Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: Sojourn’s Sunday Music Set List for 10/5/08

Written as part of the Blog Carnival at fredmckinnon.com, featuring many church worship music set lists.  Photos by Dan Canales.

We began the gathering portion of this baptism service (we’ve been holding baptism services every other month) with 1. Mourning into Dancing, by Sojourn’s own Jeremy Quillo.  This might be my favorite of Jeremy’s songs — it’s definitely in the top two or three.  You can hear the mp3 and view the chord sheet from our These Things I Remember page. 

2. Gifted Response (We Will Worship You), written by Matt Redman.  We sang this one following a Call To Worship reading based on 1 Corinthians 15.  The song is good for praising God as well as edifying and instructing each other.  Note the poetic embrace of theology in explaining the triune God’s role in enabling us to respond to His call to worship in the way He requires:

This is a gifted response

Father, we cannot come to You by our own merit

We will come in the name of Your Son

as He glorifies You — and in the power of Your Spirit.

3. Merciful God, written by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend.  This contemporary hymn in three verses would be a solid addition for any church that wants to increase their repertoire of congregational songs dealing with confession, repentance and petition:

Merciful God, O abounding in love,

faithful through times we have failed You:

Selfish in thought and uncaring in deed,

foolish in word and ungrateful.

Spirit of God, conquer our hearts

With love that flows from forgiveness;

cause us to yield and return to the mercy of God.

Following this our baptismal candidates came forward.  At Sojourn, those being baptised prepare short written testimonies beforehand.  A community group leader, spouse, or someone else in leadership at Sojourn or important in the life of the person reads the testimony to the congregation, and then an elder conducts the baptism in the presence of the congregation.  On this day, we baptised six believers over our four services.

4. Awake My Soul, written by Sandra McCracken.  This song acknowledges that our boasting is only in Christ, the one who can save us.  I like how the verses carry this theme through to the end of a believer’s life, in verse three:

When I stand on the edges of Jordan

with the saints and the angels beside

When my body is healed, and the glory revealed,

Then still I can boast only Christ.

After this we read together from Colossians 3:11-14 (there is neither Jew nor Gentile ...) and entered into the Giving of the Peace portion of our liturgy.  It’s tempting to think of this only as “the time when we greet the people near us for a few minutes,” because of course that is what we do.  But the purpose is much more than a meet-and-greet, and the goal goes beyond simply saying “hi” to friends you already know.  We “give” or “extend” the peace of Christ when we converse and welcome each other — especially when we make a point of welcoming someone we don’t know.  We call it the “peace of Christ” because it comes from Him, is made possibly in Him, and was modeled through Him.

5. Christ for President, written by Woody Guthrie.  Usually we follow the Giving of the Peace with a sermon, but today we introduced our new two-part sermon series “Christ for President” with this song of the same name, written by the legendary 20th century folk singer.  It was a fun, homespun way to introduce the topic, which of course is a timely one, given that we’re one month away from the United States presidential election. 

Pastor Daniel Montgomery preached this sermon from Romans 13:1-7. The campaigns of Barak Obama and John McCain have promised many things (and various pop culture icons have voiced their opinions as well), but only God can and will bring lasting change and make all things new.  God, however, calls us in His Word to submit to governmental authorities, paying taxes and honoring our leaders because God has established them in their positions.  This is not to say that Christians can’t or shouldn’t participate in the political process, but that our participation should flow from radical allegiance to Christ.

6. King of the Universe, also by Jeremy Quillo.  We sang this one as our communion song of the week.  It continues the theme of allegiance to the One who is ultimately worthy.  You can hear the King of the Universe mp3 and view the chord sheet from the page of our very first CD, With the Angels.

We followed this by reading together from Philippians 2:5-11.

7. Beautiful Savior, written by Stuart Townend.  We’ve been doing this song for at least as long as the four years I’ve been a part of Sojourn.  Not only does it serve the “Christ for President” theme well, but it’s a good song of adoration and trust:

Beautiful Savior, Wonderful Counselor,

clothed in majesty, Lord of history, You’re the Way, the Truth, the Life,

Star of the Morning, Glorious holiness,

You’re the Risen One, Heaven’s Champion, and You reign, You reign over all.

Following this song we prayed together and then Sojourn deacon Dave Richards led us in the benediction before dismissal.

Worship band for the 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. services:

Lorie King: vocals

Jeremy Quillo: vocals and guitar

Andy Hassler: piano

Mike Cosper: lead guitar

Simon Groce: bass guitar

Smitty Smith: drums

Micah Revell: liturgical readings

Worship band for the 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. services:

Kate Robins: vocals

Jamie Barnes: vocals and guitar

Mike Cosper: lead guitar

Robert James: bass guitar

Ryan Harvey: drums

Dave Richards: liturgical readings