How He Loves – John Mark McMillan
Another Hallelujah – Lincoln Brewster
Mighty To Save – Reuben Morgan, Ben Fielding

It was the first time I’ve used How He Loves. I really enjoyed playing it but the arrangement is a little difficult for people to follow. I will have to play about with it before using next week at our third preview service.

Here’s a slew of recent reviews over at The Joint.  Check them out if you’re itching to freshen up your current music library.

For me, this is the definition of a worship album

It’s new, fresh and totally engages you in worship

If you are a Matt Maher fan you will probably love this album

A great worship cd/dvd package that hopefully will propel Tim Hughes’ music throughout the United States and beyond

A solid album, perhaps lacking a little excitement

Service Notes

It has happened again!  Story Church hosted it’s second public service at Spring Valley Elementary School in Durham, NC.

How did we do against the points raised in our debrief meeting from Preview #1?

1. We all had jobs assigned and setup seemed to be much faster.
2. We had less obstacles this time – but this can always change!
3. We agreed a time when everything should be complete, to give us time to pray as a team and take up our positions before everyone arrived.
4. We had a better sized, and a way groovier screen this time.
5. I think transitions worked a lot better this time but there is still room for improvement here.
6. We are still borrowing from other sound systems, but getting closer to our goal.
7. We used a much better approach with the connection cards this time – i.e. mention it during announcements but let everyone fill them out in their own time.
8. We didn’t fumble when talking about the offering.
9. We had a different drummer this time and it still worked out great.  I loved flowing seamlessly from one song into another.  I’m still not sure people understand me when I talk!  I wanted to ask people to stand.  I should have asked people to stand.
10. Even though it’s hard work at times, it is exciting and fun to be a part of this.  That’s for sure!

Set List

• Praise Is Rising – Brenton Brown / Paul Baloche
• For Who You Are – Marty Sampson
• Announcements
• Glory To God Forever – Steve Fee / Vicky Beeching
• Holy Is The Lord – Chris Tomlin
• Cannons – Phil Wickham
• Message
• Praise Is Rising – Brenton Brown / Paul Baloche

Next Time

Our next preview service is on November 15 at 10am.  Note the time change.  The last two preview services were in the evening.  The next one will be in the morning and it’s going to be different for a few reasons.

• We will need to get up early to setup.  Boo.  ;-)
• The room will be lighter.
• Our pool of musicians may be smaller as people have commitments to other churches.
• Our congregation may be smaller as people have commitments to other churches.
• A few of us will need to know more about sound setup than we currently know.
• I’m flying to the UK straight after the service!

Christy Nockels is a female vocalist and worship leader who over the years has been involved in the passion movement.  This is her first solo album outside of that and it’s great (in my humble opinion).

Her album contains a number of cover songs which has spawned a debate on The Joint on whether artists should record cover songs or not.  What do you think?  Head over there for the full review and participate in the conversation!

Visit The Joint for the full review of Hope Rising.

• Praise Is Rising – Paul Baloche / Brenton Brown
• From The Inside Out – Joel Houston
• Take All Of Me – Marty Sampson
• Surrender – Marc James

I led worship for Refuge Student Ministries tonight.  I loved reviving some old songs that I haven’t played in ages.  “Praise Is Rising” is new for me, so I’m playing that everywhere right now.  “From the Inside Out” and “Take All Of Me” are absolute classics and “Surrender” is a great worship song that fitted great with tonight’s theme.

Yes, the age old argument.  I’ve never been too fussed either way whether a worship leader keeps their eyes open or closed.  A bit of both works for me usually.

However last night I watched a video that made me think that the eyes OOpen thing can get a little weird.  Now, I like Chris as much as the next worship leader, but now I have his wee face burned into the back of my retinas after watching this.  In-flip-in-tense.

• Praise Is Rising – Paul Baloche / Brenton Brown
• For Who You Are – Marty Sampson

I introduced Praise Is Rising tonight.  I’ve been meaning to play it for ages and was reminded again recently when I reviewed the new Brenton Brown CD.  Everyone seemed to like the song, so it will definitely make the setlist for our 2nd preview service.

There is only one week left now to Oct 11 and we still need a drummer!  No panic!

Update Oct 05, 2009: We have a drummer.

(story church)

I’m involved in a church plant and we hope to launch after a series of preview services on January 10 2010.  Church plant people will know that money does not grow on trees, so we need to come up with lots of imaginative ways to save cash.

One way of saving money is to write our own church database system.  This will end up potentially saving us $$$ every month that would normally go to a company like Fellowship One.

Initially our system will allow us to record adults and kids attending our services, and record giving.  The system will also provide a range of reports and email functionality.

I hope to chronicle the development of this system – codenamed StoryChurchDB – over at my geek blog snowjunkiedev.wordpress.com.  In the future we will probably look at making it generic and available to other churches, so please feel free to suggest features you’d love to see.

I just ran across this cool site for printing blank sheet music.  There is lots of various options including time signatures and key signatures that can be added.

Yes, we’ve been busting to tell you how good this album is for a while now.  Hope Rising is only the 2nd album ever on The Joint to get a perfect score.  The Fee boys have produced something very great here.

Visit The Joint for the full review of Hope Rising.