Worship Reflections 12.07.08
December 7, 2008
Advent series: The Great Rescue
11/30 The Fall & the Promise
12/7 The Unrelenting Pursuit
12/14 The Savior Arrives
12/21 The Inevitable Win
Setlist/Lineup
spoken welcome & highlights
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Sing to the King
Advent Reflection
Come, Emmanuel
Message
Lord Have Mercy
O Come All Ye Faithful
Musicians
piano, acoustic, electric, bass, drums, 3 vocals
About the Songs
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (arr. from hymncharts.com): arrangement is available with full orchestration, but we weren’t that elaborate today. We added a short bridge to the song and ended by tagging the first line.
Sing to the King (Billy Foote): This is a long-standing favorite of our church. Thematically pairs well with ‘Come Thou Long….’ (a suggestion from hymncharts.com).
Come, Emmanuel (Twila Paris): this is a great, simple song we’re using around the Advent reflection each week. I was leading from the piano this week and just about single-handedly brought this song down. Like, not in a good way. For some reason the chords seemed awkward.
Lord, Have Mercy (Steve Merkel): We haven’t used this song for several years, and I wouldn’t have thought of it for Advent season if it weren’t for the theme today: God’s pursuit of us in spite of our unfaithfulness. It was a great response song after the message.
O Come All Ye Faithful (arr. Kenney, Hill, Neale) We’ve used this arrangement for several years and really like it.
Reflections
Our church keeps the tradition of lighting Advent candles each week during Advent. We don’t, however, follow the traditional/liturgical form & themes for Advent candles. This year, instead of providing the content and asking various people to read it, we have asked someone to write a reflection each week and share it. So far, our writers have done a great job.
This message series takes us through God’s entire story, from creation through Jesus’ future return, in order to set the Christmas story in a larger context. So today, the message covered the entire Old Testament (wheee….), specifically, the cycle of the unfaithfulness of God’s people and the justice & restoration extended by God. God has always pursued His people, and still pursues us today. I love this as an approach to Advent. It’s been interesting to build worship services around things like ‘creation’ and ‘the fall’ and ‘human unfaithfulness’ during a time when people want to sing ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’. But it makes us look at our music (and almost every part of our worship services) differently. Love that.
This post is a part of Sunday Setlists at Fred’s blog. Check it out.
December 7, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Not able to put my finger on it specifically, but I really enjoyed this mornings worship time. Maybe the combination of voices on stage and the cheer from the High School corner. May also be the excess of pregnancy emotions currently charging through my body. Something about being pregnant at Christmas time makes the birth story of Christ so much more personal. Just wanted to say thanks for putting so much thought into the set list and adding your thoughts to the service.
December 7, 2008 at 9:42 pm
some of the carols–no matter how much you try to rearrange the chords are awkward. Their progressions are from another time and space (beyone our I-IV-V culture)
I felt awkward today on COME THOU LONG EXPECTED JESUS–won’t do that arrangement again. At some point I was wishing I had just read it out of the hymnal.
liked the pics of your program
December 7, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Sara… thanks for your input about this morning. I love that the high school corner lights up a bit on Sing to the King! I’m glad this morning connected with you. Even if it’s related to being all with child and stuff. I DO know what you mean. #2 in our family was born on Christmas Eve. Talk about all kinds of crazy emotions and symbolism and larger respect for Mary on that donkey….
Jim… agreed on the carols. Thanks for the comment. At some point soon I’m going to try to write up a bit about our Christmas concert from the weekend.
December 8, 2008 at 7:33 am
First, thanks for dropping by my blog and your kind comment. I also like to read the story behind the experience.
I also love our youth corner. They sit down front on the left. We got a cheers during “Oh Praise Him!” and it’s always so much fun.
I really like your set list this week. Excellent choice of “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”.
December 8, 2008 at 10:11 am
Awesome setlist Kim! Wow! I haven’t done “Lord have Mercy” in a while as well. Maybe I might do that song soon. It is a great song. Keep pushing forward girl!
December 8, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Before Sunday when I saw the setlist I felt very blah about it. But in singing them as I refocused on the powerful messages of each of them, I really became overwhelmed. I love being blindsided by God like that.
December 8, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I hadn’t heard of Twila’s “Come Emmanuel” before. I looked it up after seeing it in your set, it’s a great song. Thanks for sharing, I love discovering new songs through Fred’s blog carnival.