Here's what went down at Community Gospel Church this week...
THE SERVICE:
I Am New [Jonathan Eckberg]
Welcome/Announcements
Offering
When I Think About the Lord [James Huey]
Take My Life (Holiness) [Scott Underwood]
Like An Avalanche [Joel Houston/Dylan Thomas]
Take My Life and Let it Be [Francis Havergal/Cesar Malan/H.A. Hendon]
Message
I Am New [Eckberg]
THE TEAM:
Jonathan Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Randy Hepler - bass
Staci Smith - vocals
Larry Ingle - vocals
Dale Gramm - audio
Jeff Hutchens - visual
THE NOTES:
This was week number two of the "Three" series, a study of Colossians 3:1-17. Pastor Jordan preached verses 5-11, discussing the things we are called to put aside and the spiritual disciplines that lead us forward in those areas. We also introduced our new theme song for the series.
THE SONGS:
I Am New - This is a new song that touches on the themes of each of the four weeks of our Colossians study. It's got a simple chorus that people picked up quickly and easily. We did this as the opener because we intended to use it as our closing song and wanted to give folks a chance to hear it once before singing along. So far we've received a good response on it. I'll look forward to hearing what people think.
When I Think About the Lord - We introduced this song to our congregation a few weeks ago and we are now starting to work it into the rotation of songs. NOTE: I am yet to find a version of this song the way we do it. The way Huey does it is very slow and contemplative. The Shane and Shane version is a medium tempo song. I picked this song up from Dave Hunt when I was in Nashville and he did a more rocked out version (in my iTunes search I ran across a recording by Caleb Carruth which is similar to the version I learned from Dave). We actually pick the tempo up even more and make it a song of celebration.
[album - When I Think About the Lord - James Huey]
[album - Pages - Shane & Shane]
[album - Darkness Falls - Caleb Carruth]
Take My Life (Holiness) - This is one of those "old standard" worship choruses. We take it and rework it a little bit. It becomes an uptempo, almost bluesy-style tune. By switching the feel of it up we are able to allow people to connect with the plea of forming, transforming, and conforming of our hearts, minds, and will to that of God. There is a wonderful theme in this song, but the traditional arrangement seems pretty well played out. Again, we don't do anything dramatic with it - we maintain the exact melody and chord structure - we just dress it up in a slightly different package to tie into our people.
[album - Take My Life - Vineyard Voices: The Worship Leader Series]
Like An Avalanche - We've been doing this Hillsong United tune for the past year and it's a song that the congregation has really latched on to. Sometimes you introduce songs that you really think are good and you really think work for where the people are, but they just never work out and people never start singing them. Fortunately, this song caught on well. A lot of our people seem to get into this song pretty deeply.
[album - Aftermath - Hillsong United]
Take My Life and Let it Be - we do this song very true to the traditional chorus. Our intent was to have our piano player lead this one, but she was knocked out with the flu on Sunday morning. So Larry and Staci stepped up and led it. They did a phenomenal job.
I Am New - I took an extra minute or so after the message to teach the song to the congregation and to actually walk them through it just a little bit. I did this so that as we continue to sing it in the coming weeks they will be able to feel the full weight of what we are moving towards and the tie to the messages.
So that was our morning. To see what others around the country are singing please head over to the Sunday setlists at: theworshipcommunity.com.
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