Our corporate worship service each week follows a liturgy with seven basic elements. On an even simpler level, these seven elements remind us of these basic truths:
1. God is holy
2. We are sinners
3. Jesus saves us
4. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth and conforms us to the image of Christ.
With that said, here is the order of our service for this Sunday:
1. My Maker and My King, hymn text by Anne Steel, music by our worship arts pastor, Mike Cosper. We sang this song of adoration as the service began. Check out the mp3 as well as the chord sheet from the sojournmusic.com Before the Throne page. We followed with a Call to Worship — in this case, reading together from John 1:1-5, 14-17 (In the beginning was the Word … grace and truth came through Jesus Christ).
2. In the Shadow of the Glorious Cross, by Sojourn’s own Brooks Ritter and Rebecca Elliott. As with the previous song, you can listen to the mp3 and read the chord sheet from our Before the Throne page.Â
After this song, we reflected on the truth that when we rely on our own knowledge and strength, we place ourselves in opposition to our Creator. But Christ invites us to confess our rebellion, mistrust and weakness. We prayed silently, each asking God to expose the rebellion within us so that we realize even more how much we need Him. This led to our next song, a modern hymn of confession …
3. Lead us Back, words by me and music by Rebecca Elliott. Again, you can hear the mp3 and view the chord sheet from our Before the Throne page.Â
As we finished singing, we reflected that Christ has paid our debt and given us hope through his death and resurrection. We then reflected upon a reading of assurance from Psalm 103:1-5, 8-12, reading aloud together at the end (He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever … as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us).
4. You Have Redeemed My Soul, by Don and Lori Chaffer.   I love the imagery in verse one of this quiet song of assurance:
I was a hungry child, a dried up river
I was a burned out forest
and the “answer” to each of these images in verse two:
But you put food in my body, water in my dry bed
And to my blackened branches
You brought the springtime green of new life.
We followed this with the Giving of the Peace, a time to greet one another and embrace one another in love for a few minutes, reaching out to those in the assembly that we may not know. We do this in light of the news of peace and hope that comes through Christ.
Following this, pastor Daniel Montgomery brought us a sermon from Romans 8:31-39.
We moved into communion following the sermon, a time to come forward and receive the bread and wine (or juice — we offer both, leaving it up to the conscience of each worshiper to choose), then dropping our offerings into baskets as we go back to our seats. While we did this, we sang
5. The Love of Christ is Rich and Free, hymn text by William Gadsby, music by Sandra McCracken. This hymn in long meter is a great song for reflecting on the sacrifice of Christ. You can hear it on Sandra McCracken’s The Builder and the Architect CD.
6. Here is Love, by William Rees and Robert Lowry, arrangement and additional chorus by Matt Redman. What Christian could not love these sentiments?
On the mount of crucifixion
fountains opened deep and wide
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide
As we continued to celebrate our new life in Christ and His continued work in His church, we read together from Romans 8:37-39 (For I am convinced that neither death nor life … nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord).
7. Absent from Flesh, O Blissful Thought, hymn text by Isaac Watts, music by Sojourn’s own Jamie Barnes. This song, which one of our worship bands performed last month at Hard Rock Cafe, will be on one of our upcoming worship CDs. It was an instant favorite at Sojourn, and we continue to love singing it as a celebration of ultimate triumph:
I go where God and glory shine,
to one eternal day.
This failing body I now resign,
for the angels point my way.
For the angels point my way.
The only change in our evening services was the substitution of “The Christ Hymn”, by Sojourn’s Rebecca Dennison and Mike Cosper, from our These Things I Remember CD, for You Have Redeemed My Soul. Hear “The Christ Hymn” in the audio player on our Virb.com page, virb.com/sojournmusic.
Worship band for the 9:30 am and 11:15 am services:
David Weir — lead guitar
Jamie Barnes — keys
Brian Meurer — bass guitar
Matt Harris — drums
Lorie King — vocals and liturgy readings
Chad Lewis — vocals, guitar and liturgy readings
Worship band for the 5 pm and 7 pm services:
Christi Osterday — cello
Jamie Barnes — lead guitar
Stephanie Mobley — percussion
Jesse Eubanks — percussion
Brooks Ritter — vocals and guitar
Rebecca Dennison — vocals
Micah Revell — liturgy readings
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How do you biblically justify performing a piece of music for worship that was performed in the Hard Rock Cafe? Just curious as to what scriptural guidance you used to arrive at your decision for this piece.
“Absent From Flesh” is a worship song — actually it is an old Isaac Watts hymn. It isn’t, for instance, a song that we heard at Hardrock Cafe and then decided to play during a worship service. It is a song that we sing at our worship service, that we took to Hardrock Cafe.
For the larger issue of what we believe regarding Christians playing music in what would be called “secular” venues, and the issue of “sacred v. secular” music, check out my audio interview with Worship Arts pastor Mike Cosper on the subject: http://www.sojournmusic.com/2008/07/01/why-do-some-of-our-worship-leaders-also-record-and-perform-secular-music-an-interview-with-sojourn-pastor-mike-cosper-on-the-sacred-v-secular-debate/
That’s an interesting and odd question Donn. The Sojourn band was invited to play (along with a number of other bands) at the Hard Rock for an event called “Takin It To The Streets”. So we played a lot of music that we sing at our services.
Are you suggesting that music that is performed in “secular” space is somehow made unclean for use in church worship? For example - I once heard Alison Krauss sing a number of Gospel songs on A PRarie Home Companion - performed in a secular space. Are those songs now tainted?
Good question Donn - thanks for the inquiry. To answer briefly, we believe that playing worship music inside of what would be considered a “secular venue” is simply a part of our call as Christians to “go from village to village preaching the gospel” ( Luke 9:6). Just as Paul and Silas could sing from prison ( Acts 16 ) we have the freedom to preach ( and sing ) the gospel wherever we may find ourselves. Worship is not just something we do on Sundays inside a designated building - but is something that should permeate every nuance of the Christian life. ( Col 3:16-17)
As Bobby mentioned above…the day we were invited to play inside The Hard Rock Cafe was set aside by an organization called “Taking It to the Streets” which sets up local worship leaders and various venues across the city to play Christian music. That particular song as well as every song we played that day are a part of what we would normally sing inside our gathered Sunday services to glorify God, build up the body of believers and announce to the unbelieving world what we hold true of Jesus Christ. We feel we have Biblical authority and a responsibility to sing these songs outside of our gathered walls as well in order to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.
I hope this helps answer your question. Feel free to write back or to respond to me personally if you need anything else. God bless. -j jbarnes@sojournchurch.com