Worship was great today. Here’s a re-cap:
Set List for Chase Valley Church on July 27, 2008
- Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall
- Everlasting God – Brenton Brown
- Hungry – Kathryn Scott
- Til I See You – Joel Houston, Jadwin Gillies
- Jesus Paid it All – Alex Nifong
No Drums?
For a small church I’ve been pretty blessed to have 2 drummers and in 6 months this was our frist Sunday with no drummer. We went with acoustic guitar, bass and 4 vocalists. I was more than anxious about trying to pull this off. In the end, it was some of the best worship we’ve experienced since I’ve been here.
Why?
It was something different.
My personal strength is upbeat/high energy music. When we do songs that rock out they tend to be musically more cohesive, because as a leader I know how to do that and how to coach others to pull it off. It makes sense that we do a lot of high energy music; people are used to that and to some degree come expecting it.
Today we totally undermined expectations by doing something new. The result was a beautiful surprise. A church that never has drums might experience the same effect by adding a drummer or an electronic drummer.
We set the mood.
This week Nate reminded me how important the first 2 minutes are. Always starting the service the same way can get rote so today I shook things up with a low-key invocational prayer. It was different and connected people with the concept for the service. By starting low-key we essentially said, “There’s no drums today. That’s ok, we’re being intentional about being low-key.”
Shaker.
Never underestimate the power of the shaker.
People sang out more.
Vocalists can hide behind the music when they feel unsure of a part. I do it myself. With very little backing music today the vocal team stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. They sang with more fervor and confidence than I’ve heard on a Sunday yet. The crowd likewise sang louder to “fill in” the hole in the sound left by the lack of percussion. This had such a tremendous effect, I’m tempted to plan a “Church of Christ style A Capella Sunday.”
God.
Of course.
The Message.
Today’s message was on point! When I got up to do the response song I introed the song by talking about Jesus winning the victory for us. People started clapping and cheering. The Holy Spirit used Pastor Fred to stir something within our people today.
This post is part of Set List Sundays at fredmckinnon.com.
Billy Chia 