Here is the rundown of the March 18th service at Community Gospel Church...
THE SERVICE
Everything Glorious [david crowder]
Welcome/Announcements/Offering
Beautiful One [tim hughes]
Come Thou Fount [robert robinson]
Better is One Day [matt redman]
Lord You Have My Heart [martin smith]
Message
Communion
Potluck Dinner
THE TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar vocals
Randy Hepler - bass
Bethany Muck - piano/vocals
Larry Ingle - vocals
Staci Smith - vocals
Kay Smith - vocals
NOTES
This week was a stand-alone message where Pastor Jordan Muck was looking at the Shema and the verses of its application - Deuteronomy 6:4-9. The overall principle builds on verse 4 and speaks to the fact that this verse must be applied to our hearts, in our homes and in our lives. We closed the service with two-fold communion. We opened the tables for people to take communion with their families and then we had a potluck dinner. During the potluck we had last week's service playing on the projector so that anyone who missed seeing 16 of our brothers and sisters baptized could see what they missed out on.
You can download this weeks message here.
SONGS
Everything Glorious - This is one of the songs I used to do a lot, but we just recently introduced it at CGC. It's a great opening song. Upbeat, lots of fun, easy to catch on to, and will even get some people clapping. I don't usually worry about the flow of service when selecting our opening songs. Our people have become accustomed to the opening song being the marker of the start of service. It's what calls a lot of people in from the foyer into the sanctuary. With that being the case, I usually just make the opener a fun energetic song. It's also a great place to introduce new material. Most of our congregation doesn't engage in the opening song, they'll sing along if they know it, but it seems to be very passive.
[album: Remedy - David Crowder Band]
Beautiful One - As I said, the message covered the Shema and following verses of Deuteronomy 6. The very beginning of the focus on loving the Lord with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our might is to recognize who he is. This is one of those songs that expresses this very simply and very succinctly.
[album: When Silence Falls - Tim Hughes]
Come Thou Fount - One of my favorite hymns. We do a very traditional arrangement of it. Robert Robinson was 23 years old when he wrote this hymn. Some years later, after a backslide into a life of sin and debauchery, a broken and dejected Robinson climbed into a carriage with a woman who noticed the pain he was dealing with. The woman offered Robinson a short poem and told him that this poem had helped her in many difficult times. After reading the words Robinson, with tears in his eyes, said to her, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then." The fact is that Robinson had forgotten who GOD is and he had failed to instill that truth in his heart, in his home, and in his life. "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it / Prone to leave the God I love / Here's my heart, O take and seal it / Seal it for they courts above". We are prone to go the direction of Robinson's later years, but we also have been given the opportunity, through Christ, to offer our hearts to GOD and be granted the gift of adoption into His family.
Better is One Day - This song from Psalm 84 continued our message of the acknowledging the truth of who GOD is and what that truly means. Larry lead this one and did a great job with it.
[album: Blessed Be Your Name - Matt Redman]
Lord You Have My Heart - I've been using this song in worship for nearly 15 years and it's still one of my favorites. It's all about offering the entirety of who we are to the GOD we serve and submitting ourselves as a sacrifice of praise. If you don't know of this song, look back in the vault (1997) and pick it up. It's worth your time.
[album: Cutting Edge - Delirious?]
To see how others worshipped on Sunday go to the worship community and check out the Sunday Setlist.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sunday Setlist / 3.11.12
Here is what the morning service looked like at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN...
THE SERVICE
I Am New (Jonathan Eckberg)
Welcome, Announcements, and Offering
Welcome, Announcements, and Offering
Baptisms
EVERYTHING ELSE
This may have been the simplest service (in terms of schedule) I've ever been a part of, but it was INCREDIBLE! We had 16 people stand up in front of a packed house and make a public profession of their faith in Christ this morning. To hear the stories of surrender to GOD and the ways that the Spirit is moving in the lives of the people of CGC is phenomenal.
We opened the service by singing one song. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded passing on this but it seems that our congregation is conditioned to not come into the sanctuary until the opening song starts up. It's not a bad thing, that's just how we roll at CGC. So anyway, we opened with "I Am New" because it's one we've learned over the past few weeks and it just seemed fitting for the purpose of the day. From there we covered a few announcements and the offering before rolling right into the baptisms. We had borrowed a portable baptismal from our good friends at River Valley Church in Mishawaka so that we could conduct the service in the sanctuary (there is a baptismal in the churches "all purpose" room, but the setup in there is really awkward, so we really wanted to avoid using that one). We gave each person an opportunity to stand before the church and share their story with us and to explain their intentions in being baptized. Then we dunked them. The highlight of the day for me, without a doubt, was seeing fathers step up to baptize their children. I'm not a guy who cries that much, but when men of faith step up and be the spiritual leaders of their families in the way that GOD has called them to be and take responsibility for their children's spiritual growth... MAN! That got me. That's good stuff. Again, it was just such an awesome morning. GOD is moving in some cool ways at CGC right now and I'm so incredibly excited for how my brothers and sisters in the congregation are responding and will continue to respond over the course of the next few months and years.
SONG
I Am New - This song was written for this last series and it was a perfect fit for our week of baptisms. For more info on this song you can check out the Sunday Setlists from the past couple of weeks.
To see how many of our other brothers and sisters worshipped today you can go to Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
SONG
I Am New - This song was written for this last series and it was a perfect fit for our week of baptisms. For more info on this song you can check out the Sunday Setlists from the past couple of weeks.
To see how many of our other brothers and sisters worshipped today you can go to Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sunday Setlist / 3.4.12
Want to know how we roll at Community Gospel Church? Here you go...
THE SERVICE
How Great Thou Art [Stuart K. Hine]
Welcome & Announcements
Offering // Missions Update: Jim Boerckel
Unchanging [Chris Tomlin]
I Am New [Jonathan Eckberg]
Majesty (Here I Am) [Stuart Gerrard/Martin Smith]
Message
Dismiss
THE TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - piano
Jess Yoder - vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Mike Stemble - audio
Vance Ceaszar - video
NOTES
While the schedule looks light this week, it was actually a very busy morning. We used our announcement time as a prep for our "See the Need, Meet the Need" projects. This is a week of service that our church is doing. We're asking everyone in the church to help out with a number of projects both at the church and in the community. It included everything from digging ditches (not even kidding), doing some spring cleaning for a mission for the homeless to moving furniture for one of our "senior saints." Then during our offering time we had one of our missionaries, Jim Boerckel, share about his work in/around a muslim community market in Michigan. Finally, we were rolling in our worship time and Pastor Jordan Muck had us sing through Majesty for a while longer (more on this below). All of this took extra time than normal so we actually ended up cutting everything after the message.
This week we closed out our "Three" series. It's been an excellent series as Pastor Jordan has walked us through Colossians 3:1-17. You can download the entire sermon series here.
THE SONGS
How Great Thou Art - We tend to follow the Paul Baloche version of this hymn. However, we have been without a drummer for the past several weeks, which forced us to "settle" the song a little bit. It still had a nice push to it, but it missed just a little "umph." I think it has been good for our team and our congregation to function without a drummer for this period in time, but I also hope to have someone filling that role in the near future.
[album: Our God Saves - Paul Baloche]
Unchanging - Chris Tomlin has done a lot of good stuff, but this may be one of my favorites of his. It's such a simple profession of faith in a GOD who is faithful, true to his promises, loving and gracious and a call to respond not only in spirit but with physical action (the raising of hands).
[album: Not to Us - Chris Tomlin]
I Am New - This week was the third week in a row that we've done this song as it has been the "theme song" for this series. People have really seemed to catch on to it and it's always special to hear people singing songs that are a reflection of what they are going through and experiencing as a church family. As I've mentioned before, we are moving in the direction of doing more and more original music. While that can be difficult for some people to understand why we don't just do all the songs that are on the radio, there is something special that happens when we sing praises to our GOD from a personal experience rather than someone else's.
Majesty (Here I Am) - Our congregation eats this song up. It's one of those songs that when we do it you can look out and see people giving themselves over in worship of a majestic GOD. Personally, the last line of this chorus punches me in the face every time we sing it: "Your grace has found me just as I am // Empty handed but alive in Your hands." Absolutely phenomenal. We were rolling in this song, so I added a couple extra choruses to the end. THEN, as we were finishing up Pastor Jordan came up and asked to keep singing it, so we kept worshipping our GOD as a family and it was an incredible experience. We probably sang through the chorus 8 more times.
***As a side note, I think this illustrates why we are attempting to do more music that is original to our community. We started using this song last year during our 7-week series on the parable of the prodigal son. Our congregation made a connection from this song to the series (which impacted our church deeply). As a result there is an authenticity in our worship that pours forth when we sing this particular song together. As we are working on original music we pray that GOD creates these bonds between music and message. And, that we will create songs that our congregation can hear and think, "this reminds me of what GOD has called us to from [insert sermon point here]." Music has to be more than a catchy melody with some good words (even beyond sound theological lyrics). There must be a lasting purpose to the songs we sing, just as the teaching of the word should not be listened to and then forgotten. All that we do in a gathering of the saints should point to an eternal end. End of worship sermon. :)
[album: World Service - Delirious?]
The only thing that was unfortunate about our service today is that since a number of elements ran longer than normal, it forced us to dump the response song to the sermon. While this is not a huge deal, I was really looking forward to doing the song. Alli Hutchens was going to lead us through "From the Inside Out" with Jess Yoder backing her up. I love doing that song and it would have worked really well in conjunction with the sermon. But, when the spirit moves, you just have to let go and let some of your desires slide. I am constantly humbled at how incredible it is to see GOD move in ways that look very different from how I intend.
What a great morning!
To see what brothers and sisters in other churches were singing this week check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
THE SERVICE
How Great Thou Art [Stuart K. Hine]
Welcome & Announcements
Offering // Missions Update: Jim Boerckel
Unchanging [Chris Tomlin]
I Am New [Jonathan Eckberg]
Majesty (Here I Am) [Stuart Gerrard/Martin Smith]
Message
Dismiss
THE TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - piano
Jess Yoder - vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Mike Stemble - audio
Vance Ceaszar - video
NOTES
While the schedule looks light this week, it was actually a very busy morning. We used our announcement time as a prep for our "See the Need, Meet the Need" projects. This is a week of service that our church is doing. We're asking everyone in the church to help out with a number of projects both at the church and in the community. It included everything from digging ditches (not even kidding), doing some spring cleaning for a mission for the homeless to moving furniture for one of our "senior saints." Then during our offering time we had one of our missionaries, Jim Boerckel, share about his work in/around a muslim community market in Michigan. Finally, we were rolling in our worship time and Pastor Jordan Muck had us sing through Majesty for a while longer (more on this below). All of this took extra time than normal so we actually ended up cutting everything after the message.
This week we closed out our "Three" series. It's been an excellent series as Pastor Jordan has walked us through Colossians 3:1-17. You can download the entire sermon series here.
THE SONGS
How Great Thou Art - We tend to follow the Paul Baloche version of this hymn. However, we have been without a drummer for the past several weeks, which forced us to "settle" the song a little bit. It still had a nice push to it, but it missed just a little "umph." I think it has been good for our team and our congregation to function without a drummer for this period in time, but I also hope to have someone filling that role in the near future.
[album: Our God Saves - Paul Baloche]
Unchanging - Chris Tomlin has done a lot of good stuff, but this may be one of my favorites of his. It's such a simple profession of faith in a GOD who is faithful, true to his promises, loving and gracious and a call to respond not only in spirit but with physical action (the raising of hands).
[album: Not to Us - Chris Tomlin]
I Am New - This week was the third week in a row that we've done this song as it has been the "theme song" for this series. People have really seemed to catch on to it and it's always special to hear people singing songs that are a reflection of what they are going through and experiencing as a church family. As I've mentioned before, we are moving in the direction of doing more and more original music. While that can be difficult for some people to understand why we don't just do all the songs that are on the radio, there is something special that happens when we sing praises to our GOD from a personal experience rather than someone else's.
Majesty (Here I Am) - Our congregation eats this song up. It's one of those songs that when we do it you can look out and see people giving themselves over in worship of a majestic GOD. Personally, the last line of this chorus punches me in the face every time we sing it: "Your grace has found me just as I am // Empty handed but alive in Your hands." Absolutely phenomenal. We were rolling in this song, so I added a couple extra choruses to the end. THEN, as we were finishing up Pastor Jordan came up and asked to keep singing it, so we kept worshipping our GOD as a family and it was an incredible experience. We probably sang through the chorus 8 more times.
***As a side note, I think this illustrates why we are attempting to do more music that is original to our community. We started using this song last year during our 7-week series on the parable of the prodigal son. Our congregation made a connection from this song to the series (which impacted our church deeply). As a result there is an authenticity in our worship that pours forth when we sing this particular song together. As we are working on original music we pray that GOD creates these bonds between music and message. And, that we will create songs that our congregation can hear and think, "this reminds me of what GOD has called us to from [insert sermon point here]." Music has to be more than a catchy melody with some good words (even beyond sound theological lyrics). There must be a lasting purpose to the songs we sing, just as the teaching of the word should not be listened to and then forgotten. All that we do in a gathering of the saints should point to an eternal end. End of worship sermon. :)
[album: World Service - Delirious?]
The only thing that was unfortunate about our service today is that since a number of elements ran longer than normal, it forced us to dump the response song to the sermon. While this is not a huge deal, I was really looking forward to doing the song. Alli Hutchens was going to lead us through "From the Inside Out" with Jess Yoder backing her up. I love doing that song and it would have worked really well in conjunction with the sermon. But, when the spirit moves, you just have to let go and let some of your desires slide. I am constantly humbled at how incredible it is to see GOD move in ways that look very different from how I intend.
What a great morning!
To see what brothers and sisters in other churches were singing this week check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
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