So a friend from church (Jason) and three others (Tia, Chris, & Cassie) are planting a church in downtown San Jose this summer (Jason and Chris are graduating from Denver Seminary this year). Focusing on the great need in our downtown area as it is being revitalized, these four are boldly (as John Ortberg writes) “Get[ing] Out of the Boat” and seeking to be obedient to God.
This was a special meeting at our church for them to cast their vision for the body (EVC is Jason and Letitia’s home church.) Jason, the team lead challenges us with the question, “If God is greater than need, then why does need exist?” Jason’s jumping off point to us was, “Because we transform the generosity of God into entitlement instead of allowing generosity to transform us.”
It was a great to hear from each of them about their passion to meet not only spiritual needs of those in our downtown, but their physical needs as well. God will certainly be glorified by these four and I am positive lives will be changed! I was jazzed to be part of their kick-off!
The set list:
- God You Reign [Brewster / Fieldes]
- Shout to the Lord [Zschech]
- Breathing the Breath [Redman]
- Medley – Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) / Heart of Worship / I Surrender All [Medley: Arriaga / AG: Newton, Rees and Excell (Arr & addl chorus TOMLIN & GIGLIO) / HoW: Redman / ISA: Van De Venter & Weeden]
The Recap:
The cool part about the service was that Jason and his team did much of their vision-casting before the song portion. The worship through song was our response to God’s generosity in our lives.
My desire was to have the song portion flow from singing about our great and awesome God (God You Reign and Shout to the Lord), to an acknowledgment of His generosity (Breathing the Breath), to our response to His Greatness and generosity (Medley, which we have done before – story here). I think it flowed pretty well.
Breathing the Breath was a new one for us. I have heard this many times while listening to Redman’s Facedown CD, but when Jason gave me his service plan, it was a perfect fit made by the Holy Spirit. It went well and we will move this into the rotation at church. [lyrics below]
A funny aside: Before the service, Jason, Chris and I were in the sound booth joking around about being ready and hoping everything went without any problems and I quipped, “Hey, if it was a slam-dunk, it wouldn’t be about faith!” So Jason starts the service and the intro video messes up – causing a 5 minute shift and rework of their service plan (Jason joked that it was because they are MAC dudes and we have a PC!). A great reminder about Who is in control!
This post is part of Fred McKinnon’s “Sunday Setlist” community.
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Breathing the Breath
Matt Redman
We have nothing to give
That didn’t first come from Your hands
We have nothing to offer You
Which You did not provide
Every good, perfect gift comes from
Your kind and gracious heart
And all we do is give back to You
What always has been Yours
Lord, we’re breathing the breath
That You gave us to breath
To worship You, to worship You
And we’re singing these songs
With the very same breath
To worship You, to worship You
Who has given to You
That it should be paid back to him?
Who has given to You
As if You needed anything?
From You, and to You, and through You
Come all things, O Lord
And all we do is give back to You
What always has been Yours
Love, Breathing the breath!
Hey Dennis – thanks for stopping by – always great to meet new worship leaders. And as Steff said, Breathing the Breath is such a great song!
Bless you!
Tu eres el hombre.
El fin.
Translation: You are the man. The end.