June 8, 2008 Worship Set

I think if you look at the worship sets we play, you'll start to see a trend: Desperation Band, Hillsong, Tim Hughes, New Life Worship... This weekend's set is no different. I have been borrowing ideas from Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines, our sister/parent church. It saves me time and energy to piggyback off of their work plus they have been picking some really great songs lately.

Here's the worship set for this weekend:

Call to Worship:

• Everything to God by Desperation Band - I'm not sure who the original writer is of this tune is but I imagine it's either Glenn, Jared or Jon. Just a lucky guess. This is a great, fast-paced tune that leaves me pretty breathless by the end. You definitely feel like jumping up and down to this one.

Worship:

• "Glorious God" by New Life Worship - I really like this tune. It's got a cool guitar riff and has kind of a moody, emotional sound to it. But I love how it builds into the chorus. It's definitely a moving song.
  
• "Almighty God" by Tim Hughes - one of regular songs by the one and only Tim Hughes!
  
• "Hallelujah to my King" by Paul Baloche - We played one of Paul's other tunes "Our God Saves" a few weeks ago. This tune is slower and more reflective. It has a hymn feel to it but it's definitely modern stylistically.
  

Offering:

• "Living for your Glory" by Tim Hughes - Imagine that. I picked another Tim Hughes song. My wife really loves this song but it's entirely WAY too high for the church. It has a great message about our calling in life...to bring God the glory.
  

June 1, 2008 Worship Set

Thank goodness for shuffle on iPods. That's how I stumbled onto one of Jeremy Riddle's tunes when I was struggling to figure out what to play this weekend. I was really impressed how "Hallowed Father" came together with the band...it was pretty tight. I probably should have saved it for the week later (Father's Day) but it was meant to be played this week instead. ;)

Here's the set list for this weekend's services.

Call to Worship:

• "Hallowed Father" by Jeremy Riddle - Jeremy is a great singer/songwriter with the Vineyard Church. He's mostly famous for writing "Sweetly Broken" which is another great tune.

Worship:

• "My Savior Lives" by Jon Egan and Glenn Packiam - Desperation Band. Do I need to say much more? They are a staple of our worship music and they just simply rock!
  
• "Mighty to Save: by Rueben Morgan - there are lots of versions of this tune out there but we mostly align with the Hillsong United version. Rueben is an awesome singer/songwriter and worship leader!
  
• "Glorified" by Jared Anderson - Another Desperation Band worship leader. What's this telling you? ;) This tune is off of his new album entitled "Where Faith Comes From" which I've listened to a lot lately. It was the first time we sang it and it seemed like the church really grooved to this tune so we'll keep it around.

Offering

• "Till I See You" by Joel Houston and Jad Gillies - I'm sure I've spoken of Joel Houston before since he writes a ton of great tunes for Hillsong. Til I See You is a great worship tune that builds and has an amazing tag at the end.
  

New Albums

I couldn't contain myself. My gift certificates to Amazon.com and iTunes were burning a hole in my pocket so I picked up three really great albums last night.

Eddie Kirkland has an album out entitled "Orthodoxy" that I stumbled upon when I was looking for versions of "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan. Eddie is a worship leader at North Point Church. And yes, his version of "How He Loves" is awesome.

After I stumbled on Eddie's album, I was perusing through the list of albums that other users purchased and stumbled onto Brett Younker whose album "This Is Life" is fantastic. He's like a US-version of Tim Hughes. In fact, he covered "Holding Nothing Back" by Huges on this project. Brett also happens to be a worship leader at North Point. Seeing a trend?

Lastly, I grabbed Al Gordon's EP entitled "Future Sound." I was familiar with most of his songs since he featured them on worshipcentral.org but he rearranged most of them and they sound much different mixed in a studio. It's another fantastic album.

I'd say all three are must-haves.