Wow, what a week! I had my faith put to the test on Monday... praise God that I was able to stay in the light. My children continue to be the target of darkness and my grandchildren have also been in it's sight. Yet my Lord and Savior has remained the center of my attention. His word is what settles me. His work through me is what continues to give me purpose.
So imagine my disappointment mid-week when my woodwind player notified me that he'd be out again this week, after two singers and my other guitar player had already sent notice earlier. Little did I know at that time that my keyboardist would email Saturday afternoon to also cancel out. This left me with the prospect of carrying the entire service on guitar with bass and drums. A service that was designed and arranged for a larger band.
Prayer is where I turned.. which in turn delivered a fresh new keyboardist, some new arrangements and a seamless, beautiful morning of worship. As I've sung before "we never walk alone" and today was a timeless reminder for me that it's all for my good and His glory.
We opened with "Rising" [Baloche] 'E' which we had done last week.
This was followed by a call to worship Litany
We continued into a three song medley -
Fields of Grace [Evans] 'E' ... I did the first verse and chorus just on acoustic guitar before bringing the band in on the second verse.
Grace Like Rain [Newton, Collins, Excell, Agnew] 'F' ... This featured Chelsea one our young singers. She offered a great passionate version.
Do It Lord [Walker] 'C' ... I love this song and our congregation gets it.
We had a baptism today and I used "Jesus Loves The Little Children" in 'C' as the theme.
We then flowed right into "Healing Rain" [Smith] 'C' ... which ended with a statement of faith. As the statement closed I brought the "Everlasting God" theme of "strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord" as a meditative moment before the reading and message.
Message - [Luke 15:11-32] "Drop Your Pride & Shame"
Our sending song was "Amazing Grace (My Chains...) [Tomlin] 'F' ... I broke the verses down today and featured five of our singers. They all did an outstanding job.
So yeah, we had a skeleton crew today, and some last minute changes to the arrangements, a new pianist [who by the way was awesome], but all was well. Praise Him!
Pray on,
Eddy
This is part of the Sunday Setlist Blog Carnival found at Fred McKinnon's Worship Community.
It's frustrating when personnel don't show up. Glad you were able to work through it, even sounding peaceful about the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteI've been there people canceling out at the last minute, so your left rearranging or switching the set-list to accommodate the scaled down band. God is faithful and it always works out.
ReplyDeleteRising, Everlasting God, and AG(MCAG) are regulars at my church. Eddy, I pray that Satan be bound from your family and from seeking to affecting the worship at your church. Blessings!
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