Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: Sojourn's Worship Liturgy, 4/26/09

You can find links to church worship music set lists from all over the world, including this one, from the Blog Carnival at fredmckinnon.com. Photos here provided by Dan Canales.

1. Beautiful Scandalous Night, by Steve Hindalong and Derri Daughert.  We’ve sang this one for years at Sojourn Gathered, and it’s always a good one:

On the hillside you will be delivered
At the foot of the cross justified
And your spirit restored, by the river that pours
From our blessed Savior’s side

Then we heard the Call to Worship.  I’ll print this week’s out, to give you an idea of how we do readings.  Our liturgist read all of the Call to Worship below, and the rest of us read along with him on the underlined portions (the words are projected on screens).

“Our help is in the name of the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.”

What did God do to help us?

God chose the people of Israel to make a new beginning.

They received God’s covenant promise and prepared the way

for Jesus to come as our Savior.

Let us worship the God who made these promises to us, the God of heaven and earth.

-based on Psalm 124 (adapted from the Worship Sourcebook). Check out many of our readings and those of others, all free for use in other church services, at theopensourcebook.org.

2. My Maker and My King, a hymn by Anne Steel, arranged and fitted with a new melody by Sojourn’s pastor of worship and arts, Mike Cosper.  You can hear the mp3 and view the chord sheet from the Before The Throne page, here on sojournmusic.com.  “My Maker And My King” was our song of adoration on the liturgically themed Before The Throne — a response to the Call To Worship.  That’s how we used it in this service, as well.

3. Warrior, written by Sojourners Dave Moisan, me (Bobby Gilles) and Neil Robins, adapted from the Isaac Watts hymn “Psalm 21.”  This is the first song on our upcoming CD of new worship songs based on the hymns of Isaac Watts: Over The Grave. We’re releasing this CD the first week in June, which culminates with the Sojourn band leading worship at Advance ’09 in Raleigh, North Carolina.  In case you missed last week’s announcement from Pastor Mike Cosper, you can read all about this release, why we passed on the chance to let a major record label release Over The Grave, and more here.

4. In the Shadow of the Glorious Cross, written by Sojourn worship leaders Brooks Ritter and Rebecca Elliott.  You can hear the mp3 and view the chord sheet on our Before The Throne page.  This modern hymn works as a song of assurance (as we used it here) and a song of dedication.  And that’s the point — our dedication to Christ is made possible by the forgiveness and power that flows from His cross, in which our assurance is based.

Then following the Passing of the Peace, Lead Pastor Daniel Montgomery preached a sermon on Judges, as we continued journeying through the Old Testament.  You can find Pastor Daniel’s further reflections in this series in The B.C. Blog, which is one of three blogs on our online journal, TravelBlog.  And for a little fun, you should make your own selection for Pastor Daniel’s “Judges Playlist” — any songs that you think would work well as part of a soundtrack to the Book of Judges.  I selected “Everything Is Broken” by Bob Dylan.

5. Cling to the Crucified, anonymously written, arranged by Kevin Twit of Indelible Grace. This was our communion hymn of the week.  You can hear, in just a few short minutes, all about how Sojourn does the Lord’s Supper (and why we’ve chosen to do it that way) in last week’s edition of our Worship: Why We Do What We Do series.

Cling to the crucified, Jesus the lamb who died

Cling to the crucified, Jesus the king.

Following “Cling To The Crucified,” we engaged in a corporate reading from Romans 11:33-36.

6. You, written by Tim Hughes.  Like our first song this week, we’ve been singing “You” for years in our worship gatherings, and it never gets old:

Your love can melt the hardest heart
Your words can bring the dead to life
Nothing is impossibe for You
Awesome God, Humble king
You terrify yet welcome in
Your glory echoes all around the world

7. Awake My Soul, written by Sandra McCracken and recorded on her The Builder and the Architect record.  A great song for nearly any part of a Christian worship liturgy:

I trust no other source or name,

Nowhere else can I hide,

This grace gives me fear, and this grace holds me near,

And all that it asks, it provides

Worship band for the 9:30 am and 11:15 am services:

Brooks Ritter: vocals and guitar

Megan Shaffer: vocals

Justin Shaffer: lead guitar

Daniel LaChance: keyboard

Dony Erwin: bass guitar

Ryan Harvey: drums

Micah Revell: liturgical readings

Worship band for the 5 pm and 7 pm services:

Jeremy Quillo: vocals and guitar

Samantha Bartlow: vocals

David Weir: lead guitar

Dan Cassin: keyboard

Charlie Lucas: bass guitar

Smitty Smith: drums

Brandon Rogers: liturgy readings