About a year ago, I posted CenterPoint's top songs of 2008 (the 20 songs that we had sung between 4 & 8 times over the calendar year).  It was a really interesting list to compile, so I decided to do it again for 2009.  There were 21 songs that we sang between 5 & 9 times in 2009:

*1. Center (Charlie Hall) - 9
*2. Mighty To Save (Reuben Morgan) - 8
3. From The Inside Out (Joel Houston) - 7
4. Marvelous Light (Charlie Hall) - 7
*5. My Savior My God (Aaron Shust) - 7
6. Amazed (Jared Anderson) - 6
7. Everlasting God (Brenton Brown) - 6
8. More Than Ever (Robbie Reider) - 6
9. Oh The Glory Of It All (David Crowder) - 6
10. Unashamed Love (Lamont Heibert) - 6
*11. Your Grace Is Enough (Matt Maher) - 6
*12. You Said (Reuben Morgan) - 6
*13. You, You Are God (Walker Beach) - 6
14. Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman) - 5
*15. Came To My Rescue (Marty Sampson) - 5
*16. Give Me Jesus (Jeremy Camp) - 5
17. Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) (Brenton Brown, Brian Doerkson) - 5
*18. I Will Overcome (Charlie Hall) - 5
*19. Love The Lord (Lincoln Brewster) - 5
20. Not To Us (Chris Tomlin) - 5
21. Your Love Is Deep (Jamie Smith) - 5

The 10 songs marked with a * did not appear on last year's list.  Most of them were "new" to CenterPoint this year (though some are not new songs), but a few were songs that just re-surged in relevance and popularity this year (i.e. "You Said").  9 songs from last year's list do not appear this year, though most of those were just under the cut-off.  I also have to give a big honorobable mention to Jared Anderson's "Counting On God", which received 4 plays this year, but was only introduced in November... I would definitely expect to see that one high on the list next year!

It was a great year for music at CenterPoint!  I can't wait to see what God has in store for 2010!

This post is part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists project.  Check out more sets at Fred's blog!

I wanted to share a little bit about our Christmas Eve service, and a Sunday Set Lists post seemed the easiest way to do that... so this is going to be a "twofer" :-P

CenterPoint Church 12/24/09

Opening Set
    -Angels From The Realms Of Glory - G-A
    -What Child Is This? - Em
    -The First Noel - C
    -Away In A Manger - F

Offering Song
    -O Holy Night - A

Closing Songs
    -Silent Night - C
    -Joy To The World - D

We took a slightly different approach to our Christmas Eve service this year.  Lately, it seems to me that a lot of churches put a lot of time and effort into creating the most extravagant, elaborate Christmas production possible.  That's never really been my philosophy, and I don't think it really fits CenterPoint as a community, either.  After the success of our Maunday Thursday service "in the round", we decided to take a similar approach for Thursday night.

We did things a LITTLE bit differently... creating one stage in the middle of the room.  This time, however, we actually closed off the regular stage with curtains, effectively shrinking the room.  That really enhanced the intimate atmosphere we were going for.  Lighting and projection was very minimal, and the entire band for the evening consisted of acoustic guitar, cello, ukulele, and two vocalists.  We did fairly traditional arrangements this year... just felt right.

Dave's message was a first-person portrayal of Simeon, continuing in our Christmas series.  He really throws himself into these first person messages, and the result on Thursday night was really powerful and engaging.

Ultimately, it was a wonderful time of worship... and the attendance was much higher than we expected, so that "littler" room felt really full!


CenterPoint Church 12/27/09

Opening Set
    -Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) - G-A - Brenton Brown, Brian Doerkson
    -Give Me Jesus - Bb - Traditional (Jeremy Camp Arrangement)
    -Breathe On Me - C - Clint Brown

Closing Song
    -Center - E - Charlie Hall

We made a conscious decision this year to carry our Christmas series through this past Sunday.  In past years, we've done a one off message to end the year, but it has really felt like a loss of momentum.  I liked it this way much better.

Pastor Dave finished up "The Christmas Journey" series with a message about "Discoveries" - the things that we find a long the road that mold and shape our faith and lives.  I thought the message was really powerful, and heard a lot of other very positive feedback... it was a great teaching and an excellent way to wrap up this series.  There were a couple of points where Dave stopped and asked the congregation to share examples from their lives (easy to do in a church as small a ours!)... people were very responsive to that!

Musically, we kept things pretty straightforward this week, something that was definitely appreciated by the band, and I think the congregation as well.  We did teach a "new" song - Clint Browns "Breathe On Me".  It's a great old song that I've sung at several of the churches I've been involved with in the past, but had never done at CenterPoint.  I think it will definitely be coming back!

A great time of worship, and a great end to the year... I am SO excited about what God is going to do at CenterPoint in 2010!

This post is part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Setlists project.  Check out Fred's blog for dozens of other sets!

CenterPoint Church 12/13/09

Opening Set
    -O Come O Come Emmanuel - Em - Traditional
    -O Come All Ye Faithful - G - Traditional
    -Counting On God - B - Jared Anderson
    -From The Inside Out - Bb - Joel Houston

Closing Song
    -You Are My King (Amazing Love) - E - Billy Foote

I'm late getting my set up this week... tis the season of business in the lives of worship leaders!  In any case, we had a great time of worship on Sunday!  Timon led worship this week, so I just got to be in the band.  I really enjoy that when it happens.  Nice to be able to focus just on my playing once in a while and not have to sing/lead.  It also gives me room to play around a little bit, hence my setup for the week:

Two basses (one detuned), keyboard, synth module, Kaoss Pad, click tracks... needless to say, I had a good time this weekend :-P  Seriously though, the band was really hitting this week.  In all honesty, it probably wasn't the cleanest service we've had recently, but we were playing really well together and there was just a great vibe in the service.  I think we ran just a little bit louder this Sunday, as well, which helps the energy level a lot as well.  We started to roll out a little Christmas music this week, which I'm ok with.  We've got a lot more coming up this Sunday.

This was the second week in Pastor Dave's Christmas Series about Journeys.  The title of the message was "Detours", and we were able to set up a really cool element as folks came into worship.  We have a member who works for AEP, and he was able to get us a bunch of traffic cones, stop signs, construction helmets, reflective vests, etc.  As people came into the building, they ran into a big detour sign preventing them from entering the worship center through the normal entrance.  Instead, they had to work their way through the building, with "workers" guiding them to worship.  Very cool example of how unexpected (and sometimes very frustrating!) detours can be in our lives.  On top of that, one of the main roads that leads to the church was unexpectedly closed on Sunday morning, so the effect was that much better!  Very cool!

The congregation was really responsive this week!  We had a good crowd (late... but good) and they were definitely into the music and the message.  An excellent week all around!

Hey everybody... exciting news today!  At long last, the Secondhand People EP is here!  This project has been a big part of my life for a lot of 2009, and it's finally ready!  Head over to the "Media/Store" page to buy the physical CD for $5, or download the full record for $3.99!  Individual tracks are $.99 each.

So I'll admit right up front, I haven't used this product, and I really have no idea how it works.  That said, this looks to be a pretty amazing little innovation!  Check it out:

Square

Basically, it's a little device that you plug into the audio jack of your phone, ipod, etc. and it allows you to take credit card payments that way.  It's in what seems to be a very limited beta right now, but their website says it will be rolling out to the general public early next year.  They seem to be gearing it very heavily right now to small businesses, but I see huge potential for something like this in the independent music world.  I can't think of a show I've played in recent memory with CDs for sale where someone hasn't asked about credit cards.  And the truth is, I wish I could accept them, but the cost is prohibitive for only a few sales.  This looks like it could be a much simpler and more cost effective solution to this issue, and I will definitely be watching for that public release to see how the costs stack up!

As always, this post is part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists project.  Check out more sets at Fred's blog!

CenterPoint Church 12/6/09

Opening Set
    -More Than Ever - G - Robbie Reider, Allan Fuller
    -Marvelous Light - A - Charlie Hall
    -Amazed - D - Jared Anderson

Closing Song
    -Today - A-B - Brian Doerkson

We started our Christmas series yesterday.  This year's series is about the various journeys connected with the Christmas story in the Bible, and how they relate to our own faith journey.  Cool stuff.  Yesterday we talked about "Departures" based on Mary's journey to Elizabeth's house after her visit from the angel.  We also used a clip from "The Polar Express" which worked very well.

Even though we were starting Christmas stuff (and the trees are up now and such), I stayed away from Christmas music yesterday.  I've written about this before (although I can't find the specific post offhand), but I think the carol's place in our services this time of year is greatly over-exaggerated in a lot of churches.  Not that they don't have their place, but creating entire services of carols just because it's December has never made a lot of sense to me.  We'll do some next week and ramp up to Christmas Eve, which will be a very traditional, carol based service.  I realize it wouldn't work everywhere, but it works for us.  That said, the music went very well yesterday morning, despite a somewhat unusual rehearsal.  When we hit the last couple choruses of "Amazed", I was almost overwhelmed by the sound of the congregation singing... really an amazing experience.

One other thing that was really cool about yesterday... our church hosts Young Life groups for two high schools throughout the week, and we invited them to attend yesterday... a couple of the leaders shared their testimony with us, and we had a bunch of extra high school kids hanging out for worship.  It was a great opportunity for the two groups to worship together (since we share space, but very rarely cross paths with each other).

Hey all... normally I'd be typing up a Sunday Set List post about this time, but Fred hasn't posted the carnival for this week yet, so I'll give you this link instead.  Basically, you sign up for the MercyMe email newsletter and get a free 10 track live recording.  Doesn't seem to be an "official" release, but I'm listening to it, and the quality is actually quite good.  Definitely worth the 10 seconds it will take to sign up HERE.