Setlist - 12 Mar 2017
Sunday morning at Kings

Tags: baptisms

A strong morning. Rising above a bit of "worship leaders block" as I was prepping to open with what felt like a fresh presentation of the grace of the Gospel and our worshipping response.

I ran 'And Can It Be' in F today (down from the normal G). It definitely made it easier to sing without the top E notes, but it lost a little bit of energy too. A great many older hymn tunes hit the top E. I guess congregations must have had a higher range in generations past. Or perhaps everyone knew harmony parts.

'Unbroken Praise' felt like a good segue from the high praise of 'All My Days' into the commitment to a life of worship represented in the dedication and baptism we celebrated this morning.

Ruth preached a very strong sermon on keeping on going. I had exactly the right songs for response. Having rehearsed 'Send The Fire' in the usual upbeat style, I spontaneously rearranged it to more of a brooding prayer to fit with the tone. It worked very well like that.

'Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?' is an interesting one. It's such a powerfully rousing song, but I wonder whether how much that's association rather than actual content. That song seemed to represent a breakthrough moment for when "our kind of music" and "our kind of Christianity" was becoming mainstream in the church. But none of the students in the congregation this morning were even born when it was written. What sense does it make to them? If I look dispassionately over the lyrics, I can see that there's some good stuff there, but overall what exactly is it saying? I reckon I could give a convincing defence to someone who said we shouldn't use it, but the sum that's greater than the parts for me includes a large element of the historical context. I don't think I'm quite ready to drop it yet, though.