Serve Sunday 05/02/10; Logan's Worship Blog

This week we will be combining with the traditional service for a brief time of worship at 8:20am, followed by an entire morning of service in the community around the church. It's called "engage Sunday," and it was quite the experience back in August. We'll see if I can keep the paint off my face and the poison ivy off my legs this time.

Come Thou Fount (Robert Robinson, who was 22 years of age when he penned this one)

There are always several factors involved in choosing a set list, and this week, one of the factors includes "familiarity for both our traditional and contemporary congregations." Dutton plays this song often, thus it will be singable for all Heights goers. And the goal of "engage sunday" is to bless our community, so I cannot think of a better way to start the worship service that to sing "Come thou fount of every blessing."

For those of you who may be confused by the line, "Here I raise mine Ebenezer," just take a look at 1 Samuel 7:12

1 Samuel 7:12 (New International Version)

¹² Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer,^[a] saying, "Thus far has the LORD helped us."

Footnotes: Ebenezer means stone of help.

Mighty To Save (Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding)

When Trent Blackley (worship leader for the 915 service) and I were thinking through songs that would be familiar for both services, this is the first song he suggested. It has recently passed "How Great is Our God" to become the most sung worship song in the world, and it happens to be one of my favorites. For those of you who are interested in these kinds of things, here is a list of the top 25 worship songs as of February 2010:

1	Mighty To Save	Fielding, Ben\Morgan, Reuben	4591782
2	How Great Is Our God	Tomlin, Chris\Reeves, Jesse\Cash, Ed	4348399
3	Blessed Be Your Name	Redman, Beth\Redman, Matt	3798438
4	Here I Am To Worship	Hughes, Tim	3266032
5	Everlasting God	Brown, Brenton\Riley, Ken	4556538
6	Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)	Tomlin, Chris\Giglio, Louie\Newton, John	4768151
7	Open The Eyes Of My Heart	Baloche, Paul	2298355
8	Your Grace Is Enough	Maher, Matt	4477026
9	Jesus Messiah	Tomlin, Chris\Carson, Daniel\Reeves, Jesse\Cash, Ed	5183443
10	Holy Is The Lord	Tomlin, Chris\Giglio, Louie	4158039
11	Shout To The Lord	Zschech, Darlene	1406918
12	Forever	Tomlin, Chris	3148428
13	You Are My King	Foote, Billy	2456623
14	Come Now Is The Time To Worship	Doerksen, Brian	2430948
15	Revelation Song	Riddle, Jennie Lee	4447960
16	In Christ Alone	Townend, Stuart\Getty, Keith	3350395
17	Lord I Lift Your Name On High	Founds, Rick	117947
18	Hosanna (Praise Is Rising)	Baloche, Paul\Brown, Brenton	4662491
19	God Of Wonders	Byrd, Marc\Hindalong, Steve	3118757
20	We Fall Down	Tomlin, Chris	2437367
21	Beautiful One	Hughes, Tim	3915912
22	From The Inside Out	Houston, Joel	4705176
23	The Heart Of Worship	Redman, Matt	2296522
24	You Are My All In All	Jernigan, Dennis	825356
25	Days Of Elijah	Mark, Robin	1537904

God of this City (Bluetree)

Recently, we have been singing this song for Port Au Prince and the people who desperately need healing in the nation of Haiti. But this morning, we sing it for the community that we are about to engage with service. Jesus calls us to reach out to our city, our nation, and our world. Today we focus on our city.

Acts 1:8 (New International Version)

⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem (our city), and in all Judea and Samaria (our country), and to the ends of the earth."

Jesus Paid it All (Elvina Hall)

Just found this hymn story:

One Sunday morning Elvina Hall was sitting in the choir section at her church, Monument Street Methodist Church, in Baltimore, Maryland. She wasn't exactly bored with the sermon that Pastor George Schrick was preaching, but while he spoke about Jesus, Elvina's mind drifted to what Jesus had done for us and realized that Jesus had truly paid the entire price for our sins. The words to our hymn "Jesus Paid It All," were born that morning and the only thing Elvina had to write the words on was the inside cover of her hymnbook. Later, when she gave the words to her pastor she found out that the organist had just written a tune and both words and tune fit perfectly together. The hymn was published in 1879.

1 Peter 1:18-19 (New International Version)

¹⁸For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Call to Action (Logan Walter)

Engage Sunday is the reason that I wrote this song. Or, I should say, the service mindedness of our church (which led to the creation of Engage Sunday) is, itself, the story behind the song.

No more needs to be said. Let my words be few. Let's show the love of Christ through our actions.

Galatians 5:13b (New International Version)

¹³serve one another in love.