Sun 4 Jan 2009, 10.00am

To start this post, note we only have one meeting per week for a 6 week period starting mid-December. This is during our summer holiday season, when many people are travelling, and it allows more time for the Vision Team and other leaders to plan for the year ahead. All our mid-week cell groups and other meetings are also on hiatus during this period.

So, this week at HCLC. How was it? Awesome. I know it's easy to write that, but it was.

The day started as we usually do with the team arriving (basically on time) for pre-service warm up. Summer is always fun for this as I'm never totally sure who will be there (teens often seem to forget to tell me they're going away with their families, etc), but it keeps me on my toes and I love it. Really, I do.

All went smoothly, and then the prayer before service was powerful. All of the leaders tapped into the same word on unity for the year ahead, like we've never experienced before, and we shared in some free-worship during this time too. I love it when that happens in prayer meetings.

The mechanics of the morning all went really well - sound was good (though apparently the sub was a bit low - all the sound-tech teens were very clearly away), the band were in tune with each other, the singers were sensitive to harmony requirements, etc.

The Holy Spirit prompted me to drop to my knees during one song - not something I'd usually do, but obedience is the key for me :-)

After the powerful message on preparing for 2009, almost half the church came forward for prayer, anointing and prophecy for the year ahead. Beautiful

The one downer for me is that my wonderful wife was on day 2 of a stomach bug (now all cleared up) and was at home with a fever and not able to be there. She was rostered on as a singer that morning, and that's always very special to share in worship together from the platform. So I bought a copy of the service from our resource desk so she could share little bit in the time we spent with God at church that morning.

Songs
What The World Will Never Take - Hillsong (Sampson, Crocker, Ligertwood)
I'm Not Ashamed - Hillsong (Dylan, Andrew)
Show Me Your Glory - Harbourside (Murgida)
This Is Our God - Hillsong (Morgan)

As always for us, these just form the basis of our music, and more often than not, during the slower songs we almost always enter into free-worship using 2-4 chords from the song as a starting point, and seeing where God takes it. Note I hesitate to differentiate between praise and worship based on song-speed; it should be about lyrical content, but going into that isn't why this blog exists :-)

Now go and check out all the other setlists and reviews on the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com.

and see what else is on my mind as I share how I'm going with Shaping The Space.