Moon Valley Bible Church Worship ::: June 13/2010 Weekend Recap

Welcome To Summer In Phoenix!!!

I kicked off Summer (OK, technically a week early) by leading worship at Moon Valley Bible Church this weekend.  I worked with their band and led at both the 9:00 & 10:30 AM services.  It was fun to have a gig close to home, literally 3 miles from where we live in Phoenix.

I wasn’t able to talk about World Vision because they recently sent one of their pastors to Uganda and they’re trying to sponsor kids from the project they’re involved in because of that trip.  Great to see kids getting help and people doing their part to help engage in the global community.

Here is the set list:

My Savior Lives (New Life Worship)
Your Name (New Life Worship)
Revelation Song (Gateway Worship)
You Gave Your Life (Andy Allen)
Today Is The Day (Lincoln Brewster)

What are you doing this Summer?

CCS Worship ::: May 1-2/2010 Weekend Recap

Thought I would share a quick pic from the hotel we stayed at last week in MN.  I’ve never had a hotel give me a rubber ducky before and thought this was hilariously awesome!!!

So, now that I’m kind of in-between things, my schedule has opened up a bit for me to help out different churches as they’ve got the need.  Recently I’ve had the opportunity to get to know David Bauer, worship leader for CCS (Christ’s Church of Scottsdale) and this weekend I was able to give him a small reprieve and lead in his place.

It was treat to play with the guys in the band at CCS.  Pro players who were just a blast to hang out with.  Thats one of the things that I’ve really enjoyed in my time as a touring artist, getting to connect with so many great players.  I’ve also had the pleasure of working with a lot of not-so-great players too…but that’s a story for another day.

Here is the set list:

Today Is The Day (Lincoln Brewster)
All Because Of Jesus (Steve Fee)
Awesome Is The Lord Most High (Jon Abel)
The Stand (Hillsong United)
Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone (Chris Tomlin)
Back At My Heart (Natalie Grant)

Hope your week is filled with rubber ducky’s!

Andy

Eagle Brook Church [Blaine] ::: April 24-25/2010 Weekend Recap

I was up in Minneapolis, MN with Eagle Brook Church last weekend.  I flew in on Wednesday to spend some time with their worship/creative arts staff and get a sense for how ministry looks and feels in this multi-campus church of 13,000+.  It was very cool to see how their operations first-hand and meet the teams in place.

Through my years of touring and working with so many different types and styles of churches, I definitely feel more connected to churches that are really dialed into their purpose and reaching people with intentionality.  More than just liking to “do church” because “that’s the way we’ve always kind of done it,” I love to see a church focused on a cause and compelled to reach the culture and community around them with the love of Jesus.  This definitely exists at Eagle Brook.  I am completely moved to know that more than 525 people made a first-time decision to follow Jesus over the Easter weekend this year because the team at Eagle Brook Church presented Jesus to the people there on purpose.

I was fortunate to get to lead worship for their new Blaine Campus on Sunday night.  Blaine is kind of in a pre-launch phase.  The four services at their Spring Lake Park Campus are completely packed out, so there is a need to relieve some of the attendance pressure there before they are able to launch at the new facility in Blaine this coming fall.  I got to have some of their top players back me up and really had a great time with the set.  The audio, lighting, media and IMAG crews were top notch as well and really made the experience a pleasure.

I got to learn a new song for this week too, Awakening by Switchfoot.  It was fun to take on a bit of a departure from some of the material I do on a more regular basis, made all the better because the band was great and right there rocking it.  Here is the set we did:

Today Is The Day (Lincoln Brewster)
Awesome Is The Lord Most High (Jon Abel)
All Because Of Jesus (Steve Fee)
Jesus Paid It All (Kristian Stanfill)
Awakening (Switchfoot)

If you live in the northern Minneapolis/St. Paul areas, definitely take the time to check out a service at Eagle Brook.  I’m excited to see what God continues to do in and through their ministry in the years to come.

Someone told me it gets cold in Minnesota….and that they like cheese….thoughts?

Andy

Easter Worship ::: April 2-4/2010 Weekend Recap

Easter in the church world is a pretty big deal.  Lot’s to do and plan for because there are so many people who visit church on this weekend.  It’s kind of a cool opportunity to connect with the people who might only check out a church once or twice a year.  Ultimately it’s a big deal not just because people tend to show up, but because they might be more open to spiritual things and we can introduce them to Jesus.  That’s what motivates me!

We had a Good Friday service to set aside some time to remember and reflect on what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross.  Some worship, communion and an illustrated sermon by our ministry team…pretty sweet.

Good Friday set list:

Jesus Messiah (Chris Tomlin)
The Wonderful Cross (Matt Redman)
The Old Rugged Cross (Traditional Hymn)
Once Again (Matt Redman)

Saturday was pretty crazy.  I sang in a wedding at the church right before the evening rehearsal and service.  We had to quickly turn the stage and reset to rehearse the band and have service.  Sunday we had a “Sunrise Service” in the courtyard outside which added to the work for our tech team.  It’s funny to me that we call it a sunrise service because the sun has actually been up for almost 2 hours….tradition (insert Fiddler On The Roof tune here.)  Our two main services were packed out and went great.  I love the energy that happens in services on Easter.

Here is the set from our main Easter services:

My Savior Lives (New Life Worship)
Savior (New Life Worship)
Nothing But The Blood (Traditional Hymn & Matt Redman’s Chorus)
Jesus Paid It All (Kristian Stanfill)
Christ The Lord Is Risen Today (Aaron Senseman)
The Saving One (Starfield)

I absolutely love this new song from Starfield, The Saving One:

“His Love Has Made A Way / The Grave Is Overcome / Jesus Is The Christ / The Saving One”

Happy Easter!

Living Streams Worship ::: March 27-28/2010 Weekend Recap

Palm Sunday.  I spent some time thinking about how the people celebrated Jesus coming into Jerusalem.  It hit me that what is this huge event written about in the Bible was pretty much a spontaneous thing.  There wasn’t a programming director calling cues and coordinating the entrance at just the right moment with lights and music playing.  People got happy because they saw Jesus…they saw God riding into town on a little donkey.  How cool is that!

I’m wondering why we seem to need so much encouragement to show up and get excited about spending time with God in our church services?  I’m guilty.  But then there are the times when I’m super pumped about getting to spend time worshipping Jesus with a bunch of other people who share my faith and then it seems like they’re kind of “whatever” about getting to connect with God together.  It’s confusing.  I’m trying to sort it out, I guess.

Any thoughts you might want to share on that?

Here is my set list from this weekend:

Hosanna (Paul Baloche)
Today Is The Day (Lincoln Brewster)
The Stand (Hillsong United)
The Saving One (Starfield)
Hosanna (Hillsong United)

OK, this is weird.  I went to get a link from iTunes for The Stand, but it seems that all Hillsong material has been pulled from the iTunes store.  Anyone know why?