Sunday Setlist - March 28 (Palm Sunday)

Wow...   I don't even know where to begin with this one.  This Palm Sunday was so busy and chock-full of Holy Ghost excitement, it's still like a blur.  Three churches, two sets, one choir performance, one preaching and  a hundred miles of driving, all packed into 15 hours.   Whew...

So we'll start at the beginning  - with the setlist.

Opening:

Hosanna (Tuttle)(G)

Main Set:

All Because of Jesus (Fee)(C)
All About You (Houghton/Cruse-Ratcliffe)(E)
Say So (Houghton/Gungor)(E)
Hosanna/Here I Am to Worship (Fraser/Hughes)(E)

Offering:

You're Worthy of My Praise (Ruis)(C)

So we started off the day (after rehearsal) leading worship at the Lighthouse Fellowship Church, which we do twice a month.  We love these guys, and we love being able to help this church plant get started.  We did a three-song set of "All About You" "Say So" and "Here I Am to Worship"

Back to Gospel Light.  I have to say that this week was the best worship service I have experienced in quite awhile.  Not just the music (although it was completely Off. The. Hook.)  But the way the worship flowed yesterday, there was a huge feeling of release in the congregation - it was loud, it was boisterous, it was... amazing.

Daniel was down from school for the weekend, and we had Chris join us on bass, so we had a full band for the first time in a couple of weeks, and we made use of it.  The theme for Palm Sunday (obviously) was Jesus.   We pulled out the old-school Carl Tuttle version of "Hosanna" for the walk-in.  Great song, especially on a Palm Sunday, and one we used to sing a lot back in the day.

I had done the setlist early in the week, but Friday came up with the thought to medley "Hosanna" with "Here I Am to Worship."   It worked like this:  we sang "Hosanna" pretty much straight-up the way we usually do.  At the end of the song, we had Aquim keep that distinctive beat going.  Daniel came in with the chorus to "Here I Am to Worship" - just drums, acoustic and one voice.  Then the first verse, adding bass, and finally back to the chorus with all the singers and electric.  We did the whole song like that - acoustic in the verses and full-out in the chorus.   When we got to the tag ( ...just call upon the name of the Lord...), Josh started singing it by himself with just a kick drum, slowly building to a full crescendo.  It was great.  I wish we had recorded it.

It was my turn on the preaching rotation.  My message was out of Mark 11 - Jesus cleaning the temple and cursing the fig tree.  The main gist was an exhortation for the church to take advantage of the opportunity that Holy Week and Easter present to reach outside the walls of the church - to clean out their "outer courts" and make room for new people.

After service, we all loaded up and drove down to the Bronx in New York City for the launch service of our church plant, Good News Christian Church.   GNCC has about 15 regular members at this point, but we filled the rented space with around 200 people for the launch with several different HFC churches and invited guests, plus some people from the neighborhood who were coming in to see what was happening.  The picture at the right is part of that service.   I played with our choir, Send Judah First, as part of the celebration.

It was a long day, and I was sore and exhausted afterwards, but give me that anytime.

Check out other recaps at The Worship Community.