Recap from Last Week

We had a wonderful time of worship this past week as we presented "Belong", our Passion Week Concert. The meaning behind "belong" was birthed from my own personal study of the Passion account, and the theme that jumped out at me was how, after the resurrection, the disciples still belonged to Jesus and were still used by God to jump start the spread of the gospel despite their poor performance when Jesus was arrested, beaten and crucified. It just reminds us that the death of Jesus Christ is what included them (and us), not the grade they got on their report card after Jesus rose from the dead.

We had a total of 22 choir members along with guest musicians Tom Lippincott (nylon string/electric guitars), Sandy Poltarack (acoustic guitar), Rajan Purcell (bass), and Arturo Garcia (drums). Much thanks to these guys for their solid effort in learning these tunes and performing them to a "t". Here was our set list:

• God So Loved the World - arr. Benjamin Harlan


• King of Glory - Thrid Day


• The Gospel Song - Bob Kauflin


• Nothin' - Chris Rice


• O Love that Will Not Let Me Go - George Matheson/Jason Sears


• He Never Said a Mumbalin' Word - arr. Lloyd Larson


• I Thirst - Pamela Martin/Craig Courtney


• He Was Wounded - Craig Courtney


• Your Love is Extravagant - Darrell Evans


• I Belong - Kathryn Scott


• Jesus Loves Me - arr. Rick Barnes

We also had a Good Friday service in which we simplified the music to piano/choir. We did some traditional hymns such as "Jesus Paid it All" and "Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder" (Jars of Clay version). We also did my re-write to "Jesus, My Great High Priest."

For Easter, we sang Jesus Lives and So Shall I, Christ the Lord is Risen Today, Worship Christ, the Risen King, and My Jesus, I Love Thee. For the offertory, I found a choral arrangement of Chris Tomlin's I Will Rise which was nicely written. We also added a "bonus song" after the sermon which was James Ward's Just Like He Said - fun black gospel tune. Marie Randel (violin) joined our usual piano, guitar, bass, drums combo to add a different flavor. TJ preached from Acts where Paul was observing the idols in Athens and began debating with the locals about the truth of the resurrection. The main point of the sermon was this: "If the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a hoax, who would want to die for that? And if it isn't a hoax, then we cannot continue on with life as usual. We must face it and it's implications...

I've so much to write but will spread it out into other posts. Be sure to check out my blog list and read up the blog me and my wife share ("For Your Information"). There you can read about some details on our newborn, Fiona Joy!