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 / 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.