s new album. Such powerful lyrics – “never once, did we ever walk alone… God is faithful!” You can watch the video of this service and see the Planning Center details.

Cafe Connection Service

Marv led the team in the Cafe today, along with Brenda and Mari singing, and Chris on percussion.  Marv picked some great songs today! You can see the Planning Center details for this service.

Traditional Service

  • “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”
  • “‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus”
  • “God Leads Us Along”
  • “Day By Day”
  • “Leaning On The Everlasting Arms”
I’m always amazed at the timelessness of some of the lyrics of these hymns.  “A Mighty Fortress” has such a powerful message if you really read the words.  It was great to have Paul back today, too!  You can see the Planning Center details.
This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog at The Worship Community, where you can read other recaps from today.

Sunday Recap – Bethel At The Rock

Bethel At The Rock

Today was an amazing day for so many reasons!! We had our annual Bethel At The Rock service where instead of having our regular 4 services at our church, we move it downtown to the river and have one huge service. It’s a lot of extra work, hauling all of our sound equipment down, setting up, tearing down, hauling back, etc… but it’s so worth it!  As people were coming in with their lawn chairs getting set up, we did “God Is With Us Now” and “At Your Name”. Today was our first time using “At Your Name” a new song by Phil Wickham and Tim Hughes. I can already tell it’s going to be a favorite. Great song!
During the service, we also took time to remember the 10 year anniversary of 9-11.  We honored those in the armed services and first responders in attendance (we invited police/fire crews from the city). We started with “We Will Remember” by Tommy Walker going right into the chorus of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”.  We also used a powerful dramatic reading by Randy Vader about 9-11, and closed that section out with “Blessed Be Your Name”.  I’m sure that song was used a lot today at churches around the country, as it was written 10 years ago, just a few weeks after 9-11, in response to 9-11.
We ended our service with “Happy Day” as we led into our baptism service.  There were 14 people were baptized, including my 13 year old son, Chad!  What a proud moment as a Dad, seeing your son take that huge step of faith!
The weather was beautiful, had great food afterwards with a hog roast right there at the park, car racing simulator for the “kids”, couldn’t have asked for a better day!!
You can see the Planning Center details for this service.  This post is part of the Sunday Setlists blog at The Worship Community.

Sunday Recap – September 4, 2011

Contemporary Services

Our services went great here this morning at Bethel. We did the Paul Baloche version of “Today Is The Day” with the click/loop from Praise Charts.  One little change between services made a huge difference – it felt a bit slow in the first service so we bumped it up from 119 to 120, and everything seemed to “click”.  Today was the first day we used “10,000 Reasons” in this service, a terrific new song from Matt Redman’s latest project.  Again we used the click/loop from Praise Charts, which helped fill out the sound a lot.  Jake was featured on the mandolin today, which was the first time he’s played that in the Contemporary services. He did a great job, as did the rest of the team!  Georgine did great on the “In Christ Alone” solo, but again we had to alter the tempo a bit on that one between services. We slowed it down a bit from 72 to 70, and it flowed much better the second time. “How Great Is The Love” is a great song by Meredith Andrews and Paul Baloche, although this is the first time we’ve used it for communion. It was also the first time we’ve used a click on this one, and it really seemed to help this song out, in particular.  No video streaming again this week, but you can see the Planning Center details.

Cafe Connection Service

Zack led the team today in the Cafe today, along with Georgine on vocals and Jake on bass.  The Cafe service has really picked up this summer – almost full today!  You can see the Planning Center details for this service.

Traditional Service

  • “I Will Sing of My Redeemer”
  • “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”
  • “Savior, Like A Shepherd Lead Us”
  • “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”
  • “Lamb of God”  (Phil McHugh and Greg Nelson)
I led this service today from the piano, along with Dee on the keys and the vocalists.  Dee and I also played “Wonderful Peace” as a piano/keyboard duet. Very fun to play!  You can see the Planning Center details for this service.
This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog at The Worship Community, where worship leaders share setlists and recaps from this week.  Hope you all had a great week, too!

Sunday Setlist – August 28, 2011

Contemporary Services

This morning, we finished up our series about loving others like Jesus loves us. It’s been a great reminder from Pastor Tim about being a church of love.  Since today was the culmination of the series, I included songs that really challenged people in this area.  I’ve been waiting for just the right time to use “By Our Love” by Christy Nockels, and this seemed to be the perfect time to use it. Sheri did a fabulous job on the solo, and I accompanied her on piano; no band on this one, just voice and piano. It’s nice to do that once in a while.
Using click tracks/loops is getting much more comfortable. We’re using primarily the click tracks from Praise Charts, since that’s where we get the majority of music. It’s great how everything matches up! Today, our second keyboard player was gone, so I noticed how much the loop fills in with the organ/strings sounds, especially on “I Will Follow” and “Hosanna”.  Ableton Live is great, I have to say! It’s become such a useful tool in this area! Once I discovered that I could change the tempo of a click, even ones with loops and still hold the tuning, that was a game changer. Now we can find the perfect tempo for each song (which is critical!!), and match the click/loop to that, instead of trying to play a song slower than we normally do.  It’s put everyone much more at ease.  You can see the Planning Center details for this service.

Cafe Connection Service

I led in the Cafe today, with the same songs as in the Contemporary.  The team did great today! We weren’t sure if Brenda would be able to sing, since she hardly had a voice when she came in this morning, but God is good, and her voice held out for the morning.  I have to get a separate keyboard, though, for the Cafe! Right now, we need to carry our (fairly large – 88 key) Yamaha S90 ES back and forth from our Family Life Center to our sanctuary each time I lead in the Cafe; both Thursday night and Sunday. That’s a lot of back and forth! Can anyone recommend a nice keyboard to use? I’m looking for one that’ fairly simple, nothing fancy with good keyboard sounds – piano, organ, strings, pads. You can see the Planning Center details for this service.

Traditional Service

  • Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord, God Almighty!
  • O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing
  • O God Our Help in Ages Past
  • Lead On, O King Eternal
  • I Want to Be Like Jesus
  • The Servant Song
Rick led the team in the Cafe this morning, since I was in the Cafe, and from what I heard, they did a great job! You can see the Planning Center details for this service. We weren’t able to stream our services this morning, since part of our camera system is being repaired so I’m not able to give you a link to any recordings from today.
This post is part of the Sunday Setlists blog over at The Worship Community, where worship leaders share setlists and recaps each week. Hope you all had a great Sunday!!

Upcoming Social Media Webinar for Christian Artists

I wanted to let you know about an upcoming webinar over at All About Worship, hosted by my friend and tech expert, Wisdom Moon.  “Using Social Media As An Artist” will  be held on Monday, September 12th,at 8:30 PM (CST). If you’re an artist looking for ways to utilize social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Google +, blogs and more to grow your online following with a limited budget, then you’ll definitely want to check this webinar out!

Wisdom is the co-host of the All About Worship Podcast, a monthly podcast featuring interviews with Christian artists and worship leaders.  He is also the founder of Factor 7 Agency,  a company specializing in social media marketing for Christian artists and organizations.

So, grab your computer, a webcam (if you’d like to participate interactively, not required) and sign up! It’s only $10 if you sign up by August 31st ($15 after that).  That’s a very minimal price for all of the practical, helpful information you’ll receive from Wisdom during this webinar.

Wisdom Moon

Sunday Recap – August 21, 2011

Contemporary Services

I was actually on vacation yesterday, at my parent’s home in Minnesota. We had a great week spent with family and friends. We celebrated my 40th birthday, my dad’s 88th birthday, and my daughter’s 8th birthday.  That’s quite a span! From everything I’ve heard, the team back here at Bethel did a great job leading yesterday.  Thanks, Marv, for leading the team, and everyone else for a great job well done! You can see the Planning Center details for this service. I’d put the video up, but we’re having some technical difficulties with one of the components in our camera system which is putting some nasty purple bars across the screen, so it really isn’t very pretty to watch. 1st order of business now since I’m back from vacation – take care of that!

Cafe Connection

Marv led the team in our Cafe service as well, with the same songs. Pastor Jamie was gone as well, so Pastor Andrew facilitated this service.  You can see the Planning Center details for this service.

Traditional Service

  • “How Great Thou Art”
  • “My Faith Has Found A Resting Place”
  • “Blessed Assurance”
  • “Love Lifted Me”
  • “Blest Be The Tie That Binds”
  • “The Family of God”
Randy Bartz led the team in our Traditional Service while I was gone, and from the part of the video that I watched, the whole team did a super job! I’ve come to expect it now, but just before this service started, around 7:30 a.m., I received a text message saying something was wrong, please call.  Why is it that things seem to fail only when I’m on vacation? It’s usually something simple that I normally just take care of myself. I’ve told myself each time this happens that I need to do a better job of training people what to do about the “what if”s. What do I do if this happens, or that happens… I really don’t mind getting the calls/texts, but everyone really should know what to do if something like that happens.  Note taken… You can see the Planning Center details for this service.
Hope you all had a great Sunday! This post is part of the Sunday Setlists blog carnival at The Worship Community.

Sunday Recap – August 14, 2011

Contemporary Services

We had a great morning today at Bethel! It was Worship Choir Sunday, and following our services today we had a Worship Ministry Picnic at a local park.  It was a great day!  Things are going pretty smoothly with adding in click tracks/loops using our new Ableton Live software.  “All My Fountains” went much better this time; the click helped immensely to navigate through all those long pauses.  The whole band did a great job on all their parts/solos and sticking with the click, and the choir/congregation are getting the clapping part! People are really getting to know “Always”, so they were really singing out on that one. We haven’t done “Overcome” for a while now, so it was great to pull that one out again.  What a powerful song! I let the congregation sit until the Bridge, and they were so ready to stand up and declare “We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony”! When we got back to the chorus, praise erupted!  I did feel like I should have kept that one going for a while longer at the end, but I just closed it down. I’ll have to remember that for next time. You can watch the video of this service and see the Planning Center details.

Cafe Connection Service

Zack led the team in the Cafe today, along with Jake on the bass, Chris on percussion and Georgine on vocals.  It was a full house in the Cafe, with the early morning summer rush winding down.  We are having some technical issues with our camera feed, though, both in the Cafe and online. We’ve got some nasty purple bars across the screen. I’ve identified the issue and am dealing with it, but it’s very frustrating for now! You can see the Planning Center details for this service.

Traditional Service

  • “Christ is Made the Sure Foundation”
  • “The Church’s One Foundation”
  • “My Savior’s Love”
  • “The Love of God”
  • “My Jesus, I Love Thee”
  • “O, How I Love Jesus”
We started a new series today about “loving others as God loves us”.  The team did a great job! Four of the pastors went on a retreat this weekend, so we were pretty tired at this early hour! But, it was a blast! We had a guys getaway with four-wheeling, shooting some targets, a campfire and of course food! You can watch the video for this service and also see the Planning Center details.
This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog carnival at The Worship Community, where worship leaders share their setlists with other worship leaders in the world.

Sunday Recap – August 7, 2011

Contemporary Services

Our service order today was quite different than normal, mainly because we had a special speaker who spoke for about ten extra minutes, plus communion, so we didn’t have a lot of songs today; but the team did a great job! Our rehearsal schedule was thrown off this week, too, because we had VBS, so we didn’t get to practice until Saturday afternoon.  Because of all that, things felt a bit frazzled today.  This was the last day in our series “How Can We Know the Bible is True”, and our guest speaker, Jay Seegert, with Creation Education Center, did a wonderful job of finishing it off with a very interesting message on the internal and scientific accuracy of the Bible.
This was also our second week using Ableton Live intro for our click tracks/loops. Things went quite a bit smoother in that area, too! The team really did a good job of playing with the click, and Ableton made things run so smoothly! Each we use clicks, things seem to get easier, and people feel more confident.   “God is With Us Now” is a nice, fast opener from the new Gateway album. Eric sang the opening of “God You Reign”, and Zack nailed the guitar solo! Brenda did wonderful on her two solos today on “At the Cross” and “Grace Flows Down”. We didn’t use a track on “At The Cross”, mainly because we often change the arrangement of a song during communion, based on how long it’s taking, so it would have been hard to stick with the loop.  During “Grace Flows Down”, I had Larry, our sound guy, fade out the loop in the house at a certain point, then I could easily stop the track and finish the song live w/o the click.  Do you guys have a better solution for doing things like that?  You can see the Planning Center details and watch the video of this service.

Cafe Connection Service

Yes, only two songs in here today! Again, with our guest speaker and communion, our regular schedule was all thrown off.  Zack led the team in here today, with Jake on bass and Brenda and Mari on vocals. You can see the Planning Center details for this service.

Traditional Service

  • “I Sing the Mighty Power of God”
  • “Beneath the Cross of Jesus”
  • “The Old Rugged Cross”
Great job on these songs today, team! You can see the Planning Center details and watch the video for this service.
This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog carnival at The Worship Community, a weekly event where worship leaders share setlists and service recaps.

Sunday Recap – July 31, 2011

Contemporary Services

Today we had some extra challenges, but the team rose to them and did a great job! This was the first time I’ve used my new MacBook Pro with Ableton Live and click tracks on every song! A lot of firsts today!  We’ve tried click tracks a few times before, but with a very basic program on my old PC. Ableton Live was one of the first programs I knew I wanted to get when I made the big switch to Mac. Before, I didn’t have an easy way to play just a click without a loop, and I couldn’t adjust the loops at all. I don’t know if it’s just all in my head or not, but I thought I could hear the click so much better today. I also loved how I can change the tempo of the loop, if needed.  I also was able to easily setup a click track for each of our songs, even the ones without a loop in Ableton.  It was a challenge, since many of us are not used to playing with a click.  But, it was the best we’ve done yet with tracks, and it is getting easier!
I do have to figure out something else for pushing the buttons, though. I had my Mac up by my keyboard today, and even though it was very simple, just pushing #1-5 and the space bar, it was still distracting for me and those watching.  I actually got some great ideas about this topic from a blog post earlier in the week – “Who Pushes Your Buttons?”. None of these songs were brand new this morning, but we’ve only done “Your Great Name” one time; what a great song! You can see the Planning Center details for this service and also watch the video.

Cafe Connection Service

Zack led the team in the Cafe today, along with Chris on percussion, Jake on bass/mandolin/ukelele and Georgine on vocals. I was so excited to see Zack had chosen “10,000 Reasons”! We heard Matt Redman perform this song last week when we were at the National Worship Leader Conference in Kansas City. It’s a great song, and one that really fit the Cafe service perfectly! Jake did a great job on the mandolin solo in the middle, and Chris nailed the drum part on the cajon. Loved it! You can see the Planning Center details for this service, and I’ve also included a short video excerpt of the team doing “10,000 Reasons” in rehearsal.

Traditional Service

  • “Praise Him! Praise Him!”
  • “To God Be The Glory”
  • “O To Be Like Thee”
  • “Be Thou My Vision”
  • “I Would Be Like Jesus”
  • “Since Jesus Came Into My Heart”
This morning’s Traditional Service was full of some of my favorites, and the team did a great job! It was a little unusual, just because our stage was set for the start of our VBS tonight, so we had a lifeguard chair, kiddie pools and beach balls all over our stage! You can see the Planning Center details for this service and watch the video.
This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog carnival at The Worship Community, where worship leaders from around the country share setlists and recap worship services. I hoep you all had a wonderful morning of worship as well!