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

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

Sunday Setlist / 2.3.13

If you didn't spend your Sunday with the good folks at Community Gospel Church, then here's what you missed...

SERVICE

Holy is the Lord (Chris Tomlin)
     Welcome & Announcement Video
     Offering
Forever Reign (Jason Ingram/Reuben Morgan)
Backbone (Jonathan David Eckberg)
Jesus Paid it All (Alex Nifong)
     Message: Backbone, Week 3 (Romans 1:18-32)
How Deep the Father's Love for Us (Stuart Townsend)
     Dismiss


TEAM

Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Jess Yoder - vocals
Beth Stemble - keys

Sunday Setlist / 6.10.12

Want to know about the Sunday service at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN? Here ya go...

THE SERVICE

Great is the Lord [Chris Brown]

       Announcements

       Offering

Our Great GOD [Casey Darnell]

All My Life [Libby Huirua / Mark De Jong / Wayne Huirua]

GOD of Justice [Tim Hughes]

       Message

The Church [Chris Brown / Mack Brock]

       Dismiss

Our Great GOD (Reprise)

THE TEAM

Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocal

Nick Hostetler - drums

Marc Hyde - bass

Beth Stemble - piano

Jess Yoder - vocal

Alli Hutchens - vocal

Cyndi Leamon - vocal

Sunday Setlist / 6.3.12

Here's how the morning went down at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN...

THE SERVICE

Our Great GOD [Casey Darnell]
     Video Announcements
     Missions Update & Offering
Forever [Chris Tomlin]
You Never Let Go [Matt Redman]
It Is Well With My Soul [Horatio Spafford]
     Message
Overcome [Jon Egan]
     Dismiss
Our Great GOD (Reprise)


THE TEAM

Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - piano
Nick Hostetler - drums
Marc Hyde - bass
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Cyndi Leamon - vocals


THE NOTES

Pastor Jordan was on vacation this week so we had a guest speaker fill our pulpit. Brandon Addison grew up in CGC and recently finished his seminary degree in California. Brandon shared an overview of the book of Ecclesiastes and focused on the fact that life according to the world is meaningless, as Solomon laments throughout the book, but life according to Christ is meaningful. It is only through our salvation in Christ that we can find any lasting peace in this life and move past the absurdity of this world.

With this in mind, our worship set focused on the eternity of our GOD. That because he is the GOD who reigns forever that we can always find our hope and peace in who He is and what He has done. It is through Christ and Christ alone that we may overcome the misery and aimlessness of what this life appears to offer.


THE SONGS


Our Great GOD - This is a new song, so we opened the service with it so that people would have a chance to hear it. We also closed the service with it to put it in people's ears one more time. We have actually played it as house music (from the CD) a few times over the past months so I think it felt a little familiar to a lot of people. I love the song and the message of the greatness and majesty of God. I've wanted to introduce it for a while, but haven't had the right time where it fit where we were going. Alli sang lead on this song because the lead guitar parts have an odd timing that I can't seem to make my fingers play while singing something else. It's always nice to have that flexibility within our team. Casey Darnell is a fantastic songwriter and worship leader. He's part of the team at Northpoint and his last album is a phenomenal album of corporate worship songs. I highly recommend checking out his stuff.
[album: Coming Alive - Casey Darnell]

Forever - In looking at the "big picture" of Ecclesiastes is seems to point to the fact that GOD reigns through all circumstances. A life lived apart from the will of GOD is a life lived in vanity, as Solomon says. Fortunately for the believer GOD is forever faithful, strong, and with us.
[album: The Noise We Make - Chris Tomlin]

You Never Let Go - The GOD who created the heavens and the earth, the GOD who reigns for all eternity, also covers us in his grace. As Paul prays over the thorn in his flesh in 2 Corinthians 12 he hears from the LORD, "My grace is sufficient for you." GOD's grace never let's us go. His peace and calms us through all the storms and struggle of this life and gives us meaning to our existence.
[album: Beautiful News - Matt Redman]

It Is Well With My Soul - This is maybe my all-time favorite hymn. In regards to the service it continued the thought of GOD's reign and our rest within it. As GOD's love and majesty exists throughout all of history and he remains sovereign over all we can rest in the knowledge that he maintains his mercy and justice over us. With this in mind we can find in him our comfort in every situation.
[Album: Ebenezar: A Collection of Hymns - Dave Hunt]

Overcome - Perfect ending to our service. The whole idea that Christ has already overcome Satan and our eternal standing is secure when we stand in light of that truth is phenomenal. Ecclesiastes walks through Solomon's struggle with materialism and a final resting in the justice of GOD, not in the thoughts and justice of our hearts and minds.
[album: Everyone Overcome - Desperation Band]


To see the ways that other brothers and sisters worshipped in song this week you can check out the sunday setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.

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

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

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.

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]

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]

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]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sunday Setlist / 3.11.12

Here is what the morning service looked like at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN...

THE SERVICE

I Am New (Jonathan Eckberg)
        Welcome, Announcements, and Offering

        Baptisms

EVERYTHING ELSE

This may have been the simplest service (in terms of schedule) I've ever been a part of, but it was INCREDIBLE!  We had 16 people stand up in front of a packed house and make a public profession of their faith in Christ this morning.  To hear the stories of surrender to GOD and the ways that the Spirit is moving in the lives of the people of CGC is phenomenal. 

We opened the service by singing one song.  Honestly, I wouldn't have minded passing on this but it seems that our congregation is conditioned to not come into the sanctuary until the opening song starts up.  It's not a bad thing, that's just how we roll at CGC.  So anyway, we opened with "I Am New" because it's one we've learned over the past few weeks and it just seemed fitting for the purpose of the day.  From there we covered a few announcements and the offering before rolling right into the baptisms.  We had borrowed a portable baptismal from our good friends at River Valley Church in Mishawaka so that we could conduct the service in the sanctuary (there is a baptismal in the churches "all purpose" room, but the setup in there is really awkward, so we really wanted to avoid using that one).  We gave each person an opportunity to stand before the church and share their story with us and to explain their intentions in being baptized.  Then we dunked them.   The highlight of the day for me, without a doubt, was seeing fathers step up to baptize their children.  I'm not a guy who cries that much, but when men of faith step up and be the spiritual leaders of their families in the way that GOD has called them to be and take responsibility for their children's spiritual growth... MAN!  That got me.  That's good stuff.  Again, it was just such an awesome morning.  GOD is moving in some cool ways at CGC right now and I'm so incredibly excited for how my brothers and sisters in the congregation are responding and will continue to respond over the course of the next few months and years.


SONG

I Am New - This song was written for this last series and it was a perfect fit for our week of baptisms.  For more info on this song you can check out the Sunday Setlists from the past couple of weeks.


To see how many of our other brothers and sisters worshipped today you can go to Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.

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.

Sunday Setlist / 2.5.12

What did Sunday morning look like at Community Gospel Church?  Check it out...

THE SERVICE:

I Sing the Mighty Power of God (E) [Watts // arr. Jonathan Eckberg)
          Welcome/Announcements/Prayer for Students at Kalahari
          Offering
Great is the Lord (G) [Chris Brown]
Hallelujah To My King (E) [Paul Baloche//Brenton Brown]
You Never Let Go (G) [Matt Redman//Beth Redman]
The Church (C) [Chris Brown//Matt Brock]
          Message - Del
          Dismiss


THE TEAM:

Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Beth Stemble - piano
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Jessica Yoder - vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Kevin Schmidt - audio
Vance Czesar - visual


NOTES:

With Pastor Jordan at the Kalahari conference with the Velocity crew we were fortunate enough to have a good friend of CGC bringing us the Word this week.  Del Fehsenfeld, of Life Action Ministries, taught on a Jacobs statement from Genesis 28:16 where he states, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it."  Just a great message of God's presence and work constantly surrounding us.


I Sing the Mighty Power of God - A few years ago I took the words to this Isaac Watts hymn and updated the melody for it and added a simple "chorus" section.  I've recorded this song for a couple of albums, but it never seemed to fit the overall feel -- I'm still hoping to do a record at some point with this song on it.  I love the words of this song and praise for the creator God who "formed the creatures with his word//and then pronounced them good".   The third verse is a great reminder of how God makes himself known to the whole world through his creation (Rom. 1:20).  This is excellent theology which is astounding when you consider that in 1715 Isaac Watts included this song in a hymnbook for children!  

Great is the Lord - One of my favorite worship bands out right now is Elevation Worship.  All of their stuff is very clean, theologically sound, singable, and purposive.  They write for specific sermon series' and events in their church.  It serves as a model, in those areas, that we are emulating with our approach at CGC.  Part of our reasoning for slowly working toward a more "original music" approach is to have our people singing songs about OUR experiences with the Lord.  To praise Him not only for what he does globally, but for what he is doing in our midst.  I think this adds a great deal of depth to our times as a congregation.  That's an aside that has nothing to do with this song!  This is a song that serves as a general call to worship.
[album: Elevation Worship - God With Us]

Hallelujah To My King - Paul Baloche is one of the guys out there that writes a lot of really good theology.  This is a tremendous song of the grace and forgiveness of God that is poured out on His children through the name of Jesus Christ.  If you're looking for a really powerful song of gratitude for the love of our savior then you should check this song out.
[album: Paul Baloche - Our God Saves]

You Never Let Go - We added this song late in the week and it turned out to be a good choice as it flowed with the message nicely.  One of the hardest things for me as a worship leader is to construct worship sets when I don't know the preacher and I don't know the topic.  I like to flow from the start of the worship set to the end and have a seamless move into the message.  So I feel very fortunate that today's set, and this song in particular, worked with Pastor Del's message.
[album: Matt Redman - Beautiful News]

The Church - This is another Elevation Worship tune.  I've always loved it as a call to action.  The bridge kicks my but every time: "Fill our hearts with Your compassion // Let our love be active here // Fill our hearts with Your compassion // Let our love be real".  Love it.
[album: Elevation Worship - Kingdom Come]

That's it.  See you next week!

Sunday Setlist / 1.29.12

Here's a look at the 10:10 service at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN:

THE SET:
When I think about the Lord (james huey)
          Welcome & Announcements
          Offering
Blessed Be Your Name (matt redman/beth redman)
Holy Nation (jordan muck/jonathan eckberg)
          Reflection // Meditation
May The Words of My Mouth (tim hughes)
          Message
          Communion
          Dismiss


THE TEAM:
Jonathan Eckberg - vocals/guitar
Beth Stemble - piano
Larry Ingle - vocals
Alli Hutchens - vocals
Kay Smith - vocals
Dale Gramm - audio
Perri Helpler - visual


NOTES:
This was the final week in our 1P29C (that is, 1 Peter 2:9 Christian) series.  It was such a great morning of worship and fellowship.  We took communion as a family which was phenomenal.  Pastor Jordan left the communion table "open" after the service to allow families to bring their children up and teach them what communion is all about.  We have an amazing children's ministry, but the downside to that is that we don't have many younger children in the service.  So by doing what we did, it allowed parents to decide if their child had accepted Christ and was at an age where he/she could understand and legitimately engage in the sacraments.  It was a cool experience to see a few of our families teaching their children about the beauty of communion.  I think, in a child's mind, it transforms the act from "snack time" to the deep and meaningful experience that it is supposed to be.  Awesome.

Musically, the set list was "older" than a typical week for us.  The only song that was written after 2001 is the one we wrote for this series!  I could't care less about when a song was written.  If it's a good song with solid theology and it fits the movement of the service and the message of the day then I'm game.  It doesn't matter to me if it's a 70's praise chorus, a hymn, or an original song - the main point is does it move us where God is leading.


When I Think About the Lord - this is a song I've done for years.  I've never really known who wrote it (I had to look it up before I posted this).  It's a song I learned from Dave Hunt in my time attending Rolling Hills Community Church in Nashville, TN.  I love the simplicity of this song.  "When I think about the Lord // It makes me wanna shout // Hallelujah, thank you Jesus // Lord You're worthy of all the glory // and all the honor and all the praise"

Blessed Be Your Name - While this is a song that is greatly overdone among church circles.  However, on the occasions that we do break it out I'm reminded as to the reasons WHY it is overdone.  It's just a great song.  I don't think I even need to comment on this one.

Holy Nation - I mentioned last week that this was a song written specifically for this series.  That means that, of course, we had to do it this week.  People have really caught on to it and I hope it creates an avenue for people to link back to the messages of this series.

May the Words of My Mouth - This is one of my favorite "personal" worship songs.  When I'm sitting at home with my guitar worshipping, chances are that this song will be played.  It's a great song about the joy we have in abandoning all this world tells us we need and being fulfilled in committing to follow wherever God leads - and doing so for no other reason that he calls us to do so.


To learn more about Community Gospel Church please visit cgccommunity.com.

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.

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.

Sunday Setlist / 1.30.11

Worship with Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN:


THE SERVICE:

Opening Song - How Marvelous (F) [Charles H. Gabriel]
     Welcome and Announcements
     Offering
Heirs (G) [Muck/Eckberg]
     Drama - The Prodigal Song
Majesty (Here I Stand) (Bb) [Garrard/Smith]
     Message
Majesty (Here I Stand) (Bb) [Garrard/Smith]


THE BAND:

Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Larry Ingle - vocals
Jackie Lacher - vocals
Sharon Nafrady - vocals
Larry Ingle - vocals
Sean Norris - drums
Randy Hepler - bass
Jordan Muck - guitar
Beth Stemble - piano
Mike Stemble - sound
Jeff Hutchens - video


NOTES:

We were really light on music this week.  We are kicking off a new series that's based on the Tim Keller book, "Prodigal God".  It is an examination of the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  We're calling it: Finding Your Place at the Table.  If today was any indication of what will happen in the coming weeks, then I KNOW it's going to be tremendous series as Pastor Mike Fanning absolutely knocked it out of the park with his sermon today (Way to be Pastor Mike!).  To start off this new series we had a dramatic telling (some would call it a skit or a play) of the parable.  We threw this right in the middle of the worship set, so it replaced a couple of songs out of our usual time-frame.


THE SONGS:

How Marvelous, How Wonderful - This is an old hymn that has been reworked.  We stay fairly true to the melody line and all the changes, but the feel is totally different from the original.  The version we use is an upbeat song that rolls straight through.  There's nothing fancy about it, but it comes across really well.

Heirs - This is the title track from the Until We're Kings album.  As I was thinking about the prodigal son and music to go a long with the series, this song came to mind right away.  It's a song about our adoption into GOD's family.  It talks about our complete dependence upon our Father and what our response to that should and must be.  It fits really well with the return of the lost son.

Majesty (Here I Stand) - I changed my mind on using this song at the last moment.  I had another song picked out a couple of weeks ago, but the other day as I was going through the music before practice I just felt like the song I had picked wasn't right.  I can't tell you what it was (actually, I can, it was the Holy Spirit), but I just all of the sudden didn't feel the other song was a good fit.  So I frantically rifled through my music trying to figure out what we were going to do and this is where I landed.  I love the last line of the chorus, "Your grace has found me just as I am / Empty handed but alive in your hands".  Such a cool expression of the end of the prodigal son parable.  A father who takes both sons right where they are and accepts them if they would only come back to the table.  Love it.


To see what your brothers and sisters are singing in their home churches this week check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.

Sunday Setlist / 1.23.11

Here's how we spent the morning at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN:

THE SERVICE:

Opening Song - I Have Decided (C)
     Welcome & Announcements
     Offering
Marvelous Light (G)
Consuming Fire (G)
GOD of this City (C)
Be Thou My Vision (C)
     Message
Consuming Fire - Reprise (C)


THE BAND:

Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Cyndi Leamon - vocals
Larry Ingle - vocals
Jackie Lacher - vocals
Sean Norris - drums
Randy Hepler - bass
Beth Stemble - piano
Kevin Schmidt - sound


THE NOTES:

There are some amazing things happening at CGC right now and Satan knows it.  We were under attack today.  I felt it early in the worship set, but it didn't really hit me how strong it was until I sat down for the rest of the service.  It was nothing big, but a lot of things were thrown at us.  Minor sound issues, a few missed slides, people being called out of the service for various reasons.  Again, nothing big, and often times things that are complete non-issues, but it just seemed that Satan rolled a lot of those issues at us together that, collectively, could have destroyed the day.  The Associate Pastor passed me a not during the service (don't tell my mom I was passing notes in church) that read "We are under serious attack today!".  I had just spent the past several minutes thinking the same thing - so it was amazing to see the spirit opening our eyes to it.  The cool thing is that it didn't crush the service.  I feel very fortunate to be in a place and serving in ministry with a group of people who are killing it for the Kingdom and doing it in such a way that Satan has taken note and is working hard to stop us.  I feel even more fortunate to serve with brothers and sisters who are wise enough to recognize it and to respond in prayer and action to see the Spirit intervene in victory over the enemy.


THE SONGS:

I Have Decided - We do the Until We're Kings version of this old hymn.  Its a very rocked out arrangement.  Granted, we tone it down a touch for Sunday mornings, but we really do try to keep the feel of a good kick-in-the-pants to start the morning.  Also, as a side note, it's a whole lot of fun to play!

Marvelous Light - Really did a standard version of this song.  Nothing special.  The sermon for the morning was moving from faith to action.  Last week Pastor Mike Fanning focused on faith and this week was a focus on the actions required by faith.  So Marvelous Light was a great way to kick the set off as a song about running toward the power of the cross of Christ.

Consuming Fire - This is a slightly older song (mid-90's, I believe) but it was a new one for our congregation.  The focus of this song, to me anyway, is the bridge section that  says, "Stir it up in our hearts, LORD / Stir it up in our hearts, LORD / Stir it up in out hearts / A passion for Your name".  Really cool to hear the congregation latch on to that and pour over it.

GOD of this City - The recorded versions of this song seem to have a lot of extra space in the song - long interludes and lots of "dead air" for the congregation.  The version we do cuts a lot of that out and removes some of the extra measures that seem to be in there.  I think this helps keep the congregation engaged in what we are doing and helps remove some of the obstacles of distraction.  We changed the arrangement to focus on the Pre-choruse (There is no one like our GOD / There is no one like our GOD) with the chorus almost being secondary.  The point we were rolling on was that our GOD is the one and only GOD who can open our hearts to faith move us to action for His sake.

Be Thou My Vision - Another old hymn, but for this one we used a much more traditional arrangement. It capped the set off nicely as it tied our movement to GOD, our passion for what He is accomplishing through the greatness of who He is and finishing with a prayer for a heart like His heart in the direction of our actions according to His good and perfect will.

We then responded to the message with a V1-PC-CH-B arrangement of Consuming Fire - again the focus being that bridge section of the song.

To see how our brothers and sisters from all over the place were worshipping in song today check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com

Sunday Setlist / 11.14.10

***So I wrote this out on Sunday afternoon, but then I forgot to post it and just saw it this morning.  Oops. 


Here's how we ran the 9:00 am service at Highland Community Church in Highland, IL:

THE SERVICE:

Alive and Running (G)

            Welcome & Announcements

            Offering

Happy Day (A)

Overcome (A)

            Scripture Reading – Isaiah 42:5-12

Before the Throne of God Above  (D)

            Message
Overcome (A) - chorus only
            Dismiss

Alive and Running (G)       

THE BAND:

Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals

Tim McDaniel - drums

Joe Szoke - bass

Aaron McDaniel - guitar

NOTES:
We had a guest speaker in today - Vince Dachioli.  He was fantastic.  We loved having him be a part of our Sunday morning.  The difficult part of having a guest speaker is that sometimes you have no idea what the message is about.  This was one of those Sundays.  Normally, I try to get in touch with our guests early in the week to discuss what they will teach on and see if there is anything I can do to help support the message (any particular songs or anything in the order of service that can move us to be prepared to hear from the LORD that morning).  However, I didn't have a chance to speak with Vince this week.  I chose, then, to have a very generic theme to what we were singing.  It turned out that everything flowed perfectly.  Vince spoke our response to personal suffering and how it comes back to our faith in a sovereign GOD who provides for us in times of trouble and how that gives us new opportunities to minister to people.  Total GOD's doing that everything flowed together today.  At the end of the service I made the decision to sing just the chorus of "Overcome" as the response.  We didn't really have anything planned for a response because we had no idea where the message would lead us or how long it would be.  As Vince approached the conclusion of the sermon I felt like "Overcome" was perfect, so we rolled into it.

THE SONGS:

Alive and Running - We debuted this song last week and got a great response from it.  I think the congregation took to it really well.  We played this week as part of the actual set to kick us off and end up with.  Because this is new we will probably play it again next week just to make sure people know it and then it will move into a slot on the normal rotation.

Happy Day - We hadn't played this song in a while, but it's such a good tune.  We keyed it down a little this week.  We have always played it in "C" and I just feel like I strain a little to sing it there.  So if I'm straining to sing it I know that a whole lot of the congregation are straining too.  So we dropped it to "A" and I think it really helped get people involved.  I think one of the easiest mistakes to make as a worship leader is to key things to our own voices and not the congregation.  You want everything to sound great, so you put things in your own range, but we have to constantly keep the congregation in focus when choosing the keys in addition to choosing the songs.

Overcome - I absolutely love this song by the Desperation Band.  The bridge is so stinking powerful.  It is take straight from Revelation and it say, "And we will overcome/By the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony/everyone, overcome" - I could sing that bridge over and over and over again.  Just a sweet sound.  We play pretty close to the Desperation Band's arrangement of the song.

Before the Throne of GOD Above - our scripture for the day was Isaiah 42:5-12.  This hymn was a great fit and an excellent bridge from the scripture to the message.  We always do a very traditional sound to this hymn.  I love the part of the song that says, "Because a sinless Savior died/My sinful soul is counted free/For God the just is satisfied/To look on sin and pardon me/To look on sin and pardon me".  Such a great song.


To see what others around the country were singing today, visit the Sunday Setlist at http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/.

Sunday Setlist / 11.7.10

Here's what went down at the 9:00am service at Highland Community Church:

Call to Worship:  Alive and Running (G) [Stanfill/Giglio/Younker]

            Welcome & Announcements

            Offering

GOD of Wonders (G) [Byrd/Hindalong]

            Scripture Reading – Psalm 23

You Never Let Go (A) [Redman]
            Reflection
How Deep the Fathers Love for Us (E) [Townend]

            Communion

            Message – the Good Shepherd – John 10:11-18

All the Way My Savior Leads Me (F) [Crosby - adapted by: Tomlin/Redman]

            Dismiss

Alive and Running (G) 

The Band:

Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals

Tim McDaniel - drums

Aaron McDaniel - electric guitar

Joe Szoke - bass         

Notes:

Such a great morning at HCC.  Some of it may be attributed to everybody getting that extra hour of sleep, but sometimes you just have to stop and look around and realize that GOD is pretty cool.  Today was just one of those days where everyone was engaged in worship and you could feel the synergy of the voices of GOD's people rising up in adoration and thanks.  Love it!

We ran our worship set a little different this week.  Normally I try to put as much of the music together as possible and that is our way of "tuning in" to what GOD has to speak through the message that day.  This week, however, we were more of the glue to the service.  Each song tied us from one thing to the next.  We opened with a new song, then came from the offering into the next, the third song tied the scripture in to the message, then we had the next song take us into communion and followed the message with the response.  Again, a little different than what we are used to, but it flowed really well this morning.

The Songs:

Alive and Running - I love this song.  Such a great message of hope in Christ Jesus and a call to take that hope out into our world.  This is a new one for the congregation (and most of the band).  So to "break it in" we used this as a call to worship for the morning and the played it again as a dismissal.  We play the arrangement straight off of Kristian Stanfill's "Attention" album.  The only thing we change is that we play it in the key of G instead of B (where Stanfill plays it).  I end up keying down most everything we play.  It just seems that most of the "popular worship", or whatever you'd like to call it, is always WAY too high for the average person to sing.  So, again, I end up keying most things down a bit (some of Tomlin's stuff I key down two or two-and-a-half steps!!!).

GOD of Wonders - We had a good bit of discussion as a band about this song at rehearsal.  The way the other guys have always played this song was much bigger than the standard arrangement, it had a heavier rock feel to it.  They like it that way, unfortunately I felt it needed the softer, smoother sound of standard version for service this week.  It was a case of me having to step and say, "this is what we're doing".  The guys have a great deal of say in what we do on any given song.  For the most part I don't dictate what parts are played, or what sounds the guys should bring to the table, unless I feel strongly that a song needs something in particular.  There is a fine line to walk as a worship leader.  To get the best our of the other musicians you have to give them as much creative freedom as possible.  At the same time, there are instances in which you have to step up as a leader and take charge.  This will not always be a favorable decision to the other musicians, but you have to lead, so lead.

You Never Let Go - The scripture reading for the morning was Psalm 23.  So we didn't really have a choice of any song other than this one (at least not in my head).  This is a song we do on a regular basis. We always build it pretty big by the time it hits the bridge.  Very theatrical and borderline over-the-top, but it works.

How Deep the Father's Love for Us - After "You Never Let Go", we gave people a few quite moments of reflection and preparation for our time of communion, no talking, no music, just silence.  You can tell that this always makes some people really uncomfortable, but it's a such a wonderful tool that we don't know how to use anymore.  We are constantly filling our days with noise - some good, some bad, but noise none the less.  There is something beautiful about sitting silently before GOD and letting Him speak.  After the reflection time I played "How Deep...".  This is one of my all-time favorite worship songs.  When I am sitting alone at home and having a time of personal worship this is one of the songs that gets played EVERY time.  I don't know how you can sing the second verse and not be brought to the brink of tears - "Behold the man upon the cross/My guilt upon his shoulders/Ashamed I hear my mocking voice/Call out among the scoffers // It was my sin that held him there/Until it was accomplished/His dying breath has brought me life/I know that it is finished"  Because I love this one so much, I always prefer to play this song with just the acoustic guitar and vocals.  It brings a sharper focus to the words that are being sung.  And when the words are as poignant as the ones here I don't see how you could desire anything more.

All the Way My Savior Leads Me - We sang this as a response to the message, which was about Jesus as the good shepherd.  Pastor Wise was discussing our need to follow the shepherd and how he cares for us, protects us, and leads us.  Our arrangement was pretty simple.  But it was very spacious.  I played the primary guitar part on the electric with a ton of delay and a touch of overdrive from an Ibanez Tube Screamer.  It just beefed up the sound a ton.  I ran a slow arpeggio, but with the delay it filled up the sound.  The rest of the band added some really sweet touches, especially Aaron on the lead guitar.  He was playing these great harmonic-swells that had almost a pedal-steel quality to them.  It was beautiful.

So that how we rolled at HCC.  To see what our brothers and sisters around the country are singing you can check out the Sunday Setlist at theworshipcommunity.com.