We got a new Canon 60D for filming video so this was a test run. I thought I’d record a little worship chorus that I wrote with Stephanie White around Easter. Enjoy!
Thanks to Gregg Farah for filming!
Category: Worship
So today is the day for one of my favorite lyrics…
Now the first of December was covered with snow, and so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston (James Taylor, Sweet Baby James)
Something about that picture, I know exactly how he feels for some reason. Plus living in Boston for a few years helps 
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A couple more…
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…He said a good song never comes to those who chase, it comes to those who listen (Darrell Scott, My Father’s House)
This is my theme for songwriting. I think it applies to much of life as well. Even as a believer, I need to quit talking and LISTEN!
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When you walk into the room you know we can’t resist. Every bottle of perfume always ends up on the floor in a mess (John Mark Mcmillan, Dress Us Up)
This is one of favorite worship lyrics of all time. It references the story of Mary pouring the perfume on Jesus’ feet (John 12:3). This is one of the purest expressions of worship in Scripture. This lyric frames it in an entirely new way for me.
Recently I was worshipping and felt that all I was doing was “dumping” my stuff on the Lord. I think He’s okay with that. He says, “Come to Me all who are weary…Cast your cares upon Me…” So “dumping” is often a good thing. But on this occasion I felt He wanted me to worship Him with no agenda.
Just because He’s great. Just because of who He is.
As a matter of fact, one way He wins my battles is for me to sit before Him and enjoy Him. Psalm 23:5 says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” An amazing picture of enemies and battle all around me but sitting and feasting on God’s presence.
As I minister to Him, He ministers to me and fights for me.
So as You spend time with Him today, come with no agenda. Save the prayer list for later (it’s important, too!) and just sit before Him.
You’ll be astounded at what gets accomplished.
I was having a conversation yesterday about possible new players for one of our worship teams. The comment was made that this particular person would definitely need us to work with him. It occurred to me at that moment…
It’s what we do.
That’s one of the things that makes the church different from a professional music environment. We work with people. We help them get better. Yes, we want our standard of playing music to get higher, but, at the core, we are about helping people become better musicians and, most importantly, worshippers.
So next time there’s someone who has desire and the glimmer of musical gifting I’m going to remember what we do…
We work with people.
Great week…I was leading at our Syosset location. One fun thing was having two acoustics in the band. With the help of our friendly neighborhood capo it made for a nice, full sound. The more acoustics the better!!
Here’s the set:
Sing to the King (Foote)
Mighty to Save (Fielding)
Hosanna (Fraser)
Hungry (Scott)
How He Loves (McMillan)
We used “How He Loves” as the song weaving through communion, offering, and as a closing song. This worked really well. We sang the first verse and pre chorus twice and then played under the pastor administering communion. We then moved into the second verse as the offering was taken. As they finished that I stood up the congregation to sing the chorus a couple of times as a nice, big ending.
Here’s the message series roll in video I put together for our new series “Defining Moments.”
Check out more setlists here.
Today was a great day…I was at our Manhasset campus. It worked out that one of our new volunteer worship leaders was leading and we needed someone to run audio. That was me. I got to formally introduce Chris and encourage the congregation to support him. He did an amazing job and I’m so excited to see the Lord move powerfully in him.
It was a blast to mix the band. Mixing is such an art and it was fun to try my hand. I think it turned out pretty well. It also gives me great respect for our guys and gals who serve weekly. Between mixing and recording CDs it is not an easy job!
Here’s out setlist for the week at all three campuses:
Your Grace is Enough (Maher)
Better is One Day (Redman)
Revelation Song (Riddle)
Song of Freedom (Original)
Learn to Love (Off our summer intern Christa’s forthcoming EP)
Oh Taste and See (Johnson)
I also spent a good amount of time this week editing a testimony video for the services. Here it is as well…
Check out more setlists here.
I think one of the hardest things to impart to worship teams, especially volunteer teams, is how to play with passion. So often they are concentrating so hard on playing the right chords at the right time or wondering if the worship leader will repeat the chorus (maybe even do a song not on the list??:) that playing with heart is not even on the radar. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a service and everybody’s just playing along like no one’s listening. Not to mention trying to follow!
As a worship leader I often try to make up for this by playing with extra passion as if I can force my team to “up” the energy a bit. This is not the way, I think. (I tend to do this with a congregation who has the same sentiment — also not the way)
If not, then what is the way?
One practical thing is to somehow get the team to learn the music better. You can get it to them more in advance, but the key to this is encouraging them to practice on their own. People live such busy lives that it sometimes seems impossible. But it’s not! A relentless focus and lots of reminders are the key here. You can also refine your rehearsal skills. People have different styles, but what many teams do is not rehearsal, but just running through songs.
Running music is for after you’ve rehearsed and learned it. Running unrehearsed music again and again is just reinforcing and solidifying the mistakes.
Another approach is to focus on the spiritual. You can’t read the psalms of David without encountering passion and exuberance in worship. The Scripture says David was a man after God’s own heart. Again and again he says shout, sing, dance, clap. It’s difficult not to have passion when you’re participating in these activities! Read these Scriptures with the team. Talk about them, dig into them…do them.
Before you can lead worship you must learn to worship.
Finally, another way to lead your team to more passion in their playing is to show them great examples. Thankfully YouTube and the rest of the Web are filled with videos of wonderful worship teams and leaders. Start your rehearsals watching a song or two and then discussing how what you just watched was different than what happens in your worship times. You don’t need to copy these examples…use them as inspiration.
What are some of the things you do to encourage your teams to play with passion?
Here are a couple of examples…
We had one combined service at our locations today at Shelter Rock because of our annual picnic. I was in Syosset and had a guitar string break right at the beginning of the set…something that has never happened to me! All I could think about was my options: 1. Move to the piano, 2. Borrow our second acoustic player’s guitar. We were in the middle of the set so there wasn’t a good time to do either. I just decided to put my guitar down and lead instrumentless. Something I hardly ever do. I’m not used to having my hands free so it was nice to be able to clap and lift them up but it was a weird feeling. I kept thinking of the worship leaders I like who do not lead from an instrument and what they do .
All in all it went well. The team really stepped up and did a great job. Note to self: Have another guitar available.
Here’s the set…
Opening: Nothing But the Blood (Christa Ciotti arrangement off her forthcoming album)
O Taste and See (Brian Johnson)
Hosanna (Brooke Fraser)
None But Jesus (Brooke Fraser)
Offering/Closing: By His Wounds w/Nothing but the Blood
Jimmy Costello did an awesome job with this!!
More setlists here: http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/sunday-setlists-99/
Here’s a slideshow of pics from the service at the Tilles Center at Easter. Thanks to Barbara Fiegas for taking and posting these!
This is a pic from a youth service I led last week at our Syosset campus. So great to lead students in worship. When they catch a vision of what it means to worship, they are unstoppable. May it be so at Shelter Rock!
