Setlist - 7 Oct 2012
Sunday morning at Kings

That was the monster! Over 400 people there on the first Sunday of the new University year.

I always plan a set that representes the emphases and breadth of our sung worship for this Sunday, and take care to explain why we do what we do.

It was amazing how loud "All hail Redeemer, hail, for thou hast died for me" was with 400+ voices.

I broke a string during 'Praise him, you heavens'. There was no way of going into 'Praise, my soul' without changing it so I encouraged the congregation to call out prayers and Scriptures. Mercifully, I managed probably the quickest change of my life. Several people told me that they hadn't even noticed.

As often happens, the prayers and readings actually fit very well with what I had planned. 'Praise, my soul' went very well thematically into 'Your grace is enough'. The congregation really got hold of the songs. The room lifted.

Mark introduced our new series on 1 John. We responded by focussing on Christ.

With the unfamiliarity of a new church (for the visitors) and the huge meeting (for the rest of us), it always works very well to sing familiar songs.

'Here I am to worship' and 'Jesus, be the centre' felt very fresh off the back of 1 John. People brought contributions from various angles. And we drew our worship together with a very rousing rendition of 'In Christ alone'.

The band sounded great. The congregation were in fine voice. I think it's going to be a good term!