Matthew Starner

Sunday, May 17 at Journey

Series: No Series

Title: “This is My Body, This is My Blood”

Today, our sixth grade students took their first communion, so we thought it would be appropriate to take a look at what communion is all about and what it means for us today.  It was a great chance to take a deeper look at something those of us in the church so often over look or don’t think about the significance of this special gift.

The Service

Not to Us, Chris Tomlin

• A great solid one to kick off with!
  

Open Up the Gates, Planetshakers

• We’ve done this one a bunch of times and it’s always fun – lots of energy on this one!
  

All Because of Jesus, Steve Fee

• The second time we’ve done this one – it seems like people are picking it up and catching on quickly.
  

During Communion

Beautiful the Blood, Steve Fee

• Both songs during communion were perfect tie-ins to the message. This one is one that I’ve debated a bunch over whether or not to use it on a Sunday morning. I always keep our first-time guests in mind when planning songs, and the lyrics to this one can be a little difficult to understand for first-timers. However, since we talked about all background behind communion and tied it in with the crucifixion, it more than explained the symbolism.
  

Jesus Messiah, Chris Tomlin

• Another one that I’ve debated over, mainly the line in the second verse where he says” The whole earth trembled and the veil was torn.” If you’re not familiar with the story, that line makes no sense.  However, the rest of the song is great and it still worked well.

Closing Song

All to You, Lincoln Brewster

• Great ender – short, upbeat and the congregation knows it really well.  We cut it a little short by dropping the instrumental this time since we didn’t have a guitar this week.  It worked great and shortening it kept our time under control.
  

This was a crazy week – if it could go wrong, it pretty much did.  However, everyone on the teams did a great job in rolling with the punches and because of that, no one noticed that anything went wrong and if you didn’t see what happened behind the scenes, you’d never know! Great job team!

While you’re at it, check out the Sunday Setlist blog carnival here.

Were you at Journey this week? Share your thoughts!