I manage to go a few weeks without posting a worship setlist after nobody asks about a song I've played and all of a sudden, I get three questions about this week's setlist ... two in the middle of worship. Go figure. .

So here's me, reviving the tradition of posting the Koinonia Worship Setlists played during our 5:30pm Saturday worship service.

1. The Power of Your Love (Lincoln Brewster)
2. Anchor Of My Soul (Telecast)
3. Moving All the While (Sidewalk Prophets)
4. My Life, My Love, My All (Kirk Franklin)
5. That's Why We Say (By the Tree)
6. Glory in the Highest (Chris Tomlin)

For a day of rest, Saturday sure seemed rather action-packed. I mean ... after you factor in sleeping late. A little time with the Koinonia crowd for praise & worship (& A/V setup) and then it was time to bolt out for the Derek Webb show. Given the latter, it shouldn't surprise you that I was bound & determined to insert a song by Webb. I don't think my choice really fit terribly well, but it was among the short list of tunes I could probably play and not get complaints about. What can I say ... it was worth a shot.

1. To Worship You (Jacque DeShetler)
2. Sing Redemption's Song (Israel Houghton)
3. Love Is Not Against the Law (Derek Webb)
4. Change This Heart (Sidewalk Prophets)
5. That's Why We Say (By the Tree)
6. Unfailing Love (Chris Tomlin)

Apologies for the delay. Ye olde internet went out at the office when I got there in the AM, which meant a nice little test to ye olde patience. But more relevant for you guys, it means that I got no recording of any of the Sunday services. Bummer, I know. As it was, Aaron did a nice version of one of my favorite Chris Tomlin tunes, "Sing, Sing, Sing." Hopefully it'll turn up on YouTube this week.

As for the Koinonia crowd, we had an interesting time for our small band of merry worshipers. Turns out we had the nice interruption of some sound booth testing in the middle of everything. Taking things in stride, I just dropped one song and restarted the interrupted one. Here's what we were left with ...

1. Anchor of My Soul (Telecast)
2. Jesus Messiah (Chris Tomlin)
3. The Power of Your Name (Lincoln Brewster)
4. Moving All the While (Sidewalk Prophets)
5. God You Reign (Lincoln Brewster)

May your day go significantly better ...

:-)

I was a little worried that I hadn't put in the time during the week to create a setlist that I was totally comfortable with, but digging around for the Lincoln Brewster tune at the end of this one, I knew I had a good anchor to build on. Normally, I'll probably listen through a set list a minimum of 10 times to make sure I've got it to my liking. This one probably had 3 or 4 listens and didn't exist until Thursday evening. That's cutting it a bit too close for my taste.

All that to point out that this setlist got a pretty good reception from our small band of worshipers. One of the great things about our 5:30 worship is that it forces a bunch of busy bee volunteers to just chill for a few minutes and focus on God in the midst of our otherwise active time at church.

1. Love (Above the Golden State)
2. Lord, I Lift Your Name on High (Jonathan Butler)
3. Change This Heart (Sidewalk Prophets)
4. King of the Broken (CompassionArt)
5. God You Reign (Lincoln Brewster)

A simple setlist this time around, but with some new tunes by the Sidewalk Prophets added. I'm still looking for more of their work to throw into future setlists.

1. Give You Glory (Jeremy Camp)
2. Unfailing Love (Chris Tomlin)
3. Jesus Messiah (Chris Tomlin)
4. The Power of Your Name (Lincoln Brewster)
5. Moving All the While (Sidewalk Prophets)
6. Change This Heart (Sidewalk Prophets)

I got a little bluesy with the tunage this weekend, adding a nice Third Day cover along with some Telecast. There's even some overdue Jacque DeShetler here, as I think I've settled on at least one good song from her "Signal" release that works for our worship segment of the evening.

1. "God of This City" - Chris Tomlin
2. "To Worship You" - Jaque DeShetler
3. "Anchor of My Soul" - Telecast
4. "Take My Heart" - Third Day
5. "My Tribute Medley" - Israel Houghton
6. "Glory in the Highest" - Chris Tomlin

Pushing a full 30-minute setlist with this one, but that had a lot more to do with the fact that we started on the early side and the teacher for the group study section afterwards was running late. So I'd be remiss to point out that the tacked-on tunage by By the Tree may not play terribly well if this were to be run in order again. That said, I really should try to keep "My Deliverer" as a closer since there's about a 50-second instrumental ending to it with a slow fade out.

All that said, here's what we worshiped to this weekend at Koinonia ...

1. "I Give You My Heart" - Jeff Deyo
2. "Enter This Temple" - Leeland
3. "All I Really Want" - Lincoln Brewster
4. "My Deliverer" - Chris Tomlin
5. "Exalted (Yahweh)" - Chris Tomlin
6. "That's Why We Say" - By the Tree

This past weekend's setlist ...

1. Anchor of My Soul (Telecast)
2. That's Why We Say (By the Tree)
3. Sing Redemption's Song (Israel Houghton)
4. I Will Rise (Chris Tomlin)
5. All Because of Jesus (Lakewood)

Not a bad song on here and the ordering seemed to really work. I wrestled with this ordering more than I have with any previous setlist. I think it was because I felt the first two songs were meant to be next to one another, so I was feeling a bit of internal pressure to make the rest of the list as perfect as possible. I think I'm going to have to count the list as an early favorite so far.

Now it seems like such a shame to mix up the tunes from week to week. Alas, I've got some Jeff Deyo that I really want to work into a setlist. Been sitting on some tunes of his for two weeks, but they just didn't mesh with anything else that I had as a starting point. After spinning some songs late in Koinonia Saturday night, I think I've got one of his to lead off with next week and maybe I can build around that.

From Saturday's Koinonia Worship service:

1. Enter This Temple (Leeland)
2. That's Why We Say (By the Tree)
3. Pure Bride (Leeland)
4. You Have Shown Us (CompassionArt - Baloche, Chapman, Tomlin)
5. Hallelujah (Newsboys)

I wanted to find a lot of new material to play and managed to accomplish that, complete with a new Leeland tune from the new CD. I even had a few Jeff Deyo tunes that got left out of the final mix, so there's more for next week and beyond. My initial list had another 7-song set that didn't even come close to taking up a full 30 minutes. As it turned out, we had to shave some time.

The CompassionArt tune was one that I wanted to throw in for my own sake, if nothing else. The By the Tree tune seemed to fit in exceptionally well ... I might need to dig through their tunes a bit more deeply.

A little unusual setting for praise & worship this weekend. Our crowd showed up a bit late, so it wasn't entirely clear that we'd have our usual musical moment. By the time we had a quorum, I'd started through a few songs planned, but this is effectively what we ended up with ...

1. I Will Rise (Chris Tomlin)
2. My Deliverer (Chris Tomlin)
3. All Because of Jesus (Lakewood)
4. My Tribute Medley (Israel Houghton)

A little planning would have made the sequence better. "My Deliverer" is optimal as a closer. We improvised a little, so there's another mid-tempo tune after an up-tempo tune at the end. Nevertheless, the gang looked and felt ready for some worship, so it all seemed to be very well received. You can't go very wrong with the artists included here.

From a long setlist last week to a short one this time. We started a bit late due to technical reasons (combined with the fact that I was running late and didn't have as much lead time to resolve said technical reason). Also due to the fact that none of these songs clocks in at under 4:14.

1. "Holy Spirit, Come and Move" - Ryan Bell
2. "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High" - Jonathan Butler
3. "Jesus Messiah" - Chris Tomlin
4. "Exalted (Yahweh)" - Chris Tomlin

I was hoping to have "All Because of Jesus" from the last Lakewood CD close this out, but we needed to carve out some time for communion at the end. As it stands, this is a fairly subdued setlist without that song. Still a lot of great background music to worship to and get centered. Maybe next time, we'll have better luck running things according to plan, though.

Saturday's setlist:

1. My Tribute Medley (Israel Houghton)
2. Holy Spirit, Come and Move (Ryan Bell)
3. Shout to the Lord (Lincoln Brewster)
4. Jesus Messiah (Chris Tomlin)
5. Unfailing Love (Chris Tomlin)
6. You're All I Need (Revive)
7. Love (Above the Golden State)

Count this as an experiment, fitting 7 songs into 30 minutes of worship. Also experimental is trying to end worship on a mellow note, this time with Above the Golden State. Seems to work out fine as long as there's some up-tempo tunes earlier in the set. This set probably could have used something more to kick things up in the middle. Revive was really the only song that qualified for such in my mind. I was probably banking on the Brewster/Tomlin tunes to stand out more than they really do. Duly noted for next time.

Last week's setlist wasn't my doing, but here's the one used for today:

1. Enter This Temple (Leeland)
2. Jesus Messiah (Chris Tomlin)
3. You Are My Everything (Jonathan Butler)
4. Sing Redemption's Song (Israel Houghton)
5. Give You Glory (Jeremy Camp)
6. Unfailing Love (Chris Tomlin)

The first two seemed to fit right in with the fact that we celebrated communion afterwards and I'm pretty pleased that anything by Jonathan Butler seems to have been well-received.

The last two songs really should have been switched in order, but we found ourselves with an extra three minutes toward the end and "Unfailing Love" was about the shortest song I could fit in thematically. Woulda been better to end it on the more up-tempo "Give You Glory", but it wasn't meant to be. That'll teach us to start things on time!

I've had a few different people ask me about songs played during worship sets before Bible Study on Saturday nights, so I thought that I might as well list them out on ye olde blog.

The drill is as follows: early arrivals get to Koinonia for setting the place up for later in the evening, or to merely relax and enjoy a meal before church. Around 5:30, we have a little praise & worship moment that usually has either me picking some songs or someone handing me a CD. I can't lie ... I prefer the former, even though I know my own taste in music limits the optionsavailable for this. Around 6, it's time for Bible Study, and that breaks up just before the Saturday night service starts.

The last two weeks have had the following set-lists spinning from my cellphone.

7/18/09
1. Glory in the Highest (Chris Tomlin)
2. Love (Above the Golden State)
3. I Will Rise (Chris Tomlin)
4. My Deliverer (Chris Tomlin)
5. Salvation is Here (Lincoln Brewster)

7/25/09
1. Holy Spirit, Come and Move (Ryan Bell)
2. Unfailing Love (Chris Tomlin)
3. Come Alive (Robbie Seay Band)
4. Glory in the Highest (Chris Tomlin)

Yeah, very heavy on the Chris Tomlin. As is the case with my non-Christian preferred music, I tend to steer clear of whatever's popular or current, but there are some exceptions. Here, it's definitely Tomlin. Who knows ... maybe one day I'll get sick and tired of listening to him.

If it were entirely up to me, I'd definitely love to work in some more Lincoln Brewster, and I may yet make another attempt at finding a song that fits nicely in this sort of list for next week. Most of the other material that I tend to listen to for a similar effect consists of too many different styles of music to play for good effect on Saturday nights. I've tried, for instance, to play some Erin O'Donnell, Jonathan Butler, and Jacque DeShetler (all of whom I love), but the musical style just clashes, ever so subtlely with anything more "traditional" that I put in the list.

The latest news on tunage for this section of the evening is that Koinonia may ultimately be getting a budget in order to have some live music for this. That's usually preferred and I'm hopeful that it works out. In the meantime, I'm making a concerted effort to include a tune from Israel Houghton's latest for next week.