Chase Valley Band Confesses

Worship Confessional number 12.

Here you’re getting 4 guitar players on screen plus clips from the worship set!

What more could you ask for?

A set list?

ok.

• Awesome is the Lord Most High – Chris Tomlin
• You Never Let Go – Matt Redman
• All Creatures of our God and King – Davie Crowder
• Heart of Worship – Matt Redman
• Mighty to Save – Ben Fielding & Reuben Morgan

The Newsprint Connection and Remarkable Predecessors

Here is my Worship Text-fessional for March 30, 2008

Set list for Chase Valley Church

• God of Wonders – Mark Byrd and Steve Hindalong
• Beautiful One – Tim Hughes
• Light the Fire Again – Brian Doerksen
• Hungry -Kathryn Scott
• Evermore – Joel Houston

Highlights/Lowlights

One of our singers brought in a Newspaper today dated 8 years ago. She had forgotten about this news clip and just found it today by happenstance. It was from the first day Chase Valley Church worshiped in this building when it was newly constructed. There was an article about CVC and large picture taken during the worship service. The lyrics on the screen in the photo were

Clothe me in white so I won’t be ashamed. Lord light the Fire again.

Also by random chance I chose Light the Fire Again as a song for today. It was awesome to do that song and feel that deep connection to the past.

Practice was amazing this week. I had high hopes for today. I was a bit disappointed. Our execution was decent but not exceptional.

I have a deep longing to worship God in a way that is remarkable. Read: I want things to be done in a way that they are worth remarking on. I want people talk about worshiping God to their friends. I’m not sure that right now people are so excited about our worship service that they are compelled to talk about it. I’m wrestling with the notion that God could be calling me to simply be faithful and not worry about being remarkable.

Evermore. Great song. I love my predecessor. She was in love with Hillsong and as a result the congregation knows TONS of Hillsong songs. I’ve never done Evermore before this week, but chose to learn it based on the church’s familiarity. I love this song. All week long I was singing these lyrics into my heart:

Even if my world falls I will say, ‘Above all I live for Your glory.’

For that matter I love both my predecessors. I’m Worship Pastor #3 for Chase. It’s a big honor to follow in their footsteps.

What do you think?

“Being remarkable” should or should not be a goal within the worship ministry?

Easter Worship Confessional 03.23.08

Here’s a goofy/sleep depravity induced worship confessional for Easter:

Watch the video now – check back later for updates to this post.

Email and RSS Subscribers, click here to visit my website and see the video.

Palm Sunday Recap

Set List for Chase Valley Church for Sunday, March 16

• The Happy Song – Martin Smith
• Hosanna – Paul Baloche
• Everlasting God – Brenton Brown
• We Humble Ourselves – Paul Baloche
• Hosanna – Brooke Fraser
• Holy is the Lord – Chris Tomlin

Highlights/Lowlights

Singing with the children – for the last 3 weeks I’ve skipped out on the sermon to hang with the kiddos and teach them Hosanna by Paul Baloche. All the kids from k – 5th grade came walked in with palms and then came up front to lead this song. We had them piled on each side of the stage and they did sign language for the chorus. It rocked.

Simple Band – We scaled down to one vocalist (besides me), and only one guitar, bass and drums. It worked AWESOME.  The music was tight and we reached a new level today musically.

My voice didn’t quite “wake up.” It was tough to sing the whole set. We did Holy is the Lord as a response song after the sermon. Then as people are leaving we sing the chorus again. My voice finally felt ready to start as we were singing that final chorus.

2 Hosannas – Yeah it’s Palm Sunday, of course we’re gonna sing multiple versions of “Hosanna in the Highest.” They both went great.

Electric – I played my electric on the Fraser Hosanna. (I played acoustic on everything else.) I wanted to get the delay and cool riffs into the song. The bass carried a lot with out the acoustic so it still sounded pretty good with only one guitar.

Worship: Rock the Choir

Today worship was awesome!

Set List for Chase Valley Church March 9th, 2008

• No One Like You – David Crowder
• King of Majesty – Marty Sampson
• Made to Worship – Chris Tomlin
• Wholly Yours – David Crowder
• Hear I am to Worship – Tim Hughes
• Psalm 103 – Billy and Sarah Chia
• The Heart of Worship – Matt Redman

We had a lot of music today.

Highlights & Lowlights

• The hour time difference threw lots of people off. Half the team showed up late. Really late.
• The Choir sounded phenomenal! (More on that below)
• The band was super tight. Everyone worked hard on the music this week and it really showed.
• I put so much into it I was pretty drippy with sweat when I got off stage.
• No One Like You rocked. This is a brand new song for the congregation. It’s also a tricky one to learn in typical Crowder fashion. We did it pretty close to the CD version so there was a lot of nuances the people had to pick up on. Everyone worked hard and we nailed it.
• King of Majesty – Not my favorite song, although a lot of people around here like it so we may be doing it again. I’m not a fan of lyrics like “These words are from my heart, these words are not made up.” They’re just a little trite for me, but I know some of the songs I like lyrically are too convoluted for some people. Being a worship pastor is not all about picking only the songs you like.
• Made to Worship – tough song to sing. I even brought it down to A and it was still hard. I liked being able to play a lead line on this one.
• Wholly Yours – I totally messed this one up. This song has a progression. The lyrics take you through a story of being broken and then finally giving your all to God. Well I showed up today ready to worship. I didn’t want to wait through the whole song. When we should’ve gone into the bridge with says, “But the harder I try the more clearly can I feel the depth of our fall and the weight of it all.” I shouted out “So here I am” and tried to go into “here I am finally all of me everything!” Apparently I was too excited and didn’t want to have to wade through “depth of the fall” to get to “all of me wholly yours.” Fortunately the choir was rock steady and went the bridge when they were supposed to. I fumbled a few chords and got back on track thanks to the choir.
• Here I am to Worship – went well the first time.
• Psalm 103 – I didn’t plan on doing this song. We front loaded a lot of music today and then band sat down and we went into offering. Normally the congregation sings a full song during offering, I haven’t really done “special music.” I came back up and started finger picking to give some back ground music while the offering was being collected. When I looked at my pastor to give him the cue that offering was done and he could come back up, he simply had his head bowed in prayer just vibing a spirit of worship so I started singing. It felt well received.
• Hear I am to Worship (take 2) – I finished Psalm 103 and Fred gave me the cue to do another song. So we sang another verse and a few choruses of Hear I am to Worship. (The theme for today’s sermon was “Worship.”) I stopped playing guitar, and while the crowd sang acapella I put down my guitar and left the stage then joined the crowd to sing. So we sang with no one on stage but God. I didn’t plan this but I was hoping to underscore the notion that worship is not about the music or the band but it’s all about God.
• The Heart of Worship. Didn’t quite have the punch I thought it would. Fred told Redman’s story of how worship had gotten stale and routine and that his church stopped using a band for a season to focus on what worship was really supposed to be. During this season Redman wrote Heart of Worship. I thought after the message this would really hit home, but perhaps the fact that this song is so oversung it may have felt like the stale, routine worship that Redman was trying to avoid the first place. (I’m just speculating at this point, really the whole day was amazing and I heard tons of great comments about both the music and the message today. Really every other song went spectacular and this one was not bad, but simply average.)

How to Rock the Choir

We don’t do choir the same old way at Chase Valley. Instead of a feature act, the choir sings once a month as the “back up” singers. They learn all the worship songs that we do for the day and sing on each one. They sing mostly melody but throw in a good mix of harmony as well. It has several benefits:

• Having 10 – 15 extra people on stage leading really helps to draw people into worship.
• The sound is really full because we use condenser mics and run them through the mains
• They stay on track when I don’t!
• There are tons more that maybe I’ll do a post on in the future.

I love doing Choir this way. It has it’s challenges and perhaps in the future we’ll do some special music but today I was really excited to being doing choir this way.

So there’s a lot there to comment on. Let’s keep a conversation going on this post (or other past ones) next week while I lighten the blogging and celebrate the best 2 years of my life.

Worship Confessional 03.02.08

Set list for Chase Valley Church:

• O Praise Him – David Crowder
• Everyday – Joel Houston
• Famous One – Chris Tomlin
• Beautiful One – Tim Hughes
• Be Unto Your Name – Lyn DeShazo and Gary Sadler
• We Humble Ourselves – Paul Baloche

Worship Text-fessional | 02.24.08

Worship pretty much rocked today.

Worship set list for Chase Valley Church February 24th, 2008:

• We Humble Ourselves – Paul Baloche
• Awesome God (Majesty and Mystery) – Vicky Beeching
• Adonai – Raymond Badham, Mia Fieldes
• Wholly Yours – David Crowder
• Mighty to Save – Reuben Morgan, Ben Fielding
• Open the Eyes of My Heart – Paul Baloche

Highlights/Lowlights

• This was a great set – the songs worked well in the slot they were in
• The band sounded great – we had keyboards/synth for the first time since I’ve been on staff and it made a huge difference.
• Our sound/media tech was on point
• We Humble Ourselves – This is a new song for the church and people picked up on it really well. The harmonies were stellar on this one.
• Awesome God (Majesty and Mystery) – One of our female vocalist led this one and nailed it. This is a pretty rocked out tune and we did it pretty low key – without any lead guitar using simply acoustic, bass and synth. It gave a more tender feel to the song – which I felt was more appropriate given the lyrics: “Your arms are, the arms that surround me in a warm embrace.”
• Adonai – this is a great song. This was our 2nd time doing this one and the congregation has really responded to it. I started jumping during one of the music interludes and my in-ear monitor receiver unclipped from my pocket and fell on the stage. I had to stop playing guitar to get my monitor going again. The same thing actually happened at the same point in the song during sound check. I must need some duct tape or something – this song’s got some great energy.
• Mighty to Save – everyone started cheering spontaneously after singing “Jesus conquered the grave” in the first chorus. The Spirit was moving today.

Worship Text-fessional 02.03.2008

The Set List for Chase Valley Church February 3, 2008:

• All Creatures of Our God and King – David Crowder
• Forever – Chris Tomlin
• Hosanna – Paul Baloche
• Here I am to Worship – Tim Hughes
• At the Cross – Darlene Zschech, Reuben Morgan

Highlights/Lowlights:

• My goal this week was to start the set out slow and mellow with All Creatures instead of the routine upbeat opener. (Jesus preached a lot against routine for the sake of routine.) It kinda went ok. Our crowd has some people who grew up with hymns, some that listen to worship CDs and knew it as a Crowder song, and the rest. The words are so good and it’s such a great invocational song to open worship. When we got to the “alleluia” part people started singing along.
• After that the energy in the room today was intense.
•  I did not get as much personal rehearsal time this week as I really wanted. I felt kinda naked going out on stage. Every thing’s been busy and difficult because I’m new. Last week was just ridiculous with several events going on on top of the newness factor. This week I’m hoping to get some good practice time in. I can’t really expect my vocalists and instrumentalists to be working hard enough to improve their skills if I’m not doing the same thing right?
• At the Cross is such a great song. I did the bridge like 80 times it was so good.
• All in all I felt really great about the morning.

Worship Text-fessional 01.27.2008

No vid today, maybe next week.

The Set List for Chase Valley Church January 27, 2008:

• Not to Us – Chris Tomlin
• Shout to the North – Martin Smith
• O Praise Him – David Crowder
• By His Wounds – Glory Revealed
• Nothing but the Blood of Jesus (Three Verses worth, not just the first line.)
• How Great is Our God – Chris Tomlin

Highlights/Lowlights

• Jesse, one of our high school students had his first Sunday on stage today playing drums. He did a phenomenal job.
• O Praise Him – This song just builds and builds
• Nothing but the blood – we sung the 3rd verse twice this was so good
• My voice – I woke up an early to run vocal exercises before the service…it didn’t help. I can sing wonderfully on pitch in evening when I’ve been using my voice all day. I’m still have trouble in the morning. Fred thinks he might know a vocal coach who can help me out.
• I totally botched the solo on By His Wounds. I’m always trying to push myself to grow in my gifts. Maybe trying to play a mandelin solo on acoustic guitar is just a little too far of a push.
• Dorothy Ann’s sermon was really good. The last 10 minutes hit me like a tons of bricks. I couldn’t write fast enough to take all the notes down.

Worship Confessional 01.20.08

My first Worship Confessional for Chase Valley Church

Set list for CVC January 20, 2008

• The Happy Song – Martin Smith
• Everlasting God – Brenton Brown
• Hear Us From Heaven – Jared Anderson
• Brother’s Keeper – Rich Mullins
• He Reigns – Peter Furler

Check out Cosima’s Blog.
Confessed.

Worship Confessional | 12.23.07

Worship Set List for Christian Fellowship Church – December 23rd 2007

• The First Noel – Arrangement by Jeff Lippencott
• Joy to the World -Issac Watts
• Child of Bethlehem – Wayne Watson
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear – Arrangement by David S. Hampton
• Glory in the Highest – Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Matt Redman, Jesse Reeves and Daniel Carson
• 2000 Decembers Ago – Joy Williams (Written by Joel Lindsey and Regie Hamm)
• In Christ Alone – Arrangement by Mark Cole
• Jesus, Name Above All Names – From My Savior Lives DVD (Ross Parsley, New Life Church)

Worship Confessional | 12.09.07

Set List for Christian Fellowship Church December 9, 2007

• You Shine – Brian Doerksen
• Child of Bethlehem – Wayne Watson
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Traditional
• Angles from the Realms of Glory – Henry T. Smart
• Let My Words be Few – Matt and Beth Redman
• Glory in the Highest – Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Matt Redman, Jesse Reeves and Daniel Carson

Chris Tomlin on Glory in the Highest:

Worship Confessional | 11.07.2007

Thoughts on leading worship for a special contemplative communion service:

Set List for Christian Fellowship Church High School Ministry Small Group Communion Service for November 7, 2007:

• Here is Our King – David Crowder Band
• Majesty – Martin Smith
• Here I Am to Worship – Tim Hughes
• Communion Song – Third Day
• Nothing But the Blood of Jesus – Ro­bert Low­ry
• Jesus Paid it All – Kristian Stanfill

Contemplate.

Worship Confessional | 11.04.07

Find out just what happens when you memorize your worship songs…

Set List for Christian Fellowship Church for November 4, 2007:

• Praise to the Lord, The Almighty – Arr. Nathan and Christy Nockels
• My Redeemer Lives – Reuben Morgan
• How Great is Our God – Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash
• Everlasting God – Brenton Brown
• Shine – Matt Redman

How was your Sunday?

Pre – Worship Confessional | 10.29.07

Set List for Christian Fellowship Church this weekend:

• Praise to the Lord, The Almighty – Arr. Nathan and Christy Nockels
• My Redeemer Lives – Reuben Morgan
• How Great is Our God – Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash
• Everlasting God – Brenton Brown
• Shine – Matt Redman

Worship Confessional | 09.30.2007

I received such a positive response to my last worship confessional I decided to break out my guitar again and do a little teaching on how to play slash chords:

September 30, 2007 Worship set list at Christian Fellowship Church:

• Open the Eyes of My Heart – Paul Baloche
• All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises – Paul Baloche
• Filled with Your Glory – Tim and Jon Neufeld
• He is Exalted – Twila Paris
• Agnus Dei – Michael W. Smith
• Just as I am – Charlotte Elliott and William Bardbury
• Here is My Heart – Martin J. Nystrom

Updated version of older worship songs using slash chords:

Open the Eyes of My Heart by Paul Baloche
Arr. Sam Lynn

Chorus/Verse 2:
E5, E5/D#, A2/C#,A2, E5
Verse 1:
Bsus, C#m7, A2, Bsus, Bsus, C#m7, A2, Bsus

Billy Chia slash chord voicings:
E5: —– 079900
E5/D#: – 069900
A2/C#: – x42200
A2: —– x02200
Bsus: — x24400
C#m7: — x46650

He is Exalted by Twila Paris
Arr. Sam Lynn

Intro:
G, C/G, D/G
Chorus:
G, G/B, C, C/E, Dsus
G, G/B, C, D/C, C/D, Dsus, Esus, E
Verse:
Am, Em/G, D/F#, D, G, G/B, C, G/B
Am, Em/G, D/F#, D, G, G/B, C, G/B
Am, Am/G, F, C/D, G

Billy Chia slash chord voicings:

G: —— 3×0033
C/G: —- 332010
D/G: —- 3×0232

G/B: —- x20033
C: ——- x32033
C/E: —- xx2033
Dsus: — xx0233
D/C: —- x30233
C/D: —- xx0013
Esus: — 022200
E: —— 022100

Am: —- x02210
Em/G: – 322000
D/F#: — xx4232
Am/G: – 302210
F: —— 133211

Twila Paris did updated version on her 2005 release He is Exalted Live Worship. It actually kinda rocks and has some electric guitar with a little delay. You can listen to the new version on her website.

Did you do a confession for this Sunday?
Drop a link in the comments.

Worship Confessional | 09.02.2007

September 2nd set list for Christian Fellowship Church

• Power of Your Love – Geoff Bullock
• Filled with Your Glory – Tim Neufeld & Jon Neufeld
• Awesome is the Lord Most High – Gary Pierce, Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves & Jon Able
• As We Worship You – Tommy Walker
• The Stand (Chorus Only) – Hilsong United
• Speak, O Lord – Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
• Hope of the Nations – Brian Doerksen

Links featured in this Worship Confessional:
Rehearsal and the White Board

Alex McLean Has No Taste

With a sorrowful and morose heart I have to report that Alex McLean has posted the World’s Worst Worship Confessional. I used to think this guy had some serious artistic integrity, but alas no more.

I mean look at some of the killer content we’re used to getting at better than blank:

1. The current media tips series on how to make your worship lyrics look good is pure genius.
2. Alex’s skills as a graphic designer are G-E-W-D gewd!
3. His most recent Worship Confessional, although not quite as flashy as some previous offerings, is chalk full of wisdom. I especially liked his thoughts on phrase “this world has nothing for me.”

Alex, you took a real nosedive with this one bro. I might have to take you off my blogroll. (or link to you in posts more often, one of the two.)

Worship Confessional Confessional | 08.08.2007

We confess the sins of making the world’s worst worship confessional after leading worship for Youth Week at Aldersgate United Methodist Church.

Worship Confessional | 07.22.2007

July 22 set list for Christian Fellowship Church

• Friend of God – Israel Houghton & Michael Gungor
• You Shine – Brian Doerksen
• Everlasting God – Brenton Brown & Ken Riley
• By His Wounds – Mac Powell
• Jesus Paid It All – Alex Nifong
• Today – Brian Doerksen & Sandra Gage
• The Way I Was Made – Ed Cash, Jesse Reeves & Chris Tomlin

When I said,

The most amazing worship experience I’ve had in a long time

I meant,

The most amazing worship experience I’ve had since the Jesus Painter came to CFC.

Although there is the fact that we truly worship God when we do what he designed us to do. God crafted me to lead worship. I believe that’s what put this Sunday a cut above the rest for me.

Thoughts?