[24 Jun 2009 | No Comment | 68 views]
Worship Ministry Catalyst Podcast - Episode 0039 - Piano Workshop Part 1 (of 2)

Pianos, Pianos everywhere and not a key to plunk. This episode is the first of two in our first workshop on playing piano in the worship band. In a lot of contemporary worship music, keys tend to be harder and harder to come by. Not anymore, keys are making a comeback, baby!
We do some talking [...]

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[10 Jun 2009 | No Comment | 124 views]
Worship Ministry Catalyst Podcast - Episode 0038 - Flow

Do you know what I’m talking about? You know….(long awkward pause)…. quiet song …… (long awkward pause with weird, random instrument noises) …. Loud song (scared to death from the shock of the loud sound, heart rate jumps through the roof). …..   beuler….beuler….  Etc.
Picking up from last week’s episode we’re talking once again about creativity, [...]

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[3 Jun 2009 | No Comment | 151 views]
Worship Ministry Catalyst Podcast - Episode 0037 - Creativity

Routine, Rut, habit, pattern, whatever you like to call it, we all get into them. Well, this week, we’re trying to Bust Out. Not necessarily on the podcast, but in our Worship Services. Have you found yourself there? You want to be creative, you want to do things that people aren’t expecting, and you want [...]

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Weekend Review »

Kevin’s Weekend Review: 6-28-09
[29 Jun 2009 | No Comment | 18 views]

Happy Summer Day to everyone!  The sun is out, and it’s a beautiful day in Vancouver, Washington.  Yesterday was a good day for our Worship Service at Laurelwood, but I’ll admit that it felt a little off.  I don’t know if any of you have ever experienced this, but the practice was great and things were just clicking and feeling good.  But then when the actual service rolled around, it felt… a little off.  Kind of flat.  I don’t know how to explain it.

I have to remind myself that our worship of Jesus is not contingent on feelings, but it’s hard when you’re not getting that “feeling”.  Do you know what I mean?  Don’t get me wrong: the service was good and people were connecting with God… it just didn’t feel as “powerful” as it did during practice.  I know that probably sounds terribly unspiritual; but that’s how I felt about it.

So here’s what we did:

  • Your Grace is Enough(Matt Maher; Chris Tomlin cover)
  • Testimony from Junior High Camp
  • Missionaries in town (David and Catherin Love)
  • Be Thou My Vision (my arr.)
  • All Creatures of our God and King (David Crowder arr.)
  • Holy is the Lord (Chris Tomlin)
  • Holy is the Lord(Vineyard; Jeff Searles I think)
  • Message: “Dealing with Anger” (Guest speaker: Jim Draper)
  • Closing: Holy is the Lord Reprise

We had a layperson in our church give the message on Sunday; he’s spoken a couple times and also teaches a Sunday School class.  He does a great job and is a great teacher… I always like it when Jim shares from God’s word.  To find out what others are doing on Sunday mornings, check out Fred McKinnon’s blog.  God bless!

Weekend Review »

Weekend Review - 06-2728-09
[28 Jun 2009 | No Comment | 24 views]

Do you ever have one of those feelings? You know, when you haven’t heard from your drummer all week, and an hour and a half before the rehearsal is supposed to start, you give them a call to confirm, and they’re out on the lake? Yeah….so…..

We had two different drummers, one for Saturday evening and one for Sunday morning. They both did great, especially considering the extremely little time they had to rehearse.

We had a full band this week, we had two acoustics. I’ll be splitting these guys up though. I had paired a new guy with one of our more seasoned-chord-fiends for a while to get his feet wet, but this weekend he reached the place where he was comptent on his own and the challenge of working a band with two acoustics outweighed the risks of putting him on his own. So, next time around, he’ll be on his own.

I have to confess, I haven’t been preparing as much for worship as I should have been. This week I did though, and it did pay off. Especially for my vocals. I still had my share of pitchy parts, but the whole was better than previous weeks. I just realized this week why my voice is so much weaker now than it was. Aside from all the sinus & Allergy problems I’ve been having, I’m not singing nearly as much. I used to have both choir and worship band rehearsal once a week, now I’m just down to worship rehearsal, so I’m not working my voice as much as I should. So, this week, I’ve been singing with a lot of Steven Curtis Chapman & doing vocal workouts as well, they’re both really paying off.

Here was our Set:

  • Today is the Day
  • All We Need
  • Missions Prayer
  • All who are thirsty
  • Rescue
  • Sermon
  • Breathe.

The sermon is part of our series on the Lord’s prayer. This week was about God providing our daily bread, being our source of life. We really focused on the “You are my Daily Bread.” portion of breathe and it really seemed to connect with people. Great weekend.

For more weekend reviews, check out Sunday Setlists at Fred’s Place.

Weekend Review »

Kevin’s Weekend Review: 6-21-09
[22 Jun 2009 | No Comment | 42 views]

So, things went pretty smooth on Sunday… much better than a couple weeks ago!  If you remember, two weeks prior, we went super long and we ended our service almost 30 minutes late.  I’ve been determined to help keep things on track the last couple weeks, so this Sunday we did a few less songs than normal (no special music) and I made sure to not make any comments that would just take up time.

On the positive, we ended right on time and everything flowed very smoothly.  But in a way, I kind of feel like I cheated.  I don’t know how to explain it.  Maybe part of it is because we did less songs, so I don’t really feel like I had to put as much into the service.  Maybe another part of it is because I had one of the gals on the worship team leading 3 of the 5 songs.  I’m not sure what it is… but I just don’t feel like I had as much invested this Sunday.  Anyone else ever feel that way?

But like I said, we ended on time which was a huge plus.  Here’s what our service looked like:

  • Days of Elijah (Robin Mark)
  • Welcome
  • Mission Focus: Summer Workers for VBS
  • Prayer for Offering
  • Beautiful One (Tim Hughes)
  • Forever (Nails in Your Hands) (Richard Cimino I think… it’s an old Calvary Chapel tune I used to sing in Junior High :) )
  • Before the Throne of God Above (Great modern day hymn; not sure off the top of my head who wrote it.  It’s very similar to “In Christ Alone”)
  • Majesty (Delirious… one of my favorite worship songs.  Our church loves this tune, and we really rocked it out on Sunday!)
  • Testimony on Communication
  • Message on Communication: Proverbs 18:19-22
  • Father’s Day Presentation

Considering that there was a lot of things going on (Testimony, Father’s Day presentation), I was very happy to end on time… now I just have to balance how to feel invested in all aspects of the worship service.  For more weekend reviews, check out Fred McKinnen’s Blog.