Sunday Setlist / 9.12.10

Check out the 9:00 am service at Highland Community Church in Highland, IL:

The Continuation [B] (Hunt/Cates)

            Welcome & Announcements

            Offering

            Scripture Reading – Psalm 92:1-8

How Great Thou Art [C] (Boberg)

            Ron Eckberg – Special Presentation

            Message

Let My Words Be Few [G] (Redman)

            Dismiss

The Continuation [B] (Hunt/Cates)

THE BAND:
Jonathan David Eckberg - Electric Guitar/Vocals
Ron Eckberg - Acoustic Guitar/Vocals
Tim McDaniel - Drums
Aaron McDaniel - Lead Guitar
Joe Szoke - Bass

NOTES:

What a phenomenal Sunday!  Today was "Homecoming" Sunday at HCC.  The idea was to invite anyone we know who has ever been a part of the congregation to come back for one Sunday.  We were not trying to "win" people back to HCC, we just wanted to have a time of fellowship with anyone who had a part in the history of the church and the people that have been associated with it.  I thought it was an interesting concept.  As part of this "homecoming celebration" the church leadership asked Ron Eckberg (my dad) to come and share during both services.  As I was growing up my family had close ties with HCC (I learned today that my dad first visited HCC 30 years ago and came without my mom because she was approximately 8 months pregnant with me!), we used to come around several times each year and my dad would do concerts, teach, lead vacation bible schools, and do all kinds of stuff.  We were even close to moving to Highland at one point.  So it was a lot of fun for my dad to come back and share with HCC once again.  The added bonus, for me anyway, was that he also sat in with the band for morning worship.  It was a blast to have him playing guitar and sharing vocal duties with me.

SONGS:

The Continuation - This is a song by Dave Hunt (written with Chad Cates)  If you don't know of Dave, do yourself a favor and check out some of his work (his latest album was called "Love Abounds" and The Continuation is on "Shattered").  When I lived in Nashville, TN I attended Rolling Hills Community Church where Dave was the worship leader for several years.  He is a phenomenal worship leader and a great congregational-friendly song-writer.  The guy is rock solid and very subtle in his approach to leading, he has a knack for getting out of the way and allowing you to follow him into worship.  Spending those years watching him had a great influence on my own style of leading worship.  The song itself is a cool, uptempo tune.  I love it as an intro song, because it's all about coming into the corporate gathering not as something you do each week as another line of your to-do list, but as a celebration of what GOD has done for us and what he continues to do in our lives.  This celebration is an ever-progressing process.  Seriously, check his music out, it will be some of the most productive listening you do all week.

How Great Thou Art - After the scripture reading (Psalm 92:1-8) we HAD to do this song.  There was simply no other choice.  We do the Paul Baloche version that is an upbeat, rolling type song.  It uses the traditional melody with an added tag at the end of the chorus.  This keeps it contemporary, but you still feel grounded in some traditional Baptist roots (not sure I could really explain it, but most of you know what I mean)!

Special guest - Ron Eckberg - My dad then shared with the congregation for about 25 minutes with some songs and stories, and teaching.  Good stuff.  He even let me sit in on a couple songs.

Message - Pastor Larry Wise continued our series on Habakkuk.  Today was Habakkuk 3:1, 2 He focused on the power of prayer and the general awe that we should hold of GOD and of the power He possesses allows us to share in.  Very challenging message today.

Let My Words Be Few - I realized we did this song just a couple weeks ago, but for what Pastor asked we focus on today I felt like it was worth the repetition to focus on the songs we sing to our GOD and the awe and reverence that are accompanied with them.  When we did this song a couple weeks ago it was when I lead solo, so it was nice to put this song together with the full band (plus my dad).  I do love this song and the message that it carries.

That's what we did.  To see what other congregations are doing in their services check out the Sunday Setlist at theworshipcommunity.com.

Sunday Setlist / 9.5.10

Here's a look at the setlist for the 9:00am service at Highland Community Church:

Let Your Glory Shine [D] (Brewster)

            Welcome & Announcements

            Offering

Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee [G] (lyrics: van Dyke/ music: Beethoven)

You Are So Good to Me [G] (Pasely/Chaffer/Pasely)

            Scripture Reading - Isaiah 53:1-11

Mighty is the Power of the Cross [C] (Tomlin)

            Communion

            Message - Habakkuk 2:2-20

Give Us Clean Hands [G] (Hall)

            Dismiss

Let Your Glory Shine [D] (Brewster)

Worship Team:
Jonathan David Eckberg - Guitar/Vocals
Tim McDaniel - Drums
Joe Szoke - Bass
Aaron McDaniel - Lead Guitar


Notes:
We've had a couple weeks at church without the band.  I lead with just me and my acoustic two weeks ago and last week we did a combined service with our more traditional and more contemporary services meshing, so it stays pretty low-key.  It was a nice break for all of us, but we were itching to get back into the swing of things and that's what we did.  I think this marks the first time since I've been at HCC that we haven't had an acoustic guitar in the mix.  Kinda strange but lots of fun.  I did play an acoustic-ish part on "Give Us Clean Hands", as I ran my Fender Tele through a Boss AC-2 (an acoustic simulator).  If you listen to it even remotely critically you KNOW it's not an acoustic guitar, but the feel is close enough to pass in a pinch.

The Songs:
Let Your Glory Shine - This Lincoln Brewster tune is a full-force rocker.  The band LOVES playing this song.  We use it as an opener because it's one of those tunes that gets people up and singing and brings a ton of energy into the service right off the bat.  The end of the second verse of the song says "Your love won't be shaken / You're taking who I am and making / something out of nothing for Your cause" into the chorus of "Let Your glory shine through me!"  What an astounding truth.  It reminds me of 2 Cor. 4:7, of how when left to ourselves we are nothing more than fragile, weak, worthless pieces of earth, but we are allowed to carry the all-surpassing power of GOD within our hearts.  With this power we are able to shine with His light in a dark age.  Seriously, how cool is that?

Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee - We followed the traditional melody of this song, but we REALLY pushed the tempo and gave it a hopped-up-pop-rock feel to keep the energy up as came out of the time of worshiping GOD by giving back, financially, what He has blessed us with.  Pastor Wise asked to have the worship set move more toward the communion service than the message this week.  "Let Your Glory Shine" was a great way to focus on that.  It's a song that highlights the power of GOD and the ministry He allows us to participate in.  We then move to "Joyful, Joyful...", which again highlights GOD's great power, but moves from it's effect on us to simply marveling at who He is and what He has done in the world around us.  It's really a song that celebrates common grace.

You Are So Good to Me - We floated seamlessly into this song from "Joyful, Joyful...".  We did a version of this song last month that was much more driven and a little funkier than any version I've ever heard recorded and got a great response from the congregation on it.  This Sunday was the perfect time to trot that version back out.  As we came out of a song on common grace, we rolled straight into a more focused song that speaks of saving grace.  This song tells of what GOD has done in the life of the believer and the love that overflows in our hearts because of the love He first showed us.

Mighty is the Power of the Cross - Musically we did a different take on this one.  We kept it very open with lots of space.  I ran my electric through a heavy chorus, lots of delay, and added some tremolo for good measure.  I just played a slow arpeggiated pattern and the rest of the guys played sparse parts and gave it an ethereal quality.  It turned out to be a cool sounding tune.  The scripture reading (Isaiah 53:1-11) focused on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the blood shed for my sins.  After spending the previous several minutes of the service focused on GOD's power, His boundless grace and love, how that grace and love is poured out in our lives, and the goodness of GOD, it was fitting to bring it all back to the Cross of Jesus Christ.  Everything in our lives, good, bad, happy, sad, funny, and tragic, must always come back to the work accomplished on the Cross.  It is the focal point of who we are and what we believe.  It is where the price for our rebellion was paid once-for-all.  Without it, nothing in our lives matters.  Without the Cross it doesn't matter whether we are great people who help everyone and pour out the greatest acts of kindess on others or we are, quite literally, the worst person on the face of the earth - without the Cross we end in the same place, Hell.  Our communion service is a time to stop and consider the gravity of Christ's sacrifice and to consider if we really believe what his blood accomplished.

Message - Habakkuk 2:2-20

Give Us Clean Hands - I wasn't sure if I had picked the right song as the response this week.  Pastor told me he would be speaking on the wickedness of Babylon and how similar their culture was to the culture we live in today.  This left me a little unsure what direction to take, but this was definitely a Holy Spirit driven choice.  It worked perfectly with the message.  The song asks for clean hands, pure hearts, and a love for GOD alone.  It's a cry for the strength to be a generation that seeks the face of GOD and lays down the idols that we have raised around us.

That was our Sunday.  To see how others congregations around the world worshipped GOD today, you can check out the Sunday Setlist at www.theworshipcommunity.com.

Sunday Setlist / 8.22.10

Here’s what was going on today at Highland Community Church during the nine o’clock hour:

Praise to the LORD the Almighty (D-E) [Neander]

            Scripture Reading - Isaiah 41:1-10

            Message – Habakkuk 1:5-11

Let My Words be Few (Gb) [Redman]

I Stand in Awe of You (Gb) [Altrogge]

Our Great GOD (Eb) [Ortega/Powell]

Let Your Kingdom Reign (Eb) [Brown/Brock]

            Offering

Amazing Things (G) [Eckberg]

            Announcements

            Dismiss

Worship Team:

Jonathan David Eckberg – Guitar/Vocals

NOTES:

This was a busy week for me.  My full-time job is as a cross-country and track coach at Greenville College (right down the road from Highland) and this week was the start of our season.  All the athletes were moving in and then we all headed out of town for a few days of team bonding, training, preparation, etc.  All of that to say, we were not able to practice as a band this week.  So I thought that instead of us trying to throw things together, having to pick songs that we know but don’t go with the message as well, or just HOPING things work out well that I would take this week solo and do something a little different with the service.  The timing really worked out well as the guys on the worship team had played the last several weeks straight so it was nice for them to have a week to relax, not have to worry about practice, and just enjoy being in the service as a part of the congregation.  I think it’s important for that to happen once in a while, it gives people a chance to breathe and sit back and really take in what GOD is doing during the mornings while they are usually on stage.  It also offers a different perspective on the role GOD allows you to play in the service when you see how the people of GOD are responding from in the middle of it – and this is constantly changing as people join the church, move away, struggle through hard times, and rejoice in victories TOGETHER.

Praise to the LORD the Almighty - We turned the lights most of the way down about 10 minutes before the service started and put the passage from today’s scripture reading (Isaiah 41:1-10) up on the screen as people walked in.  It gave a meditative mood to the moments leading up to the service.  Then I played the song in the standard arrangement. I built up from a light finger-picked pattern in the first verse to a heavy strum pattern with a key change (move from D to E) in the fourth verse.  It gave a consistent build from start to finish.  The only thing I did differently was to give a longer than normal intro to allow people a little extra time to read the scripture.

Message – Pastor Wise’s message focused on GOD’s response to Habakkuk in chapter 1.  The point of the message was how great and awesome our GOD is and how we should never cease to be in awe of Him and all His works even when (especially when) we don't see or feel or understand them.

Let My Words be Few – I did a standard arrangement of the song as well.  As soon as Pastor told me the gist of his message I knew this was the song that would follow the sermon.  I love that this song essentially says, “Shut up and realize how awesome GOD is!”  I’m a guy who does a lot of talking with GOD, I try to work out deals with him all the time, so for me, this is a perfect reminder that sometimes (let’s be honest, probably all the time) I need to forget what I want to see accomplished, think about the GOD I serve, do what he calls me to and let Him take care of the outcome through His power.  GREAT SONG.

I Stand in Awe of You – This is the old standard from the late 80’s but the chorus was a wonderful fit for today.  It’s so simply but so powerful – “I stand, I stand in awe of You – I stand, I stand in awe of You – Holy GOD to whom all praise is due – I stand in awe of You”.  I came out of Let My Words be Few by repeating the chorus and then ran straight into the chorus of this song.  We sang the chorus twice and repeated a third time a capella (the third time gave me time to throw my capo on for Our Great GOD without the awkward silence and string noise of stopping one song-changing capo-starting the next). 

Our Great GOD – Another straightforward arrangement (I don’t feel like you can do anything too funky with a guitar/vocal arrangement without losing the congregation or just looking like you’re trying to show off – which also loses the congregation).  I made a seamless transition from "I Stand in Awe of You" to this one.  It was great to keep with the theme of the day but move off of our awe of GOD to the reason for that awe.  I classify Our Great GOD as a modern hymn.  It is so rich in theology and yet the chorus brings you back to “Hallelujah! Glory be to our great GOD!”.  I LOVE singing this song.

Let Your Kingdom Reign – This is a “tag” type of song by Elevation Worship (Elevation Church - Charlotte, NC).  It’s really just a chorus that is sung over and over again.  The words are “GOD let Your kingdom reign – GOD let Your kingdom reign – Let all the earth proclaim – GOD, on the earth, let Your kingdom reign”.  So for us we move from our awe of GOD to the greatness and power of his Name into a prayer for His good and perfect will to take over and to see His kingdom reign in our world. 

Amazing Things – We introduced this song last week, it fit with this weeks overall theme as well.  It was an extremely low key morning, which was a fun change from normal, but it was nice to pep things up a little bit with this last song before sending people out into their fields of ministry.  I did tame the song down a little bit from last week, but that was for the fact that it was just me playing today, plus I didn’t want to overdo the transition from a relaxed set to a higher energy song.

To see what’s going on in churches across the country check out the Sunday Setlist at the worshipcommunity.com.

Sunday Setlist / 8.15.10

The weekend's Sunday Setlist for the 9am service at Highland Community Church looked a little like this:

Amazing Things (Eckberg)
     Welcome & Announcements
     Offering
     Scripture Reading
O Praise Him (Crowder)
You Never Let Go (Redman)
How Great is Our GOD (Tomlin)
     Message - Habakkuk 1:1-4
Amazing Things (Eckberg)

Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Tim McDaniel - drums
Aaron McDaniel - electric guitar
Joe Szoke - bass

I have to admit, when I saw that Pastor Wise was going to teach from Habakkuk I was slightly concerned. Although I've read the book a number of times I could not tell you anything specific about it off the top of my head.  I remembered he was a minor prophet, so bad things happen to Israel, they complain, GOD punishes then restores the nation of Israel (that's pretty much my blanket explanation for any/all the books of the prophets).  So, I thought it would be a good idea to study up on the book of Habakkuk before I started worrying about the worship sets.  As I read through the book the song "Amazing Things" just fell out.  It took all of about 15 minutes to write and it seemed like a good flow for the first week of our series.  So the band spent considerable time this past week learning parts and transitions and it came together well.

Amazing Things - the lyrics are taken straight out of Habakkuk and follows the book's progressions of "Habakkuk complains, GOD answers, Habakkuk complains, GOD answers, Habakkuk rejoices and worships".  We played it as the opener/call to worship, because people didn't know it (obviously).  This gave them a chance to listen and pick up on it, which they did as it's a very simple chorus.

O Praise Him - we keep this one pretty straight from the Crowder version.  I cut out all the "oh la la la la la la" parts and condense the song a little.  I always feel like that whole part of the song loses the congregation so I avoid it every chance I get.

You Never Let Go - kept with the theme of the day - GOD answering in our time of question/frustration.     This is another song we do pretty straight forward.

How Great is Our GOD - the GOD that continues to answer us and lift us up when we need it most is indeed a great GOD.  I could sing the chorus to this song ALL DAY LONG.  We sing the last chorus of You Never Let Go almost a cappella (there's a little light acoustic guitar to keep us on track) and we roll straight from "LORD, You never let go of me" to "The splendor of our King/Clothed in majesty".  It's an absolutely beautiful and awe-inspiring thought that the the King of Splendor is the GOD who never lets go of me.  I love it.  This is a very theatrical song for us (the lyrics lend it to that), we start low and we build to a rock-anthem high before we drop out the we come back in heavy for a couple choruses at the end before doing the a cappella chorus to end.  A little over the top?  Maybe, but it works.

Amazing Things - again this fit perfectly with the sermon because that's the reason it was written, so we reprised it as the response song.  Normally our response song is a slow, reflective song, but we went a different route because of the fit of the lyrics and the sermon.

-jde

AMAZING THINGS

V1:

How long?  How long?

Will You let injustice rise and triumph over me?

How long?  How long?

Will we see the wicked rise and reign abundantly?

Then You say, You say...

                        CH:

                        I will do amazing things
                        I will be your source of strength

                        And nothing of the schemes of man

                        Can ever stand

                        When I do amazing things         

  

V2:

How long?  How long?

Will you rest Your eyes upon the deeds of evil ones?

How long?  How long?

Must we wait to hear your voice proclaim salvation’s come?

Then You say, You say...

                                    Bridge:

                                    LORD, we know Your fame           

                                    We stand in awe of Your works and Your name.

                                    LORD, we shout Your fame

                                    We stand in awe of Your works and Your name.

                                    May Your glory cover over all our shame.

CH2:

You have done amazing things. 

You have been our source of strength

Nothing of the schemes of man

Can ever stand

For you have done amazing things.