Message Series: “Hope Has Come”

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“Running” – Hillsong – Key of E – Female 2 Lead
“Forever Reign” – Hillsong – Key of C – Male Guest Lead
“Always” – Kristian Stanfill – Key of D – Female 2 Lead
“Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” – Hillsong – Key of D – Female 2 Lead

This particular week, my husband and I were out of town for the Christmas/New Year’s Holiday, so a lot of previous planning went into this particular set. These are the moments when you are extremely thankful you use the multi-leader model. This way, you’re not having to hire or bring someone to lead from the outside that your congregation has no connection with. With that being said, our second female worship leader mainly led for this week along with a “guest” male leader. He wasn’t that much of a guest because he plays electric/acoustic guitar with us about once a month, but I say guest because this was his first time leading on vocals with us.

The opener was a tried and true staple, which was nice coming out of the Christmas special season. We then transitioned to the key of C via pad as Pastor Devin welcomed everyone for “Forever Reign.” I believe this was the first time we had a male lead “Forever Reign.” The first couple of times we had sung this song, a female lead it to try a different voicing. This was the first time we actually played “Forever Reign” in the traditional key.

We then, for only the second time thus far, sang “Always,” which the female leader again led. The normal for us is to at least have three leaders. However, not only was I out of town, but our two other male leaders were also out of town for the holidays. Therefore, our female leader needed to lead 3 out of the 4 songs. Since it was this particular male leader’s first time leading in our setting (although we have lead together before so I knew he was credible… never would I just throw someone up there to fill a space), I didn’t want him to lead more than one song and have him carrying that load.

Following “Always,” we stayed in the key of D for “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail),” another staple for our church. They absolutely love this song and it carries a great message of faith and trusting in the Lord that we all need to be reminded of. Concluding the sermon, we went back to “Forever Reign,” but played a shorter response version.

Message Series: “Hope Has Come”

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“Joy To The World (Unspeakable Joy)” – Chris Tomlin – Key of D – Male 1 Lead
“Here For You” – Chris Tomlin – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“Love Came Down” – Kari Jobe – Key of G – Female 2 Lead
“When Hope Came Down” – Kari Jobe – Key of F – Female 1 Lead (Special)

For our Connect Christmas service, we opened with “Joy to the World (Unspeakable Joy). Even though this is not a newly released song (2009), it does a great job of keeping the foundational Christmas song (Joy to the World) there and simply building upon it by adding an uptempo, singable addition with the newly written chorus; great for a congregation. We used a Multitrack  for this song to beef it up a little and not lose the full sound it requires with the driving electric guitars and sleigh bells.

We then transitioned via Ableton pad to the key of E for “Here For You,” and vamped on the steady intro as Pastor Devin welcomed everyone. I led this song to give it a different feel and mix up the sound since the opener was male lead. We ended with a down chorus and let it breathe a little with the pad before beginning the piano intro of “Love Came Down.”

Our other female leader lead this song beautifully. It was a great reflective moment and we kept it pretty stripped down until the bridge. The lyrics to this song couldn’t be more perfect for Christmas, “Love came down and rescued me. Love came down and set me free.” We also chose to repeat this song for our response time, because this was the first time we had introduced the song to our church. The message was so on point and the arrangement perfect for a time of reflection at the end.

After tagging “I am yours” a few times we played a video to intro “When Hope Came Down” titled “Hope Is Here This Christmas” from Igniter Media. I cannot say enough good things about the subscription we have with Igniter and Graceway Media. If you are a church, especially a smaller church, they are a huge help for video content, motion backgrounds, sermon titles and slides, and photoshop files for announcements, etc.

“When Hope Came Down” was our “special” song that we had built our Christmas series upon. For this song, we also used a Multitrack to ensure we did the song justice. It has beautiful strings and bells in the recording and we just couldn’t have replicated those elements without the track.

Message Series: “Hope Has Come”

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“At Your Name” – Phil Wickham – Key of E – Female 1 Lead
“One Thing Remains” – Bethel – Key of E – Female 2 Lead
“Our God” – Chris Tomlin – Key of B – Male 1 Lead
“Worship The Great I Am” – Gateway – Key of C – Female 1 Lead (Special)
“Cornerstone” – Hillsong – Key of C – Male 1 Lead

To preface our Christmas service, we continued setting up the “Hope Has Come” message with our song selection. We opened with “At Your Name,” which is normally male lead, but this time I led it just to give it a fresh sound. Because of the descriptive verses and chorus declaration, it makes a great invocation song.

Following “At Your Name,” we remained in the key of E for “One Thing Remains,” which was a seamless transition because we were able to keep the pad going to bridge the two. We had another female lead this song, because I rarely lead two songs back to back. Again, with the amount of leaders we have, it just really isn’t necessary. Giving other people leadership opportunity to learn and grow is important.

We then moved to the key of B via Ableton pad for our “throwback” song, which was “Our God.” I really love this song, especially around Christmas because everyone is familiar with it and the lyrics are theologically sound. It also gives a strong depiction of who God is, a perfect song to get into the hearts of the people.

After “Our God,” we introduced a Christmas special from Gateway Church called “Worship the Great I Am.” I would compare this song lyrically and feel wise to “Revelation Song.” However, it is a little bit more difficult congregation wise to follow because it has four verses and two different choruses. Because we loved the message, we presented the song more as a special and used a Multitrack to ensure a full sound.

To conclude the message, we ended with “Cornerstone” for our response song. This is a great staple song for our church and “The Church” as whole, as it points us straight to the meaning of Christmas: Christ.

Message Series: “Hope Has Come”

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“Open Up The Heavens” – Meredith Andrews – Key of B – Female 1 Lead
“Cornerstone” – Hillsong – Key of C – Male 1 Lead
“Never Once” – Matt Redman – Key of G – Female 2 Lead
“How He Loves” – Jesus Culture – Key of G – Female 1 Lead
“Nothing But the Blood” – Jesus Culture – Key of C – Female 1 Lead

Starting our new series for the month of December, I thought that there was no better song to open with from our list than “Open Up the Heavens.” It is a great invocation song with a chorus melody that will remain in your head for days! I encourage you if you aren’t familiar with this song to check out the lyrics and consider introducing it to your church.

We then transitioned to the key of C for “Cornerstone” and played the intro lead line while Pastor Devin welcomed everyone and read a passage of scripture. I love having a modern hymn in the mix, especially when coming out of a fairly new song or when following with a more “free worship” song such as “How He Loves.” It gives nice balance.

 

Ending with the down verse, “…faultless stand before the throne,” we went to the key of G via midi pad to begin the intro of “How He Loves.” I prayed during this intro to let it breathe a little and help shift gears before we began singing. We again ended with a down chorus after a “free worship” moment (which we planned) before Pastor Ron (our executive pastor) came to pray and lead us into the meet & greet time.

After the sermon, Pastor Devin lead us into the response time and set up Communion. During the time of reflection he set up just before we took the elements, we played/sang “Nothing But the Blood.” We only did verse 1 and verse 4 with the choruses, while also added in a little more movement to it with a marching snare beat beginning at verse 4. This gave it a fresh feel and added dynamics. I would encourage you also to be creative when doing either a hymn or a song that your congregation is really familiar with. Adding a different beat, instrument line, etc. will give “older” songs new life.

Message Series: “The Blessed Life”

Song / Version / Key / Leader
“Running” – Hillsong – Key of B – Male 1 Lead
“Beneath the Waters (I Will Rise)” – Hillsong – Key of A – Female 1 Lead
“Holy Spirit” – Jesus Culture – Key of E – Female 2 Lead
“Set A Fire” – Jesus Culture – Key of E – Female 1 Lead

This week was the final week of the “Blessed Life” series. We opened with a staple up tempo song for us and actually was the very first fast song we introduced to our church. On the weeks I’m introducing a new song, I like to have those staples mixed in to make sure the congregation can engage. This time around, we had a male lead it, which is more like the original recording by Hillsong.

Following our opener, we transitioned to the key of A via pad to sing “Beneath the Waters (I Will Rise)” by Hillsong, which we played the intro quietly while Pastor Devin welcomed everyone. This mid-tempo, theological sound song was written especially for Baptisms and is a beautiful picture of the cross and resurrection. With its simple driving chorus and anthem type bridge, I couldn’t recommend it enough.

We ended with a down chorus and shifted to the key of E for “Holy Spirit,” the Jesus Culture arrangement. This again is a staple song for our church and along with “Running,” we did it for our launch Sunday. Because “Beneath the Waters (I Will Rise)” and “Holy Spirit” are quite lengthy and meaty songs, we decided to do “Set a Fire” for our last song in the set. I love this song because it’s easy for the church to participate in. They can simply close their eyes and sing this as a prayer, even if they have never heard it before.

Following the worship set and the message, we showed a giving testimony video to conclude the series, which was powerful. After the video, there was a short response time as we played the intro to “Beneath the Waters (I Will Rise)” under prayer time and then dismissed the baptismal candidates to change clothes. While they were changing, we all sung “Beneath the Waters (I Will Rise). Since it was a special song just for this service, it didn’t hurt to reemphasize the message. We then concluded with Baptisms.