GRACE ALONE
Let’s hear God call us to worship from His word - if you are here this morning as a follower of Jesus, this is what is true of you:
Call to Worship: Romans 5:1-6
We are justified by faith, have peace with God, we have access and faith, we stand in grace, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, our suffering is not meaningless, God has poured His love into our hearts, we have been given the Holy Spirit, we are weak, but Christ has died for us. Those are reasons to sing and celebrate:
GLORIOUS DAY
I STAND AMAZED (HOW MARVELOUS)
Sermon: Mark 12:18-27
When my family lived in England, every funeral would begin with the entire congregation gathered outside and together we would walk in reading this passage:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23)
In life and in death, and in the life to come - if you are in Christ - goodness and mercy will follow after you, would you stand if you’re able and we’ll sing together:
GOODNESS OF GOD
LIVING HOPE
Benediction
Liturgy
5 November: Liturgy + Set List
ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING
Call to Worship: Romans 12:1-3
HOLY IS OUR GOD
A THOUSAND HALLELUJAHS
There is a day coming when there will be an endless hallelujah, an eternal ‘praise God!’ that will come when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. That day will not be a gathering just of the local body of believers but will be the global Church - followers of Jesus from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language. Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Those brothers and sisters around the world who lose their lives and their livelihoods, their families, and communities for following Jesus. Scripture tells us that we are to remember those who are in chains as though we ourselves are in chains. And so together we are going to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world this morning - specifically those who face the most extreme and acute persecution:
Father, there is nothing that can separate us from Your love. Not tribulation or distress. Not persecution or famine. Not nakedness, danger or sword. And still, these realities are all too present for many of our brothers and sisters around the world who are persecuted because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus, You know the suffering of Your Bride - because You are the man of sorrows, the one acquainted with grief, You were despised and rejected, beaten, tortured, deserted, and killed. As our brothers and sisters around the world share in Your sufferings, would You draw them near to Your glory? Would they count the loss of all things as nothing in comparison to knowing You?
Would they live in the promise of Your words in Matthew:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account.”
Holy Spirit, let us not use our freedom to be free of the burden to pray, to think, to act, on behalf of our brothers and sisters around the world who are in chains for the sake of the gospel. We take a moment now to silently pray on behalf of our brothers and sisters suffering for their faith….
*A list of the 50 countries that experience acute persecution based on the 2023 World Watch List
Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayers. Thank you, that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from Your love in Christ Jesus. Amen and amen.
(Based on Romans 8:17, Romans 8:35-39, Isaiah 53:3, Philippians 3:8, Matthew 5:10-11)
Sermon: Mark 12:13-17
I think it would be a missed opportunity to encourage you to walk out those doors and pray for your leaders and not take a few moments here and now to pray for our leaders. I will read these words first so you can hear this prayer, and then I will invite you to pray these words with me:
O Lord our Governor, whose glory fills all the world:
We commend this Nation to your merciful care, that we may be guided by your providence, and dwell secure in your peace. Grant to the President of this Nation, the Governor of this State, and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do your will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness, and make them continually mindful of their calling to serve this people in reverent obedience to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Occasional Prayer, 37
For The President And All In Civil Authority Book of Common Prayer
IS HE WORTHY
HOLY FOREVER
Benediction
29 October: Liturgy + Set List
BEFORE THE THRONE
Call to Worship: Psalm 27:7-13
When we gather, we behold the goodness of God in the land of the living. We see in part now what one day we will see in full, we behold the glory of the Father in the face of the Son. We see His goodness. Let’s sing to Him:
THE GREATNESS OF OUR GOD
ABIDE
Sermon: Mark 11:27-12:12
If you are here as a follower of Jesus, Scripture tells us ‘Your life his hidden with Christ in God.’ And one of the things that means is that when God looks at you - he sees Christ’s perfect obedience, Christ’s perfect righteousness, the song of delight the Father sings over the Son He sings over you, the eternal inheritance which rightfully belongs to Christ, Christ shares with you and me. I hope that makes us humble, grateful, and worshipful. Would you stand if you’re able, let’s sing together:
THERE IS A REDEEMER
LAMB OF GOD
Benediction
8 October: Liturgy + Set List
GRACE ALONE
Call to Worship: Psalm 8
Worship does not begin and end. Everyone, everywhere is a worshiper. One of the things we do as we gather with the people of God is re-aim our worship toward the One who has set His glory in the heavens and moved toward us in and through the person and work of Christ. Let’s sing to him together.
LAMB OF GOD
ONLY A HOLY GOD
Sermon: Mark 10:32-52
The Apostles’ Creed
Baptism Affirmations
Baptisms
NO BODY
Benediction
1 October: Liturgy + Set List
REJOICE
Call to Worship: Psalm 16:7-11
If you are here this morning as a follower of Christ, the fullness of joy and eternal pleasures are not just a future promise but a present reality in and through Christ. And so we are here to once again set the Lord ever before our eyes. We’re going to introduce a new song this morning that gives us a clearer picture of who Jesus is and what He has done…
NO BODY
HYMN OF HEAVEN
Sermon: Mark 10:17-31
We started our morning with a call from the last verse of Psalm 16, I want you to hear the first verse of Psalm 16 as well:
Psalm 16:1-6
If you are here as a follower of Christ, whether your life feels abundant or constricted - the boundary lines have fallen for your in pleasant places, and you have a beautiful inheritance - not an inheritance of earthly riches, but the inheritance of Jesus. Jesus is your inheritance. Let’s sing to him and about him…
GOODNESS OF GOD
BE THOU MY VISION
Benediction
17 September: Liturgy + Set List
GRAVES INTO GARDENS
Call to Worship: Romans 11:33-12:2
All we do is give back to God what always has been His. We live in response to the mercy and grace of God by offering our lives as an act of worship. Part of what we do as we gather is reorient our lives around responding to the mercy and grace of God. Let’s do that together as we sing:
ALL I HAVE IS CHRIST
HOLY IS OUR GOD
Sermon: Mark 10:1-12
Scripture says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Some of us have sin that is loud and obvious, all of us have sin that is subtle and subversive and deep in our hearts. As we continue in worship, we’re going to confess our sins to God and one another:
Book of Common Prayer Corporate Confession
Now that we have confessed our sins to God and one another, I want to give you a few moments of silence to consider and confess your own sins.
Brothers and sisters hear the good news: The Lord who loves you says in His word: Go and sin no more.
HOLY FOREVER
LAMB OF GOD
Benediction
Choosing A Key
Choosing a key is a tricky business in this world of corporate sung worship. Trying to land on a key that allows men and women, young and old, competent and tone-deaf to sing out their praise to the Lord is nearly impossible. Like many things, you can likely find resources online that coach you through the key-to-key range that is best suited for congregational singing, but I am not a theory teacher, and this is not that post. Rather in this post, I want to offer a few points to consider when it comes to choosing a key:
What is comfortable for your range? Who is going to be leading this song? If something is out of range (low or high) for the vocalist who will be leading the song, it will automatically become more difficult for the congregation to follow along.
The original key. Many worship songs these days end up on the radio, which means they are likely pitched higher than even the worship artist would play or lead them live. Just because you can sing something in the original key doesn’t mean you have to. That being said, sometimes putting something in the original key can make it a lot easier for musicians and vocalists to learn their parts.
What else are you playing? A larger consideration for me in choosing a key to a song is the other songs surrounding it in the setlist. Now, this is not something I have to worry about as much using tracks and pads to smooth transitions, but I want to be able to move seamlessly from one song to another. As a guitar player this means thinking about things like - will I need to change a capo? Retune my guitar? If it is not in the exact same key, what are the transition chords I need to play to move me into the next song?
What key will be on the edge? Where can I pitch this song to encourage people to be right on the edge, and have to really sing out, but still be singable enough that they simply stop singing because it feels completely out of reach. I think about this with lighting in the worship gathering as well - I want it to be bright enough that people can see one another, but dark enough that they don’t feel exposed in their worship.
Consider the song. People will often give modern songs a hard time about the anthemic octave jump from one part to the next, but truthfully, if you sing a lot of hymns, the melody range can be just as significant. The only difference is that we have become familiar with these melodies in such a way we do not notice the jumps.
Ultimately, there is trial and error involved. One of the reasons I like Co-Leading, especially with men and women on the team, is that you can choose keys for a man to lead that will be comfortable for men, and choose keys for a woman to lead that will be comfortable for women. We need to be willing to serve our congregations, serve the song, and be willing to sacrifice some artistry - just because you can sing that high doesn’t mean this is the right place to make that known.
10 September: Liturgy + Set List
ON CHRIST THE SOLID ROCK
Call to Worship: Psalm 18:1-3
If you are here this morning as a follower of Jesus, your life is held secure regardless of circumstances because your life is hidden with Christ in God. We sing to our Rock and our Redeemer about who Jesus is, and what He has done:
WHAT YOU SAID
LAMB OF GOD
Sermon: Mark 9:33-50
If you start early enough, work hard enough, and spend as much time, energy, and effort to pursue greatness in the world, you just might get there. But every follower of Jesus can be great in God’s kingdom and economy when we - through the power of the Holy Spirit - pursue true humility and deep discipleship. Following after our Servant King. Let’s sing to Him together - would you stand if you’re able:
I STAND AMAZED
GOD YOU’RE SO GOOD
Benediction
3 September: Liturgy + Set List
ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING
Call to Worship: Psalm 40:16-17
When we gather, we gather to seek God. God is not hidden or hiding, He has revealed himself in his Word through His Son and in the gathering of His people. So let me encourage you - don’t just sing, seek. Seek the God who reveals Himself, who draws near to those who draw near to Him. Let’s sing about who Jesus is, what He has done, and who He has called us to be:
ABIDE
O PRAISE THE NAME (ANASTASIS)
Sermon: Mark 9:14-32
Scripture tells us, that faith is a gift. So let me encourage you, the right response to God’s Word preached this morning is not: ‘I know what I’ll do, I’ll go and have more faith.’ You and I are incapable of drumming up faith in our own strength. And that is a bit offensive to our American sensibilities of wanting to try harder, do better, and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. The failure to pray is an admission of our own pride and attempts and self-sufficiency. And I don’t want to leave this moment and say, ‘Go pray out there, but let’s pray right here and now.‘ Maybe that prayer needs to be a confession of sin, maybe that prayer for you needs to be silence as you listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to you, maybe that is a prayer that looks less like words and more like action as you walk in obedience to God as you are sent this morning. But let’s take a few moments to pray individually, and then we will use the words of these next songs to pray corporately.
ONLY A HOLY GOD
RAISE UP THE CROWN (ALL HAIL THE POWER)
Benediction
Quotes [Part 4]
I like to spread out my ‘quotes’ posts - but these were too good to hold on to for much longer!
WINFIELD BEVINS
“In many ways, worship is theology in motion.”
JOHN ELDREDGE
“Modern worship bands not only need to be extraordinarily talented musicians, young, and beautiful, but their live events employ multimedia to keep your attention as well. Now church service compete with concert-level staging, lighting, special effects, and films. The terrible, unspoken assumption creeping in is this: if you’re going to find God, if you’re going to have more of God, it’s going to come through some amazing experience, something totally wild and over the top. Or we think that once we have God, the proof will be an over-the-top life. Not true. So unhelpful, and immensely unkind. This expectation actually makes those deeper experiences of God seem inaccessible for most of us.”
OSWALD CHAMBERS
“We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours. There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself. If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you - and His experiments always succeed.”
ROBERT E. WEBBER
“Worship does God’s story! In worship, we remember God’s story in the past and anticipate God’s story in the future.”
27 August: Liturgy + Set List
HOLY HOLY HOLY
Call to Worship: Psalm 99
GRACE ALONE
HOLY IS OUR GOD
When God reveals a little more of his holiness, we become increasingly aware of our own sin and brokenness. As we sing and respond to the holiness of God, I want to give you a few moments to invite the Holy Spirit to reveal areas of your own heart and life in which you need to confess to God, repent of your sin, turn to Christ, and then together we will pray a prayer of confession.
Let’s pray this together:
Merciful God,
We confess that we have sinned against You
in thought, word, and deed,
By what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved You with our whole heart and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.In Your mercy forgive what we have been,
help us amend what we are,
And direct what we shall be,
So that we may delight in your will and walk in Your ways, To the glory of Your holy name.Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, hear the good news: God does not treat you as your sins deserve - praise the Lord. Amen, you may have a seat.
Sermon: Mark 9:2-13
The Lord’s Supper
The Apostles’ Creed
ALL HAIL KING JESUS
Benediction
13 August: Liturgy + Set List
BEFORE THE THRONE
Call to Worship: Psalm 96
This is why we gather - not to respond to songs or sermons, but to respond to the God who has revealed Himself. Revealed Himself in His Word, in His creation, and through His Son, Jesus. We are here to respond to the wonderful works and majesty of God - let’s sing together:
THE GREATNESS OF OUR GOD
HOLY FOREVER
Sermon: Titus 1:5-9
Elder Ordination
CHRIST BE MAGNIFIED
Benediction