(If you missed the original post about why I am posting the upcoming weeks songs instead of last weeks, you can find it HERE.)

This week at The Gateway Church is going to be awesome.  There isn’t any specific thing that we are doing or special service element planned, but God has really been moving in our community over the last few months and I feel like we are growing and maturing in really incredible ways.  Because of that, each Sunday I am just so excited to see what happens.  To hear people’s stories of what God is doing in their lives.  To see people get lost in worship that haven’t experienced that freedom before.

Did I mention that last week the entire church started clapping?  On their own?

Does that mean that they worshiping with sincerity?  No…but it does mean that there is a freedom and comfort level growing in that room.  Something I have been praying for and working towards since August 2nd.

So this week as we cry out “let love tear down these walls, so that all creation would come back to You, because it’s all for You,” I am praying and confident and thrilled to know that our walls are crumbling, and that our love is being made known.  That God is feeling our love and worship, and that the city is beginning to experience our love, which is ultimately God’s love.

I feel like that is one of the most grammatically dysfunctional paragraphs I’ve ever written, but I can’t think of a better way to write it so just go with it.

Anyhoo, this weeks worship set looks like this:

Your Love Never Fails – Jesus Culture (Original by Chris McClarney.)
Here Is Our King – David Crowder Band
From The Inside Out – Hillsong United
Tear Down The Walls – Hillsong United
Hosanna – Paul Baloche

You can listen to this Sunday’s MP3’s by clicking HERE, but I encourage you to pick up some of these albums.  These people are making incredible music.

Can’t wait to worship with you guys again…

~chris

Yo!

I hope you all had a great weekend and Easter.

Per my blog post last week, I wanted to go ahead and post this weeks worship set.  Again, these are the songs we are doing this coming Sunday, April 11th, at The Gateway Church.

How Great Is Our God – Chris Tomlin
Beautiful Jesus – Kristian Stanfill
Cannons – Phil Wickham
Here Is Our King – David Crowder

I encourage you to listen to them (here, if you’d like), worship with them, read the lyrics with and without the music, and possibly even buy an album or two to support the artists.

Can’t wait to worship with you this Sunday!

~chris

There was a time that on Mondays or Tuesdays I would post the set list and a review of the Sunday before.  I would talk about the songs, what they mean, and how things went.

Lately I have been feeling that this is kinda one-sided and mostly beneficial for me and other worship leader-types.  (Then this idea was confirmed and became something new through a conversation I had with Jeremy.  He’s rad and way smarter than me.)

I am gonna pull a Missy Elliot and “flip it and reverse it.”  But in a way less raunchy way.

At the beginning of each week, I am going to post the upcoming weeks set list, and link to where you can listen to the songs, and talk a little bit about why those songs were picked and other things of that nature.

My big hope is that the people of The Gateway Church will start to use this as a tool and resource for their personal worship during the week.  Worship doesn’t begin and end on a Sunday morning at church.  We are called to worship all week long through our actions and conversations, through our thoughts and prayers, and yes…also through song.

I absolutely believe that if you and I spend the next 6 days thinking about the words to these songs, singing them (in the car, office, or wherever), and meditating on them in our hearts, that we can have the most sincere, authentic, and passionate worship experience on Sunday mornings.

A few weeks ago Dashboard Confessional was in town.  My wife is a huge fan, so we got tickets.  Well she spent about 2 weeks before that listening to his songs; learning new ones and refreshing her mind with the old ones.  She couldn’t stop talking and thinking about it.  She wanted to make sure that when he took the stage and she was standing there with 400 other people, that she was ready.  It was almost like she was a love-struck 19 year old girl again!

Well, I want to make sure that when we come together on Sunday morning (with the desire of giving Christ center stage) that we are ready.  That we have spent time preparing our hearts, thinking about what is to come, and just plain old getting excited!

So here is my encouragement and my challenge:

If you go to The Gateway Church, listen to these songs.  You can listen to them online or buy the album for yourself.  Spend time with these songs, and let’s get excited to worship God together!

Click here to listen to this Sunday’s songs.

~chris

We showed the following video on Sunday morning at The Gateway Church.  It pretty much wrecked me when I first saw it last, and again when I heard it on Sunday morning paired with Paul’s message.

The performance was originally done live by a guy named Mike Perez, and then he recorded it and made this video.

It is a call to just worship.  Not “just” in the sense of “hey man, why don’t you just worship.”  But in the sense of our worship being just.

The entire thing is ridiculously powerful, but the lines that really broke me are these:

me way drown in justice
and may we be resuscitated with hearts transformed
with hearts that mute the musics noise
because they long for a worship that responds
to the angelic callings of the orphan and the widow
a worship that feeds
a worship that quenches thirst
a worship that isn’t irritated by visiting hours or prison doors
a worship whose sense of smell can stomach
the stench of urine and unbrushed teeth
whose sense of sight can bare an urban crown of thorns;
lice filled hair and bloody nails
whose sense of touch and embrace can loosen the grip of domestic violence
whose sense of hearing and concern can fill the void
shaped by the held-back “i love you’s” that
turned dreams into nightmares and nightmares into realities
a worship whose purpose is to shine outside the dry walls of the church
where a world waits, and a God watches
the question, the challenge; will you worship

So yeah…chew on that for a few days.

~chris

With each series we do at The Gateway Church we try and have a local artist create a piece that represents their interpretation of the topic. For our Origins series, Anna Farrand created an incredible piece! You have to see it in person for the full affect, but you can get a glimpse with this photo.

Here is her explanation of the piece:

The theme of this piece came from the book of Numbers and the first census of the twelve tribes of Israel, paralleled with our lives today and the census of 2010.  The background is a collage of vintage maps that create the land of the twelve tribes where Israel is today. The top layer is an intricately cut-out map of downtown Des Moines. The goal was to create this almost graphic, blank, top layer that represents today’s google map society, contrasted with detailed 1960’s road maps representing where we came from.

Make sure to check out more of Anna’s stuff at her website, annafarrand.com.

~chris

It’s been pretty cool over the last week to see some articles about The Gateway Church and our involvement there.  I just thought I’d share a couple of them with you guys.

Des Moines Register (link to online version)

Veritas Magazine

God is doing incredible things around this city.  It’s so amazing to be allowed to be a part of it!

~chris

A few weeks ago as Paul and I were talking about week three of the Advent Conspiracy we talked about trying to find a song that would go along with the direction of the message. I have been in a bit of a writing drought when it comes to music over the past 3-6 months, but I really felt like I needed to write something for this.

It wasn’t an easy process, and as someone quickly noticed, I definitely got a bit of inspiration from one of my favorite bands on the opening line.

The message was talking about two of the names that we’re given the Son of God: Jesus and Emmanuel.

Emmanuel means “God with us,” and Jesus is a greek version of of the name Joshua, which means “Savior” or “Yahweh saves.” During service we talked about God actually being present with us. Before I played I talked a little bit about how this message really hit home with me because we (Es and I) have really had to hold on to that promise; that God is with us.

Moving away from all of our family, from all of our friends, from 60 degree winters to -20 degree winters…the list goes on. In short, I guess there is just a long list of things that could make us feel very isolated. As much as we know in our hearts and minds that we aren’t, it’s still easy to sway that way. It’s good to have these promises, found in the very name of Jesus even, that remind us that we are not isolated, alone, or without help.

God has been faithful and shown us over and over again that, well…it’s not just a clever name.

Jesus, Emmanuel.

He is with us, He does see what we are going through, and He does hear our cries.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

~chris

(This demo was recorded using a Blue Snowball USB mic and Garage Band as an easy and quick way to make the song available.)

Alright guys,

I’m starting something new on this blog.  I am always curious about how well certain songs work in our churches and worship settings.  Since – by nature of my job – I listen to worship to worship music more often than the average joe, it can be challenging when picking songs.  This could probably be a whole blog post on its own, but I’ll save that for another time.

POINT: I am trying find songs that fit well with The Gateway Church and connect well with where our church and community is going.

I tried out a new song this week and I really just want to hear feedback from you guys.  I will probably keep doing this in the future, so I’d appreciate your feedback!

It is a song by Paul Baloche called “Hallelujah To My King.”  You can play the original version HERE and read the lyrics below.

V1:
Oh how strong the power of Jesus’ name!
It is stronger than any other name
How sweet the vict’ry that bore my shame
took the burden of my sin away

Chorus:
Hallelujah! What a savior!
I owe everything to Him
Hallelujah what a savior
Hallelujah to my King

V2:
Oh how great the kindness our God has shown
We were strangers, now we’re called His own
His grace has welcomed the sinner home
Tender mercies, lead us to The Throne

(Chorus)

Bridge:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah to my King! (repeat)

V3:
Oh what peace the Spirit of Jesus brings
through the trials He will carry me
One day, in Heaven, our eyes will meet
Filled with wonder, all the saints will sing

So ESPECIALLY if you attended The Gateway Church on Sunday, or even if you would just like to give your opinion on the song – take the poll!

Thanks for the help, and I can’t wait to continue worshiping together.

~chris