From the Mind of MandoRon

It’s March!  Springtime is swooping in a like a roaring lion, and has given me a sinus infection…  (Since I’m still a little groggy from the Nyquil, this probably isn’t going to be a very verbose setlist description.)

March 7th brought us to the last week of the “5 Easy Steps to Wreck Your Life” series, and Mike delivered a hard-hitting message on “How to Be Dissatisfied”.   Thankfully, it was the last Sunday with country music for a while…

The setlist:

• The Climb by Miley Cyrus (walk-in)
• Breath by Jeremy Camp
• King of Glory by Jesus Culture
• God With Us by MercyMe
• Word of God Speak by Kutless
• Blessed by Martina McBride (offering)

The Climb… Yes, I know Miley Cyrus sings this, but we try not to hold it against the song…

Breath is one we hadn’t pulled out in a while.  Great rockin’ worship song!

King of Glory was a song we unleashed for the first time at Worship Night last Friday.  Great song courtesy of Jesus Culture.

God With Us seems to be a church favorite.

Word of God Speak is one we dusted the cobwebs off of last month.  It was a great song to end the worship set with.

Blessed has been suggested many times over the years, but it finally made the setlist this week because this has been a country-music-themed series and it really fit the message about being dissatisfied.

The band: 2 female and 1 male vocalist, 2 electric guitars,  acoustic guitar, piano, bass, and drums.  I’m not sure, but this may have been the first time that I haven’t played a mandolin on Sunday…  I switched off between electric and acoustic guitar.  If this keeps up, I may have to rename the blog…

Oh, and special thanks to Brian Kamps for standing in on bass this morning!  You’re welcome back anytime.

This setlist is one of many in the Sunday Setlist Blog Extravaganza over at TheWorshipCommunity.com.  Be sure to check out some of the others!

Hilarious!

If you follow Big 12 basketball at all, you’ve probably heard of Wayne Simien.  He was an All-American at Kansas several years ago.

There was a great article in The Wichita Eagle this morning about his journey to the NBA and his faith.  Check it out!  It’s well worth the read.

Powerful day at GracePoint today.  Great music!  Powerful message!  Extreme drama!  Week 3 of the “5 Easy Steps to Wreck Your Life” was about addictions and the power of God to heal you.

The eXtreme Drama team performed a very moving skit during the offering.  It illustrates how Satan uses the things of this world to stiffle our relationship with God.  The song playing during the skit was “Everything” by Lifehouse.  I’ll post a link if the video pops up on the Interweb.  [The video is now posted on Facebook!]

The setlist:

• All Jacked Up by Gretchen Wilson (walk-in)
• Never Going Back to OK by The Afters
• Pull Me Out by Bebo Norman
• He Reigns by The Newsboys
• Wasted by Carrie Underwood

All Jacked Up… I struggled with this one for a few weeks, before I finally put it in the setlist.  It was a great fit for a sermon on addiction.  If it weren’t such a sarcastic series, it probably wouldn’t have made it.  I thought it was little scary how well the band pulled off some honky-tonk…

Never Going Back to OK is a great high energy song to kick things off with and fit today’s theme as well.

Pull Me Out is a great sing-a-long song, or at least  it seemed a lot of people were singing along.   Again, a great fit for the theme today - sometimes, we need Jesus to pull us out of the messes we get ourselves in.

He Reigns is an oldie, but a goody.  People seem to really enjoy it.  (And yes Vicky, this one was for you!)

Wasted was originally supposed to be the offering song, but it got moved up to make room for the drama.  It turned out to be a great way to set up the message this week.  Christina did a great job on the vocals!

The band: one female singer, one male singer/bass player, electric guitar,  electric mandolin and acoustic guitar (me!), keys (killer piano on All Jacked Up!), and drums.

You should be able to download the worship podcast from itunes in a few days.

To see more of the Sunday Setlist blog extravaganza head over to TheWorshipCommunity.com.

Day 2 of the “5 Easy Steps to Wreck Your Life” series at GracePoint brought a pointed sermon on drifting away from God, and yes, more country music. 

The setlist:

• Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven by Kenny Chesney (walk-in)
• All Because of Jesus by Fee
• Salvation is Here by Hillsong
• Draw Me Close by Kutless
• Here is Our King by David Crowder Band
• Jesus, Take the Wheel by Carrie Underwood (offering)

Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven actually turned out pretty good for a rock band trying to play country, but then again it’s really more Jimmy Buffet than country anyway…

All Because of Jesus was quite awesome.  The arpeggiated synth thing that Rod was playing was filling up the whole room.  Gotta love stereo effects!

Salvation is Here had taken a bit of a break from the setlists, due to a little Hillsong burnout.  It’s one of my favorite Hillsong tunes, so I was glad to see it back in the lineup.

Draw Me Close is an old one that we hadn’t played in a while.  It’s been at least 2 years.  I’m too lazy to go grab the pre-Planning Center records and tell you for sure…  Great song!  We like the rocked up feel of the Kutless version.

Here is our King last showed up in August of 2008.  Wow, I didn’t intentionally resurrect songs this week…  It just kind of happened.  The band was off the chart on this one.  Stellar  job!

Jesus, Take the Wheel … this might have been the first time that Carmen ever sang country before, and she did a fantastic job.  I thought the song fit perfectly with the sermon today.  It’s almost like we planned it, or something.

The band: 1 male and 1 female vocalist, 2 electric guitars, bass, keys, and drums.

You should be able to download the worship podcast from itunes in a few days.

As always, this post is one of many in the Sunday Setlist blog carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com.