This post is part of Fred Mckinnon's Sunday Set Lists Project.  Head over to Fred's blog to see more sets!

CenterPoint Church 11/29/09

Opening Set
    -You You Are God - C-D - Walker Beach
    -Creation Sings - Bb - Eric Frisch
    -Center - E - Charlie Hall

Closing Song
    -Unashamed Love - G - Lamont Heibert

This week was a single message about Thanksgiving.  Pastor Dave talked about Luke 17, where Jesus heals 10 lepers, but only one returns to thank him.  It was a very interesting message, and we found a couple of creative ways to present it.  First, we used a very simple drama about thankfulness.  Funny and to the point.  Then, about halfway through the message, Dave asked everyone to get out their cell phones and call/text somebody they are thankful for.  Very cool.

Musically, this was an ok week.  We were down a couple of positions this week (which is always rough) and we had a few issues in rehearsal, but the band played well and the set was smooth when service time came around.

...Short one today... into our Advent series next week!

This post is part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists Project.  Check out more sets from all over the country at Fred's blog!

CenterPoint Church 11/22/09

Opening Set
    -Counting On God - B - Jared Anderson
    -My Savior, My God - D - Aaron Shust

Offering Song
    -Embracing Accusations - Em - Shane & Shane

Communion Song
    -Give Me Jesus - Bb - Traditional (Jeremy Camp Arrangement)

Closing Song
    -Mighty To Save - A - Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan

Sunday's service at CenterPoint was jam-packed!  We had a missionary couple from Campus Crusade who spoke during the announcement time, a special during the offering, a video clip before the message, and communion!  We took a song out up front this week, but we still ran about 80 minutes.  That's a little long for us, but we don't do it very often, so I'm not worried.  We also had a delicious potluck lunch after the service ;-)

Musically, we had a very solid Sunday.  We had a great band, and everybody was definitely "on" right from the beginning of rehearsal.  We tackled a pretty difficult special during the offering time this week: Shane & Shane's "Embracing Accusations".  Not an easy song for anybody, and something very different from our usual fare, but the team nailed it!

We closed our spiritual warfare series this week, and Pastor Dave and Jon taught together, which was very cool and a great prelude to communion.  We also ran another "Jesus & Satan" video (an in-house parody of the "Get A Mac" ad campaign that has always been received really well).

We had a great crowd yesterday, and folks were very responsive in worship.  Always a wonderful thing to see & hear from the platform!

To sum up: a great Sunday!

I read a study this week entitled (I kid you not) "Stressful Jobs That Pay Badly".  What a downer!  I probably wouldn't have found this study by myself if not for the dozen or so folks that sent it to me.  Why did they send it to me?  Because of this part.

...that's right.  "Music Ministry Director" is listed fifth of fifteen.  Not that that surprised me.  I know my job is stressful.  Everyone in the church has an opinion about the music and what they want to hear.  They like certain styles, certain instruments, certain decibel levels.  They want the worship leader to have a certain voice, the right words between the songs, event the "correct" clothing and hairstyle.  Those are normal parts of the job, I'm used to those.  In fact, I consider myself lucky, as I know a lot of people who have my job and are far more stressed about it than I am!  I'm certainly not the first person to write about this study this week, and all have done a great job of relating our stress to those issues.  However, the series that we're in right now at Church has me thinking about another aspect of stress for those in ministry (and not just music ministry) - spiritual warfare.

One thing that I don't think we often consider is that there are real, other-worldly forces battling against us in our ministry.  The more successful we are, the more God moves in our midst, the angrier Satan gets.  He doesn't want to see us succeed, he doesn't want to see us expand our territory for Christ, and he certainly doesn't want us exposing him for what he really is: a created being with limited power.  Nope, Satan doesn't like that one one bit!  We've seen quite a few examples of that during this current series - video clips that we couldn't upload in the usual way, files mysteriously corrupting 10 minutes before the service starts, drama scenery getting broken during rehearsal, etc.  I'm not normally the type of person to chalk a LOT of my troubles up to the devil, but man - the oppression, the battle has been palpable as we've been preparing and presenting this series!

Of course, there is some very good news in all of this - the war is won!  The battle rages on, but so long as we've accepted Christ, we literally can not lose!  This is what keeps me going.  This is what makes me press on in ministry despite having one of the (apparently) most stressful, low-paying jobs out there.  The knowledge that Satan can't defeat us, and that the battle we are in is worth fighting.

I've noticed a trend in the American church lately towards messages focused on "being the church" (rather than simply going).  In general, I think that's a good and important message to convey to our congregations: the church is not a brick and mortar building, but rather a body of believers gathered for worship, service, and fellowship.  Having said that, I have a complaint with these types of campaigns...

We did a series like this at CenterPoint a while back that was focused on a culmination event called "Don't Go To Church Sunday".  Instead of worshiping at our facility in the morning, we gathered for a word of prayer, and then sent the congregation out to several service projects.  We actually did have a worship service that evening, although I've known of several other churches who have used the same materials and have not.  Recently I've noticed quite a few other churches having similar events - all focused on going out in service rather than coming in for worship.  Again, I think that's great!  As believers, we are called to be salt and light to the world, serving and loving the people around us.  There really isn't any higher calling for a Christian, in my opinion.  But there's a problem with the "Don't Go To Church" event: it implies (to me at least) that "being the church" requires special planning and dedicated events.  How far from the truth! 

That fact is that the church never is and never has been a building, but instead has always been a community of believers.  As soon as we focus on the physical, the material, our ministry becomes less effective.  Instead of focusing on a service day as an example of "being the church", we ought to be building up a culture of service, a continuous focus on reaching out to those outside our walls in love.  The building is a meeting place, nothing more... it has never been the church.  In this sense, it's really impossible to "go to the church", because the church is anywhere that believers gather for worship and service.

Instead of having a "be the church" Sunday, why don't we focus on moving the church outside of the building, to the people and places that need to feel the love of Christ the most.

This post is part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlists Blog Carnival.  You can see more sets at Fred's Blog.

CenterPoint Church 11/15/09

Opening Set
    -Salt & Light - E - Jan & John L'Ecuyer
    -You Said - G-A - Reuben Morgan
    -The Glory Of It All - A - David Crowder

Offering Song
    -Until The Whole World Hears - C - Mark Hall

Closing Song
    -How Great Is Our God - A - Chris Tomlin

I didn't lead worship this week at CenterPoint, but I did play keys & sing.  We had a solid morning.  A couple of rough spots, but overall a good day.  We're still in our spiritual warfare series (wrapping that one up this week) and this week's message was about "Taking Enemy Territory".  The new Casting Crowns tune was an obvious choice for a special.  Not the easiest song to play/sing, though.  Certainly not the greatest thing we've ever done, but it worked.  The other tunes all went really well (although we had a click track issue with "The Glory Of It All", the band did a great job of working around it).


Cedarville United Presbyterian Church 11/15/09

Opening Set
    -Forever - G - Chris Tomlin
    -Unashamed Love - Ab - Lamont Heibert

Closing Song
    -Give Us Clean Hands - G - Charlie Hall

This month's Bread & C.U.P. service was all about Thanksgiving... we talked about some funny Thanksgiving traditions, enjoyed a meal, sang, prayed, and had some really good discussion about some of the more difficult passages in the Bible when it comes to giving thanks.  I led solo from the keyboard again this month, and musically it was solid.  I really do enjoy the change of pace that C.U.P. offers (no pa, no in-ear monitors, no projection).  It's nice to just play the song and be able to hear everyone singing along.  Last night was really refreshing.

This series is part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists project.  You can read dozens of sets from other churches on Fred's blog!

CenterPoint Church 11/8/09

Opening Set
    -Counting On God - B - Jared Anderson
    -Marvelous Light - A - Charlie Hall
    -Holiness (Take My Life) - G - Scott Underwood (Loop Available)

Closing Song
    -Strong Tower - C - Mark Byrd, Mark Lee, Aaron Sprinkle, Jon Micah Sumrall

We continued our spiritual warfare series yesterday.  Dave's message was called "Suiting Up For Battle" and dealt with the armor of God.  I'll just say right up front that I really needed that message yesterday.  I came into work tired and not feeling real great after a very long weekend, and God really lifted me up with that message!

Musically, we kept things pretty simple this week.  We repeated "Counting On God" from last week (glad the congregation is getting into that one, since the band likes it so much!) and then played a couple standards.  We closed with Kutless' "Strong Tower" - a great song that we haven't played in a LONG time.  It took a little work in rehearsal to get that one back up to speed, but it turned out great!

We also used a short clip from "The Dark Knight" this morning to set up the message.  It worked really well!

All in all, a good week at CenterPoint!  Really looking forward to the last couple weeks of this series, God is definitely moving through it!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure to check out dozens of other set lists at Fred McKinnon's blog!

CenterPoint Church 11/1/09

Opening Set
    -Not To Us - A - Chris Tomlin
    -Counting On God - B - Jared Anderson
    -Christ The Solid Rock - D - Traditional

Closing Song
    -I Will Overcome - D - Charlie Hall

Another great worship service at CenterPoint yesterday!  We had a TON of stuff going on... new music, an original video piece, and an infant dedication!  Lots of energy and excitement in the air yesterday morning!

Yesterday was the second of five weeks in this series on spiritual warfare.  Pastor Dave's message was called "Knowing Your Enemy" (I tried to figure out if there was any way to work a little Green Day in, but just couldn't do it :-P ).  I thought Dave did a great job packing a ton of information into a single message.  Really laid out what we know about Satan and his power... great set up for the coming weeks.

Back at Christmas time, we did a series of video clips called "Jesus & Santa" that spoofed the "Get A Mac" commercials.  They went over really well and were a lot of fun.  When we were starting to put together this series, our creative team thought it might be fun to do a couple more, but with Jesus and Satan.  We got the same two actors back to do them and ran the first one yesterday.  Video quality on these new ones is pretty rough, but they definitely get the point across!

Musically, we had another really solid morning.  The band was right on and we rocked pretty hard yesterday!  We also introduced a new tune... New Life Worship's "Counting On God".  That song is just perfect for this series, and it has a ton of energy and a very singable chorus.  I could really hear the congregation singing back on that one (ALWAYS a good thing!).  We also reprised Charlie Hall's "I Will Overcome" from last week... just a great tune!

A great time of worship!