What you missed if you missed Community Gospel Church on Sunday morning...
SERVICE
Cannons [phil wickham]
Welcome - recap of Ken Davis event
Offering
Not to Us [chris tomlin / jesse reeves]
Audience of One [jonathan david eckberg]
Consuming Fire [tim hughes]
Awesome God (chorus only) [rich mullins]
Message: Imaginary Audience, Week 2
Romans 3:8-19
Like an Avalanche [dylan thomas / joel houston]
TEAM
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Dale Gramm - audio
Jeff Hutchens - media
Showing posts with label Jordan Muck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jordan Muck. Show all posts
Monday, March 18, 2013
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Sunday Setlist / 3.10.13
If you weren't at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN on Sunday then you lost out. Here's what you missed...
SERVICE
Audience of One [jonathan david eckberg]
Welcome
Offering
Heirs [jordan muck/jonathan david eckberg]
Your Grace is Enough [matt maher]
God of Justice [tim hughes]
Message: The Imaginary Audience (week 1)
Romans 3:1-8
Audience of One [jde]
Dismiss
TEAM
jonathan david eckberg - guitar/vocals
beth stemble - piano
jess yoder - vocals
alli hutchens - vocals
vance csaszar - media
kevin schmidt - audio
SERVICE
Audience of One [jonathan david eckberg]
Welcome
Offering
Heirs [jordan muck/jonathan david eckberg]
Your Grace is Enough [matt maher]
God of Justice [tim hughes]
Message: The Imaginary Audience (week 1)
Romans 3:1-8
Audience of One [jde]
Dismiss
TEAM
jonathan david eckberg - guitar/vocals
beth stemble - piano
jess yoder - vocals
alli hutchens - vocals
vance csaszar - media
kevin schmidt - audio
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Sunday Setlist / 2.24.13
Here's a peek at the 10:10 service at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN
SERVICE
Famous One [Chris Tomlin / Jesse Reeves]
Announcements
10,000 Reasons [Jonas Myrin / Matt Redman]
God of Wonders [Marc Byrd / Steve Hindalong]
Nothing But the Blood [Robert Lowery]
Our God Reigns [Martin Smith]
Message: Checkmate
Romans 2:12-16
Offering
On Christ the Solid Rock [Edward Mote]
Dismiss
TEAM
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals/percussion
Beth Stemble - keys
Randy Hepler - bass
Larry Ingle - vocals/percussion
Jess Yoder - vocals
Perri Hepler - media
Mike Stemble - sound
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Sunday Setlist / 2.17.13
Here's how we got down at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN this week...
SERVICE
Great is the Lord (Chris Brown)
Welcome & Victory
Offering
All Creatures of Our God and King (St Francis of Assisi / Henry Draper)
Forever Reign (Jason Ingram / Reuben Morgan)
Backbone (Jonathan David Eckberg)
Message: Checkmate
Week 2 - Romans 2:
Give us Clean Hands (Charlie Hall)
Holy Nation (Jordan Muck / Jonathan David Eckberg)
Dismiss
TEAM
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals/percussion
Randy Hepler - bass
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Jess Yoder - vocals
Jeff Hutchens - media
Kevin Schmidt - audio
SERVICE
Great is the Lord (Chris Brown)
Welcome & Victory
Offering
All Creatures of Our God and King (St Francis of Assisi / Henry Draper)
Forever Reign (Jason Ingram / Reuben Morgan)
Backbone (Jonathan David Eckberg)
Message: Checkmate
Week 2 - Romans 2:
Give us Clean Hands (Charlie Hall)
Holy Nation (Jordan Muck / Jonathan David Eckberg)
Dismiss
TEAM
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals/percussion
Randy Hepler - bass
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Jess Yoder - vocals
Jeff Hutchens - media
Kevin Schmidt - audio
Monday, February 11, 2013
Sunday Setlist / 2.10.13
Here's the rundown of our service yesterday at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN...
Service
I Sing the Mighty Power of God (Isaac Watts / adapted by Jonathan David Eckberg)
Welcome
Offering
Forever Reign (Jason Ingram/Reuben Morgan)
The Intercession (Jordan Muck/Jonathan David Eckberg)
Let Us Shine (Jonathan David Eckberg)
Message - Checkmate
week 1 - Romans 2:1-4
The Sculptor (Jonathan David Eckberg)
Dismiss
Worship Team
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Dale Gramm - sound
Vance Ceaszar - media
Service
I Sing the Mighty Power of God (Isaac Watts / adapted by Jonathan David Eckberg)
Welcome
Offering
Forever Reign (Jason Ingram/Reuben Morgan)
The Intercession (Jordan Muck/Jonathan David Eckberg)
Let Us Shine (Jonathan David Eckberg)
Message - Checkmate
week 1 - Romans 2:1-4
The Sculptor (Jonathan David Eckberg)
Dismiss
Worship Team
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Dale Gramm - sound
Vance Ceaszar - media
Monday, May 14, 2012
Sunday Setlist / 5.13.12
Here's a look at how Community Gospel Church celebrated Mother's Day together...
SERVICE
Counting On GOD
Welcome & Announcements
Welcoming of New Members & Child Dedication
Offering
Offering
Marvelous Light [Charlie Hall]
GOD of Wonders [Marc Byrd/Steve Hindalong]
Let Us Shine [Jonathan Eckberg]
Mighty to Save (bridge only) [Ben Fielding/Reuben Morgan]
Message
Dismiss / Presentation of Roses
TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - keys
Nick Hostetler - drums
Randy Hepler - bass
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Dale Graham - audio
Dale Graham - audio
Brent Wiseman - visual
NOTES
I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but we had an awesome day at CGC. So much cool stuff is happening at our church right now. Yesterdays morning we inducted 21 new members to our church family and did 9 child dedications. This comes on the heals of conducting 16 baptisms on March 11. On top of that we've got a few other big things that are coming in the next few month. This church is seeing GOD move in some incredible ways. He is awakening hearts and calling His church to action and the people of CGC are responding. I cannot tell you how excited I am for what GOD's going to do in this community over the next year, 5-years, 20-years, and on!
As for the message this week, we continued our study of 1 John 1. This week we looked at "Getting Back to the Fundamentals" in 1 John 1:5-7. In these verses John is talking about walking in the light and remaining true to our claim that we are in the light.
As we closed the service we had roses to give to all the women of our church in honor of Mother's Day.
I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but we had an awesome day at CGC. So much cool stuff is happening at our church right now. Yesterdays morning we inducted 21 new members to our church family and did 9 child dedications. This comes on the heals of conducting 16 baptisms on March 11. On top of that we've got a few other big things that are coming in the next few month. This church is seeing GOD move in some incredible ways. He is awakening hearts and calling His church to action and the people of CGC are responding. I cannot tell you how excited I am for what GOD's going to do in this community over the next year, 5-years, 20-years, and on!
As for the message this week, we continued our study of 1 John 1. This week we looked at "Getting Back to the Fundamentals" in 1 John 1:5-7. In these verses John is talking about walking in the light and remaining true to our claim that we are in the light.
As we closed the service we had roses to give to all the women of our church in honor of Mother's Day.
SONGS
Counting On GOD - Our opener this week is such a fun song about the dependence of God and the joy that accompanies knowing that no matter what comes along He give enough strength for the day. I have been playing this song for years, but it's not one that I see moving out of the rotation anytime soon.
[album - Overcome - Desperation Band]
[album - Overcome - Desperation Band]
Marvelous Light - We kicked off the mains set with this song. It seemed like an obvious choice for a message about walking and remaining in the light. "Into marvelous light I'm running/out of darkness out of shame". Enough said.
[album - Flying into Daybreak - Charlie Hall]
[album - Flying into Daybreak - Charlie Hall]
GOD of Wonders - As we come to know the light and walk in that light I think our response must be an acknowledgment of all that GOD is and all that GOD does. This "standard" worship tune gets to that point. With the opening lines, "early in the morning/I will celebrate the light" it fit into the theme of walking in the light and coming out of darkness well. In retrospect, I probably could have (maybe should have) switched the order of these two songs. I think in terms of walking through the message of the morning this song should have been first and it should have been followed by Marvelous Light, but musically it made much more sense to flow from GOD of Wonders into the next song. I went back and forth with this for a while, but in the end I thought the message flowed well enough to make it justifiable. That's one of those areas that can, from time to time, create some tension for me: finding the balance between music and message. The message always comes first, but this seemed to be a situation where that could go either way, so my final decision came down to one of musicality.
[album - In the Company of Angels - Caedmon's Call]
[album - In the Company of Angels - Caedmon's Call]
Let Us Shine - I wrote this song as part of our 1P29C (1 Peter 2:9 Christian) series in Jan/Feb. It was a great fit for this mornings message. It talks about remaining in the light and being a representation of the true light as we walk through the world. I particularly like how the song ties together our churches vision statement ("to make Christ known near and far") in the second verse to the action of the chorus, "let us shine/we will overcome the darkness/by the light of Your great love // let us shine/be Your hope among the broken/be the light of Your great love". I always think of Exodus 34:29-35 when I sing this song. I think about how Moses encounters GOD and he leaves with his face shining. He has no control over it. GOD leaves his mark and everyone knows, without a doubt, who Moses serves. I hope my face shines.
Mighty to Save - Coming out of "Let Us Shine" we went straight to the bridge of this one, "shine your light and let the world see/we're singing for the glory of the risen king", and sang it a few times as a closing chorus-style refrain.
[album - Mighty to Save - Hillsong Live]
That's how we worshipped yesterday. To see how others worship and what songs our brothers and sisters are singing in other churches check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
[album - Mighty to Save - Hillsong Live]
That's how we worshipped yesterday. To see how others worship and what songs our brothers and sisters are singing in other churches check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Sunday Setlist / 5.6.12
Check out the 10:10 am service at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN:
THE SERVICE
Children of Your Promise [Jonathan Eckberg]
Welcome & Announcements / Offering
Holy Nation [Jordan Muck/Jonathan Eckberg]
Heirs [Muck/Eckberg]
Let Your Kingdom Reign [Chris Brown/Mack Brock]
Message
The Intercession [Muck/Eckberg]
Dismiss
Children of Your Promise [Eckberg]
THE TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocal
Beth Stemble - keys
Jordan Muck - bass
Nick Hostetler - drums
Jess Yoder - vocal
Alli Hutchens - vocal
Cyndi Leamon - vocal
Mike Stemble - audio
Vance Csaszar - video
NOTES
This week we took a break from our series on 1 John and welcomed in a guest preacher. Dr Jeff Gill was with us today. Dr Gill is the Dean of Grace Theological Seminary. He was a Senior Pastor for 20 years in the state of Ohio. He is an incredibly gifted speaker who has a wealth of excellent experience to share. I had the privilege of taking a class with Dr Gill last spring and it has been one of the highlights of my seminary experience thus far. All that to say that we were very excited to have him share his biblical wisdom and scriptural insight with us.
Dr Gill spoke on 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 pointing out our roles as ambassadors of Christ. The emphasis was on the fact that an ambassador speaks for the one he represents. The ambassadors life is no longer his own. He went on to teach that we must find our identity and our passion in the message of the great exchange. Musically, we wound up doing a lot of original material this week. As we work towards this more and more with our people I try to set aside one week every two or three months where we do all (or almost all) original music. I think it gives people a good chance to sing and review the truths that have been taught over the past months.
THE SONGS
Children of Your Promise - We introduced this new song on Sunday. It's an upbeat number that draws heavily from Hebrews 10 and 1 John 3. It's a song about our proper response to GOD's movement in our lives. The verses speak to how He constantly at work and showing himself to be just and faithful. The chorus says, "We will be the children of Your promise / We will not give up our faith / We will be soldiers for Your glory / we will not shrink back / We'll never fade away". The bridge section the asks if we have in fact seen GOD move, then how could we ever possibly keep His message to ourselves?
Holy Nation - This song was written for the 1 Peter 2:9 series. When we were in that series we were without a drummer, so this week was the first time it has been worked out with a full band arrangement. It turned out REALLY cool. I used the electric and gave it a Toad the Wet Sprocket-esqu guitar fill to the verses (the more I think about it, the more I think I stole the guitar part from the song "Brother"). Nick gave it a solid grove and Jordan added a nice bass run to the bridge section. I liked this song when we wrote it, but I loved playing it this week.
Heirs - Jordan and I wrote this one for our last EP and have put some good mileage on it. It fit well with the message of the morning as it's a song about GOD's adoption of us and our new standing as co-heirs with Christ. This adoption gives us new life, the old is gone and the new has come (2 Cor 5:17). This new life offers us a new identity and new passions in the message of our father GOD through the work of Jesus Christ.
[album - Heirs - Until We're Kings]
Let Your Kingdom Reign - I felt like this song had a natural flow from "Heirs" as we sang of our new life as adopted children of GOD and builds off the new passions thru the message of truth. Our passion is that the kingdom of heaven would rule on the earth. GOD's kingdom will reign forever and we must simply do what He has called us to in order to represent that kingdom on earth. We do a lot of Elevation Worship tunes at CGC. In terms of contemporary worship I think you would be hard pressed to find a band that writes more singable and theologically sound material than these guys. That's why I love their stuff - and have for several years. They are musically interesting and skilled and they don't water down the gospel by oversimplifying things. That's what we're striving for in our original material. We want to be artistically accessible but we also want to keep the majesty of the scriptures and the levity of the gospel front-and-center. If you're in need of quality worship material that rocks out pick up their latest live album/dvd, For the Honor.
[album - God With Us - Elevation Worship]
The Intercession - This song fit perfectly with the message of the day (much better than I had even planned) so it was an appropriate response song. It was written for our series on Isaiah 53 and speaks of the message that has been received and our call to worship as a result of Christ being offered as the intercession for our transgressions. The bridge of the song points back to the great exchange (You saw the light of life / and you were satisfied / exchange of death for live / and we were justified) and really drove home Dr Gill's message.
To see how our brothers and sisters in other churches are worshipping you can check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
THE SERVICE
Children of Your Promise [Jonathan Eckberg]
Welcome & Announcements / Offering
Holy Nation [Jordan Muck/Jonathan Eckberg]
Heirs [Muck/Eckberg]
Let Your Kingdom Reign [Chris Brown/Mack Brock]
Message
The Intercession [Muck/Eckberg]
Dismiss
Children of Your Promise [Eckberg]
THE TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocal
Beth Stemble - keys
Jordan Muck - bass
Nick Hostetler - drums
Jess Yoder - vocal
Alli Hutchens - vocal
Cyndi Leamon - vocal
Mike Stemble - audio
Vance Csaszar - video
NOTES
This week we took a break from our series on 1 John and welcomed in a guest preacher. Dr Jeff Gill was with us today. Dr Gill is the Dean of Grace Theological Seminary. He was a Senior Pastor for 20 years in the state of Ohio. He is an incredibly gifted speaker who has a wealth of excellent experience to share. I had the privilege of taking a class with Dr Gill last spring and it has been one of the highlights of my seminary experience thus far. All that to say that we were very excited to have him share his biblical wisdom and scriptural insight with us.
Dr Gill spoke on 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 pointing out our roles as ambassadors of Christ. The emphasis was on the fact that an ambassador speaks for the one he represents. The ambassadors life is no longer his own. He went on to teach that we must find our identity and our passion in the message of the great exchange. Musically, we wound up doing a lot of original material this week. As we work towards this more and more with our people I try to set aside one week every two or three months where we do all (or almost all) original music. I think it gives people a good chance to sing and review the truths that have been taught over the past months.
THE SONGS
Children of Your Promise - We introduced this new song on Sunday. It's an upbeat number that draws heavily from Hebrews 10 and 1 John 3. It's a song about our proper response to GOD's movement in our lives. The verses speak to how He constantly at work and showing himself to be just and faithful. The chorus says, "We will be the children of Your promise / We will not give up our faith / We will be soldiers for Your glory / we will not shrink back / We'll never fade away". The bridge section the asks if we have in fact seen GOD move, then how could we ever possibly keep His message to ourselves?
Holy Nation - This song was written for the 1 Peter 2:9 series. When we were in that series we were without a drummer, so this week was the first time it has been worked out with a full band arrangement. It turned out REALLY cool. I used the electric and gave it a Toad the Wet Sprocket-esqu guitar fill to the verses (the more I think about it, the more I think I stole the guitar part from the song "Brother"). Nick gave it a solid grove and Jordan added a nice bass run to the bridge section. I liked this song when we wrote it, but I loved playing it this week.
Heirs - Jordan and I wrote this one for our last EP and have put some good mileage on it. It fit well with the message of the morning as it's a song about GOD's adoption of us and our new standing as co-heirs with Christ. This adoption gives us new life, the old is gone and the new has come (2 Cor 5:17). This new life offers us a new identity and new passions in the message of our father GOD through the work of Jesus Christ.
[album - Heirs - Until We're Kings]
Let Your Kingdom Reign - I felt like this song had a natural flow from "Heirs" as we sang of our new life as adopted children of GOD and builds off the new passions thru the message of truth. Our passion is that the kingdom of heaven would rule on the earth. GOD's kingdom will reign forever and we must simply do what He has called us to in order to represent that kingdom on earth. We do a lot of Elevation Worship tunes at CGC. In terms of contemporary worship I think you would be hard pressed to find a band that writes more singable and theologically sound material than these guys. That's why I love their stuff - and have for several years. They are musically interesting and skilled and they don't water down the gospel by oversimplifying things. That's what we're striving for in our original material. We want to be artistically accessible but we also want to keep the majesty of the scriptures and the levity of the gospel front-and-center. If you're in need of quality worship material that rocks out pick up their latest live album/dvd, For the Honor.
[album - God With Us - Elevation Worship]
The Intercession - This song fit perfectly with the message of the day (much better than I had even planned) so it was an appropriate response song. It was written for our series on Isaiah 53 and speaks of the message that has been received and our call to worship as a result of Christ being offered as the intercession for our transgressions. The bridge of the song points back to the great exchange (You saw the light of life / and you were satisfied / exchange of death for live / and we were justified) and really drove home Dr Gill's message.
To see how our brothers and sisters in other churches are worshipping you can check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday Setlist / 4.29.12
Check out the 10:10 service at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN:
SERVICE
I'll Fly Away [Albert Brumley]
Welcome & Announcements / Offering
We Are One [Dave Hunt / Julie Hunt]
Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee [Henry J. van Dyke]
Agnus Dei [Michael W. Smith]
Our God Reigns [Martin Smith]
Agnus Dei (reprise)
Message
For the Honor [Steven Furtick / Mack Brock / Chris Brown / Wade Joye]
Dismiss
TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Larry Ingle - vocals
Jess Yoder - vocals
Allie Hutchens - vocals
Kevin Schmidt - sound
Jeff Hutchens - visual
NOTES
We gave our drummer this weekend off, so I decided to go a very different direction than our normal service. We went old-school - we simplified things and went with just a single guitar and vocals. Sometimes that change of pace is really refreshing. The theme of the day was the truth of the Gospel leading to fellowship with God and with other believers. Pastor Jordan Muck is beginning a study of 1 John and this week we looked at 1 John 1:1-4. If you're keeping up with the teaching at CGC, you can download all the sermons here.
SONGS
I'll Fly Away - I gotta be honest, this song had nothing to do with the flow of the message for the morning. With the line-up we had for worship it just seemed like we needed a good, old-fashioned, knee-slapping, jug-blowing tune to kick us off. Larry, Jess, and Allie did a phenomenal job and we had a lot of fun singing through this one.
We Are One - This is a great song that we haven't used in several months. It speaks to the idea that we are all members of one body and that we are dependent upon one another. I thought this went well with our theme of fellowship for the day. If you've read this blog more than once or twice, you've heard my praise of Dave Hunt. He's a fantastic worship leader and songwriter and, as always, I highly recommend you check him out.
[album - Shelter - Dave Hunt]
Agnus Dei - A major theme of John's throughout this epistle is the refuting of the false teachers of the day. In the opening verses of the letter he establishes that Jesus Christ is the real messiah and that he was a historical being. He points to the way he personally interacted with Jesus both before his death and after the resurrection. All of that proof goes to show the sovereignty of GOD and the fact that his truth endures throughout all time. Agnus Dei is a simple expression of GOD's holiness and sovereignty, that is his faithfulness.
[album - Worship - Michael W. Smith]
Our God Reigns - We us just the chorus of this song. It has a natural flow from Agnus Dei. Another very simple expression of the timelessness of GOD's truth and his reign. "Our God reigns / Our God reigns / Forever his kingdom reigns" We segued seamlessly from one to the other. After we had sung this chorus several times we went back and reprised Agnus Dei, singing through just the verse one more time.
[album - The Mission Bell - Delirious?]
For the Honor - Confession: we had no idea we were doing this song until, literally, 5 minutes before the service. I had another song picked out to close with and I just felt like it wasn't going to fit as well as I had initially thought. I mentioned it to Pastor Jordan and he said, "sing For the Honor". With no rehearsal or run through, we printed off the chord chart and walked into the service. I ended up doing the song by myself since the rest of the team didn't know it. By the time the message was finished and I played through the song it was obvious that that was the PERFECT song for the day. Definitely a "GOD-moment" where he brushes aside all your planning and the spirit guides you to a place that will connect with his people. Not the most comfortable move for me, but it pulled together nicely.
[album - For the Honor - Elevation Worship]
To see how brothers and sisters are worshipping in their home churches, check out the Sunday Setlist as www.theworshipcommunity.com.
SERVICE
I'll Fly Away [Albert Brumley]
Welcome & Announcements / Offering
We Are One [Dave Hunt / Julie Hunt]
Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee [Henry J. van Dyke]
Agnus Dei [Michael W. Smith]
Our God Reigns [Martin Smith]
Agnus Dei (reprise)
Message
For the Honor [Steven Furtick / Mack Brock / Chris Brown / Wade Joye]
Dismiss
TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Larry Ingle - vocals
Jess Yoder - vocals
Allie Hutchens - vocals
Kevin Schmidt - sound
Jeff Hutchens - visual
NOTES
We gave our drummer this weekend off, so I decided to go a very different direction than our normal service. We went old-school - we simplified things and went with just a single guitar and vocals. Sometimes that change of pace is really refreshing. The theme of the day was the truth of the Gospel leading to fellowship with God and with other believers. Pastor Jordan Muck is beginning a study of 1 John and this week we looked at 1 John 1:1-4. If you're keeping up with the teaching at CGC, you can download all the sermons here.
SONGS
I'll Fly Away - I gotta be honest, this song had nothing to do with the flow of the message for the morning. With the line-up we had for worship it just seemed like we needed a good, old-fashioned, knee-slapping, jug-blowing tune to kick us off. Larry, Jess, and Allie did a phenomenal job and we had a lot of fun singing through this one.
We Are One - This is a great song that we haven't used in several months. It speaks to the idea that we are all members of one body and that we are dependent upon one another. I thought this went well with our theme of fellowship for the day. If you've read this blog more than once or twice, you've heard my praise of Dave Hunt. He's a fantastic worship leader and songwriter and, as always, I highly recommend you check him out.
[album - Shelter - Dave Hunt]
Agnus Dei - A major theme of John's throughout this epistle is the refuting of the false teachers of the day. In the opening verses of the letter he establishes that Jesus Christ is the real messiah and that he was a historical being. He points to the way he personally interacted with Jesus both before his death and after the resurrection. All of that proof goes to show the sovereignty of GOD and the fact that his truth endures throughout all time. Agnus Dei is a simple expression of GOD's holiness and sovereignty, that is his faithfulness.
[album - Worship - Michael W. Smith]
Our God Reigns - We us just the chorus of this song. It has a natural flow from Agnus Dei. Another very simple expression of the timelessness of GOD's truth and his reign. "Our God reigns / Our God reigns / Forever his kingdom reigns" We segued seamlessly from one to the other. After we had sung this chorus several times we went back and reprised Agnus Dei, singing through just the verse one more time.
[album - The Mission Bell - Delirious?]
For the Honor - Confession: we had no idea we were doing this song until, literally, 5 minutes before the service. I had another song picked out to close with and I just felt like it wasn't going to fit as well as I had initially thought. I mentioned it to Pastor Jordan and he said, "sing For the Honor". With no rehearsal or run through, we printed off the chord chart and walked into the service. I ended up doing the song by myself since the rest of the team didn't know it. By the time the message was finished and I played through the song it was obvious that that was the PERFECT song for the day. Definitely a "GOD-moment" where he brushes aside all your planning and the spirit guides you to a place that will connect with his people. Not the most comfortable move for me, but it pulled together nicely.
[album - For the Honor - Elevation Worship]
To see how brothers and sisters are worshipping in their home churches, check out the Sunday Setlist as www.theworshipcommunity.com.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Easter Sunday Setlist / 4.8.12
The Easter celebration at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN, looked a little something like this...
SERVICE
Intro Music
Welcome & Announcements/Offering
Children's Choir
Video
Jesus Paid it All [Alex Nifong/Elvina M. Hall/John Thomas Grape]
Message
The Intercession [Jordan Muck/Jonathan Eckberg]
Happy Day [Tim Hughes/Ben Cantelon]
How Great Thou Art [Stuart K. Hine]
Dismiss
TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - piano
Nick Hostetler - drums
Randy Hepler - bass
Jess Yoder - vocals
Kevin Schmidt - audio
Jeff Hutchens - visual
NOTES
What a crazy morning! We, as a staff and the church as a whole, have spent a lot of time an energy planning and praying over this week's service for the past few months. Pastor Jordan Muck was stoked to preach. Our Director of Ministry and Operations, Cyndi Leamon, had just come home from vacation and was excited about how things had come together for the service. Well... things don't always go as we plan. At about 9:00 on Saturday night Pastor Jordan took his wife to the hospital, as she was in labor. At that point my wife and I headed out to their house to stay with their two year old daughter. I woke up at 5:00am to a text that they had not had the child yet and that we was not likely to be in church. So I went to the church early to do some last minute sermon prep (I had prepped a good bit already because we knew that this was a possibility). After a little work I called Cyndi to update her on the situation and she had returned from vacation with the flu and despite her best efforts she couldn't even get out of bed. All of this was compounded by the fact that Both Pastor Jordan and Cyndi were on the worship team this week!
The outcome of all of the insanity was that we had our other bass player, Randy Hepler step up and fill in for us on, literally, no notice. Jess Yoder stepped up and filled a lot of vocal space all on her own. Nick and Beth were awesome, as always. And I had the honor and privilege of preaching the Word on Easter Sunday. As planned, we took a step out of our series on Isaiah 53 this week to look at John 6:28-35. The entire sermon revolved around the idea that we respond to Christ's call with one of three types of belief: inherited, intellectual, or intimate. To dowload the audio from today's message (along with past messages) click here.
The thing I was reminded of today was that GOD is going to do his work regardless of the situation. I think it is important for us to give our best efforts, to plan and prepare meticulously, and to be ready to move when GOD says, "Go." But at the end of the day, whether our plans succeed or fail, have very little impact on whether His plan will succeed. The only thing that matters is that we surrender to him and not get in the way of His work through the Spirit. We missed some of our church family today, but GOD is cool. He had everything the way HE planned it.
One more note: Congratulations to Pastor Jordan and Bethany Muck. Gianna Lynn Muck was born at 4:19pm on Sunday, April 8. She was 7 lbs 5 oz and 21.5 inches long. It was a rough couple of days for mom and dad but everyone is healthy and doing well!
SONGS
Jesus Paid it All - Another one of my favorite songs to play. We came out of a video that was a modern day representation of how Christ took on our iniquities and and the pain of death so that we might be reborn as sons and daughters of the kingdom. As the video ended we went straight into "Jesus Paid it All". Then as the third verse started up we cut to a video of all of the baptisms from our service several weeks ago. It was really cool. Cyndi Leamon put in a ton of time fitting the video together a couple weeks ago. Once we hit the loud build-up/tag of the song it started clipping through the people rising up out of the water. It worked out perfectly - it was an extremely emotional moment to sing, "O Praise the one who paid my debt // And raised this life up from the dead" and see the joy on people's faces as rise up out of the baptismal.
[album: Hello - Kristian Stanfill]
The Intercession - With the message revolving around true belief in Jesus Christ and in the message that he spoke, I liked the way this song worked those themes together with an attitude of celebration. The first line of both verses says, "The message has been recieved // and we have believed in you". A great fit to begin our celebration set.
Happy Day - We hadn't done this song in quite a while. I think when I got to the church it was one that had been overused a bit, so I layed off of it (even though I love singing it). It's another great rocking song about "the greatest day in history // death is beaten, you have rescued me".
[album: We Shine - Fee]
How Great Thou Art - We've done this one a lot lately, but was a great song to close out an awesome morning.
[album: Our God Saves - Paul Baloche]
To see how other churches around the country worshipped this week check out the Sunday Setlist. You can find it at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
SERVICE
Intro Music
Welcome & Announcements/Offering
Children's Choir
Video
Jesus Paid it All [Alex Nifong/Elvina M. Hall/John Thomas Grape]
Message
The Intercession [Jordan Muck/Jonathan Eckberg]
Happy Day [Tim Hughes/Ben Cantelon]
How Great Thou Art [Stuart K. Hine]
Dismiss
TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - piano
Nick Hostetler - drums
Randy Hepler - bass
Jess Yoder - vocals
Kevin Schmidt - audio
Jeff Hutchens - visual
NOTES
What a crazy morning! We, as a staff and the church as a whole, have spent a lot of time an energy planning and praying over this week's service for the past few months. Pastor Jordan Muck was stoked to preach. Our Director of Ministry and Operations, Cyndi Leamon, had just come home from vacation and was excited about how things had come together for the service. Well... things don't always go as we plan. At about 9:00 on Saturday night Pastor Jordan took his wife to the hospital, as she was in labor. At that point my wife and I headed out to their house to stay with their two year old daughter. I woke up at 5:00am to a text that they had not had the child yet and that we was not likely to be in church. So I went to the church early to do some last minute sermon prep (I had prepped a good bit already because we knew that this was a possibility). After a little work I called Cyndi to update her on the situation and she had returned from vacation with the flu and despite her best efforts she couldn't even get out of bed. All of this was compounded by the fact that Both Pastor Jordan and Cyndi were on the worship team this week!
The outcome of all of the insanity was that we had our other bass player, Randy Hepler step up and fill in for us on, literally, no notice. Jess Yoder stepped up and filled a lot of vocal space all on her own. Nick and Beth were awesome, as always. And I had the honor and privilege of preaching the Word on Easter Sunday. As planned, we took a step out of our series on Isaiah 53 this week to look at John 6:28-35. The entire sermon revolved around the idea that we respond to Christ's call with one of three types of belief: inherited, intellectual, or intimate. To dowload the audio from today's message (along with past messages) click here.
The thing I was reminded of today was that GOD is going to do his work regardless of the situation. I think it is important for us to give our best efforts, to plan and prepare meticulously, and to be ready to move when GOD says, "Go." But at the end of the day, whether our plans succeed or fail, have very little impact on whether His plan will succeed. The only thing that matters is that we surrender to him and not get in the way of His work through the Spirit. We missed some of our church family today, but GOD is cool. He had everything the way HE planned it.
One more note: Congratulations to Pastor Jordan and Bethany Muck. Gianna Lynn Muck was born at 4:19pm on Sunday, April 8. She was 7 lbs 5 oz and 21.5 inches long. It was a rough couple of days for mom and dad but everyone is healthy and doing well!
SONGS
Jesus Paid it All - Another one of my favorite songs to play. We came out of a video that was a modern day representation of how Christ took on our iniquities and and the pain of death so that we might be reborn as sons and daughters of the kingdom. As the video ended we went straight into "Jesus Paid it All". Then as the third verse started up we cut to a video of all of the baptisms from our service several weeks ago. It was really cool. Cyndi Leamon put in a ton of time fitting the video together a couple weeks ago. Once we hit the loud build-up/tag of the song it started clipping through the people rising up out of the water. It worked out perfectly - it was an extremely emotional moment to sing, "O Praise the one who paid my debt // And raised this life up from the dead" and see the joy on people's faces as rise up out of the baptismal.
[album: Hello - Kristian Stanfill]
The Intercession - With the message revolving around true belief in Jesus Christ and in the message that he spoke, I liked the way this song worked those themes together with an attitude of celebration. The first line of both verses says, "The message has been recieved // and we have believed in you". A great fit to begin our celebration set.
Happy Day - We hadn't done this song in quite a while. I think when I got to the church it was one that had been overused a bit, so I layed off of it (even though I love singing it). It's another great rocking song about "the greatest day in history // death is beaten, you have rescued me".
[album: We Shine - Fee]
How Great Thou Art - We've done this one a lot lately, but was a great song to close out an awesome morning.
[album: Our God Saves - Paul Baloche]
To see how other churches around the country worshipped this week check out the Sunday Setlist. You can find it at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Sunday Setlist / 4.1.12
Here's how we roll at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN:
SERVICE
The Intercession [Jordan Muck/Jonathan Eckberg]
Welcome & Announcements
Offering
Everlasting God [Brenton Brown/Ken Riley]
Holy is the Lord [Chris Tomlin/Louie Giglio]
Overcome [John Egan]
Message
The Intercession [Muck/Eckberg]
THE TEAM
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Nick Hostetler - drums
Beth Stemble - keys
Randy Hepler - bass
Tim Heckaman - vocals
Kevin Schmidt - audio
Vance Csaszar - visual
NOTES
This week was the second in our series "The 'I AM' in Isaiah", a study of Isaiah 53. In this series we are looking at the prophecies of the work and crucifixion of Jesus in the suffering servant of Isaiah. It's a great study as we lead toward Easter Sunday and the celebration of the redemptive work of our Savior. This week focused on the price Christ paid in taking on the weight of internal sin, external sin, and the fallen world around us. To hear this message along with last week's introduction to the series click here.
Our team was unique this week. It was Nick's first week on drums for us. It's been great to work with him and bring him into the fold of our ministry. He's a great drummer with an awesome heart for what's happening at CGC. It brings me great joy to have a beat back in our worship! We also had Tim step in and sing with us and he did an awesome job as well. All three of our vocalists were out this week (two on family vacations and one recovering from a surgery earlier in the week). While we definitely missed them and can't wait to have them back next week, it was a great opportunity for Tim to get involved in what we are doing on Sunday mornings.
SONGS
The Intercession - The song was written for this series and all the lyrics are based off the verses of Isaiah 53. Pastor Jordan actually put together a majority of this song as he was preparing the messages several weeks back. Then we spent a morning working through the material he had and rounding the song into shape. Finally I spent a couple weeks fine-tuning thing. It has turned out to be a really interesting song. There are a lot of intertwining parts that keep it together from start to finish. Pastor Jordan did a great job with the foundations of this one. We played this one twice today. We did it once as the opener - to give people a feel for the song and let them hear it. Then we used it as the response to the message. In the response time I started with the chorus so the congregation would know what was coming and then we kicked off the song.
Everlasting God - We used this one as the opener to our main worship set. I always enjoy this song. The theme of our God being one who is with us in all things and our defender in our hours of need made sense with today's message. The God who provides redemption for his sheep never leaves them to the dangers of the world.
[album: Everlasting GOD - Brenton Brown]
Holy is the Lord - Another "standard" worship song that fell in line with today's theme. As I studied the verse of Isaiah 53 I was struck by the fact that only in acknowledging the holiness - the perfect nature that is all together separate from the fallen world - of God can the true weight of Christ's taking on of my iniquities (Isa. 53:4) come into perspective.
[album: Arriving - Chris Tomlin]
Overcome - This song by the Desperation Band has become one of my favorites over the past few years. The bridge kicks my butt everytime (from Rev. 12:11), "And we will overcome // By the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony // Everyone overcome". A tremendous anthem of how, when we surrender ourselves to the Holy GOD, we will be victorious over sin and death and all of Satan's power. Victory won by the the blood of the lamb and we are strengthened to stand against the Accuser when we acknowledge who Christ is and the meaning of His sacrifice.
[album: Everyone Overcome - Desperation Band]
To see the songs used in worship by our brothers and sisters from all over the place, check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
Everlasting God - We used this one as the opener to our main worship set. I always enjoy this song. The theme of our God being one who is with us in all things and our defender in our hours of need made sense with today's message. The God who provides redemption for his sheep never leaves them to the dangers of the world.
[album: Everlasting GOD - Brenton Brown]
Holy is the Lord - Another "standard" worship song that fell in line with today's theme. As I studied the verse of Isaiah 53 I was struck by the fact that only in acknowledging the holiness - the perfect nature that is all together separate from the fallen world - of God can the true weight of Christ's taking on of my iniquities (Isa. 53:4) come into perspective.
[album: Arriving - Chris Tomlin]
Overcome - This song by the Desperation Band has become one of my favorites over the past few years. The bridge kicks my butt everytime (from Rev. 12:11), "And we will overcome // By the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony // Everyone overcome". A tremendous anthem of how, when we surrender ourselves to the Holy GOD, we will be victorious over sin and death and all of Satan's power. Victory won by the the blood of the lamb and we are strengthened to stand against the Accuser when we acknowledge who Christ is and the meaning of His sacrifice.
[album: Everyone Overcome - Desperation Band]
To see the songs used in worship by our brothers and sisters from all over the place, check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Sunday Setlist / 3.18.12
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.
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 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.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday Setlist // 2.12.12
Take a look at what happened at Community Gospel Church this weekend...
THE SERVICE:
Glory to God Forever [Steve Fee]
Welcome // Announcements
Offering
Glory to Your Name [Dave Hunt]
Once Again [Matt Redman]
Our God [Chris Tomlin/Jason Reeves/Matt Redman/Jonas Myrin]
Consuming Fire [Tim Hughes]
Message
Arms that Hold the Universe [Steve Fee]
THE TEAM:
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - piano
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Mike Stemble - audio
Brent Wiseman - visual
THE NOTES:
This week we kicked off a new series that Pastor Jordan Muck is preaching called, "Three". This is a four-week study of Colossians 3:1-17. It should be an exciting study on the heart of our actions as believers. Week one looked at the first three verses and discussed the setting of our hearts on things above, the fixing of our minds on the things above, and the security that is found in Christ.
THE SONGS:
Glory to God Forever - This is a great song. It's very simple and holds a wealth of theological truth to it. I love opening with this one. It has really good energy to it and our people have always grabbed a strong hold of it.
[album: Hope Rising - Fee]
Glory to Your Name - I have talked about this song many times in the past. It is by a phenomenal worship leader named Dave Hunt. He lead at the church I attended when I lived in Nashville, TN. Dave is simply one of the most genuine and humble worship leaders I have ever encountered. This is one of his songs that I love!
[album: Shattered - Dave Hunt]
Once Again - This is another older song that I love. It has a tremendous focus on the cross and and the humility, gratitude, and response that simply must flow from the observation of it. I do have to note though, that I always change one word of the song. The bridge goes like this: "Thank you for the cross // Thank you for the cross // Thank you for the cross, my friend". I've never been comfortable with the word friend there. I understand what Matt Redman is trying to communicate, but in my mind (if nowhere else) it seems to diminish the power of the act of sacrifice that took place there. So whenever I have done this song I always change the word "friend" to "king". Some might feel this is unnecessary or "nit-picking", but it's one of those things that I feel a conviction about so I change it.
[album: The Friendship and the Fear - Matt Redman]
Our God - Everybody knows this song. I probably don't need to talk much about it. I would have no problem doing a whole service where we sing just the bridge to this one.
[album: And If Our God is For Us - Chris Tomlin]
Consuming Fire - I felt like this was a great song to end the set with this week since the focus on the message was on the centering of ourselves on things above and not on this earth.
[album: When Silence Falls - Tim Hughes]
The Arms that Hold the Universe - It was a Steve Fee kind of morning. This was our closing song. Jordan talked to me early in the week about doing this one after the message, so I worked it up. We didn't really have time to learn it as a team so I played it solo.
[album: Hope Rising - Fee]
For more information on Community Gospel Church please visit us at:
www.cgccommunity.com
or on facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/cgccommunity
To see what other brothers and sisters are singing visit the sunday setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
THE SERVICE:
Glory to God Forever [Steve Fee]
Welcome // Announcements
Offering
Glory to Your Name [Dave Hunt]
Once Again [Matt Redman]
Our God [Chris Tomlin/Jason Reeves/Matt Redman/Jonas Myrin]
Consuming Fire [Tim Hughes]
Message
Arms that Hold the Universe [Steve Fee]
THE TEAM:
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - piano
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Mike Stemble - audio
Brent Wiseman - visual
THE NOTES:
This week we kicked off a new series that Pastor Jordan Muck is preaching called, "Three". This is a four-week study of Colossians 3:1-17. It should be an exciting study on the heart of our actions as believers. Week one looked at the first three verses and discussed the setting of our hearts on things above, the fixing of our minds on the things above, and the security that is found in Christ.
THE SONGS:
Glory to God Forever - This is a great song. It's very simple and holds a wealth of theological truth to it. I love opening with this one. It has really good energy to it and our people have always grabbed a strong hold of it.
[album: Hope Rising - Fee]
Glory to Your Name - I have talked about this song many times in the past. It is by a phenomenal worship leader named Dave Hunt. He lead at the church I attended when I lived in Nashville, TN. Dave is simply one of the most genuine and humble worship leaders I have ever encountered. This is one of his songs that I love!
[album: Shattered - Dave Hunt]
Once Again - This is another older song that I love. It has a tremendous focus on the cross and and the humility, gratitude, and response that simply must flow from the observation of it. I do have to note though, that I always change one word of the song. The bridge goes like this: "Thank you for the cross // Thank you for the cross // Thank you for the cross, my friend". I've never been comfortable with the word friend there. I understand what Matt Redman is trying to communicate, but in my mind (if nowhere else) it seems to diminish the power of the act of sacrifice that took place there. So whenever I have done this song I always change the word "friend" to "king". Some might feel this is unnecessary or "nit-picking", but it's one of those things that I feel a conviction about so I change it.
[album: The Friendship and the Fear - Matt Redman]
Our God - Everybody knows this song. I probably don't need to talk much about it. I would have no problem doing a whole service where we sing just the bridge to this one.
[album: And If Our God is For Us - Chris Tomlin]
Consuming Fire - I felt like this was a great song to end the set with this week since the focus on the message was on the centering of ourselves on things above and not on this earth.
[album: When Silence Falls - Tim Hughes]
The Arms that Hold the Universe - It was a Steve Fee kind of morning. This was our closing song. Jordan talked to me early in the week about doing this one after the message, so I worked it up. We didn't really have time to learn it as a team so I played it solo.
[album: Hope Rising - Fee]
For more information on Community Gospel Church please visit us at:
www.cgccommunity.com
or on facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/cgccommunity
To see what other brothers and sisters are singing visit the sunday setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday Setlist / 1.22.12
Holy Cow!
Welcome back to me, I guess, huh? It's been a crazy last 12 months. In that span I: started a new job at CGC, started into seminary on a full-time basis, got engaged, got married, and a bunch of other stuff happened. All that is simply my way of saying that I've had a lot on my plate and, therefore, have not blogged at all.
But I'm back!
So, without further ado, here's what went down at CGC on January 22, 2012
WORSHIP LEADERS:
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - piano
Larry Ingle - vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Kay Smith - vocals
SETLIST:
Everything Glorious (david crowder)
Welcome
Offering
Marvelous Light (charlie hall)
Heirs (jordan muck/jonathan eckberg)
Holy Nation (muck/eckberg)
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Message
Let us Shine (eckberg)
NOTES:
We are currently operating without a drummer. A year ago we had two drummers in the church and due to different circumstances we are currently drummerless. While I would prefer to have a full band behind us, it has been a nice change to dial everything back and approach the sets from a fresh perspective. However, if you are a drummer in the South Bend area looking for a church to plug into then I've got a spot for ya! :)
We are in the 3rd week of our "1P29C" series. This is a four week study of 1 Peter 2:9. The past two weeks our focus has been on the believer as the "Chosen People" and the "Royal Priesthood". This week we stepped into the believer as the "Holy Nation".
Everything Glorious - One of my favorite Crowder worship tunes. Just a good recognition of the greatness of God and the fact that he makes everything glorious and we are his... so what does that make us? (hint: transitive property states that if A = B, and B = C, then A = C). David Crowder is crazy smart. He's the only worship leader I know that incorporates mathematic equations into his songs.
Marvelous Light - Much of the message for this week focused on the imagery of light. So this standard was kind of a no-brainer. It's a great upbeat kick-off to the set.
Heirs - this is a song that Pastor Jordan and I wrote a couple years ago that was released on our Until We're Kings album, "Heirs", last October.
Holy Nation - I wrote this song for this series. Each line of the verse corresponds to a sermon topic from one of the weeks. We've been singing it for the past few weeks and are using it as a theme song, of sorts for the entire series.
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross - one of my favorite hymns.
Let Us Shine - Pastor Jordan closed the service with a quote from D.L. Moody that says, "Lighthouses blow no horns, they just shine." We are called to be the light of the world and to reflect the glory of Christ to those around us. As I was searching for a suitable closing song to encompass the message I couldn't come up with anything that fit as well as I wanted. So I decided it would be easier just to write a song. I used a number of points from the sermon and it turned out really well.
Welcome back to me, I guess, huh? It's been a crazy last 12 months. In that span I: started a new job at CGC, started into seminary on a full-time basis, got engaged, got married, and a bunch of other stuff happened. All that is simply my way of saying that I've had a lot on my plate and, therefore, have not blogged at all.
But I'm back!
So, without further ado, here's what went down at CGC on January 22, 2012
WORSHIP LEADERS:
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - piano
Larry Ingle - vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Kay Smith - vocals
SETLIST:
Everything Glorious (david crowder)
Welcome
Offering
Marvelous Light (charlie hall)
Heirs (jordan muck/jonathan eckberg)
Holy Nation (muck/eckberg)
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Message
Let us Shine (eckberg)
NOTES:
We are currently operating without a drummer. A year ago we had two drummers in the church and due to different circumstances we are currently drummerless. While I would prefer to have a full band behind us, it has been a nice change to dial everything back and approach the sets from a fresh perspective. However, if you are a drummer in the South Bend area looking for a church to plug into then I've got a spot for ya! :)
We are in the 3rd week of our "1P29C" series. This is a four week study of 1 Peter 2:9. The past two weeks our focus has been on the believer as the "Chosen People" and the "Royal Priesthood". This week we stepped into the believer as the "Holy Nation".
Everything Glorious - One of my favorite Crowder worship tunes. Just a good recognition of the greatness of God and the fact that he makes everything glorious and we are his... so what does that make us? (hint: transitive property states that if A = B, and B = C, then A = C). David Crowder is crazy smart. He's the only worship leader I know that incorporates mathematic equations into his songs.
Marvelous Light - Much of the message for this week focused on the imagery of light. So this standard was kind of a no-brainer. It's a great upbeat kick-off to the set.
Heirs - this is a song that Pastor Jordan and I wrote a couple years ago that was released on our Until We're Kings album, "Heirs", last October.
Holy Nation - I wrote this song for this series. Each line of the verse corresponds to a sermon topic from one of the weeks. We've been singing it for the past few weeks and are using it as a theme song, of sorts for the entire series.
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross - one of my favorite hymns.
Let Us Shine - Pastor Jordan closed the service with a quote from D.L. Moody that says, "Lighthouses blow no horns, they just shine." We are called to be the light of the world and to reflect the glory of Christ to those around us. As I was searching for a suitable closing song to encompass the message I couldn't come up with anything that fit as well as I wanted. So I decided it would be easier just to write a song. I used a number of points from the sermon and it turned out really well.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sunday Setlist / 2.6.11
Sunday, February 6, 2011 at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, Indiana:
THE SERVICE
Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing) [Brenton Brown/Brian Doerkson] (G)
Welcome & Announcements
Offering
Your Grace is Enough [Chris Tomlin] (F)
The Ninety and Nine [E.C. Clephane/Ira D. Sankey] (F)
Come Ye Sinners [Owens/Johnson/Hamilton/Seay] (C)
Mighty to Save [Ben Fielding/Reuben Morgan] (G)
Message
Come Ye Sinners (C)
Dismiss
THE BAND
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Sean Norris - drums
Jordan Muck - bass
Dale Graham - audio
Vance Csaszar - video
NOTES
Our team was rather slight this week. Due to some traveling and some sicknesses and various issues we seemed to have everybody bow out this week. This was compounded by the fact that the snowstorm forced us to cancel practice on Wednesday night and move it to Saturday afternoon. With the switch of practice times I knew that we would be a little short on rehearsal, so I didn't mind having a "skeleton team" this week. It's always simpler, and therefore, easier to adjust on the fly, with fewer people. That being said, we did have a great week. Pastor Mike Fanning continued to kill it from the pulpit with the second part of our "Finding Your Place at the Table" series (examining the parable of the Prodigal Son).
THE SONGS
Hallalujah (Your Love is Amazing) - This is an older song, but a good one. With the three-piece instrumentation it was a great song to rock through. It's very simple and an excellent song of praise and adoration for the love of our Father.
Your Grace is Enough - One of my favorite songs. Such a wonderful declaration of Paul's prayer in 2 Corinthians 12. I chose this as our opener in light of last weeks message of the Prodigal Son. The point was that both the older and younger brother loved the things the father had to offer more than they loved the father himself and that's where they fell into sin. I think it's important to remember as we continue to study this parable that GOD is enough for us. We become heirs to His kingdom, but that inheritance is secondary to receiving the grace of GOD. He is all we need. Our version of this song runs pretty much straight off of the Chris Tomlin version.
The Ninety and Nine - Jordan and Sean kept saying we needed a pint of Guinness in our hands as we played this song! It has distinctively Irish feel to it. And we go straight through it. I didn't figure that many people in the congregation would know this song right off the bat. However, as is the case with most hymns, the people picked up on it by the second or third verse. I chose to put this into the set despite the "known" factor because the sermon today was focusing on the people around Jesus during Luke 15 and the other two parables in the chapter (The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin). It's a hymn that walks through the Lost Sheep parable so I felt that it really set the mood and got our people thinking along those lines early in the day.
Come Ye Sinners - As this weeks sermon focused on the other parables of Luke 15, it also looked at the people around Jesus. As the chapter opens He is eating with the tax collectors and "sinners". These are the people christ came to save. This is us. The whole point of this song is that we as sinners are called to bring ourselves to Christ. We don't try to clean ourselves up first, we simply come to Christ as the sinners we all are.
Mighty to Save - We tweak the arrangement of this song a little bit just to shorten it up and make it a little more succinct. But musically it's a very standard arrangement. We closed our set with this song because as we move from our recognition of our true nature and our need for a savior (Come Ye Sinners) we must have the next step. That next step is the knowledge that our GOD is the only means of salvation and he is so much greater than our sins and our old nature.
To see what other congregations are singing please check out the Sunday Setlists at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
THE SERVICE
Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing) [Brenton Brown/Brian Doerkson] (G)
Welcome & Announcements
Offering
Your Grace is Enough [Chris Tomlin] (F)
The Ninety and Nine [E.C. Clephane/Ira D. Sankey] (F)
Come Ye Sinners [Owens/Johnson/Hamilton/Seay] (C)
Mighty to Save [Ben Fielding/Reuben Morgan] (G)
Message
Come Ye Sinners (C)
Dismiss
THE BAND
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Sean Norris - drums
Jordan Muck - bass
Dale Graham - audio
Vance Csaszar - video
NOTES
Our team was rather slight this week. Due to some traveling and some sicknesses and various issues we seemed to have everybody bow out this week. This was compounded by the fact that the snowstorm forced us to cancel practice on Wednesday night and move it to Saturday afternoon. With the switch of practice times I knew that we would be a little short on rehearsal, so I didn't mind having a "skeleton team" this week. It's always simpler, and therefore, easier to adjust on the fly, with fewer people. That being said, we did have a great week. Pastor Mike Fanning continued to kill it from the pulpit with the second part of our "Finding Your Place at the Table" series (examining the parable of the Prodigal Son).
THE SONGS
Hallalujah (Your Love is Amazing) - This is an older song, but a good one. With the three-piece instrumentation it was a great song to rock through. It's very simple and an excellent song of praise and adoration for the love of our Father.
Your Grace is Enough - One of my favorite songs. Such a wonderful declaration of Paul's prayer in 2 Corinthians 12. I chose this as our opener in light of last weeks message of the Prodigal Son. The point was that both the older and younger brother loved the things the father had to offer more than they loved the father himself and that's where they fell into sin. I think it's important to remember as we continue to study this parable that GOD is enough for us. We become heirs to His kingdom, but that inheritance is secondary to receiving the grace of GOD. He is all we need. Our version of this song runs pretty much straight off of the Chris Tomlin version.
The Ninety and Nine - Jordan and Sean kept saying we needed a pint of Guinness in our hands as we played this song! It has distinctively Irish feel to it. And we go straight through it. I didn't figure that many people in the congregation would know this song right off the bat. However, as is the case with most hymns, the people picked up on it by the second or third verse. I chose to put this into the set despite the "known" factor because the sermon today was focusing on the people around Jesus during Luke 15 and the other two parables in the chapter (The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin). It's a hymn that walks through the Lost Sheep parable so I felt that it really set the mood and got our people thinking along those lines early in the day.
Come Ye Sinners - As this weeks sermon focused on the other parables of Luke 15, it also looked at the people around Jesus. As the chapter opens He is eating with the tax collectors and "sinners". These are the people christ came to save. This is us. The whole point of this song is that we as sinners are called to bring ourselves to Christ. We don't try to clean ourselves up first, we simply come to Christ as the sinners we all are.
Mighty to Save - We tweak the arrangement of this song a little bit just to shorten it up and make it a little more succinct. But musically it's a very standard arrangement. We closed our set with this song because as we move from our recognition of our true nature and our need for a savior (Come Ye Sinners) we must have the next step. That next step is the knowledge that our GOD is the only means of salvation and he is so much greater than our sins and our old nature.
To see what other congregations are singing please check out the Sunday Setlists at www.theworshipcommunity.com.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Every New Beginning Comes from Some Other Beginning's End... (Part 1)
NOTE: Some of you may have noticed that my blog has been ignored for the last 5-6 weeks. With all the changes that have happened around me, I've had a need to focus on getting through this time of transition and getting settled into the new rhythm of life. I'm still a ways from being "settled", but it's coming together. My hope is to back to my usual posting schedule of trying to get something up each week along with a "Sunday Setlist". Thanks to all who have been so supportive in this time.
**********************
Typically I don't do a lot of personal writing in this blog. If you look over my postings you'll see that I like to tie snippets of my life into what I'm seeing in the Word and what GOD is showing to me through circumstances, but I don't like to focus on my personal life. So this post will be a little out of character for the blog, but with all that has happened/is happening I feel that it is appropriate, at this time, to share with you all where I am at at this point in my life.
This whole story dates back a couple years. I was approached by my buddy Jordan about an idea to plant a church. I felt like GOD was leading me to walk with Jordan through this process and enter into this venture with him. Up until this point in my life I had never really considered a full-time church ministry. I LOVE the Church and I LOVE the local body of believers. I have always had a great passion to serve my brothers and sisters who are traveling in the journey of faith along side me. However, this usually manifested itself in a little volunteer work or leading worship for weekend or week-long retreats, camps, etc. So the thought of planting a church and doing church ministry full-time was a bit daunting, but as we got into the process it became very clear to me that GOD had lead me to a place of preparation for this very purpose. Over the course of the next year or so Jordan and I began to put together thoughts and ideas of how we could lead a body of believers in a direction of biblical balance in regards to evangelism, discipleship, worship, and social concern. GOD continued to fan this flame in my heart and open me more and more to the idea of entering the ministry on a more permanent basis.
Now, at this point, the church plant was halted. This was devastating to those of us involved and left us with some unanswered questions. For me, it was a question of my own recognition of GOD's calling. I wondered why GOD had made it so clear that this was the direction I was to begin traveling if it was, ultimately, destined to fall through. Why had GOD prepared me for something I wasn't going to be a part of? Had I mistaken my desire for GOD's calling? If this was the case, where did I stand in regards to the rest of the things I felt GOD set aside for me to accomplish? These were not easy questions.
I struggled with these questions for a time. As I progressed through last spring I was presented with several jog opportunities in the coaching world. I applied and interviewed for several coaching jobs and was a finalist for a couple of positions. One job, in particular seemed like it was a great fit for me if I was to continue coaching and I thought I was a shoe-in for the job, but the institution decided to move in a different direction. Again, I was wondering what the purpose of the past few years of preparation had been if I was not able to use the skills I had learned.
This was topped off by another job opportunity as a worship leader in a church in Indianapolis. This seemed like a perfect fit as the church wanted a part-time worship leader which would allow me to then go to Seminary (which GOD had sparked an interest in me over the past year or so). I was one of the final two for this position but, again, the church decided to go another direction. Same question rolled through my mind.
It would seem that the calendar year was quite frustrating and, on some levels, it was. The funny thing about the whole process is that I never question GOD's plan. I had a great deal of questions about how He was working His purpose out and about my part in His plan but I never questioned the fact that GOD was working.
Many people love to quote Jeremiah 29:11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' delcares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" This is a beautiful verse of hope and comfort, but most people like to forget the fact that it comes in the midst of a verse to the Jews who are exiled in Babylon. This letter is an instruction to how these people are to live in their time of captivity. It's not a verse declaring the ease and happiness of the promises of GOD. It's a verse declaring the sovereignty of GOD in our hours of captivity, struggle, doubt and frustration. Our prosperity is not earthly riches, the jobs we think we want, or the rise above the world. Our prosperity lies in the eternal rewards of serving our Father through ALL circumstances.
This is the idea that I fell back on constantly. The knowledge that, even in the times where I really was hurting and in the times when I wanted to physically see GOD move, when I wanted to understand why everything was happing the way it was, GOD was taking care of me. He was working out His plan for a specific purpose. My job was to follow Him in spite of my questions. Proverbs 16:9 says, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." I understood that as I was making decisions and following the call of the LORD that he was using those situations that I found myself in to bring about His glory in some way - I just didn't know how that was happening...yet.
**********************
Typically I don't do a lot of personal writing in this blog. If you look over my postings you'll see that I like to tie snippets of my life into what I'm seeing in the Word and what GOD is showing to me through circumstances, but I don't like to focus on my personal life. So this post will be a little out of character for the blog, but with all that has happened/is happening I feel that it is appropriate, at this time, to share with you all where I am at at this point in my life.
This whole story dates back a couple years. I was approached by my buddy Jordan about an idea to plant a church. I felt like GOD was leading me to walk with Jordan through this process and enter into this venture with him. Up until this point in my life I had never really considered a full-time church ministry. I LOVE the Church and I LOVE the local body of believers. I have always had a great passion to serve my brothers and sisters who are traveling in the journey of faith along side me. However, this usually manifested itself in a little volunteer work or leading worship for weekend or week-long retreats, camps, etc. So the thought of planting a church and doing church ministry full-time was a bit daunting, but as we got into the process it became very clear to me that GOD had lead me to a place of preparation for this very purpose. Over the course of the next year or so Jordan and I began to put together thoughts and ideas of how we could lead a body of believers in a direction of biblical balance in regards to evangelism, discipleship, worship, and social concern. GOD continued to fan this flame in my heart and open me more and more to the idea of entering the ministry on a more permanent basis.
Now, at this point, the church plant was halted. This was devastating to those of us involved and left us with some unanswered questions. For me, it was a question of my own recognition of GOD's calling. I wondered why GOD had made it so clear that this was the direction I was to begin traveling if it was, ultimately, destined to fall through. Why had GOD prepared me for something I wasn't going to be a part of? Had I mistaken my desire for GOD's calling? If this was the case, where did I stand in regards to the rest of the things I felt GOD set aside for me to accomplish? These were not easy questions.
I struggled with these questions for a time. As I progressed through last spring I was presented with several jog opportunities in the coaching world. I applied and interviewed for several coaching jobs and was a finalist for a couple of positions. One job, in particular seemed like it was a great fit for me if I was to continue coaching and I thought I was a shoe-in for the job, but the institution decided to move in a different direction. Again, I was wondering what the purpose of the past few years of preparation had been if I was not able to use the skills I had learned.
This was topped off by another job opportunity as a worship leader in a church in Indianapolis. This seemed like a perfect fit as the church wanted a part-time worship leader which would allow me to then go to Seminary (which GOD had sparked an interest in me over the past year or so). I was one of the final two for this position but, again, the church decided to go another direction. Same question rolled through my mind.
It would seem that the calendar year was quite frustrating and, on some levels, it was. The funny thing about the whole process is that I never question GOD's plan. I had a great deal of questions about how He was working His purpose out and about my part in His plan but I never questioned the fact that GOD was working.
Many people love to quote Jeremiah 29:11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' delcares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" This is a beautiful verse of hope and comfort, but most people like to forget the fact that it comes in the midst of a verse to the Jews who are exiled in Babylon. This letter is an instruction to how these people are to live in their time of captivity. It's not a verse declaring the ease and happiness of the promises of GOD. It's a verse declaring the sovereignty of GOD in our hours of captivity, struggle, doubt and frustration. Our prosperity is not earthly riches, the jobs we think we want, or the rise above the world. Our prosperity lies in the eternal rewards of serving our Father through ALL circumstances.
This is the idea that I fell back on constantly. The knowledge that, even in the times where I really was hurting and in the times when I wanted to physically see GOD move, when I wanted to understand why everything was happing the way it was, GOD was taking care of me. He was working out His plan for a specific purpose. My job was to follow Him in spite of my questions. Proverbs 16:9 says, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." I understood that as I was making decisions and following the call of the LORD that he was using those situations that I found myself in to bring about His glory in some way - I just didn't know how that was happening...yet.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Sunday Setlist / 10.3.10
This past weekend I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to the Rainbow Christian Camp in Converse, Indiana where I led worship for a high school retreat with youth groups from Wabash and Bremen, IN. It's always a blast to be involved with high school groups. These kids cracked me up. We got in on Friday night and worked our way through to Sunday morning. It was incredibly exhausting, but worth every minute. The bonus for me was that I got to work with my buddy, Jordan Muck, who is now the Associate & Youth Pastor at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN. Jordan is a great friend who I have been through a whole lot with and he's been there for me to strengthen me in my faith, to encourage me when I'm struggling, and to constantly push me forward in following GOD's will. I miss having him (and his family) around so I jumped at the chance to drive 4.5 hours to lead worship for the weekend.
Here's what Sunday morning looked like:
I Have Decided [C]
Heirs [G]
Let Your Kingdom Reign [G]
Message - Jordan Muck - Acts 2:42 - PRAYER
Jonathan David Eckberg - Guitar/Vocals
NOTES: I led all weekend with just the acoustic. It's always interesting to walk into groups like this where you don't really know anyone. I knew the leaders of both groups, but I had no idea what songs the kids would or wouldn't know. This creates some anxiety on my part. On one hand, you want to do mostly songs that they know or at least have heard. On the other hand, you don't want to do a strict diet of songs from 1980. It's also often surprising what songs kids do and don't know. I've had a lot of times where I've put a song into a retreat thinking it's one that EVERYBODY knows, only to have kids look blankly at the screen or fumble through it. Other times I'll have a song in that compliments the message really well and I figure it's on that maybe one or two people will sing along with and then the kids are all over it. You just never can tell. So, after putting a lot of time in to trying to create a balance and get some songs that the kids could grab ahold of this weekend I (with quite a bit of help from Jordan) finalized the list.
I Have Decided - We sang the version off of the "Heirs" album (shameless self-promotion: the 6-song worship album from Until We're Kings is released this Tuesday and should be available on iTunes in the coming weeks - you KNOW I'll keep you updated). It's such a simple arrangement that the kids picked up on it really quickly and I think they had some fun with it.
Heirs - Another song from the, Until We're Kings album. This was the "theme song" for the week. I taught it to the kids on Friday night and we included it in every session on the weekend. It was cool to see the group catch on and really sing it out on Sunday morning.
Let Your Kingdom Reign - This is a chorus I use from Elevation Worship off of their last album, "GOD with Us." I LOVE this chorus. It's so perfectly beautiful. I knew that none of the kids would know it, but I put it in because it is so simple and singable. We repeated it several times and I heard a few kids singing it as we all sat down for the message and even after the session, so I think it went over pretty well.
To see what's happening in worship around the country check out out the Sunday Setlist at theworshipcommunity.com.
Here's what Sunday morning looked like:
I Have Decided [C]
Heirs [G]
Let Your Kingdom Reign [G]
Message - Jordan Muck - Acts 2:42 - PRAYER
Jonathan David Eckberg - Guitar/Vocals
NOTES: I led all weekend with just the acoustic. It's always interesting to walk into groups like this where you don't really know anyone. I knew the leaders of both groups, but I had no idea what songs the kids would or wouldn't know. This creates some anxiety on my part. On one hand, you want to do mostly songs that they know or at least have heard. On the other hand, you don't want to do a strict diet of songs from 1980. It's also often surprising what songs kids do and don't know. I've had a lot of times where I've put a song into a retreat thinking it's one that EVERYBODY knows, only to have kids look blankly at the screen or fumble through it. Other times I'll have a song in that compliments the message really well and I figure it's on that maybe one or two people will sing along with and then the kids are all over it. You just never can tell. So, after putting a lot of time in to trying to create a balance and get some songs that the kids could grab ahold of this weekend I (with quite a bit of help from Jordan) finalized the list.
I Have Decided - We sang the version off of the "Heirs" album (shameless self-promotion: the 6-song worship album from Until We're Kings is released this Tuesday and should be available on iTunes in the coming weeks - you KNOW I'll keep you updated). It's such a simple arrangement that the kids picked up on it really quickly and I think they had some fun with it.
Heirs - Another song from the, Until We're Kings album. This was the "theme song" for the week. I taught it to the kids on Friday night and we included it in every session on the weekend. It was cool to see the group catch on and really sing it out on Sunday morning.
Let Your Kingdom Reign - This is a chorus I use from Elevation Worship off of their last album, "GOD with Us." I LOVE this chorus. It's so perfectly beautiful. I knew that none of the kids would know it, but I put it in because it is so simple and singable. We repeated it several times and I heard a few kids singing it as we all sat down for the message and even after the session, so I think it went over pretty well.
To see what's happening in worship around the country check out out the Sunday Setlist at theworshipcommunity.com.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Until We're Kings - "Heirs"
I was extremely excited to get my hands on the final mixes of the new Until We're Kings worship EP, "Heirs" yesterday. It's been a four month process from the start of recording to where we are now.
For those who are not familiar with Until We're Kings (which is 99.9% of you), here's a little background: It's a worship project I was fortunate to be a part of with my buddy Jordan Muck, who is the Associate/Youth Pastor at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN. Jordan and I had a few songs laying around and we worked up a couple new ones together and decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and throw them down for posterity-sake. Jordan called in his college roommate Justin Long, who now works out of Washington, D.C., to come to southern Illinois for a week in late March to produce the songs for us. We then enlisted the help of Cory Done to play percussion. Cory played with us on the worship team at Highland Community Church, so he was an easy pick (the dude is a fantastic musician, he's like a machine on the drums). On top of that we convinced Jordan's wife, Bethany, to help us out by laying down some vocals, which was crazy impressive as she was like 6+ months pregnant at the time. Once the songs got back to DC we got even more vocal help from Anna Long and Jessica Long.
We spent a solid week doing basic tracking and vocals. Then Justin took the tracks back to the Powder Mill (his studio in DC) and cleaned them up by adding some more piano/synth/bass/vocal/etc. parts to the songs. That was followed by Justin and I passing tracks back and forth over the internet for me to put some finishing touches on some guitars, piano, and vocal tracks at Papa's Place Studio (Erie, IL). Now he has finished with the mixing process.
Next step for us is to have the mastering done by Mike Kalajian (30/30 Club Studio) and the actual production of the disc and we should be ready to roll this puppy out. Our goal is to have the physical copies of this 6-song EP ready for sale by October 1, with digital copies available on iTunes soon after.
In honor of the impending release here is a video of me leading worship through the title track of the "Heirs" EP. Enjoy.
Until We're Kings.
-jde
For those who are not familiar with Until We're Kings (which is 99.9% of you), here's a little background: It's a worship project I was fortunate to be a part of with my buddy Jordan Muck, who is the Associate/Youth Pastor at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN. Jordan and I had a few songs laying around and we worked up a couple new ones together and decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and throw them down for posterity-sake. Jordan called in his college roommate Justin Long, who now works out of Washington, D.C., to come to southern Illinois for a week in late March to produce the songs for us. We then enlisted the help of Cory Done to play percussion. Cory played with us on the worship team at Highland Community Church, so he was an easy pick (the dude is a fantastic musician, he's like a machine on the drums). On top of that we convinced Jordan's wife, Bethany, to help us out by laying down some vocals, which was crazy impressive as she was like 6+ months pregnant at the time. Once the songs got back to DC we got even more vocal help from Anna Long and Jessica Long.
We spent a solid week doing basic tracking and vocals. Then Justin took the tracks back to the Powder Mill (his studio in DC) and cleaned them up by adding some more piano/synth/bass/vocal/etc. parts to the songs. That was followed by Justin and I passing tracks back and forth over the internet for me to put some finishing touches on some guitars, piano, and vocal tracks at Papa's Place Studio (Erie, IL). Now he has finished with the mixing process.
Next step for us is to have the mastering done by Mike Kalajian (30/30 Club Studio) and the actual production of the disc and we should be ready to roll this puppy out. Our goal is to have the physical copies of this 6-song EP ready for sale by October 1, with digital copies available on iTunes soon after.
In honor of the impending release here is a video of me leading worship through the title track of the "Heirs" EP. Enjoy.
Until We're Kings.
-jde
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