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

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“This is Amazing Grace” – Phil Wickham – Key of E – Female 1 Lead (Multi-track song)
“Beneath the Waters (I Will Rise)” – Hillsong – Key of A – Female 1 Lead
“My Heart Is Yours” – Kristian Stanfill – Key of A – Male 1 Lead
“This I Believe The Creed” – Hillsong – Key of E – Female 1 Lead (Multi-track song)

Starting a new series to kick off the launch of our new semester of Connect groups, we stuck with really strong staple songs for our church. We have done “This Is Amazing Grace” many of times, but this was the first time we had played it along with a multi-track, which really helped beef up the sound so to speak. Our main reason was to make sure we had the synth lead line and other pads available with this track in order to best replicate the recording. It worked well and made a difference in the fullness of sound.

We then via pad transitioned to the key of A for “Beneath the Waters,” where we vamped on the intro progression while Pastor Devin welcomed the congregation and gave an invocation prayer prior to the song. For me, this song is more focused on the story of baptism, but the message of the bridge is so powerful as well as the sing-ability of the chorus, which made for a good mid-tempo addition to the set.

After ending with a down chorus, we remained in the key of A for one of our church’s favorite songs, “My Heart is Yours,” which our male leader led…very well I might add! We tagged “take it all, take it all, my life in Your hands” three times before letting it shimmer out and cueing the multitrack for “This I Believe.” The intro to this song is so recognizable and while we had only introduced it a few weeks back, our church already has gained so much familiarity and love for it.

I can honestly say not one of these songs did I feel people not fully engaged, which is saying a lot. Other than the feel and message of the songs in this set, this is the main reason why I chose this combination. I knew people can, do and love to sing them and that’s what really matters. When people engage, God inhabits the praises of His people. This brings us back to our purpose and goal: We want people to encounter God, experience His presence and hear His voice.

Message Series: “Alive: Celebrate the Resurrection” | Easter Sunday

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“Alive” – Hillsong – Key of G – Female 1 Lead (Multi-track song)
“Only Your Love” – Kari Jobe – Key of E – Female 2 Lead (Multi-track song)
Video Testimony
“In Christ Alone” – Kristian Stanfill – Key of G – Male 1 Lead
“Forever – Shorter” – Kari Jobe  – Key of G – Female 1 Lead
“My Heart Is Yours” – Kristian Stanfill – Key of A – Male 1 Lead (Response)

Easter Sunday, the “Superbowl” for the Church as some people like to call it, is here. For this set, I won’t necessarily break down thematically why we chose these songs, because I’m pretty sure you can guess: they all enforce the story of the Cross. I am mainly going to talk through transitions.

We opened with “Alive” by Hillsong, which was a new song for our congregation. I know introducing a new song on Easter isn’t the most recommended. However, with it being an opener and it fitting perfectly with “Alive: Celebrate the Resurrection,” there just wasn’t a better choice lyric and feel wise. Instead of ending abruptly like the recording, we decided to do a trashcan ending to lengthen the time of celebration at the end and give Pastor Devin more time to get to the platform for the welcome.

During the welcome, we transitioned to the key of E via pad and softly played the intro of “Only Your Love.” When Devin began the invocation prayer at the end of the welcome, we faded the pad and hit the Multi-track for the song, which has pads on it and a pretty lengthy intro. We had coordinated with him how long the intro was, so he could say amen just in time for us to come in at the verse.

We also did a trashcan ending for this song but less celebratory than “Alive,” which followed with a testimony video. The video was mainly talking about what Christ had done in your life since being at Connect. This video was a perfect transition to the song “In Christ Alone,” in which we chose the new Stanfill arrangement with the added bridge. We ended with the tag, “till He returns or calls me home…” and then transitioned to “Forever” in the same key. We chose to do the shorter radio edit version of this song because the previous songs in our set were so lengthy, we needed to cut to keep worship around 20ish minutes.

For our response time following the sermon, we chose “My Heart Is Yours,” which is great for an Easter salvation message, especially for those dedicating or rededicating their life to Christ. For us, this set was a great opportunity to give and create an array of powerful celebratory and reflective moments. It provided a great progression of the message of Christ and His sacrifice for us on the Cross and ended with a declaration of surrender in the song “My Heart Is Yours”.

Message Series: “Integrity: Part III” | Palm Sunday

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“This is Amazing Grace” – Bethel – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“Here For You” – Chris Tomlin – Key of E – Female 2 Lead
“Holy Spirit” – Jesus Culture – Key of A – Male 1 Lead
“Place of Freedom” – Highlands  – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“Holy Spirit – Response” – Jesus Culture – Key of A – Male 1 Lead

Even though it was Palm Sunday, we chose to conclude our “Integrity” series this week because Pastor Devin realized that two weeks wasn’t enough time to deliver all the information needed. Thematically, we chose songs that worked for both the series and the occasion of Palm Sunday.

We opened with “This Is Amazing Grace,” and while this is mainly an Easter themed song, we weren’t planning on doing it the following week and it reinforced the series, so we kept it in that spot. “Here For You” was the song that followed that centered around Palm Sunday. To transition these two songs, Pastor Devin came and gave a general welcome and read a Palm Sunday passage to lead us right into the verse.

Following a down chorus, we transitioned to “Holy Spirit,” which I also chose for the Palm Sunday theme, focusing on the prayer of inviting God into our lives to dwell, the pursuit of His presence and the idea of surrendering everything to Him. We also came back to a shorter version of this for the response time.

We ended our set with the fairly new “Place of Freedom,” which our church really seems to love. The chorus is simple and the slow paced nature of the song allows for reflection and time for people to enter in. Overall, this particular set worked well for us trying to accomplish the two-themed goal.

Message Series: “Integrity: Part II”

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“You Are Good” – Bethel – Key of F – Female 1 Lead
“Beneath the Waters (I Will Rise)” – Hillsong – Key of A – Female 1 Lead
“My Heart Is Yours” – Kristian Stanfill – Key of A – Male 2 Lead
“Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” – Hillsong – Key of D – Female 1 Lead

One of the pros and cons to being a church plant, whichever way you decide to look at it, is that sometimes during seasons of transition, you quite possibly will be without a position. In this case, our keyboard player, who is also one of our female worship leaders, was in the process of transitioning out with her husband to help assist and plant another church in the area in which they were moving to. Because of the short transition time, we were still in the process of assimilating other keyboard players.

This adding to the list of reasons why having multiple people rotating and training at every position is so important. However, when you are 7 months old, sometimes this is a dream and not a reality. I say pro and con because from the more negative angle, we were out a keyboard player. However, from the positive angle, it gave our team an opportunity to grow not only musically because they were filling and covering sounds, but also numerically because we were soon adding new gifting and perspective.

With that being said, this particular week, we only had two leaders because of the transition of our female leader and our other male leader being out of town. With our second male leader being fairly new to leading, I had him only lead one song, “My Heart is Yours,” as to not overwhelm him because he was leading on acoustic and I knew he would be pulling double duty with memorization. This song followed the two previous songs we opened with, “You are Good” and “Beneath the Waters (I Will Rise).” The Pastor’s welcome was sandwiched in between the first two songs. So, even though the keys were different, the transition was slightly easier because we used the pad as usual, but the greeting overtop helped distract from the key change.

We then remained in the key of A for the two songs following the opener, which we smoothly bridged with a down chorus before heading into the intro of the third, “My Heart is Yours.” We ended on the tag and let it ring out before changing the pad to the key of D for “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail).” Since we were continuing the “Integrity” series, we came back to “My Heart Is Yours” for response. Thematically the prayer of surrender (surrendering to Christ and letting Him make us whole and complete) facilitated by this song fit well with the theme.

Message Series: “Integrity: Part I”

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“Running” – Hillsong – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“One Thing Remains” – Bethel – Key of B – Male 1 Lead
“Never Once” – Matt Redman – Key of B – Male 2 Lead
“Place of Freedom” – Highlands Worship – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“Cornerstone” – Hillsong – Key of C – Male 1 Lead (Repsonse)

To bridge the gap between the “Love One Another” series and the Easter season, we did mini series based on Henry Clouds book “Integrity.” In this particular set, we carried over “Place of Freedom,” which we introduced last week in the key of D (the original). However, it was a bit low for me once the chorus got full after the bridge and my vocals I could tell were getting a little lost, not volume wise, but feel wise. It was losing the power of the message musically because you couldn’t really feel the lyrics with the range it was in. So, I bumped it up to the key of E.

Other than that small tweak, we opened with an oldie but a goodie, “Running,” which I led, followed by two male led songs back-to-back: “One Thing Remains” and “Never Once.” We ended the second song with a down chorus, and stayed in the key of B to seamlessly transition to the third. At the end of “Never Once” we tagged “You are faithful, God you are faithful” four times before landing on the B (which we let ring out a bit) before moving to the key of E via pad.

For response, Pastor Devin chose “Cornerstone,” keeping in mind the definition of Integrity being “the quality or condition of being whole and complete.” This leading to our capacity as people only being filled and maintained in/through Christ. However, we edited this song down, creating a special version just for this moment (attached above).