We had a great worship service today. We combined the traditional service and contemporary service together for a worship service in the park this morning followed by a picnic/potluck. We have been talking about doing this for years and today it finally happened! The weather was perfect; sunny, breezy, and very comfortable. We purchased a Carvin portable sound system earlier in the year so we could do combined services in other locations; this was our first outdoor set up and it went smoothly; we even brought out the electric drums. The turn out from both services was great; right at 160!
I tried to put together a set that would connect with both congregations. Being outside made All Creatures of Our God and King and Masterful Creator obvious choices. Masterful Creator was a new song to the Traditional Service, so I took advantage of drawing attention to the fact that the pastor wrote the lyrics to the song. Afterwards someone asked the pastor why the 1st service didn't get to sing the song!
Speak, O Lord (Getty and Townend) was a new song for us this morning. The song is an outstanding congregational prayer that is an excellent preparation for the sermon. I have found the song grows on you the more you sing it because the depth and richness of the lyrics. Surprisingly the chords for the song from the Getty website didn't work at all, so I ended up chording it from scratch; I also tweaked the melody in the 3rd line of each verse where it smoked my vocal range (I gave up trying to hit the high notes and figured the congregation probably wouldn't hit them either). I got some positive feedback afterwards on the song and am looking forward to repeating it for the next two weeks.
Will The Circle Be Unbroken was our closer. We pulled Brian off the drums and put him on the mandolin, and I swapped out my guitar for a guitar style dulcimer I made, with Aaron on the acoustic guitar, and Ben on the bass we had a good "old time" bluegrass sound to get the full flavor of the song. We used the Carter Family arrangement with the original Christ Centered lyrics. It was a strong finish to the formal worship service and a great transition to the baptisms that immediately followed at the lake.
All in all a great morning of worship, commitment to follow Jesus, and fellowship with a shared meal!!! We will certainly do at least one worship service at the park next year. Here are the song specifics:
All Creatures of Our God and King Opener-Come to Worship
000 St. Francis of Assisi, 1225 Words © J. Curewen & Sons
Masterful Creator GITS-Father
Lyrics by Mark Hudson, arrangement by Doug Thorsvik ©2006
Majesty GITS-Jesus
1527 Jack Hayford ©1981 Rocksmith Music
Speak, O Lord Response-Prayer
4615235 Keith Getty & Stuart Townend © 2005 Thankyou Music
SERMON
Rain, Rain, Rain Prayer-Holy Spirit*** S.Dial/K.Lawson ©2002 Cedarstone Music BMI
Will the Circle be Unbroken Closer-Believe/Trust
Public Domain Words by Ada R. Habershon, 1907
MLCC 08/23/09 Leadsheet
(I use a custom font so, you will have to make font size smaller to get the line breaks correct)
Hope you had a great Sunday too!
Find out what other songs churches are sing at FredMcKinnon.com
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