Complete These Sentences…
- The thing I like the most about my job is…
- The thing I like the least about my job is…
I may or may not answer the questions myself. Depends on how the discussion goes. 
Sunday Retrospective - January 4, 2009
(This post is part of the Sunday Setlists blog carnival. Check out what other churches are singing around the world…)
2009!! Yikes!!
Our first Sunday of the new year has come and gone. We received lots of comments on how ‘anointed’ the worship set was…I found that interesting since I struggled personally during the service. But it just serves as another reminder that it’s not about me…I can’t MAKE worship happen, or keep it FROM happening.
Our setlist:
As Long As I Have You (Mark Roach) - A new song for our congregation, and the third song we’ve taken from Mark’s excellent “Every Reason Why” project. We played the song during the 5 minute countdown, and then immediately opened the set with it. I’ve found this is a great way to teach a new song.
Arise (Paul Baloche / Don Moen) - Wow. We’re only doing one Baloche song this week. I must not be feeling well.
You Are Near (Reuben Morgan) - This one is one of my favorites from Hillsong. There is a beautiful section with the lyric “Blessing and honor and glory and power, forever” that builds and builds. Awesome.
I Will Run To You (Darlene Zschech) - Darlene needs to learn how to write some good worship songs. 
Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Public Domain) - One of the great hymns of all time. A pretty straightforward arrangement with an upward keychange for the final verse.
We’re sending out our Worship Arts Ministry contracts this week. We basically wipe the slate clean at the beginning of the year, and let everyone out of their commitments. Then we ask them to pray and determine whether or not they believe they’re called to serve for 2009. I expect that we’ll lose a few people…but I’m hoping we’ll gain some as well.
2008 - The Year In Review
Dude. I can’t even remember what I did last week. How can I review 2008?
Let’s see what I can pull out of the deteriorating grey matter…
- My friend (and legendary bass player) Jackie Street died in February. What a loss. And I still get hits on my blog weekly from people googling his name.
- Larry Norman died in February too.
- We attended our first re:create conference. Lord willing, we’ll be headed back in 2009…that is, if our church’s spending freeze gets lifted.
- Amazingly, I offended a lot of people with my April Fool’s post about Mylon & Broken Heart getting back together.
- Saw Casting Crowns in Chattanooga in April…was tickled that Mark Hall recognized me from onstage and talked about how important Broken Heart’s ministry was in his life.
- Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter died tragically in May.
- In one of the year’s Star Trek passings, Alexander Courage died in May. He wrote the original theme song.
- I got my Yamaha KX1 keytar in June. And I STILL haven’t played the dang thing on a Sunday morning.
- Uga VI died.
- My baby girl Hannah got engaged in July. The wedding is five short months away now…
- Vacationed in Daytona.
- Isaac Hayes died in August.
- Mike Lewis, “The Jesus Painter” came to our church in August. Amazing morning.
- There was an election in November.
- Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the voice of the Star Trek computer, died in December.
Here’s a big one - we got through December with no one in OUR family dying. That was major…we needed a quiet Christmas. As Anna said, “Christmas needed to redeem itself this year”. I think it did.
What were some of your 2008 highlights?
Church In The Comics, Part II
No comment from me needed…enjoy.
Rejoice!!!
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Sunday Retrospective - December 21, 2008
(This post is part of Sunday Setlists. Check it out and see worship services from around the globe…)
One more Sunday to find a creative way to use Christmas carols. Always a challenge. But I think we did some pretty cool things today.
Lots of folks missing today. We had over 420 last Sunday for our Christmas musical. We probably dropped below 300 today. Big change in one week. But everyone seemed to engage.
Our pastor opened up with some scripture and prayer, and then one of our church members, Nina Cole, played “What Child Is This” on solo guitar (in fact, for all you guitarists out there, it was a brand new Taylor T5 Custom with a Koa top. Schweet.). She did a fantastic job, it was beautiful.
Our worship set:
Come, Now Is The Time To Worship (Brian Doerksen) with Angels From The Realms Of Glory (Public Domain) - This medley worked really well. Started with Come Now Is The Time in C, then after a verse & chorus, stayed on the C for the start of the carol’s chorus. Sang the carol in F, then tagged it with another chorus of Come Now Is The Time in F.
O Come O Come Emmanuel (Public Domain) - 4th verse only, for our Advent wreath lighting.
The First Noel (Public Domain) - did this one pretty straightforward…my arrangement has a couple of odd chords here and there for musical interest
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (Public Domain) with You Are Holy (Prince Of Peace) (Mark Imboden) - I really liked this arrangement. Two verses of Hark! in D, third verse in E, and then right into the chorus of Prince Of Peace. Got lots of positive comments on it.
Angels We Have Heard On High (Public Domain) - we rocked the Michael W. Smith arrangement.
We have a Christmas Eve service, and then it’s time to retire the fa-la-la until 2009.
The Church As Comic Strip
This is getting funny.
So you don’t have to scroll down, here’s the one from yesterday:
And here’s today:
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, 1932-2008
A sad passing for all us Star Trek nerds…not only was she married to series creator Gene Roddenberry, Majel had the distinction of having the longest Star Trek career of any actor.
In the pilot episode (”The Cage”, which was later used in the Star Trek two-parter “The Menagerie”) she played Number One
In the original series, she was Nurse Chapel
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, she did a few appearances as Counselor Troi’s mother
But the thing that gave her real longevity was her role as the voice of the computer.
She did it on the original series (uncredited), then all the rest of the series (Next Gen, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise) and in every one of the Star Trek movies.
In a very classy move, J.J. Abrams asked her to be the voice of the Enterprise computer in his re-imagining of the series. She had recently finished her voice-over work before succumbing to leukemia.
It will be great to hear her voice in the new movie come May, but if they do another movie after that, it won’t be the same…