Fork In The Road Music » Kerri Crocker

Late Night of Praise and Worship

Russell Martin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:36:23 +0000

A week ago I was part of a fun little concert. We decided to host a “Late Night of Praise and Worship” after the evening worship service at Annual Conference. The idea was to provide a venue for some worship leaders who write their own worship songs to share those. We gathered in The Loft at The Woodlands UMC, set up a sound system and then took turns sharing music. The evening started with David Davis who is worship leader at John Wesley UMC. He shared some tracks off his last release, The Light and the Grey, and also introduced us to some new tunes he had been working on. It was great to hear his music. Second Kerri Crocker sang some of her songs from her CD, Reason to Be. After that she also shared a new worship tune that she was working on. I got the crowd up and we sang “Lord Let Your Love” and then the title song from my Unfailing Love CD. I was disappointed at first because we were supposed to also hear from Shelly Wilson. She had been sick and was unable to sing. God had different plans for her, other than singing, because she brought a convicting message for the church. Finally Kerri came back up and we closed with “Breathe”
It was great to get an evening of music and worship shared among old and new friends. Special thanks to the Lonna Nunn, Anna Rhode and the North District of the UMC for sponsoring the event. Hopefully it will be one we can continue to do.

Sunday Setlist- 11/30/08

Russell Martin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:26:19 +0000

Worship went well at Williams this week. We did miss having our regular keyboard player with us which meant I rotated over to keys and we didn’t have much acoustic guitar. It sounded pretty good though. Apparently I did not give our screens operator the specific scripture, we have four per week because we use the lectionary, so he just put them all up there. Took a second to find the correct one but it all worked well. I do have to give some props to our vocals that are coming together nicely. We have hit the year mark with an almost completely new group of vocals and we are now starting to blend nicely.

Here were our songs for this week-

Brand New- This is a great song by one of our worship leaders Kerri Crocker
Ancient of Days-The band has started really liking this one.
Blessed Be Your Name-The congregation really sang on this one.
Wonderful You Are- From my last CD
He Reigns- Always a classic.

This is part of Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlist on his blog at Fred McKinnon.com.

Playing Outside of Worship Services

Russell Martin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:14:46 +0000

Last night we held our Xperience Night of Worship. We wanted a chance to play out of the usual Sunday Morning setting so we worked up all original tunes written by both myself and Kerri Crocker. We hope in the future to invite other artists, and or take our group and visit other churches. Included is the video of a worship song called “Awaken Our Hearts”. I will post others once I get them uploaded.

So where does your worship team play other than worship services?

Sunday Setlist 10/12/08

Russell Martin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:27:25 +0000

This Sunday clicked for some reason. It was one of those weeks when everything came together inspite of my planning. I really can’t put my finger on why it worked so well, I am just glad it did.

We started off with slightly altered version of Crossfire. Our drummer loves singing these old songs so we used it as our first tune while people were coming in the door. Gave the band a chance to let loose and just play. After announcements (do you do announcements in your church?) we sang Days of Elijah and Never Let Go. After a children’s sermon the Liturgical dancers danced to Kerri Crocker’s song “Echoes” seriously you have to check it out. For our invitiation I broke out the accordion and we sang a great version of Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy (no, no one ran screaming from the building, although my wife told me to warn her when I was going to play accordion next time) was Come Ye Sinners. Like I said everything fit. We had several people that said it was the best we had sounded. I just hope we can figure out what it was that worked so we can do it again.

This post is also part of Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlist #12. Check it out and see what other churches are doing.

Sunday Setlist 10/05/08

Russell Martin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:25:47 +0000

This week was a great Sunday. First of all we had a special guest Shelly Wilson, friend of worship leader Kerri Crocker, who sang with us this week. The band learned her song “Thank You For Loving Me” off her new upcoming CD. We have been trying to do more original songs lately, some written by Kerri, some by myself, it was great to have someone and something completely different.

Our Service for October 5th, 2008
Every Body Praise the Lord
Welcome
Let it Rise
In the Secret (acoustic style version)
Children’s Moment
Gods Lenses video
Time of Prayer
Offering- Thank You for Loving Me- by Shelly Wilson
God of Wonders
Sermon- The Cornerstone Rejected
Invitation- Meet with me

We are in the planning of the service for October 19th which for us will be communion. I’ve posted up the scripture, sermon and our potential songs on my “Worship Brainstorm Session” for this week.

This post is also part of Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlist #11. Check it out and see what other churches are doing.

Sunday Setlist 9/28/08

Russell Martin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:37:42 +0000

This week was really nothing out of the ordinary. We have begun trying to do songs more frequently so that the congregation can learn and participate better. Before I came the idea was to do new songs that were cool, now we are focusing on congregation participation and songs that fit the theme or message if possible.

This week’s message was “Regarding Others as Better Than Yourselves” Philippians 2:1-13

We started off with the song Map from Kerri Crocker’s last CD. It really didn’t match the theme completly but the band has kept saying they want to do more orignal songs so we put it in. After that we had our welcome and announcements and then did Let it Rise and Open The Eyes of My Heart, the harder Sonic Flood type version. For offertory we used Grace Like Rain, our invitation was Crowder’s Only You and then we closed with the band jammin to Let it Rise while everyone left.

Last week Kerri and I sat down and put together tentative songlists for the rest of October. Our pastors preach from the lectionary, so since we chose songs to try to compliment that I will put those up for other churches which may do the same. Look for that later in the week.

This post is also part of Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlist Blog Carnival. Check it out and see what other churches are doing.

Guest Devo: Kerri Crocker- You Against the World

Russell Martin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:09:16 +0000

As I was driving to church yesterday, my eyes were drawn to the clouds and I just had to take a picture! Oddly enough they reminded me of “life”. The large, dense blanket to the right was covering the sky in the distance (a.k.a. our problems, struggles, fears) while the smaller ones looked as if they were pushing their way through… fighting against them so we could enjoy the blue skies (a.k.a. peace, joy, love)

Things may look impossible for you, but the Word says greater is He that is in YOU than he that is in the world. You can overcome any cloud because of our Savior!!

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world … Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything, to stand!

Ephesians 6:11-13

Written by Kerri Crocker. Kerri is a worship leader at Williams Memorial UMC in Texarkana. She also travels sharing her music with churches and groups all over. Find out more about her and her ministry at www.kerricrocker.com

The TO-DO list!!!!!

Russell Martin — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:24:00 +0000

Hours race by like minutes and at the close of the day, I wonder “just where did the time go”?
Things that were on my to-do list from yesterday are still left uncrossed and my plate begins to grow to an overwhelming 5 course dinner!!!
WOW…. how did I end up like this?

I’m reminded of a scripture you all probably know: seek ye first the Kingdom of God. Do we really seek Him first everyday? Is He more important to us than the tasks at hand?

I’ve been really convicted of this lately because I feel my wheels are just spinning and I’m getting no where Why I failing so miserably is because I’m not seeking my Savior first and then tending to my to-do’s. Note the order. Him first, tasks later.

This problem isn’t anything new, so don’t feel bad if you are in the same boat with me.
In the Old Testament God became very angry that His people were more worried about their own homes while His temple lay in ruins. (Haggai 1:9) How can we walk the path God has for us if we don’t talk to Him first everyday? If we don’t pray and read His Word? Make THOSE THINGS our #1 priority?? After all, we are the temple! Christ dwells in us. Well, the good news is this… the Lord can help us get our priorities straight. Just ask Him for help and He’ll show you what needs to be done.

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these things shall be added unto you… Praise God!!

What about the Worship?

Russell Martin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:43:00 +0000

See if you’ve ever been in this “hot spot”.

Its 15 minutes before church and the lead vocalist hasn’t shown up, the video isn’t working right and a sound check at this point, is never going to happen. How on earth will this service ever flow and people enter in and praise? Well, after the grueling 15 minutes of worry, worship starts and ends. People come up after the service and say they felt the presence of the Lord so strongly…. they have never worshiped so freely before. Wow… everything went great! What was I so worried about?
The question that we should be prepared is understood, but my thought for you today is this:
Do you think that your skill or the band, the video or the atmosphere is going to move people into that place of worshiping the King? In all humility, we say no, but by our actions, we often contradict that idea when things aren’t going just the way we planned. I challenge you, that if you are ever in a situation of “less than perfect circumstances” that you’ll take a step back and pray to the one who is the Author of praise. We can only plant the seeds, but it is the Lord who will bring forth the fruit Psalm 103:2 says it perfectly, “praise the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not His benefits” the key word in that verse is HIS…. not OUR…. HIS benefits go far beyond what our mind can conceive. Even in a worship service that we feel is doomed.
Many blessings and much favor to you!!

Kerri Crocker

Russell Martin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:29:00 +0000

Over the past several months I have been blessed to be able to work with my new friend Kerri Crocker. Kerri came on this year as a worship leader for our contemporary worship service at Williams. She lives with her husband and family in East Texas but she leads worship and shares her music all over. She has just released her second CD entitled “Reason to Be” which was produced by Kyle Lee and recorded at Clean Productions. Kerri is passionate about a new foundation she has started called pray for a cure for cancer.

Kerri is joining me at Fork In the Road Music and will be writing some devotionals and some thoughts on leading worship, leading worship without a band and more on her efforts with Prayforacureforcancer.

I encourage you to check out her music and her ministry.