Sunday Retrospective - August 17, 2008
(This post is part of the Sunday Setlist blog carnival. Check it out and see what churches are doing all over the world…)
Amazing.
If there’s any possibility of bringing Mike Lewis (The Jesus Painter) to your church, do it. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Do it.
In addition to Mike doing three paintings, the other elements included twelve songs, two videos, a choral reading, and communion.
We ended up doing quite a bit of Paul Baloche (surprise, surprise)…the lyrics of each song just fit perfectly for where we were going. Paul is such a gifted writer and worship leader…he doesn’t write any stinkers.
Our worship set (links to iTunes where available):
Because Of Your Love (Paul Baloche / Brenton Brown) - This is a new song, and we played it during our five minute countdown. We’ll probably bring it back next week for people to sing along.
First set:
Doxology (Public Domain)
All Praise And Honor (Paul Baloche)
Agnus Dei (Michael W. Smith) - Anna’s been hearing some great medleys in her head lately. This one was her idea too. We went through Doxology once (over an open E string pad), very slowly, with space between each line for the violin to answer…right into All Praise And Honor, one verse and two choruses…then right into Agnus Dei, verse and twice through the chorus.
We then ran a silent video from SermonSpice.com called “Are You Here?” - check it out, it’s pretty cool.
Right from the video, we went into Mike doing his first painting, “Christ Eyes” (click the picture for a closer look).
Second set:
Choral scripture reading
Our God Saves (Paul Baloche / Brenton Brown) - The first up-tempo song of the morning…coming out of this painting it fit really well both lyrically and musically.
Your Name (Paul Baloche / Glen Packiam) - I think it really made an impact on our worshipers to be singing the words of this song while looking at this painting center stage.
We used our second video here - a clip of spoken-word artist Amena Brown, called “Masterpiece“.
Mike’s second painting, “Intimate Portrait”, began here.
At the completion of the painting, our pastor came up to explain and set up communion. Our intention was for people to come forward, get the elements, and receive them individually either at the altar or their seats. We didn’t communicate that very well, and lots of people went back to their seats and just held the elements, waiting. So Jim got back up during the music and directed those people to partake. A little train-wreck, but it wasn’t a big deal. We played these songs back-to-back for communion:
Great Redeemer (Paul Baloche)
You Gave Your Life Away (Paul Baloche / Kathryn Scott)
Through It All (Reuben Morgan)
After communion, the third painting, “Proof To Thomas”.
We then had eight girls and guys do a sign-language interpretation of “Redeemer” by Nicole C. Mullen. Honestly, I’ve never liked the song (well, that’s not entirely accurate. I liked it the first time I heard it. Then Christian radio ran it into the ground, and I got really sick of hearing it.), so I wasn’t really looking forward to this element of the service. But I was wrong…it was beautifully done, and after the completion of this painting, very powerful. We moved right into our closing celebratory set:
Everlasting God (Brenton Brown) - (we do Chris Tomlin’s arrangement of all three of these songs…)
Your Grace Is Enough (Matt Maher)
Let God Arise (Chris Tomlin)
All in all, one of the most exciting and creative services we’ve done. Added bonus - Mike donates one of the three paintings to the church, and sells the other two. Some of our church members bought the other paintings, and are donating them back to the church. So we’ll have the entire set to display. Very cool.
(I’m recycling this post for Creative Chaos as well…)
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Comments
Mike sounds pretty cool, and great video from Sermon Spice… did you keep the team silent through it or did play softly underneath it?
Whoa - sounds like an awesome service! Wish I could have been there….I’m going to look into this guy’s ministry.
Thanks - great ideas, awesome creativity. Good stuff.
Silence is so underrated sometimes! I fall into that trap of having to play through everything and not allowing God to work through the silence! Good on you mate!
Paul,
I’m a huge Mike Lewis fan. Not only does his painting rock, but he’s just a really great guy.