Author: dan

Sunday [10.25.09] – the worship experiment

josh&d(darin rihanek on bass // josh barton on guitar // photo by danieljohn)

Earlier this week I sent out an email to our local church asking if they would like to participate in a little worship experiment. . The “experiment” was this – I asked them to participate by watching this video from worship leader/artist Gary Durbin and learning it before we came together for our Sunday service. I was not really sure what the response would be, but I thought we needed to try something different and here’s why.

For us, it normally takes about 3 weeks before our church really begins enjoying a newly introduced song. So lately I have been thinking about interactive ways to help our church get past the newness of these songs we are introducing and into the nougaty center of what the song is really saying.

So, I emailed everyone and did not know what the responses would be, but evidently everyone loved it. I have posted a few of their emails below.

from one of our church school teachers:

from a secretary in our front office:

from a friend on the move:

and lastly, from one of the Spanish translators at our church:

When it came time to sing the song in service, it seemed as if we had all been singing it for weeks. To me this was success because people already knew the song and were able to enjoy worshipping with it, rather than learning it. Definitely a good first experiment/experience for us.

So now, I’d love to hear your thoughts – what creative things are you doing that have helped your local church have better times of worship? Or what have you done to serve your local church, to engage and interact with them? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. See below for the rest of our setlists from the day.

1. (Ab) Filled With Your Glory
2. (Ab) Radiance
3. (C#) Holy, Holy, Holy
4. (E) Consume Me [we will be teaching this song in our video section soon. it was written by one of our worship leaders, Jordan Palmer]
5. (E) You Are My All In All



1. (B) Let God Arise
2. (B) Counting On God
3. (D) Here I Am To Worship
4. (D) Revelation Song
5. (E) How Deep The Father’s Love For Us

If you would like to see what other churches and worship leaders are doing each week, stay on the internet for a few miles, and then take your first left down to Fred McKinnon’s site. Have a great week!

Sunday [10.18.09] – interactive leading

hacc

Our first service today was excellent and I was extremely proud of our team. I have been talking with them lately about the importance of basic movements and being “themselves” while leading worship. Today, they did just that – they walked forward when they were leading a song, made eye contact (with each other and the congregation), smiled, and used their everyday normal expressions/movements to help people engage in worship a little more.

Now, most of you are probably already very expressive, but it has taken us a while to get to the point where we are starting to be ourselves on stage. I do realize that worship is a vertical expression towards an eternal God; however I see on a weekly basis that most people start out by looking “horizontally” at us on stage. For our band, when we are expressionless (or expression-little), it makes it difficult for people to move beyond us and actually ends up drawing more attention to ourselves. All that to say this – I was proud of how they did today and worship was great as a result. I’m curious – what do you do to interact with your congregation(s) and what are your thoughts on the subject?

You can see our setlists for the day (complete with iTunes link to the versions of songs today):

– 1st service –

1. (A) Your Grace Is Enough
2. (Ab) The New Song We Sing
3. (Bb) Fairest Lord Jesus
– Reading of Psalm 145:8-21 into –
4. (C) Doxology//All Creatures Of Our God & King//Alleluia (we do this song with a great rock groove, but this was one of the few correct versions of the song I could find on iTunes)



– 2nd service –

1. (B) Song Of Hope (Heaven Come Down)
2. (B) One Way
3. (F) So Great
4. (C) I’d Rather Have Jesus//How I Need You (awesome song, written by family – Ryan & Charity Long)
5. (D) Lead Me To The Cross

This post is part of the sunday setlists fun over at Fred McKinnon’s blog HERE. Thanks for taking a moment to check out what we’re doing here at our church and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

– blues riff #1 –

Here is my newest video for you! I intended for it to be shorter than it turned out, but I think you will enjoy going through this riff with me. As an added bonus, this time I actually show you how to play the piano. I hope you enjoy this video. This riff is one of my favorites because it is the first jazz/blues riff that I learned and helped me start down the path towards becoming a better musician.

After watching & practicing this you will be able to use it in various songs. And, if you will just take it step-by-step you’ll be able to master this and use it regularly. If you have any questions, just post it in the comments below and I will get back to you. Practice well!

blues riff #1 from danieljohn on Vimeo.

You can also view this video on a mobile device here

Sunday [10.11.09]

DanielJohn

Wonderful worship, awesome response from the congregation, and our pastor was back preaching again. A very full day for us and it was made even better as we were joined once by guest artist Steve Phillips on the saxophone. Below are the lists for the day (and all links will lead you to examples on iTunes).

The Recap:
We started the day with our rearranged version of “You’re Worthy Of My Praise”. The way we played it gave the song a new rock vibe and people seemed to appreciate the changes. **side note: I might use this song for the video lesson this week, so be sure and check back on Wednesday to hear & see the changes.** That song led nicely into “Everyday” which pulled from both Hillsongs & Lincoln Brewster’s influences. And then we transitioned nicely into some older but deeper songs of worship to end the morning. You can check below to see how we ended our setlist:

-1st service-

1. (F#) You’re Worthy Of My Praise
2. (B) Everyday
3. (G) All Who Are Thirsty
4. (C) Come Thou Fount
5. (C) What The Lord Has Done In Me


-2nd service-

1. (B) Counting On God
2. (C) Happy Day
3. (G) I Have Found
4. (G) Jesus Messiah
5. (E) Lord Of Lords // Revelation Song

Hope your day was great and thanks for stopping by. Make sure you swing by Fred McKinnon’s site to see what other’s are doing in their houses of worship.

-victory-

Well – here’s my first shot at a video lesson, and I promise that l will get better as this goes along. For instance, next time, I might even show you the piano keys as I’m playing (not sure why I didn’t think to record this). I think you’ll still get the idea I was trying to convey, and if you are wondering what the actual chords are you can download my arrangement of the chart for this video here.

When we played it live, we “gospelized” this song by having our drummer play a swing beat over a four-on-the-floor kick pattern and it came out great. Obviously, there are multiple variations that you could do, but that’s what worked for us. Have fun with this new arrangement of this old hymn, and if you have any questions about the song you can email me: dj (at) danieljohnmusic (dot) com

You can also view this video on a mobile device HERE

Victory from danieljohn on Vimeo.

Sunday [10.04.09]

I promised last week that I would be starting a Video Series and this is the week!! While I am no “worship ninja” nor am I New Song Cafe, I am very excited about the potential of this new project. My hope is to share new arrangements and songs with you in the coming weeks. However, having never done a teaching video before – it took me a bit longer to get it all edited and pieced together than I originally planned. So, Wednesday of this week this little project will release. Please stop back again THIS week and let me know what you think.

Now to the setlist – If you dropped by last week, you’ll know that our pastor just had surgery on his achilles and is out for 4-6 weeks while he heals (no pun intended). So this week we again had guest speakers in both services that brought good teaching to our church.

I really believe the worship this week was excellent. One of our younger drummers – James – really stepped up this week in the first service and played very solidly. This was one of the first times that I could tell he was acutely aware of the moments happening within the songs and pulling out the perfect feel/fill to correspond. Nicely done James!!

Overall, a very nice weekend of worship. Some deep & weighty moments in worship, a new song from the CompassionArt Project, and leading the second service with my lovely wife made for a great day! Below are the setlists from both services. All the songs are linked to iTunes (for purchase or preview). Enjoy!

1st service –
1. (Bb) How Great Thou Art
2. (G) Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing)
3. (D) You Are My King (Amazing Love)
4. (B) Give Me Jesus
5. (C) He Touched Me



2nd service –
1. (E) For All You’ve Done
2. (F) Most High
3. (F) So Great // new song
4. (F) worship medley – // (F) Glorified// (G) Lover Of My Soul// (G) Forever//

This post is a part of the Sunday setlist blogging carnival hosted over at Fred McKinnon’s site. Stop by and see what other worship leaders & churches are doing in worship.