This past week I had the opportunity to go to the Purpose Driven Worship Conference at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. It was a great opportunity for me to attend workshops on leading worship, managing worship ministries, connect with other worship leaders/pastors, and enjoy some really good music. I blogged my whole week, so if you would like to check it out go to my site. It will be like you were all there with me.
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As you can see from this video we are having an exciting week at kid’s camp. The sky is blue, the kids are great, and we are all having a good time learning more about Jesus.
I have the awesome privilege of leading worship for these camps each year, and there is one thing that consistently floors me. When it comes to worshiping God, we are getting schooled by our kids!
When these guys come to worship God there is a passion and excitement that we often lack. They don’t care who is around them, or what others think, they just let their praises to God ring out. In that moment nothing else matters but honoring God. Hmm, this sounds familiar. Wasn’t it King David who got a little crazy when he worshiped God? “David, … danced before the LORD with all his might.” 2 Samuel 6:14
Here are some other scriptures to consider:
Psalms 150 says, “Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship, praise him under the open skies; Praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his magnificent greatness; Praise with a blast on the trumpet, praise by strumming soft strings;
Praise him with castanets and dance, praise him with banjo and flute; Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum, praise him with fiddles and mandolin. Let every living, breathing creature praise God! Hallelujah!”
Let them praise his name in dance; strike up the band and make great music!” Psalm 149:2
Don’t these scriptures give you the impression that maybe our worship should be loud, exciting, physical, and passionate? When we worship God it is a response to the radical change He has made in us, and it should be expressed without reservation.
My challenge for you as we come to church this Easter, THE GREATEST EVENT THIS WORLD WILL EVER KNOW, is to follow the lead of our kids and pursue the heart of God with full force. Let’s party!!!
I had shared this past Sunday about how the song “God of this City” was written, but I wanted to give you “the rest of the story”. The following is a powerful testimony (from Bluetree) of God breathing into a song, and into a community. As we step through this Revoution series and discover the change God brings about in our own lives, it is my hope that we might pray for a revolution in our community of Chula Vista and see what God can do!
“There’s a couple from Carrickfergus, Ian and Leslie, and they moved out to Thailand to a place called Pattaya. We got asked to go and be part of an event called Pattaya Praise. Pattaya is a seaside town/resort place, and physically, it looks to be like the darkest place you’ll ever go to. And spiritually, it is THE darkest place we have ever been to. You just feel the evil. You just feel the enemy all over that place. It’s a very small place. . . But in that small area in Thailand, there are 30,000 prostitutes and that figure excludes kids and excludes anything that’s outside of the range of, say 18-30, and who are female. . .
Part of what we were asked to do was to go out and be part of an event which runs for four or five days. It had things like 24/7 worship and prayer and social action going on helping the people who clean the streets every morning. We played in a school and ministered in an orphanage and tried to get a heart for that city. As a band we were getting cold feet because we had four days in Bangkok to start, and in those four days it was great. We’d be quite hyperactive, and it was flat-out, four days; not an hour was lost to sleep in those four days. On the Sunday we managed to play in one church and it was brilliant, but we wanted more. And then when we got to Pattaya . . . we said, ‘If you can get us anywhere else to play, anywhere, we want to play. We just want to do what we do in the middle of somewhere and just go head-on into it.”
“There was a bar called The Climax Bar - on a street that’s about 10 metres wide, it’s a kilometre long and it’s filled with everything you can physically imagine. And I promise you, as a red-blooded male, to keep your head in the right place you’ve got to look down at the ground and walk down that street and pray because it is just so in your face. People hit you with menus about everything, flashing lights, just everything you can imagine goes on in that place. You see kids as young as eight, nine, 10, just selling themselves, you know?! You see 60-year-old guys walking down the street with two 13 or 14-year-old girls. Forget about the Christian thing, you just get raging! You properly get raging when you see that happening, you know?!”
. . . We got the chance to play in this bar, a two-hour worship set in this bar. I don’t think the people in the bar spoke a word of English but we basically got to go in. The deal was that we play and we bring a following of people with us; so we’re there, set up, really good gear! So we all set up and there was like 20 Christians all standing in front of us, and the deal was we play, they buy lots of drinks, alright? I don’t think the place has ever sold so much Coke in its whole life in one night!
And we got to play for two hours. And just the way the band set up, we like using loops, and at one point I just started singing out. I started singing “Greater Things”, something along those lines, almost prophesying over the city. And without going into the band dynamics, slowly this groove emerged from this thing. And long story short; we walked out of that Climax Bar with pretty much a nailed song, as strange as that sounds. Then we were on the way home.We were all. . .it was that tumbleweed silence, you know? It was like, ‘What actually just happened in that time?!’ It was one of the most powerful worship experiences we’ve ever had. I actually remember looking out, and you’re looking down a wee alleyway, into the street, and it was just 50 or 60 probably British tourists and they’re just sitting there listening going, ‘What is this all about?’ Coming from The Climax Bar which is pretty much a strip club. Just, here we are singing about Jesus in the middle of this. . . It was one of the most random experiences but it was a God thing, God was there.”
Romans 12:1 - Grace Like Rain by Todd Agnew 
All Because Of Jesus - We Shine by Fee
Made To Worship - See The Morning by Chris Tomlin
We Fall Down - One Day Live by Chris Tomlin
Praise You In This Storm - Lifesong by Casting Crowns
Your Love Is Deep - by Steve Eller (recording coming soon)
Blessed Be Your Name -Here I Am to Worship by Matt Redman
King Of Majesty - found on All To You…Live by Lincoln Brewster
You Are Good - found on All To You…Live by Lincoln Brewster
Everlasting God - found on See The Morning by Chris Tomlin
Revolution - This was originally done by The Beatles but we did a version by Rascal Flatts
Surrender - found on Surrender by Vineyard Music
Amazed - found on All To You…Live by Lincoln Brewster
Here is the set we used today:
All Because Of Jesus - Steve Fee “We Shine” (Fee)
Awesome Is The Lord Most High - Chris Tomlin “See the Morning” (Chris Tomlin)
I Will Overcome - Charlie Hall “Joel’s Window” (Charlie Hall)
Only You - David Crowder
Gone - Switchfoot “The Beautiful Letdown” (Switchfoot)
Give Us Clean Hands - Charlie Hall (1st service) “Joel’s Window” (Charlie Hall)
Majestic - Lincoln Brewster (2nd service)
Here is some pictures from a little get together we had for our worship ministry today. Friends, burgers, and a chocolate log!
Frequently I get people coming up to me after worship wondering where they can find a particular song that we used in the service. So, I will be posting our setlists each week, with direct links (if possible) to sites where you can purchase the song or record.
I will attempt to have these out each Monday (but don’t hold me to it). My hope is that as you begin to get some of this music, it will become a tool for you to use in your daily worship life. Yes, I said DAILY! As I have said many times, our worship of God is not restricted to Sundays, church or music. It is about taking time to honor God every minute of our lives.
To get you started here is a CD by the band Fee. We started using their song “All Because Of Jesus” this last week, and it is scheduled again this week. Enjoy!
See you on Sunday!
Steve
