Easter service was good, there is no service like it. Although at first we ran into some difficulties getting the doors open to the bar, yet we were able set up in less then 40 some minutes (thats incredible) God knows this is something we wanted to improve and when we least expected we would, we did!….Our new set up went well, we had bass lines/electric guitar/drums/acoustic guitar/piano/synthesizer… Donald also did great playing the bass lines/piano/synthesizer parts of the songs. The Holy Spirit is really helping us grow by taking baby steps. Recalling our practices for this service, I will not forget how Donald and I had great spontaneous moments of worship in our practices making them memorable segments of the month of March.

Hearing Derek speak was also an amazing experience, as there were times in the message that I could sense the intesity of the message, weather it was through a higher tone of voice or silence. I think I can somewhat relate to the feeling b/c during our worship service there were times when I felt my heart exploding into melodies of worship to King Jesus, I can’t resist: I am so in love with the richness of His presence and who He is and what He represents in not only my life but in the future of the city of Greenville…

Our Easter Program:

Go Outside by Robbie Seay…………………………….Gmj

Into Marvelous Light by Charlie Hall……………..Bbmj

Spring of Life by Kristian Stanfill……………………Bbmj

Nothing But the Blood (Hymnal Intro) by Matt Redman……..Bbmj

Beautiful the Blood by Fee……………………………………………………Bbmj

Looking forward to Easter service as we try to add the bass sound with Donald playing the keys on a split mode. So this time will have Donald on: bass, synthesizer, piano, electric guitar. Brian on the drums and I on acoustic. ..It’s been and continues to be a pretty busy week with school and night classes and exams and work but who care! We LoVe CriSto!

What up! Long time since I blog but here I am…

Setlist:

Home……………………………..……E

Battle Cry……………………..…..C#m

Song of the Redeemed………F#m

Jesus Paid it All…………………..Bbmj

Never let me go………………….Fmj

I enjoyed singing “home” by Daughtry, I thought it was a good pick to open up and the lyrics are simply clear and encouraging. Now, Battle Cry on the other hand did not go as expected. The song is amazing both lyrically and musically but I think there are number of reasons why we should stay away from songs that require a bigger band: 

1st, we are a new congregation and we are still figuring out our audience.

2nd, we do not have a bass player.

3rd, our electric guitarist/keyboardist/vocals is also our sound guy.

4th, we only have one hour to set up the stage with instruments and sound, which also makes it difficult to warm up. So as a result of this I think for the moment being we will try to stick to songs that have melodies that people can easily grasp and sing to and do not require a great amount of sound that we currently do not have…

On a second note I got to play the “flying V” and got to sing/lead with distortion for the first time ever in my years of worship experience (yea, someone had to step out of his comfortable zone)…Finally, I think Jesus paid it all created a memorable atmosphere of worship reminding us with its lyrics that Jesus has paid our debt and we owe nothing. There is no way on earth that anyone could ever repay Christ for His sacrifice, nothing is equivalent to what He did for us at the cross and that is why He is the perfect offering and that is why we worship Him, because all he asks in return is for us “to believe in his name”.

Thanks everyone out there for hanging on with us as we develop this worship ministry.

So we kicked our first service last 27th of January and wow! What an experience. Choosing a program was an adventure being that God has blessed us with much talent.

Our program was:

I still haven’t found what I’m looking for…….G

Song of the redeemed………………………….F#m

Spring of life…………………………………………Bmj

Lead me to the cross…………………..…………Fm

Come ye sinners…………………….…………..D#mj                                  

Musically the songs were not difficult, all had basic minor and major chord structure, what added sound texture was having an electric guitar and good drums, especially on song of the redeemed. But overall, my favorite jam had to be spring of life. I remember that while practicing this song, which we learned a day before service, I was really feeling it and even shared with the band that I was about to drop some tears b/c the lyrics just really minister to me and to later find the newspaper quoting“Jesus, you’re the well that won’t run dry; Jesus, you’re the drink that satisfies,” made it even more clear that this song was a HiT…

But as far as the overall experience of leading people to sing songs TO Jesus in bar? That will have to be another post. Shout outs to the band, ya did great!