Message Series: Are We Living in the Last Days?

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“Open Up The Heavens” – Meredith Andrews – Key of B – Female 1 Lead
“Closer” – Hillsong – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“This I Believe The Creed” – Hillsong – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“Forever” – Hillsong – Key of G – Female 1 Lead

We are in the middle of a new series and this particular week was a rarity, in that I was the only leader for the set because our male leader was out of town. We are currently in the process of training and raising it up more worship leaders. However, they probably will not be implemented until the top of the year, because of the process we have from “pew to platform”.

Although I was the only leader, I felt worship still went really well. In fact, I think it was one of our best sets song choice wise, along with smooth transitions and great engagement from the congregation. This of course had nothing to do with me. I have one of the best teams on the planet and God’s presence was evident as we ministered to Him in worship.

We used Multitracks for all of our songs, except the opener, which isn’t available on the site yet. Because of this, all of our songs were really full and the transitions were made easy because we could just shimmer the ending note of the song, while cueing the next track. The only transition we really had to carry was the one from “Open Up the Heavens” to “Closer” because the welcome was sandwiched in between these two songs. We trashcan ended the opener while facilitating a celebratory moment, changed the midi pad to the key of E and vamped on the intro of “Closer” to fill the gap until we could cue the track.

Every other song transition, like I mentioned, was seamless from one track to the next. However, we did allow a little breathing room at the end of each song for a time of praise with the shimmer before going into the next song. We did this so it wouldn’t just be song, song, song, end. Multitracks have been really important for us right now. Currently, until January, we will not have a keyboard player for many lead lines and filling in sounds and carrying transitions. Fortunately, we have fantastic electric players that can cover most. However, having the tracks really makes up for anything that could be missing that would cause a distraction or exit ramp in worship. More importantly, it is about us doing all we can to make sure people experience God in the greatest way possible in our service.

Message Series: Questions & Answers: Questions & Doubts We Encounter

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“Alive” – Hillsong Young & Free – Key of G – Female 1 Lead
“This is Amazing Grace” – Phil Wickham – Key of A – Male 1 Lead
“Heaven and Earth” – Hillsong – Key of A – Female 1 Lead
“This I Believe The Creed” – Hillsong – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“This Is Living” – Hillsong Young & Free – Key of G – Female 1 Lead (End Celebration Song)

For our One Year Celebration service we really tried to raise the bar and challenge our team. All songs selected for this service we played with a Multitrack and we had never done this before. However, because of this, transitions were extremely simple. We just let each song ring out until the next track began, which made things pretty seamless.

For our “response” song, instead of ending with something more reflective moment, our team wanted to end with celebrating and thanking God for all He has done in, at and through our church over this past year. So, we chose to introduce “This Is Living” at the end. In order to facilitate this moment, we included our young adults & kids as well. In addition to having one of our young adults do the rap section in “This Is Living,” we had one cue for kids and one cue for young adults where they shot off confetti canons. The kids shot theirs off during the first “this is living now,” while the young adults shot theirs off at the “this is living now” immediately coming out of the conclusion of the rap section. Along with confetti, we also had translucent Connect blue colored beach balls the congregation tossed around.

Even though the transitions and service elements all went smoothly and was exactly what we had envisioned, not everything went completely as planned. Our original opener was as listed above, “Alive”. However, when our drummer went to go cue the track, it skipped to the second track, “This is Amazing Grace”. When the team heard the different count off, our drummer and musical director were able to walk them through the mix-up and no error was made in the execution. Because of this sudden change, we ended up playing “Alive” after the welcome as our second song, which still worked great. On the bright side, this gave us an opportunity to show in real time the values we’ve been teaching and modeling for the past year, excellence and flexibility.  Moments like these make you realize as a leader how grateful you are for the people that lead with you from week-to-week.

Message Series: Questions & Answers: Questions & Doubts We Encounter

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“At Your Name” – Bethel – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“Cornerstone” – Hillsong – Key of C – Male 1 Lead
“Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace)” – Hillsong – Key of G – Female 1 Lead
Communion
“Forever” – Kari Jobe – Key of G – Female 1 Lead

Because we were gearing up for our huge One Year Anniversary service on the 20th, this week was more of a throw back set for us. We still did updated songs, but nothing too new was scheduled in the set. What also dictated this was the fact that thematically I wanted the last three songs to tie into Communion, so that narrowed the selection for me.

We opened with “At Your Name,” which we’ve only done one other time as an opener. Typically, it is used as a second song and this week reminded me why. Even with the fuller intro with the electric lead line, I still prefer this as a second song because of the tempo. It’s just too slow. We ended with a full outro as well, which is the chorus progression one time through. Then, we transitioned via pad to the key of C to begin playing the intro of “Cornerstone” as Pastor Devin welcomed everyone. He finished his invocation prayer and then we went right into singing the verse.

“Cornerstone” was ended with a down chorus and then again, we transitioned by using the pad to swell from the key of C to the key of G for “Broken Vessels.” We did an abbreviated version of this song to give more time for Communion to be administered. The adjustment that was made was after the 2nd verse, we simply hit the pre-chorus twice through, followed my the chorus and then finished out vamping on the chorus progression as Pastor Ron set up Communion.

While Pastor Ron prayed over Communion, we took that moment to transition to the intro of “Forever.” After the elements were taken, I went right into singing the verse. We concluded “Forever” with a celebratory moment trash canning on the 1 before I transitioned us via a conclusion prayer into meet and greet. For response at the end of the message, we went back to “Cornerstone.”

Message Series: Questions & Answers: Questions & Doubts We Encounter

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“Open Up The Heavens” – Meredith Andrews – Key of B – Female 1 Lead
“Heaven and Earth” – Hillsong – Key of A – Female 1 Lead (Multi-track song)
“Lord I Need You” – Chris Tomlin – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“Christ Is Enough” – Hillsong – Key of E – Female 1 Lead

One of my favorites set we have done thus far was this particular week. We had quite a few team members out of town, which made it for a pretty thin line-up. Because of this, I wanted to make sure we scheduled all powerhouse songs, nothing too reflective or extremely difficult arrangement/chord wise. The most challenging was “Lord I Need You” and we have been doing this song since launch day. Once you set the bar of excellence, you can’t go back. In saying that, I wanted to ensure I didn’t make it any more challenging on the team with song selection to lead an excellent worship experience.

We opened with “Open Up the Heaven,” which is a no brainer invocation song! Then, we transitioned to the “Heaven and Earth,” which we introduced last week. Again, we vamped on the verse before cueing the track, as Pastor Devin welcomed everyone. To transition to “Lord I Need You,” we shimmered on the 4 chord and swelled in the E pad before counting off the intro. We ended with a down chorus, let it breathe for 4 counts, and began the intro of “Christ Is Enough.” We concluded with a celebratory moment after we tagged, “I’ve decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.” This followed the Highlands format that I talked through in the previous set list post, which has been working really well for our church. Overall, a pretty smooth-sailing, high-impact set with great participation from the congregation as we all encountered God’s presence together. A thumbs up in my book!

Message Series: Questions & Answers: Questions & Doubts We Encounter

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“You Came To My Rescue” – Passion – Key of F – Female 1 Lead (Multi-track song)
“Heaven and Earth” – Hillsong – Key of A – Female 1 Lead (Multi-track song)
“Always” – Kristian Stanfill – Key of A – Male 1 Lead
“Your Great Name” – Natalie Grant – Key of A – Female 1 Lead

Our opener is a newer addition to our library and our team absolutely loves it! It’s so fun and the message is spot on for what we want to be putting in our heart, mind and spirit. Mainly, it’s a song of gratitude, which is perfect for an invocation song. We used a multi-track for both this song and the song that followed, “Heaven and Earth,” which was the song we introduced for this new series. We vamped on the verse though before cueing the track, as Pastor Devin welcomed everyone and set up the new song, which he did really well, emphasizing us inviting Heaven to come as we enter into God’s presence.

The congregation really seemed to take to it and ending with the powerful bridge was a sure win, “by His stripes we are healed, by His death we can live, in Jesus’ name, in Jesus name… all oppression will cease, every captive released, in Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ name.” We then remained in the key of A and swelled into the intro of “Always.” We ended with tagging “from the Lord…” at the end of the bridge before a four count into “Your Great Name.” It worked really well that the last three songs were all in the same key and made it a distraction-free set by helping avoid any awkward dead space in the transition moments.

We concluded “Your Great Name” with the tags as well and ended with a celebratory moment before concluding with a closing prayer and transitioning into meet and greet. We made that change since coming back from Church of the Highland’s GROW conference, because we really enjoyed how they journeyed in worship. (Two up-tunes or celebration songs, one intimate worship song and concluding with a mid-tempo song which ends in celebration.) Since trying this format out, we have really noticed a change in the way people enter into worship. They just seemed more engaged when we add more celebratory moments rather than reflective moments. Not to say we no longer facilitate reflective moments, we just make those more selective.