Happy Mother’s Day! For a change of pace, I planned an acoustic ‘unplugged’ set to lead our worship experience this week.

We threw down a cool rug, brought in some vibey lamps and busted out the upright bass….it was freakin’ cool! Top that off with great players and some killer vocals….the set was choc-full of musical moments.

It was interesting and challenging to play without a percussion instrument, but it forced us to lean into the uniqueness of each instrument in the band. The upright bass didn’t have electronic pick-ups so we had to mic it. I think if we’d had percussion it would have overpowered the mic, so that was a bit unexpected good fortune.

As if it wasn’t enough to just lead worship with this fun band set-up, the highlight of the morning was a thematic song we did featuring one of our stellar singers. So this would be the perfect time for me to introduce you to Helene Immel. She’s a singer/songwriter, artist and worshipper of Jesus. Do yourself a favor and get to know her music.

Mighty To Save | Hillsong United
How He Loves | Jesus Culture
Amazed | Desperation Band (feat. Pam Allen)
Aftermath | Hillsong United (feat. Helene Immel)

Continue Reading…

So this week kind of got away from me and I didn’t get around to posting my usual recap from last Sunday’s Worship Experience. We were a bit consumed with my daughter’s 9th birthday party…which was a total blast. (I’ll upload some pics of that in another post.)

We opened with one song and then went straight to the teaching this week. Then we worshipped as a response to the teaching and took communion. It was very very cool. I’m thinking we’ll look at this format more frequently in the future.

Glory To God Forever | Fee
Be Thou My Vision | Andy Allen (original arrangement | unreleased)
Kingdom Come | Elevation Worship
Your Love Never Fails | Jesus Culture
The Stand | Hillsong United

And for the record, the band freakin’ killed it!

Wow…this picture definitely deserves an explanation…right?! As part of our ‘All-In’ series, this week the focus was loving God with all our strength. So we had fun with this and held a quick Strong-Man Competition in the middle of service. Hilarious. Dave dressed up a bit here…wearing a Speedo in church…and the band played Eye Of The Tiger while several guys demonstrated feats of strength. It was a blast!

There are many lessons I’m learning as the journey continues to help start a new church here in North San Diego County. This was our 11th Sunday meeting weekly. We find ourselves working hard to establish routine…and then working equally as hard to make sure routine does not dictate predictability and a lack of creativity in our worship expression.

I think a significant part of the challenge is that no one on our lead team is working full-time for The Station Church. The upside of this is that there is an incredible commitment being demonstrated by a group of volunteers who simply believe in this mission to reach people in our community with the love of God. Building a team of people with a shared vision always takes time…especially when everyone is busy making a living in the real world.

It’s relatively simple to get lost in the details of scheduling volunteers, planning the weekly set-list and having to focus on getting loaded-in and set-up in the short time allotted each Sunday morning. This week I was glad to be reminded again WHY I’m doing this. When Josh invited people to make a decision to commit their lives to Christ and 2 people responded…I was affected by the joy of God’s mercy, His salvation and the peace that is here for us when we lean into His love.

I’m also incredibly thankful for a growing community of talented creatives, musicians and singers. They prepare and show up each week with hearts ready to engage with God. It’s just incredibly fun to see our weekly Worship Experience take shape.

Our Great God | Casey Darnell
Our God | Chris Tomlin
Forever Reign | One Sonic Society
Go | Hillsong United

Continue Reading…

It finally feels like we’re finding our rhythm with weekly Sunday gatherings. Like every portable church plant, part of the challenge to the weekly plan is finding people willing to serve early on Sunday mornings and help load-in and set-up. Even with a sparse crew, things are getting done and we’re thankful for this dedicated team.

We’re also wanting to stay very intentional about creating a unique Worship Experience every Sunday. It’s easy to default into an expected flow and order of things. On one hand it is nice to have a basic plan to launch from, but we definitely want to keep finding new ways to connect with people and create meaningful moments where people can experience the love of God.

The entrepreneurial part of me is absolutely loving the discovery of a new church culture along with the opportunity to help define the worship expression we have as a group.

Our numbers were down some this week. There were 45 people in the main venue and 16 in the Kids Station. There are still a solid percentage of first time visitors coming each week. We have a developing core of regular attenders, but at this point in our journey it’s not consistent from week to week.

Musically we had a great week. The band was incredibly solid and that helps create a distraction-free Worship Experience that is a joy to lead.

Our Great God | Casey Darnell
One Thing Remains | Jesus Culture
Always | One Sonic Society
From The Inside Out | Hillsong United

Continue Reading…

We started a new series this week called ‘All In’ at The Station Church. Keying off of Matthew 22:37…loving the Lord with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind…being ‘All In’ with God.

Our set design team did a great job putting together a new concept for the stage and worked with the lighting crew to enhance the vibe in our Worship Experience. It turned out very cool.

We had 50 people in our main Worship Experience and 17 in Kids Station. We also had a free VIP lunch to close out the day. It was a ton of fun to see so many people hanging out together and building new relationships. So very cool!

Our band was a 4 piece this week and i really liked it. We still used enhancement tracks to fill out the sonic spectrum, but there was a great rock energy with a simple 4 piece arrangement.

With Us | Hillsong
Stronger | Hillsong Live
All Things New | Elevation Worship
Search My Heart | Hillsong United

How was your Post-Easter Sunday?
Leave a comment below…