I’ve been listening to Mumford & Sons “Sigh No More” record with equal parts enjoyment and intrigue. Before I knew really anything about the band I could tell the writing was wrestling with a lot of good spiritual issues. After I saw them live here in Phoenix and saw the response in the crowd I was blown away by how the songs were reaching people. Then I discovered that Marcus Mumford has strong Vineyard ties, son of the Vineyard UK regional directors and is friends with some local Vineyard friends. All that to say, I love their music and pray for that band in a different way now.

One of their songs “Awake My Soul” really caught me as something that, in pieces, could work really well in a worship set. I’ve been playing around with it and came up with a few minor, but important, lyric changes and introduced it as a tag this past week. The congregation responded well and I thought it served the aim of the set and what God had been stirring in us. I’m not sure if we’ll do it again, but it’s a possibility. The lyric we sang was very simple:

Awake my soul
Awake my soul
Awake my soul
For we were made to love our maker

The bluegrass feel went quite well sandwiching our first song by Ryan Delmore. We teased the tag at the beginning of Ryan’s song and then reintroduced it at the end. Here are the details of the set:

1. The Gift of Gifts – Opening Puritan Prayer
2. The World Can’t Take It Away – Ryan Delmore
3. God of this City – Bluetree (loop available)
4. My Soul Sings – Delirious (loop available)
5. Nothing But the Blood – Robert Lowry (Page CXVI arrangement linked)
6. Our God Reigns – Delirious (loop available)

Currently I’m in day 2 of my week long vacation and as I look back 2 days ago, from way out west on the beach of Santa Barbara, I see God’s goodness, grace and power in the desert of Phoenix more clearly. The closer I am it seems to what God’s doing in my family, friends, church, city, the harder it is to see God’s grace and progression of his will. Whether that be the persistent work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives as they are made more into the image of Christ, or the unifying work of the Spirit in our church body, or the provision, or the healing, etc, etc…

When I’m in the middle of it I find it hard to step aside and just be thankful for what God is doing, instead I’m usually focused on the work that lies ahead to move forward. Some combination of the two is where I’d like to be and not so dang fixated on the work, but able to rest in the goodness and just enjoy the benefits of being in Christ.

What does this have to do with Sunday’s set? Well as I reflected Sunday night on the set my mind of course goes straight to where we need to improve, the songs I need to finish writing, the equipment we need, the recording time, yada yada yada. Now I’m just thankful for what God did Sunday, his goodness in allowing us to be part of what He’s doing in Phoenix through LCC, and the tremendously gifted musicians he’s brought to LCC. As I’m on vacation, our other worship band “Green House” will be leading worship this upcoming Sunday and I know they’ll do an incredible job. Churches much larger than ours would kill to have the musicians we have. None of them are paid(including me), they come and serve because they are on mission with us and I’m just humbled and thankful for our church body, it’s leaders and servants. Here’s what we played.

1. Puritan Prayer – “God the Source of All Good”
2. Prayer for Faith – Joe Day
3. God of This City – Bluetree (loop available)
4. We Will Run – Gungor
5. Nothing But the Blood – Page CXVI
6. Death In His Grave – John Mark McMillan (loop available)

I have a stack of songs to introduce to LCC, some have been in the stack for a very long time. The stack consists of new originals, new covers, old songs to re-arrange, hymns…you name it. The pace at which those songs get introduced is slower than I’d like and I usually attribute that to lack of time. But slowly my thick head is understanding God’s providence over the songs we sing and when we sing them.

I’ve had Joe Day’s “Prayer For Faith” in this stack for a long time. This week it was finally introduced, it felt much too late for my liking, but after worshipping with LCC, I could see the timing was God’s and just right. I love it when a line of the song you never expected to hit hard just wrecks the place. My expectations were all wrong for the song and I’m so thankful they were, because God accomplished what he wanted.

2 lines in particular penetrated our hearts as a congregation and we had to go back and reflect and sing them again.

And your love endures

Like you said it would

That promise and thankful praise for God’s faithfulness in his love really ministered to me and to the congregation as a whole. I’m thankful that God’s love has endured in our church through so many difficult periods, corporately and individually. The spirit in the church was appropriate…humble, joyful adoration of our Savior, who’s loved us through every last circumstance, trial, failure, victory and prayer. Thanks you Jesus.

1. The World Can’t Take It Away – Ryan Delmore
2. God of This City – Bluetree (loop available)
3. My Soul Sings – Delirious (loop available)
4. Prayer For Faith – Joe Day
5. Where You Go I’ll Go – Brian and Jenn Johnson (loop available)

This post is part of The Worship Community’s Set List Sundays.

This past Sunday was just an honor to be part of, the entire weekend actually. Saturday we took part in Help Portrait and it was incredible. It was awesome to see local families from right around our church neighborhood come in get their makeover, family pics, have fun and feel good. It was such a blessing to be able to serve our local, and I mean local, community in that way. We purposely targeted just a small neighborhood right across from us and have some plans to serve that same community next week. Incredibly convicting to hear that some of the families didn’t even know we were there. We are going to change that this coming year.

On Sunday our newly formed choir/vocal ensemble/soul sangers did an incredible performance of Kirk Franklin’s “Now Behold the Lamb“. The amount of soul on display was probably a surprise to all who are used to our white boy, dark, indie rock vibe. Now the secret is out, we have some folks who can saaaang! I for one am stoked the secret is out and can’t wait to get them up their more often.

We also did our arrangement of “What Child Is This“, my favorite Christmas song by a country mile. To me it’s one of the few Christmas songs that actually flows in a normal worship set. Most of the others you have a sort of mental adjustment to, like ok now we’re singing a Christmas song. I thought the congregation really entered into it as a worship song and it was just really powerful.

1. Jesus’ Name – Ryan Delmore
2. God of This City – Bluetree (loop available)
3. What Child is This
4. Everlasting God – New Life (loop available)
5. With Everything – Hillsong (loop available)

This post is part of Fred McKinnon’s Set List Sundays.

Our church is located in what is commonly referred to as the “Black Hole” of Phoenix. Less money is spent in the commercial area around our church than any other area in Phoenix. We have a lot of lower class and working poor around us that need to be reached. We announced to the church that we would be taking part in www.help-portrait.com and invited all to join us.

Our church is blessed with a lot of creative people, artists, photographers, musicians, etc… So on Dec 12th we’ll turn our sanctuary into a studio and bring in the surrounding homeless, poor and needy folks and take their pictures. We’ll share the gospel, we’ll get to know our neighbors better and hope to be a blessing to them. I’m excited to be part of it, should be awesome. If you haven’t heard of the idea then see the video below. (Set list below video)

1. The World Can’t Take It Away – Ryan Delmore
2. God of This City – Bluetree (loop available)
3. My Soul Sings – Delirious (loop available)
4. The Solid Rock – Edward Mote (loop available)
5. Who You Are – Desperation Band

This post is part of Fred McKinnon’s Set List Sundays.

I started the worship service with a Psalm that’s been on my heart and lips for the past week or so.

Psalm 69:29-32: “But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high! I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or bull with horns and hoofs. When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.”

Checking the condition of our hearts is so important and even more so asking the Holy Spirit to revive it and set it straight. I love that this is a man(David) afflicted and in pain singing a song of thanksgiving to God. That was both encouraging and challenging to read. The worship filter of circumstance is so conveniently dangerous and pathetic, I think it’s important we combat it at every opportunity.

The body responded in worship amazingly well, the past 2 months or so have been such a blessing to be a part of. God has really been pouring out his grace upon us as a body and it’s not something I take for granted. I’m excited for what lies ahead and I feel a great sense of urgency about it.

We did a new arrangement of The Solid Rock hymn this week. I did a loop based off of the amazing E-pop arrangement. I thought it went over really well. I’ll try and get that loop posted this week, there’s a few minor adjustments I’m going to make. By the way, the original title for The Solid Rock hymn was “The Immutable Basis of a Sinner’s Hope“… awesome and amen.

1. Rain Down – Delirious (loop not yet available)
2. God of This City – Bluetree (loop available)
3. Broken Me Loose – Kyle Campos
4. The Solid Rock – Edward Mote (loop not yet available)
5. With Everything – Hillsong (loop available)

This post is part of Fred McKinnon’s Set List Sundays.

A few weeks ago we rolled out our new home group/community group/gospel community structure and I’m shocked at how much grace God has shown. Our groups are really taking off, people are engaging in community and I really think it’s building a sense of true love and commitment to one another in the body.

This week we announced our first batch of covenant members of LCC which marks another new chapter for us. I’m so excited about rolling out membership and seeing people commit to God and one another in a way that’s so counter-cultural, so against our ingrained, rugged individualism. I’m pumped about what’s ahead and if the last few weeks are any indication God is going to blow away my expectations.

1. Jesus’ Name – Ryan Delmore
2. God of This City – Bluetree (loop available)
3. Lead Me to The Cross – Hillsong United (loop available)
4. Gloria 34 – Taylor Sorensen (loop available)
5. With Everything – Hillsong (loop available)

This post is part of Fred McKinnon’s Set List Sundays.

Almost 1 year ago my family made a trip to Lake Tahoe for a family members wedding. We turned it into a nice vacation time and we just had a blast. But inside I was a mess struggling to deal with the financial burden my family was under. Our business had failed and the combined emotional and financial stress was intense. I woke up in the middle of the night shaking with my mind going crazy and I told my wife, “I think I may be having a nervous breakdown.” I’d never felt like that in my life, I’m usually a pretty calm and collected guy.

We prayed and really sought the Lord and asked for His spirit to heal our minds, hearts and give us wisdom on how to proceed. I really believe God answered those prayers because shortly after returning I was laid off with no severance and went unpaid for 6 months…with no savings. Had I tried to continue handling this weight by myself I may have jumped off a cliff, but instead those months of unemployment were one of the most fruitful times of my life and I thank God for it.

While in Lake Tahoe I started to write a song. The music arrangement came quickly and all I could sing over it was “Adonai“. I didn’t sit down with the intention of using that name for God, but I think God was trying to teach me what him being Lord really meant. I relented and laid down much of my life that I had retained Lordship over that weekend. The rest of the lyrics wouldn’t come until this last week and I decided it was time to sing it at church.

How well it went over I’m not sure, I’ll give it the same grace I give all new songs. A 3 week run and then we’ll review it. The song is called “Live or No Longer Live“, it’s a song of salvation and sanctification and Christ being honored whether we live or no longer live. Much of it is based out of Philippians 1. I will post details on the song and audio recording later this week.

1. Rain Down – Delirious (loop not yet available)
2. God of This City – Bluetree (loop available)
3. Live or No Longer Live – Kyle Campos
4. None But Jesus – Hillsong United (loop not yet available)
5. Where We Belong – Hillsong (loop available)

This post is part of Fred McKinnon’s Set List Sundays.