Archive - November, 2008

Worship Confessional: November 30, 2008

November 30, 2008 in Communion, Service schedules, Uncategorized, Worship, Worship Confessional with 6 Comments

worship_confession

Today was a day that I had been looking forward to for quite some time because we were able to observe the Lord’s Supper in service.  It is always a special time as a church to be able to specifically remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us.  Of course, we should remember this every day as we walk with Christ.

We started the service a little more subdued than normal… not dead, just a little quieter.  We started out by singing:

  • The Wonderful Cross – Tomlin/Reeves/Newton/Mason
  • Jesus Messiah – Tomlin/Reeves/Carson/Cash

I loved using both of these songs with this service.  The Wonderful Cross brings a little of the old in with the new, which our older and more traditional crowds probably look for when doing a Communion service.  Of course, Jesus Messiah is a newer song, but we have done it with the choir a couple times and with the congregation once, so it was very familiar to our people.  They sang it very well today!

After the opening songs, we had a quick little welcome from our Pastor, and then he took a few minutes to talk about our special Connections Sunday next week (kind of like a friend day).

The choir then sang “Sheer Beauty” from the Christmas musical Everything Glorious that we will be doing this year from our Christmas Concert.  They did a great job!

Right after the choir, we went into:

  • At The Cross – Zschech/Morgan

I love this song.  We had one of our women lead it with the solo part. This was the first time we had done this song.  Many people already knew it though.

We had the previous Worship Pastor, Nate Harmon (who is now at First Medina) with us today.  It was great to hear his testimony.  He and his wife also sang the song “Glory” for us, and did a great job!  It was good to see Nate!

Our pastor then took a few moments to talk about the Lord’s Supper and what it means.  We have a congregation with a huge diversity of backgrounds, so it was important to us to explain what we were doing and why we do it.  We then had a few moments to pray and contemplate.  The entire congregation came forward to pray and meditate at the altar, on the stage, or wherever they can fit.  Everyone then takes the elements and goes back to their seats.  After everyone was seated, we all took it together.  The pastor prayed, and then we sang our last two songs of the day:

  • Once Again – Redman
  • Majesty – Smith/Garrard

Both of these songs fit the day perfectly.  By this time the people were so focused and the Spirit of God moved in a big way as we lifted up these last two songs.  It was just an awesome worship experience!  It was also my first time to participate in the Lord’s Supper at my new church.  They are a wonderful people!  I thank God for them!

This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

Giving Thanks

November 27, 2008 in holiday, thanksgiving, Worship with 0 Comments

thanksgiving

I know everyone else will likely have posts on their blogs about the things they are thankful for.  There is nothing unique about me posting my “Thanksgiving List.”  But this week, as I was contemplating everything and making my list, I was just overwhelmed by God’s goodness.  There is so much that we could and should list.  God is a great God, and does so much for us that we just overlook every day.  My list should just go on and on… as should yours!  So, here is a part of my list of things that I am thankful for:

  • I am thankful that God loves me so much that He wanted to be involved in my life.  Not just in the big things, but in every detail.  That love was made visibly evident when He allowed Jesus to take my sins as His own.  Then, Jesus died for me so that I could come into a relationship that God longed to have with me.  To this day, I cannot wrap my mind around why God would do that for me… but he did!
  • I am thankful for my wife.  She is the most important person to me in the world.  I love spending time with her.  I love watching her.  I love her now more than I ever have!
  • I am thankful for my children.  With five kids, it gets hectic and crazy.  But each one of them has brought a joy into my life that I would not have known without them.  They are precious to me.
  • I am thankful for God’s call on my life.  I literally have no other desire or passion in my life other than to serve God in the capacity that I do.  I love being able to serve God by serving people.  It is awesome to see lives changed as people take their next step towards Christ!
  • I am thankful for my church.  It is such a blessing to serve with a people that are interested in loving God, loving people and serving both.  There is something happening at our church… and I cannot wait to see where it leads us!
  • I am thankful for the team I get to work with.  My pastor and the staff are just that… a team.  It has been refreshing to come into a church that has that spirit and approach to ministry.  They are awesome to serve Christ next to!  Gotta say that I love all the volunteers I get to work with as well.  They are part of the team!  Without them, the ministry would just not work at Glenville!  You people rock!
  • I am thankful that God takes care of us the way He does.  This has been an unusual year.  Though we did not understand why God was doing what he was doing while we were going through it, we are so thankful that we were led to the place we are now.  His ways are higher than our ways, and for that I am thankful.

Yes, there are other things that could be mentioned, but this is a good start for my list.  I hope you have taken the time to contemplate what God has done in your life.  Today is a day that we set aside to give thanks.  I am glad that we have this day and the things that go with it, like food and football, but I hope that each day we practice a little thanksgiving to the God that loves us!

Worship Confessional: November 23, 2008

November 23, 2008 in Service schedules, Worship Confessional with 2 Comments

worship_confession

We had an awesome day at Glenville!  Normally, we have two morning services, but today we had a guest speaker, so we combined the two services.  We do not always do that when we have a guest speaker, but it is always nice to put the whole church family together in one service.  I love seeing the auditorium packed out!

The day was really awesome!  The energy was infectious, and the people were totally engaed in what was going on.

We started with our choir singing, “Jesus Saves” by Travis Cottrell and David Moffitt.  The choir just made the place ring and set a great tone for the rest of the service.  Great job choir!!!

The, we opened up with a couple of our newer songs:

  • Sing, Sing, Sing -Tomlin/Reeves/Gilder/Carson/Nunn
  • A New Hallelujah – Smith/Baloche (This was our third week in a row to do this… kind of a theme song for our missions emphasis month)

Our pastor then welcomed everyone.  We have been hitting the idea of connecting with one another and others outside the church big time.  Pastor used the welcome today, since we had a combined service, to allow people to get to greet others that they may not know.  We are trying to build the feeling of community within the church, which is even more difficult when you have multiple services.

We went right into our second set of music after the greeting:

  • You Are Good – Houghton
  • Mighty To Save – Fielding/Morgan
  • You Are My Strength – Morgan

Pastor then got up and gave a promo for our big day that we are having in two weeks.  We are calling it Connection Sunday, and are just encouraging everyone to bring one person with them.  Then, he introduced a skit and the guest speaker.  The skit was called “A Couple of Shady Characters” and was about two people that had kicked back sitting in the shade and were just comfortable enjoying life and not too concerned with reaching out to others.   God removes their shade and prompts them to get involved in other people lives.  It is a funny little skit, but it gets the point across beautifully.

Our speaker for the day was Jerry Thorpe.  I always enjoy hearing Jerry speak.  He is a proven leader and built a great church in Odessa.  He challenged our people in the area of reaching out to others, connecting with them so we can help them take their next step towards Christ.  It was a great message, and was perfect for where our church is at, and where we are heading in the near future.  Altars were full as people made decisions for God!

It was just an awesome day!  Attendance looked up (was in my choir – we are quickly running out of space in what we have set up). The people are excited about what God is doing… and so am I!

This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

Worship Confessional: November 16, 2008

November 18, 2008 in Uncategorized with 3 Comments

worship_confession

Ok, so I am a little late getting in on the action this week.  Sunday was my wife’s birthday, so I never got around to posting, and yesterday, I spent most of the day trying to get my son in to the Dr. so he could cough and play basketball.  So, here it is Tuesday, and I am just now posting.  We shortened the music up just a bit so we could get everything else in for the day.  Here it is:

We had a decent day.  Attendance was up, and the spirit was very good.  First service we did:

  • A New Hallelujah – Smith
  • Let Everything That Has Breath – Redman

Second service sets included:

  • A New Hallelujah – Smith
  • Let Everything That Has Breath – Redman
  • Jesus Messiah – Tomlin/Carson/Reeves/Cash
  • Famous One – Tomlin/Reeves

Our choir sang in both services, and did a fantastic job!  Their energy was fantastic!  We had to switch songs that we were going to sing due to our soloist getting sick.  I had a lot of people comment on how good they sounded!

We also had a goofy little skit to promo and upcoming Murder Mystery dinner that we are doing.  It was corny, but our people liked seeing our pastor involved in the skit.

We are in our missions emphasis month, so we had a missionary with us to give a testimony.

Sunday night, we had an all-church Chili feast and Hay Ride.  It was very well attended and we had a blast… well, everyone but my youngest son.  he ended up in a pond… but that is for another post!

That pretty much sums it up.  Hope everyone else had a great day!

This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

Happy Birthday!

November 16, 2008 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments


Jennifer’s birthday is today. I love my wife. She is the best thing that has happened to me. I cannot believe I get to live life with such a terrific woman. Happy Birthday babe. I love you!

Posted by ShoZu

Worship Confessional: November 9, 2008

November 9, 2008 in Service schedules, Worship, Worship Confessional with 3 Comments

worship_confession

I am sitting here tonight just totally blown away by how good God is.  We had an incredible day at Glenville.  And I am not even talking about the music!  God showed up big!

In our first service, the people were a little more alive than normal.  They sang well, and were engaged with the pastor as he preached.  We started out the service with:

  • Open The Eyes Of My Heart – Baloche
  • Shout To The Lord – Zschech
  • Above All – LeBlanc/Baloche

Second service, we used the following sets:

First set

  • Open The Eyes Of My Heart – Baloche
  • A New Hallelujah – Smith

Second set

  • Shout To The Lord – Zschech
  • Above All – LeBlanc/Baloche
  • Mighty To Save – Fielding/Morgan

I love the song, ” A New Hallelujah.”  This was our first time doing it, and it was a little rough, but the people seemed to get it pretty good, and we are doing it three weeks in a row as a sort of “theme” song for our missions emphasis.  Great song with a lot of energy.

One of my favorites is Mighty To Save.  Just love the song.  Ok, I love a lot of Hillsong stuff, but this one is one of my favorites right now.

In both services, I was given the opportunity to talk about our upcoming special day, called Connection Sunday.  We are setting an attendance goal of 1200 (double our average attendance), and are planning on having 2 identical services.  We are doing this the first week of December.  Crazy for us to do this in December?  Maybe… we will see in a few weeks!

We are in our missions emphasis month, and were able to have a missionary with us.  He and his wife gave us a short report and showed a short video.  Sharp couple!

Our missions theme, and theme for net year, is Connections: Loving God – Loving Others – Serving both.  We have really been talking this up and trying to get people to see how important it is to connect with God first in relationship, and then to take what we have in that relationship and connect with others, helping them take their next step towards Christ.  I really believe our people are ready to see God do something big!  They are really getting excited about connecting, and I know God will bless that!

Our pastor spoke on “Disconnect” today.  Awesome message on why some people feel disconnected from God and the church.  (hint: it is because they are!)  People responded greatly during the invitation.  We also handed out wristbands that have our theme on them, and asked our people to commit to inviting people to our special day in December.  (We had cards made for this purpose)

Overall, I would have to say that I felt the people were totally engaged in all that was going on today.  There is an excitement that is totally evident in our people.  It is so exciting to be a part of that!  The energy in the singing was great today as well, even in the older songs, people were singing from their heart and so free in their worship… very refreshing to be a part of that as well.

This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

Passion and emotion? What is it good for?

November 6, 2008 in emotion, joy, passion, Uncategorized, Worship with 2 Comments

I was just sitting here thinking over the last several days.  Our nation has certainly witnessed some passion_worshipincredible things with this election.  People were passionate about the political process.  They were passionate about their candidate, their beliefs, and the change that they believe needs to come to this nation.  Emotions ran high… sometimes too high as people argued and displayed behavior that was childish and immature.  The passion and emotion that was shown during this process at times was even inspiring.  I think it is awesome to see people so motivated and inspired about the country, but I sit here and wonder what would happen if that same type of passion and emotion was displayed by those that are part of the church and call themselves Christ-followers?

Are we suppose to have passion and emotion about our faith?  Are we suppose to show that passion and emotion as we walk this life?  Are we, God forbid, to show passion and emotion even in our church services?  I think we do God, other Christ followers and those that are not Christ followers a great disservice if we do not.  Why should we contain passion and emotion as we worship our God?

Jesus said that the greatest command was to love God with all our heart, soul and mind.  I love this, because in saying it the way He did, Jesus was saying that we are to worship our God with our entire being.  With all of who we are.  The soul certainly is the seat of our spiritual longing, that which causes us to yearn for something greater than ourselves.  The mind is the part of life that processes truth, that deals with facts. The heart is the seat of our emotions.  I am SO glad that the Scripture puts it the way it does.  Many try to tell us that emotion has no place in our worship.  But to say that, we are denying the fact that God has made us emotional beings… and He did that for a reason.

  • If we only love God with our soul, we will find ourselves latching on to many things that call themselves spiritual, and will find ourselves worshipping things that have nothing to do with God.
  • If we love with only our mind, we find ourselves loaded down with facts and we can dupe ourselves into thinking we are great Christians because we know so much.
  • If we love God with only our emotions, we can substitute a feeling for obedience and rely on that to drive our Christian experience.

So, any one of these by themselves is not enough.  I believe that our spirit drives us to know the true God, and when we find Him, and realize who He is and what He has done, we worship Him with a passion and emotion that he has designed us for, and that is contagious to those that do not know Him.  Remove any of this, and you do not have a full love for God.

Before you read any more, I am not pastor bashing here.  I do not face this situation where I am at.  I have an awesome pastor to work WITH (emphasis added on purpose!).  He is awesome!

I have heard preachers say that you should not show emotion during the singing part of the service.  They say that it lets the flesh get involved (uhh, hello! emotion does NOT equal flesh), and when you get emotional, it puts the focus on you rather than God.  How stupid is that?  How contrary to how God made us!  Should we not get emotional about the cross and what Jesus had to go through there?  Should we not get emotional about the fact that we have been allowed to come into a relationship with God, and there is absolutely no reason God should have done that for us?

It seems many preachers only apply this to the music in a service.  Why only the music?  From what I have seen, the pastor usually feels intimidated because there is no response to his message.  He gets intimidated because people get excited in their worship of God through music (and other things in the service), but then offer no excitement when he speaks and there is no response during the invitation.  He should be asking himself why is there no emotion and passion from the people during his preaching or at the invitation?  I think many times it is because there is so little passion, preparation and prayer from the pastor in the construction of his message.

Think about it.  It is hard to get excited about a message that is ill-prepared, or that you have heard before… maybe even 2 or 3 times before.  So, instead of asking himself the hard question of why, he just decides if they are not going to be passionate and excited for the message, he does not want to see excitement, emotion and passion at any other time.  God forbid!  It is all about him after all.  That is called personal kingdom building, and has nothing to do with building the Kingdom of God!  Think about it, when is the last time you heard a preacher say that you should not say “AMEN” during his preaching?  Is that not an emotional response?  You bet it is, and it is no different than being emotional during music or any other time during the service.   Why would someone want to suppress something that God has made us to be?  We are emotional by design!   So, go ahead, be emotional!  God gave you permission, you do not need the pastor’s permission.

Oh, one other argument some pastor’s have made about this: showing emotion brings attention to a person and not to God.  That can happen.  People can seek attention in their worship by being emotional, and that is a wrong motivation and expression of emotion.  But do we dismiss all emotion because of someone like that?  I think not.  I have known more than one pastor that draws attention to himself in (or out of) the pulpit by trying to get the affection or sympathy of his people.  Is that any different?  Actually, I think it is worse.

Jesus said,  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Love Him with all your being.  Be passionate!  Be emotional!  If we can do it in politics, we can certainly do it when it comes to the worship of the Creator of all things!  God made us that way!

What will you do in the morning?

November 4, 2008 in God's will, politics, sovereignty, vote with 3 Comments

I am sitting and watching the election results.  It is interesting to listen to all the spin and commentary from each side of the “isle.”  Two things have struck me so far as I sit here and listen.  One thing was from Rudy Giuliani.  He was talking about what Republicans and Democrats will do tomorrow if their candidate loses.  This is not a direct quote, but essentially he said, “Tomorrow we wake up Americans, not Republicans or Democrats.  We wake up Americans and have a job to do to continue to make our country the best in the world.”  I like that attitude.  Politics can be dirty, and I am convinced that no one man is going to be the reason for the rise or fall of our country, no matter what they may have said.  In the end though, we are Americans and have an obligation to get along, fix the things that are wrong, and move forward to do the best we can.  Which leads me to my second thought so far tonight, God is in control.

Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” That is a comfort to me no matter what party is in control.  We are all but vessels that God moves and directs to fulfill His purpose.  God’s purpose and plan will accomplished, there is no doubt about that.  So what will I do in the morning?  I will be praying not only for President Bush but also either President-elect McCain or Obama.  Whoever gets elected tonight will need our prayers and the wisdom and hand of God on their life as they step in to lead the greatest country in the world in one of the most difficult times we have seen.  I believe God is up to the task, and still in control. How about you?

edited at 10:15CST to reflect election results…

It is your right and your duty! So go do it!

November 4, 2008 in politics, vote with 0 Comments

I just finished voting.  I went early, and it was pretty crowded even at 5:45!  Have you voted yet?  Are you going to?  You should!  Get to it!

Congrats to my daughter!

November 3, 2008 in joy, kids, Uncategorized with 1 Comment

jordan_daniel

She has been dating this young man for quite some time now, and last Saturday at the Marine Ball, he asked her to be is wife, and she accepted.  I am proud of her.  She was a great student in school, she has been a responsible teenager (oxymoron, I know) and I know she will make Daniel a great wife.  Daniel is a great young man, and is a Marine who serves our country in the Reserves.  He is set to be deployed next Spring.  Pray for his safety.  Pray for their current relationship and future marriage.   And pray for my wife and I as we decide what to do with her room!

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