The new Hillsong live album, Faith+Hope+Love, came out today, (or last night for those in Alaska) and I felt that it might be a good thing to chime in with some of my initial thoughts on the album, having listened to it all the way through.
It’s also a slow day as far as ideas go to keep up with NaBloPoMo.
There’s a lot of high expectations around this album from the guys down under. After the awesome-epicness that was This is Our God.
I think that off the bat, my favorite song on the CD is I Will Exalt You. Brooke Fraser sings it (that’s enough of a reason right there) and it has a beautiful and simple feel to it that build intensity but never reaches a full on anthem sound like Hillsong does so well.
I also really, really like You Hold Me Now at the end of the CD. This song is also on the United CD that came out this year, but the combined placement and arrangement of the song on this album made for a truly awesome time of worship. There’s also the time at the end singing a part of the Lord’s prayer, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
The one little thing about this album that you’ll notice in contrast to the last few live albums if the flow of songs. This album was recorded on separate nights as opposed to one night like previous albums. This leads to a few spots where it abruptly changes and goes to the next song. Other than that though, I really like this album.
This is the 18th live worship album that Hillsong has done and it doesn’t show signs of stopping soon. Their songwriters continue to write incredible songs that people across the earth can worship to. This CD, like most, will get better the more it’s listened to and I’m excited for the new songs to sing to our Lord.
Here’s another Sunday Setlist post recapping this evening’s worship service. The hub for all of the Sunday Setlist posts can be found at FredMcKinnon.com. Now, let’s get to it.
Today, I played in big church instead of leading our youth groups because CHIC is going on right now and most of our senior highers are in Tennessee taking part in that. So I got to play guitar and sing in big church today, which I love doing. It’s nice being a part of the band when you’re not the leader and not the one in charge of everything. I love leading, but it’s also nice to follow the leadership of someone else once in a while.
The setlist for today looked like this:
O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing (traditional). This was the first time I had done this song the traditional way, (not Crowder’s version). Autumn and I traded off a little bit on this song with her leading verses one and three and I sang lead on verse two. I like being able to do this kind of stuff where two different people sing lead at different times during the song.
For Who You Are into Jesus Messiah. Like the last song, Autumn and I went back and forth leading it. I led the first time through it, Autumn led the second time through, and then I picked it up again at the bridge and went until the end. From there, we did a major tempo change and transition into the chorus of Jesus Messiah and did the second half of the song.
Yesterday Today and Forever. This is a Vicky Beeching that we do pretty regularly. It’s a very good up tempo song talking about God’s faithfulness and unchanging…ness. I enjoy playing this song, but I’d like to sit down and work out some more interesting guitar parts for it, because I feel like I play the same riff for 2/3 of the song.
Fairest Lord Jesus (traditional). This was right after the sermon and was a very quite, reflective song with just piano. Ricky sang harmony on it and it sounded great.
Exalted (Yahweh). This song is pretty new in our church and is off of Chris Tomlin’s Hello Love CD. This song was great as it perfectly fit with the sermon (talking about God’s name, Yahweh), and it felt like it really connected. There’s something really cool and powerful about singing “Yahweh, holy is your name.”
Blessed Be Your Name. The last song of the service, after the offering. I led this one and forgot one of the words, but it was okay. I think this song is known well enough that it doesn’t take too much leading. One really cool part was when we got to the bridge and David, our drummer did a syncopated, half-time feel beat that was really, really cool.
There you have it. The Sunday setlist for July 12, 2009.
It was a good Sunday, I was happy to be a part of the team leading the evening service in worship.
This is my first “Sunday Setlist” post. Sunday Setlist is where worship leaders all over the world post on their blogs the songs that they did for that Sunday at Church. The central hub and directory of all Sunday Setlist posts for a given Sunday can be found over at fredmckinnon.com. Now that the intro is done, let’s get to the set for Sunday July 5, 2009.
We only had three people playing today, me on guitar, Jonathan on bass, and Kristian on drums. Sometimes, I like it when there’s only three of us playing, things are simpler and we tend to get through material faster during our rehearsal. Don’t get me wrong, nothing beats having the full band together, it’s just nice to have a little change once in a while.
The first song we did was Marvelous Light by Charlie Hall. This song is relatively new to our church, it was first introduced at the Senior High retreat back in April, but since then, the song has gained a lot of momentum. It’s been really resonating with our entire church. With the youth groups in particular, I find myself caught in between doing it a lot because of how liked it is and trying not to overdue it to where it gets met with resistance, “Oh great, this song again?”.
The next song we did was Mighty to Save by Reuben Morgan. Mighty to Save is a great transition song to get from the upbeat to the slower songs. The thing that really worked well with this one tonight was the way we transitioned into it from Marvelous Light. We do both songs in the same key, A, and after the last chorus of Marvelous Light, we stayed on a D and carried that into the start of Mighty to Save so I could just start singing the first line. It had a really good flow to it.
Next was Only You by the David Crowder Band. This was the first time I had done this song. I’ve always liked listening to it, but it was a song that was on my heart today as I was singing most of the morning, so it got put in. I felt like this was a great, true worship song. It’s simple and it’s singable. It was almost like taking a deep breath and just being with God. It was nice.
The last song we did was one I wrote back in January called Come to Us. This song has a very Fire Fall Down feel to it. This song went well, we’ve only played it once at youth group before, and the guys did a great job with it. (Side note, it’s super affirming as a worship leader and songwriter when you hear people in the congregation singing a song you wrote and singing it loudly.)
There you have it. The setlist from tonight. It was a good night and God was glorified.
A lot of people in the Christian music sphere probably know that the David Crowder Band released the first single last week for their upcoming album. The song they released is called How He Loves. Less known among the Christian music community is that the song originally written by John Mark McMillan. The story behind the song was that a great friend to John, and fellow youth leader, prayed one morning to God and said that if it would shake the youth of the nation and start a movement, he would give his life that day. He died that night in a car wreck. The next day, this song was written. Now, this song has really built up a lot of momentum since it was written. I believe it has received the biggest boost from Kim Walker and Jesus Culture version. We even played last August at one of the Heart of Worship events at Community Covenant.
Now, the thing is that the newest version of the song, released by the David Crowder Band, changes up one of the lines of the song. The lines that originally sang, “So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss” got changed to “So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss”.
Now, copyright law allows very small, minor changes to songs so that they’ll better fit the circumstances in which the song is played. And, this is a very minor change, it’s one word during a verse. But, defining a kiss as sloppy and wet makes it seem very different than unforeseen.
In regards to this specific song, I love the original lyrics. I love the imagery of Heaven just showering love on the earth, and to me, unforeseen makes it seem like a polite peck on the cheek that people sneak in on a first date; which is not the way God feels about us. He’s absolutely crazy about us and wants us to know it! So now, my question to you is a two pronged question.
Which lyric do you like better in this specific case? (Sloppy wet, or unforeseen.)
And, are you okay with changing of lyrics of songs? (Or do you hold to the belief that it was written that way for a reason?)
I’m hoping that we can get some differences in opinion going here and that’ll lead to good discussion on the subject.
It’s been almost a year since I started blogging again on one platform or another. A couple nights ago, I was looking through some of the old iWeb posts I have on my computer and found this amusing little post that I had forgotten about. This was after the third Heart of Worship toward the end of last summer. I was amused remembering what happened and then again by me trying to make it into a funny story.
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Here’s a hypothetical situation for you, the 6 people that read this, to chew on:
Say there’s a worship leader, we’ll call him Steve, and he’s the worship leader of the college age group at his church. And lets say that his group was putting on a worship event at their church in which anyone and everyone was welcome to attend. It was a big two hour event with prayer and tons of music.
During the planning of said event Dus… I mean, Steve had this hymn that he really liked, which is something because he isn’t really a “hymn guy”. Anyway he put down the hymn in the set order, we’ll just call the hymn “How Deep.” He also added the hymn because he knew that it was one of the band member’s favorite song. And knowing that, he offered to let the band member lead How Deep.
Now the week before the event How Deep was played at the evening service at Steve’s church. This was during a time of communion so Steve was having a heart-to-heart with God at the time of the song. And during the song he realized that it wasn’t the song he thought it was and that he had added the song to the set list thinking that it was a different one. We’ll call the hymn he meant to put in “Before the Throne”.
So during communion and in the mass panic in Steve’s mind as he realized that he just inserted the wrong song into the set, but didn’t want to change the order because it was pretty set, he had a little dialogue with God. This is a rough account of what went down.
Steve: Oh crap.
God: What’s up?
Steve: I added this song for the worship night thinking it was a different one!
God: Uh oh…
Steve: You’re telling me! Is there anyway you can still work your stuff and make everything turn out good?
God: I’ll see what I can do.
Steve: What does that mean?
God: …..
Steve: Hello?
God: ….
Steve: Hey, you still there?
God’s Voicemail: Hey it’s the Alpha and Omega. I’m busy at the moment but if you leave your name, location, and reason for calling I’ll be sure to get back to you soon.
Steve: That was weird.
Communion Server: Communion is over, Steve. Go sit down.
Okay, okay, so that might not have been exactly how it went down, but that’s the spark notes version of it. Long story short, the hymn that Steve accidently put in to the set actually turned out to be probably the best song of the night and it really drew people in. Steve was grateful for what God did, and immediately added the correct song, Before the Throne, to the list of songs for the next worship night.
Steve sure lucked out on that one,
Dustin
p.s. This was all hypothetical of course.
p.s.s. No seriously, it was all hypothetical.
p.s.s.s. Okay fine. I admit it, I’m Steve, and I put How Deep the Father’s Love For Us in the set list for Heart of Worship III thinking that it was actually Before the Throne of God Above. So what? Who hasn’t had an incident in which they put the wrong song in a worship set? It happens all the time I bet.
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I’ve been noticing that, in a worship team setting, it’s really nice to have someone that for the time being I’m going to call a “secondary leader” on the team. And what this person does is gives the rest of the team cues and reminders during the course of a set that the worship leader can’t do because he or she is singing and looking forward (or has their eyes closed or whatever).
If someone is a little lost as to where the song is going, the secondary leader can look back, see that the team member is unsure and give them a cue by mouthing or saying something like, “repeat” or “chorus” or “bridge”. This person can also help smoothen the ending of a song, or if the song starts to speed up or slow down, by making it more apparent with a motion that he or she makes to let the rest of the team know what’s up.
From my experience, it works best if the person is toward the front of the stage and plays a guitar or some other instrument where they have a bit more freedom to move and turn and whatnot. It’s also easier for the person to make eye contact with the other band members from the front of the stage.
Worship leaders, if you’re like me, you never had to appoint someone to do this, they just stepped up to the plate and it just comes naturally. Although sometimes you may need to ask someone to be your second in command and assist with leading the band. Either way, be thankful for these people. They share some of the weight that being the leader of a band and worship team brings and they really help in making sure the band stays together during the course of a song.
Those of you reading who have been in this role in bands that I have led, thank you. You really do make life a lot easier by not just your musical contribution, but your contributions as a leader too.
I’ve been trying this whole song writing thing for a few months now. I’ve come up with some good ideas, and a lot of bad ones. But overall, I really enjoy the process of writing music, especially working on a song with a partner and really combining what each person can bring to a new piece of music.
So far, most of the stuff I’ve written has the sound of a layer of Hillsong United, on top of that, we have a layer of Generation Unleashed, then covered in a decadent layer of Desperation Band. Put it in the oven for 4 hours at 350 degrees and when it comes out, top it off with a little bit of Tomlin and let cool overnight. And in the morning, there’s a beautiful creation of sugary deliciousness set to music. At least, that’s how I’d describe it. You might not go to those lengths to describe it.
I see a building passion in our church to go to a deeper, more intimate place during our corporate worship times. To encounter our saviour in a very real and powerful way as we love Him and let Him love on us. I believe that Heart of Worship events and songs written in our church are a part of pulling closer to God corporately and crying out with one voice.
I think this next year is going to be a very exciting one in Eagle River, Alaska.
Remember this post? Well, after being reminded by a friend, I wanted to give an update about the progress of writing the song that I mentioned in the other post. In short, the song that I have been working on for the last month is all but finished. (Which is pretty much saying that it’s finished without actually saying that it’s finished.)
I was able to write this song in a couple hours of writing spread out over a monthlong period. I feel that this song almost wrote itself; I think that this is because of God’s hand in the start of the process and this being a song that needed to be written. In the last week, the finishing touches were put on it as I met with Jesse to show it to him. We tweaked a couple things, changed a few words, and came up with an order that we like for it to flow and sound and feel the way that it’s intended to. I’m very pleased with how this process has worked out and with the finished product. I’ve written really bad songs before, and this isn’t like anything I’ve written before. It’s real. It’s raw.
The official debut of the song will be at the Heart of Worship event: More than Conquerers on January 18 at Community Covenant. It’ll be one piece of what is going to be an amazing night of worship and encountering God. I can’t wait to see what God does with this song, the worship night, and with this whole songwriting thing.
Thanks, Mindy, for reminding me to post this update. I hope the news was to your liking .
It’s no secret that my favorite band is Hillsong United. They also have a feature length documentary coming out soon talking about justice and worship. I found a trailer for it and the words spoken in it cut right to my heart. Have a look.
Real worship goes way beyond the music, it goes beyond the lights, it goes beyond the jump and dancing and lifting our hands in praise. These things are all well and good, but if our actions aren’t in line with our words, if what goes on in our churches does not affect what goes on in our world – then what’s the point of it all? The answer is simple, yet not easy. It’s to care for the widows and orphans. To speak out on behalf of those who have no voice. It’s to desire and seek out justice in a world that is full of injustice.
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
- James 2:14-18
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