Sunday morning at Kings

• Holy, holy, holy - John Bacchus Dykes

• Everlasting God- Vikki Beeching
• Awake, awake, O Zion - Nathan Fellingham
• O Jesus, son of God - Matt Redman
• My Jesus, my Saviour - Darlene Zschech

• Here I am to worship - Tim Hughes

The preaching passage was Isaiah 7-9, you would think a worship set centred around the incarnation was a safe bet for supporting the sermon. Almost! Instead we had another legendary Richard Briggs sermon including a participatory section on C8th BC middle-Eastern geopolitics?!

But the worship set was very open - people really responding to God as we opened our lives up to Him. I love the fact that both elements are at the heart of who we are at Kings - open to God in worship and serious about theology as we engage with scripture.

Sunday morning at Kings

• We stand and lift up our hands - Chris Tomlin

• Great is your faithfulness - Chris Tomlin
• Open the eyes of my heart - Paul Baloche
• Before the throne of God above - Caritie Bancroft, Vikki Cook
• Let the weak say 'I am strong' - Rueben Morgan

• Happy Day - Tim Hughes

• Worthy, you are worthy - Matt Redman
• We're looking to your promise of old - Matt Redeman

Baptisms this morning! The preaching passage was Isaiah 6 "I saw the Lord, high and lifted up..." I tried to draw the themes together - seeing the Lord high and lifted up is to see him at the right hand of the Father pleading our cause.

I usually aim to avoid using more than one song from any writer in a set but this morning we had two Chris Tomlins in a row to start and two Matt Redmans in a row to finish.

Sunday morning at Kings

• Oh, our Lord and King - Alan Rose

• And can it be - Charles Wesley
• Give thanks to the Lord - Chris Tomlin
• Lost in wonder - Martyn Layzell
• I will bless the Lord forever - Miriam Webster

• There is a redeemer - Keith and Melody Green
• O love divine, what hast Thou done? - Charles Wesley
• We believe - Graham Kendrick

• Before the throne of God above - Charitie Bancroft, Vikki Cook
• Thank you for the blood - Matt Redman

We didn't have a rhythm section on Sunday, just two acoustic guitars, piano and four vocals. These days we almost always have drums and bass even at our lowest numbers out of term-time. The different line-up was fairly refreshing.

Easter Sunday at Kings

• In Christ alone - Stuart Townend, Keith Getty

• Happy Day - Tim Hughes
• Thank you for the blood - Matt Redman
• I cling to the cross
• Jesus, holy and anointed - John Barnett

• In the tomb so cold - Graham Kendrick
• He has risen - Gerald Coates, Noel & Tricia Richards

A very open morning.

Sunday morning at Kings

• All creatures of our God and King - St Francis of Assisi, arr. David Crowder

• You're the lion of Judah - Robin Mark
• Far and near - Graham Kendrick
• All my days - Stuart Townend
• Who is there like you - Paul Oakley

• Hallelujah, my Father - Tim Cullen
• When I survey - Isaac Watts

• From heaven you came - Graham Kendrick

I was rather ragged after a late night journey back from Worship Central but there was a lot of life in the meeting.

I've been reflecting on the production quality of various events. I'm wondering whether having very high production values risks distancing people from the event itself.

If things are too slick then people's participation can feel fairly incidental. But if things are too slack, that's also a distraction. (Slick/slack - you can have that for free!)

Perhaps the production quality needs to be proportional to the size of the meeting...?

Sunday evening at Kings

• Highest and greatest - Tim Hughes

• Praise him, you heavens - Russell Fragar
• All creatures of our God and King - St Francis of Assisi, Arr. David Crowder
• Great is thy faithfulness - Thomas Chisholm
• Let the weak say 'I am strong' - Reuben Morgan

• All to Jesus, I surrender - Jud­son W. Van De­Vent­er, Win­field S. Weed­en
• To you, O Lord - Graham Kendrick

The last evening of the term, the first evening service I've led this term. A visiting preacher from India tonight and a strong sense of direction in worship.

I used David Crowder's arrangement of 'All creatures of our God and King' for the first time. It's pretty much the familiar tune but stretched to 4:4. I think I'd written this hymn off because of Mr Bean but this arrangement really makes it speak. It's on YouTube (complete with waterfall pictures!)

Sunday morning at Kings

• Yesterday, today and forever - Vicki Beeching

• Great is your faithfulness - Chris Tomlin
• I'm gonna trust in God - Steve Earl
• In Christ alone - Stuart Townend, Keith Getty
• Let the weak say "I am strong" - Rueben Morgan

• And can it be - Charles Wesley

• Worthy, you are worthy - Matt Redman
• The splendour of the King - Chris Tomlin

Baptisms this morning which always lifts the meeting. The set really caught. I love it when I don't even have to encourage people to contribute. Prayers and psalms and spontaneous praise just burst forth between songs.

I led 'Let the weak' in C#, which is a nice key for the song. The voices and harmonies sounded amazing. One of those times when it really sounds like we're joining with angels to worship.

My voice was somewhat strained first thing in the morning and I still haven't quite recovered my rhythm for preparing for worship, but times like this remind me how much bigger a thing I'm involved with.

Sunday morning at Kings

• Happy Day - Tim Hughes

• The cross has said it all - Matt Redman
• What can I do? - Graham Kendrick, Paul Baloche
• How deep the Father's love for us - Stuart Townend
• Thank you for saving me - Martin Smith

• Jesus Christ, I think upon your sacrifice - Matt Redman
• O love divine! what hast Thou done? - Charles Wesley, Chris Juby

• Jesus, be the centre - Michael Frye

We took communion together this Sunday morning. I taught a tune I've written for Charles Wesley's 'O love divine! what hast Thou done?' - a beautiful meditation on the cross. The first verse is amazing:

O love divine! what hast Thou done?
Th'immortal God has died for me
The Father's co-eternal Son
Bore all my sins upon the tree
Th'immortal God for me hast died
My Lord, my love, is crucified

I'll post my chords later in the week.

Sunday morning at Kings

• Great is your faithfulness - Chris Tomlin

• Crown him with many crowns - Matthew Bridges, George Elvey, Godfrey Thring
• Praise him, you heavens - Russell Fragar
• O sacred King - Matt Redman
• The Lord is gracious and compassionate - Graham Ord

• The servant King - Graham Kendrick

'Great is your faithfulness' (not the hymn) and 'Crown him' absolutely flew this morning, then right back for 'O sacred King' and 'The Lord is gracious and compassionate'. The band sounded great - it's hard to overstate how much a really good drummer contributes (respect, Ben!) but everyone was on form this morning. The sermon title was 'The servant King' so not too hard to decide on a response!

Sunday morning at Kings

• Let everything that has breath - Matt Redman

• Come, let us worship Jesus - Graham Kendrick
• We stand and lift up our hands - Chris Tomlin
• Wonderful, so wonderful - Tim Hughes
• Praise, my soul, the Kings of heaven - Henry F Lyte, John Goss

• The Lord's my shepherd - Stuart Townend
• I cling to the cross
• I will bless the Lord forever - Miriam Webster

I've been back from honeymoon a week now and was really looking forward getting back to leading worship at Kings. I wanted to draw together the themes of Jesus' glory and his mercy in the setlist. Our passage was John 10 so picked up with 'The Lord's my shepherd' afterwards then up to I cling to the cross.