From the Mind of MandoRon

Happy Easter!  It only takes three letters to describe this morning’s services, and two of them are “w”…

WOW!

We wrapped up the “Reveal” series by asking the question “Can you see him?”  And not just in a metaphorical sense either!  We’ve been using some black lights and otherwise-invisible paints throughout the series. 

This week, a very talented artist (Travis?) airbrushed a picture of Jesus on the cross for use during the service.  And of course, you could only see it when the black lights where turned on.  Also, the band painted t-shirts yesterday that glowed under the lights.  And if that wasn’t enough… the ushers passed out 3D glasses  to everyone as they came in.  The figure of Jesus seemed to float several feet in front of the cross (or so I’m told).

And the music was awesome!  (But I might be a little biased…)

The setlist:

• Time After Time - Spoken cover of Cyndi Lauper (walk-in)
• Rise and Sing - Fee
• See His Love - Kim Walker-Smith
• Here is Our King - David Crowder Band
• Finally I Surrender - Misty Edwards
• Come Alive - Foo Fighters (offering)

Time After Time was a new one for us, although I’d been wanting to do it for a few years.  It was a fun, rocked-up version of Cyndi Lauper’s famous ballad.  Until a few days ago, we had this one slated for the offering.  More on that later.

Rise and Sing was another new one.  It’s an awesome song off of Fee’s newest album, and makes a great call-to-worship.   Good way to get everyone singing right from the beginning.

See His Love was very appropriate for Easter.  The lyrics do a great job of telling of the love the Christ showed for us when He died on the cross.

Here is Our King … one of my favorite Crowder tunes.  We’ve been using it off and on for several years.

Finally I Surrender is one we introduced at the first worship night back in January.  Christina’s vocals were amazing!

Come Alive was the third new song this morning.  It seems like the Foo Fighters wrote this song for Easter, although I doubt that was what they had in mind…  Powerful lyrics!  I loved in the second service when people started clapping and cheering as Gil screamed out  “Come alive, come alive, come alive…”  The song was a late addition to the setlist (four days ago).  In fact, none of us had ever heard the song until about ten days ago.  The lyrics fit the theme too well to not put it in though.  Definitely one of the harder songs we’ve ever played before, but well worth it.  The band really stepped up their game this week.

The band: two vocalists (plus I sang some BGV’s on Rise and Sing), two electric guitars (I played one of them), bass, keys, and drums. 

This was the second time in a row that I’ve played guitar only.  I enjoyed playing my new (to me) Stratocaster, but I’m definitely gonna have to break out some mandolin next week…

That’s all folks!  Hopefully, you’ll be able to check the music on itunes in a few days.

Be sure to check out what other churches are doing at the Easter Setlist Extravaganza on TheWorshipCommunity.com.

HE IS RISEN!

I was harassed this week about the lack of Sunday Setlist posts recently…  So here goes!

Today was week 3 of the “Reveal” series.  It was also my last day running sound (for a while anyway), but that’s a bit off-subject…

The music:

• The Reason - Hoobastank  (walk-in)
• King of Glory - Jesus Culture
• Speaking Louder than Before - Jeremy Camp
• From the Inside Out - Hillsong
• God With Us - MercyMe
• Become Who You Are - Mainstay (offering)
• Speaking Louder than Before (exit)

The band:  two lead vocals, one background vocal, piano, two electric guitars, bass, and drums.

The Reason …  Interestingly we’ve been doing this one for several years, but I just started hearing a cover by Julian Drive on Christian radio.  Great lyrics!

King of Glory is one of my favorite worship songs currently, but I don’t think we’ll stick it at the beginning of the worship set again.  The song takes too long to build up…

Speaking Louder than Before is finally starting to grow on me.  Probably should have opened up the worship set with it instead.

From the Inside Out is also one of my favorite worship songs.  We’ve been using the original Hillsong version, but I think for next time, maybe we’ll try the Seventh Day Slumber cover that is on the radio.

God With Us was probably the best song of the morning.  You could really feel people worshipping during these last two songs!

Become Who You Are…  I love to hear Carmen sing this one.  We used to do this one a lot, but not so much recently.  Awesome song with some great dynamics to it!

As always, you can find more Sunday Setlists over at TheWorshipCommunity.com.  And you can find GracePoint worship set podcasts for some Sundays on itunes.

Have an awesome week!

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!

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.