RLC Worship Set List, 01.03.2010

So---!  The first Sunday at RLC for the new decade (I know it’s not really the new decade until last year—do the math…but why fight it?) went off great.  Every year, what I always have in my heart is a desire to start the year off on the right foot.  For us as the worship team, that means putting our focus on the proper place: being humble, being grateful, and going into God’s presence.
It’s always a fun Sunday for us, because we tend to let our hair down a little bit—it’s the first Sunday in over a month that we we won’t plan a Christmas song (even if the decorations are still up…).  It’s a chance for us to pull out a new song, sing out loud, and just enjoy being with God.
So, here’s our first worship set list for this year—enjoy!


1.  “Today Is The Day” by Lincoln Brewster, from the Today Is The Day album.


2.  “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Chris Tomlin, from the Hello Love album.


3.  “I Will Boast” by Paul Baloche, from the A Greater Song album.


4.  “The Stand” by Hillsong United, from the I Heart Revolution album.


5.  “Above All Else” by Vicky Beeching, from the Yesterday, Today and Forever album.

I’m very excited for this next series at RLC, titled “Your New Normal.”  We’ve got a number of new songs lined up to open the service (I don’t wanna give everything away, but they’re great songs—you won’t want to miss them!), as well as a couple of newer worship songs for all of us to sing together.
It’s going to be a great time—come with open hearts and minds, and see what God does!!!

Talk to you soon!
Jim

RLC Worship Set, 12.20.09

Good evening, everyone!  What a fantastic day to be in church—I was really challenged by P. Pete and his comments about giving God a true gift from the heart this year.  Our worship was designed this week to be that kind of response—my prayer for you is that these are songs that stick with you all week.

1) “O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, from their Christmas Eve and Other Stories album.

 

2) “Longing Heart” by Jeremy Camp, from his Carried Me album.

 

3) “How Marvelous (I Stand Amazed") by Chris Tomlin, from the Passion live recording Everything Glorious.

 

4) “O Praise Him (All This For a King)” by David Crowder Band, from their Illuminate album.

 

5) “O Come All Ye Faithful” by Chris Tomlin, from his Glory In The Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship album.

 

Merry Christmas!!!!

Jim

A Gift of Worship

I was very humbled today that Pastor Pete shared with our congregation at RLC a message that I had sent to our worship team this week in preparation for our ministry.  It was something that I typically do—just a quick note to the team to help get us focused on the up coming week.

But even more so, I’ve had a couple people really bless me by coming up and talking to me about what I wrote and what he shared of that note and how it helped them worship this morning.

I want to share that note with you all here, in hopes that maybe it’ll help you give a great gift of worship this week on your own.  Maybe it’ll give you a fun little insight into what we do in preparation for coming in to lead you all in worship, too.

Christmas blessings!

Jim

PS—I did the math.  After 12 days, your true love would have given you 184 birds.  :)

 

Good morning, and happy Tuesday all!!!

We've a bit of a different week this week leading up to our worship on Sunday.  Because of a number of various schedule conflicts, rehearsal this week will be at 10am on Saturday.  I've scheduled the rehearsal to go until 1pm to give ourselves enough time since this really is our only crack at the songs.

I've been meditating on scripture this week, and have been specifically keeping the theme for Sunday's service in mind, "What to Give God for Christmas?"  Obviously, with the holiday season, so much of our time is focused on what we're doing for the holidays, gifts that we're buying, parties and family gatherings...it's really easy to let a sort of apathy slip in and take hold

I really want to challenge us this week to press in and work hard at being prepared to give God a gift of worship, both spiritually and musically.  For rehearsal, please spend enough time on your own listening to the songs and preparing for Sunday.  As God's given talents and abilities, our gift of worship includes giving him our time and our efforts, putting our best gift out there for him.  It's not about pleasing the ears of the congregation at church, to be sure.

Spiritually speaking, I want to spend the majority of our time preparing there.  I'd like to ask you guys to take a couple moments, and meditate on the gifts that God has given you.  In the midst of life's circumstances, that can be hard, and even uncomfortable.  Think of the blessings, the miracles, even the little things that he's done for you.  And, in all honesty, don't ignore the trials and struggles that you're facing--they're part of the story that God is weaving all around you.

Now that you have those things in mind, I'd like you to meditate on these verses, from Romans 8:

^“38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

How does your worship change, how will it be different this week? Put it another way, what kind of gift will you give God this week, knowing the depth of his love for you, the gift of love that he gave you?  Is it a gift that you bought at Super America on the way to church?  A white elephant gift, maybe, something from the dollar store?  Something just laying around the house?  Or a regift even?

What if you took the time to plan your gift of worship out?  What if you were so excited about your gift of worship, you gave it all week long?  What if instead of just buying a gift, you threw your whole self into the gift, and gave something from your heart?  What if you took the time to craft something that expressed your love back to God?  There's so many analogies that we could use to talk about giving God a gift of worship?  Think about the "Twelve Days of Christmas" and how each gift got bigger and more expansive, and compounded each and every day!

What if your worship looked like that this week?  What would happen to our lives, to our attitudes, and to our church if we led worship from that place?  The song's we're singing are all about Christ--plain and simple.  With Christ at the center of our worship, we'll sing these songs of praise and have the angels and all of heaven singing along with us.

I attached a song to this e-mail--I hope that it comes through for each of you.  I'd ask you to listen to the song as you prepare for worship--let it speak to your heart, and use it as a response to the un-separable love of God.

With a longing heart,

P. Jim

And so it begins!

Somehow, over the years, I’ve gotten this reputation that I hate Christmas music…I don’t know where I got that reputation (I’m looking at you Crystal and Erika!), but I do have to say that it’s entirely untrue!  Well, I’ll admit this: I used to work retail at Rosedale mall, and their Christmas muzak was so bad, that I was completely sick of Christmas music by Thanksgiving.  (The mall has decorated for Christmas the overnight between Halloween and Nov 1.).

Now that we’ve officially entered the Christmas season, it was time in our home to break out the Christmas CDs, and we’ve had the local stations that play Christmas music 24-7 on pretty much the same amount of time they’ve been on the air.

My kids totally betrayed me though!  We have this unwritten rule in our home that Christmas stuff stays in the boxes until the day after Thanksgiving.  But with all the planning that goes into our services, I’ve actually been secretly listening to Christmas music since early October.  Not all the time, mind you, but I’d throw a few songs onto my iPod to get a sense of what I wanted to do for specials and for the family sing-along for the Family Christmas Celebration (Dec 13 @ RLC!).

I’ve found a TON of newer music that I really like, and I always manage to dig out the old favorites.  I’m really looking forward to Christmas music this year at church—I think we’ve got a great mix of classic songs and hymns that you’ll enjoy and be able to sing along with us, and we’ve also got some really interesting new arrangements for you to enjoy.

To get you started, here’s a pair of albums I’d like to recommend to you.  The first here is "a new release from Chris Tomlin called Glory In The Highest.  This album is a (mostly) live recording—lot of congregational songs.

The second CD is one that we played a couple of songs off of last year, and we’ll do so again this year.  This is Third Day’s Christmas Offerings album, and it’s far and away one of my favorites.

Thanks as always for being a fabulous church to be a part of!  I’m so excited that we’re in the season to celebrate the birth of our Lord.  We’re going to make it one to remember!

P. Jim