Worship Confessional, March 28, 2010

This post is part of Sunday Set Lists over on the Worship Community blog where worship leaders share what happened in their Sunday services and the songs they sang.

Palm Sunday 2010

This week I had collaborative help from Robbie Boyd, our Spiritual Formations Pastor, in planning worship. Robbie is taking a course through Rockbridge Seminary in worship and one of the projects was helping in planning worship. We met for about 2 hours last Tuesday to talk about the service. We talked about it being a "historical" day in the church (being Palm Sunday) and how as the church have lost some of the spiritual significance of PALM SUNDAY (Triumphal Entry). That led us to a study of the scriptures surrounding the prophecy of Jesus' entrance as "the King" and "Hosanna". We then determined that we wanted to anchor everything this day around scriptures. So you'll see how we did that.

Set
EASTER 82--a video telling people about 82% of people you invite to church on Easter most likely will come with you. People were late filing in for service so I think this may have been lost on them, but it ran pre-service too. We'll see next Sunday if they heard the "82%" rule.

Welcome/Announcements/ Offering---We are praying for the church in China this week and next and did so by watching this video.

Isaiah 57: 14-16, 18-- We had a member of the congregation stand up and read this from the pew (with wireless mic) I like to do this from time to time. Leadership in worship should not exclusively come from the stage. Good job Tres!

Prepare The Way (Nuzum) One of my favorite "Palm Sunday" songs. We sang this a lot in 2008 (Christmas and Easter) and brought it back this year.

Psalm 118:19- "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord"--- we loved this verse because not traditionally associated with the day, it carries the meaning and spirit of the day with "Let us rejoice and be glad in it!" (Responsive)

Hosanna (Baloche) One of our favorites.

Psalm 24---"Who is this King of Glory" (Responsive)

Hosanna (Hillsong) Introduced this one. We'll have to come back and sing it again.

(At this point I felt the Spirit say "stop" and we did that. I abandoned another song that we had planned and just had us sit in contemplation of what we had sung ("Break my heart for what breaks yours, open up my eyes...") It was a rather long prayer time and I don't usually do this, but we did.

Morning Message---To The Cross (Ed Ethridge)

The Old Rugged Cross (Hymn) We had something totally different planned for the end, but it was too big for the spirit of the moment. Went simply with the old hymn--it worked.

So, how was your Sunday?