Instrumental Reflection #13- In the Bleak Midwinter
Dec 21, 2009 Instrumental Reflections
I have always loved this Christmas song. The chord changes are beautiful and the melody just flows. I hope you enjoy it too.
To listen click play!
Click here for the feed for the podcast or here to subscribe in itunes
Tags: Christmas, Free, Instrumental, piano
Sunday Setlist 12/20/09
Dec 20, 2009 Worship Planning
We had an awesome Sunday in the Xperience Service at Williams Memorial. We started off with our own version of Carol of the Bells, ala TSO. Then one of our vocalist sang Amy Grant’s “I Need a Silent Night” followed by a small devotional from Pastor Danny. Then we read the Christmas story from Luke, interspersed with Christmas songs. Breath of Heaven, Away in a Manger, While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks- to the tune of Our Great God, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, and Mary Did You Know. Then we took communion and sang I Will Rise during that time.
The service flowed great and everything sounded awesome. We finished up with Silent Night as our song of invitation.
Well that was our service.. what did you sing this week? What did others sing this week? Find out at Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlists
Tags: Sunday Setlist
2009 Favorite Songs
Dec 18, 2009 Worship Planning
I pulled our song information from Planning Center Online and was evaluating the songs we used for 2009
The number of times used is first and then the title.
After reading this below then let me know in the comments: What new songs should we do in 2010? What songs should we do more? I’d love your input!
7 Days Of Elijah
7 How Great Is Our God
7 Today Is The Day
6 Everlasting God
6 Jesus Messiah
6 Revive Us Again
5 Ancient Of Days
5 Awaken our Hearts
5 Famous One
5 Meet With Me
5 Mighty to Save
5 Tell The World
5 You Never Let Go
4 All The Earth Will Sing Your Praises
4 Be Glorified
4 Every Move I Make
4 Forever
4 God Of Wonders
4 be the centre
3 Blessed Be Your Name
3 Brand New – chord chart
3 Everyday
3 Everywhere I Go
3 Friend Of God
3 He Reigns
3 I Will Not Forget You
3 Jesus Paid It All
3 Matchless
3 My Savior Lives
3 My Savior My God
3 Open The Eyes Of My Heart
3 Power Of Your love
3 Sing A Song
2 Alleluia
2 Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
2 Breathe
2 Child Of God
2 Communion
2 Everybody Praise The Lord
2 Father Of Lights
2 Gloria
2 Hallelujah
2 I Am Who I Am
2 I Stand Amazed
2 I WIll Sing
2 I Will Rise
2 It’s My Joy
2 My Hope Is You
2 One Way
2 Our Great God
2 People Get Ready
2 Revelation Song
2 So Good
2 The Power Of Your Name
2 Trading My Sorrows
2 We Fall Down
2 Wonder of Your Love
2 You Are Good
1 All Creatures Of Our God And King
1 Anyone ButYOu
1 Away In A Manger
1 Bread Of Life
1 Breath Of Heaven
1 Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
1 Come Ye Sinners
1 Cover Us
1 Flower In The Field
1 Goodness and Mercy
1 Grace Like Rain
1 Happy Song
1 Here I Am Lord
1 Here I Am To Worship
1 Holy Is The Lord
1 How Great Thou Art
1 Hungry
1 I Just Want to Celebrate
1 I Pray On Christmas
1 If We Are The Body
1 In Christ Alone
1 In The Secret
1 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
1 Like A Child
1 Lord I Lift Your Name On High
1 Mary Did You Know
1 My Redeemer Lives
1 Nothing But The Blood
1 O Come All Ye Faithful
1 Offering
1 Only You
1 Praise To The Lord The Almighty
1 Salt And Light
1 Savior Like A Shepherd Lead Us
1 Sing Sing Sing
1 Strange way to save the world
1 The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power
1 The Heart Of Worship
1 This is my Song
1 What I Want For Christmas
1 Word Of God Speak
1 You Are My All In All
1 silent night
Blinded By Christmas
Dec 9, 2009 Devotions and Thoughts, Me
Last week I attended a children’s Christmas program. The children had worked on various Christmas tunes over the past several weeks and this was their chance to sing them for a packed house of proud parents, grandparents and friends. It was a great time and definitely one of those things that will get you into the Christmas spirit.
It was awesome watching the children singing, and smiling, and full of joy. That is all but one. One child wasn’t quite so happy. He cried. Maybe because he wanted to be with his dad. Maybe the music was too loud. Maybe he was scared. I don’t know the reason. All I know is that I was struck by the sight of one sad child crying while the rest sang their songs joyfully.
It made me stop and think. I noticed one child crying amidst all the joy and pageantry of Christmas. One child amidst the lights, and music, and children singing joyous songs.
As I thought about this, the one question that came to my mind was this. As I go through the rest of my holiday, will I notice? While I am at Christmas parties and singing my favorite carols, will I hear those who have no song to sing anymore? While I am decorating my tree and watching the twinkling lights, will I notice those who’s eyes have lost the twinkle they once had? While I gather with friends and share cherished family memories, will I remember those who have nothing to share, nothing to cherish or nothing worth remembering?
My prayer, and my hope is that I will notice. I pray that I will not lose sight of those who stand right beside me and are hurting. I pray I will not be doing Christmas so much that I fail to see the hurts of my friends, family and neighbors who are longing to be held, to have peace, and to not be scared anymore.
What can you do to make sure that you don’t get blinded by Christmas?
The Importance of Teaching
Dec 9, 2009 Youth Worship
When working with my youth worship team I often find myself emphasizing rehearsing the songs. After all, we generally have one event or another to prepare for so that means creating a songlist, and working up that music to perform or lead with.
I have realized, however, that there is a huge benefit to teaching, and not just rehearsing. When I first started to teach guitar lessons I told myself that I wanted my students to learn why a chord was what it was, what the names of the notes they were paying etc… Instead of just “play this chord”
I believed by teaching them how to learn to play guitar, then they could continue to learn whether I was teaching them or not.
The same thing should be true for worship teams. We should work with them to teach the basics of chord structures, rhythms, balance, tone, song structure, etc… So that they begin to recognize these things.
What’s cool is that when your group starts to learn these things, they begin to play musically together. You don’t have to explain every part of every song, but they begin to feel it.
For us this has resulted in more productive rehearsals, and more enjoyable ones too.
So what basic lessons would you teach a beginning praise band?
Tags: band, Event, guitar, How To, lessons, Music, praise, rehearsal, sing, song, Songlist, Songs, Team, work, Worship, worship team, worship teams, youth, Youth Worship
Words of Encouragement
Dec 1, 2009 Devotions and Thoughts
When I was in college I was part of a ministry leadership team for a student ministry group. Each week we had a memory verse that we had to memorize and recite at our weekly meeting. These scriptures, ingrained in my head, have been helpful in different situations to offer comfort and encouragement.
Here is one I recited often over the past two weeks through our move to a new house.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”
~ Philippians 4:6-7
Tags: Christmas, College, encouragement, help, house, Music, Nothing But Nets, peace, Prayer, Request, scripture, Team
