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Sunday Setlists #24 - First Recap of 2009

Posted on January 4th, 2009 in Church Life, Sunday Setlists, Worship Confessionals by Fred

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Special thanks to Dorothy Holland for the “Sunday Set Lists” banner. If you’d like to submit a banner to use for “Sunday Setlists”, please send’em on!

Welcome to the first “Sunday Setlists” post of 2009 - our 24th consecutive week of sharing and collaborating reviews of our worship services.  How ’bout a big goal for 2009 - let’s get this thing where we have 100+ links every week?  Anybody think that’s do-able?  You’ll have to encourage everyone you know - local worship leaders, pastors, and other people who attend your church.

That’s where I’d really LOVE to see some growth … I’d love to see more “confessionals” and “recaps” from those who are OFF the platform/stage - a perspective from the pew, so to speak.

OK - so you know the rules (by now) - to participate you need to do the following:

  1. Post a blog about your worship service(s) this week.  (Don’t have a blog - you can have a free one created within minutes at wordpress.com, or just leave your review as a comment below!) Sometimes we make homemade videos - these are called “worship confessionals”.  Share what songs you used, and any other creative elements.  Don’t just share the good stuff - let us hear about the pitfalls, too - that’s why we call it a “confessional”.  Did you try a new arrangement?  Did a song not workout?  Let’s hear the details.
  2. It’s important that people who read your recap be able to come back to THIS POST so they can see the links to all the others.  So in the body of your post, please link back to today’s post (not my fredmckinnon.com homepage).  You may want to say something like “check out all the other setlists and reviews on the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.Com”.  The address you should link to for this week is:
    http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/01/04/sunday-setlists-24
  3. After doing so, come back here and fill out the “Mister Linky” box below - in the “URL” field, you should put the link that goes directly to YOUR POST.  Don’t link to your homepage, link directly to your “Sunday Setlist” post.  If you’re not sure how to do this - after publishing your blog entry, click on the entry’s title, and copy that URL and paste it into the Mister Linky box below.
  4. Leave a comment, and then visit the other sites and see what others are doing.
  5. SPREAD THE WORD - use Twitter, FaceBook, mySpace, and all your social networking!

Here’s my setlist recap for St. Simons Community Church, Sunday January 4, 2009

What a great day at SSCC.  It was wonderful to be back with the people, leading worship after taking last weekend off.

Walk-in:  “Again I Say Rejoice” (Israel Houghton)
Opening Songs:
“For All You’ve Done” (Hillsong)
“Mighty To Save” and “The Stand” medley (Hillsong)

We did this great medley where after we’ve done the Bridge (shine your light …) on “Mighty to Save”, we go back to the Chorus and hold out the last note on “conquered the grave” … and then the band drops out and we get very quiet and move into the Pre-Chorus of “The Stand” (what can I say, what could I do ..)

Building on that Pre-Chorus, we go into the big Bridge of “The Stand”, and vamp it … it’s like a wave of passion that just starts going over the congregation as we do that, and then we medley directly back into the Bridge of “Mighty to Save”, and finally repeat the Chrorus to end the song.

After this opening set, the lights go black for a 30-second sermon intro video for our series, “Change is Coming”.  Then, we had a hilarious skit where our youth pastor, Jon Blankenship, came out dressed in a suit, and acted like he was going to “kick-start” the sermon for the Pastor.  He got all fired up like a gospel celebration, and I was hitting these B3 organ hits before Pastor David finally comes out from backstage and interrupts his act … I guess you had to be there, but it was hilarious.

Our closing set after the sermon was used during communion:
“Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone” (a slow version in E, sim. to the Chris Tomlin version)
“Center” (led by Kim Dixon)

We were going to close with “I Will Never Be” (Hillsong) but didn’t have time, so we just vamped “Center” as people were leaving.

I thought it was a great Sunday, and hope the people there took advantage of an opportunity to sing and worship God.

Let’s hear from you now!

IntenseDebate - Let the Conversations Begin

Posted on January 3rd, 2009 in General by Fred

intensedebate_logo-miniHey Everybody,

Starting out this New Year in 2009, I thought I’d try a new feature out on the blog here.  It’s called “Intense Debate“.   Part of what makes blogging so rewarding is being a part of the interaction through you, the readers.  That’s what makes the comment section come alive. One of the easiest ways to jump off in the New Year is to do what we call a “roll call” here in blogworld … if you’re reading (via RSS or here on the site), you can leave a quick comment with your name and location.  Please - even if you usually don’t comment - let us here from you!

Back to IntenseDebate:
There’s a whole pile of features with IntenseDebate, but it essentially exists to “enhance and encouarge converations on your blog or website”.  Here’s a quick video recap of some of the features:

IntenseDebate provides many new features meant to inspire discussion and easily follow the conversation.

In order to better organize the discussion, we’ve implemented comment threading which allows users to directly reply to one another.

Users also have an identity that spans across all blogs powered by IntenseDebate. Along with this is a reputation value, based on the quantity and quality of the comments users make, meant to give an overview of a user’s commenting history. Quality is determined by the users through comment voting, which also serves to move the best comments to the top.

With all of our comment systems being interconnected, we make it easy to track users and their activities across all blogs using our system by providing email and rss notifications.

In short, IntenseDebate has completely transformed the commenting experience.

IntenseDebate. Comments Rediscovered.

Now, you can always comment here without signing up for IntenseDebate, but to take full advantage of the features (not just here, but on a growing list of popular sites as well), consider registering - it’s FREE.  Also, those who are registered will quality to show up in the sidebar under the “Who’s Talking” heading …

So, let the conversations begin!  Signup for IntenseDebate (you can just leave a comment below and checkoff the box that you wish to signup!) and come back and leave your first official “comment“.

FreePlay Friday - New Years 2009 Goodness

Posted on January 2nd, 2009 in Free Play Fridays, General by Fred
Fred McKinnon's FreePlay Friday Logo

HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody!

Friday - Jan 2.  I’m not ‘officially’ back at work - though I’m taking today to sort of get back to work in my home office and get some things taken care of.  There are currently 305 messages in my inbox - yikes.  I haven’t done my business finances in a couple of weeks - yikes.  I have a bunch of new cases for the new “Aluminum Unibody Enclosure” Macs to add to my e-biz stores - yikes.

That being said - I’ll keep this FreePlay Friday quick with some “bullets”:

  • First - prayers for my good friend, one of SSCC’s main drummers, and a faithful “FreePlay Friday” reader and commenter, R.V. Cate.  His mother passed away unexpectedly Sunday, Dec 21.  R.V. still came and played the drums for our Christmas Eve service.  R.V. - we love you, pray for continued peace and comfort, and look forward to drumming with you at practice in the morning.  You and your family are loved and have a special place in our hearts.
  • Second - prayers for my good friend, Patrick Eades.  Patrick is the Director of our local CareNet, which is a massive ministry that extends into multiple counties and has a huge impact in our region.  God has blessed Patrick and promoted him into a great position of influence in the pro-life community.  He sent this prayer request today in his “e-care” newsletter:“… While I have you, I want to ask for your prayer as I am preparing for a six day training and consultation for Pregnancy Service Center in Salina, Kansas. I thought I asked weeks ago, but after reviewing previous e-cares I see that I neglected to ask for prayer on this crucial training. I leave very early Monday morning and will return the following Sunday.  This is a strategic location in that it is very close to Wichita where Doctor George Tiller performs hundreds of late term abortions each year and proclaims having provided over sixty thousand abortions since 1973 (http://www.drtiller.com/). Tiller is also infamous in that he has installed a crematorium in his abortion clinic to dispose of the dead babies (http://www.dr-tiller.com/). As a result I consider this a key area in our nation and thus a key need for our prayer. This center’s leadership asked for me specifically as a Care Net Consultant, so I am honored, but humbly seek your prayer. I am grateful for your prayer as fly into Wichita on Monday to prepare for training in Salina for the week.”

    (speaking of CareNet, I realized that I never mailed CD/DVD to those who donated to CareNet a while back when I did a promotion - if that was you, PLEASE let me know - I spoke with Patrick and he’s going to attempt to get the names to me)
  • Free Music - Michael Cowan, a good friend from college (fellow Theory/Comp Major!) has a great band in Athens, GA called “Scarlet Snow”.  They kicked off the New Year by allowing their new album, “The Needle EP”, to be downloaded for FREE.  Don’t waste a moment - go to “downloadtheneedle.com” and get your FREE ALBUM - no strings attached.  While you are there, if you are into smooth jazz, also pickup Drew Davidsen’s “Mission Drew” track with code “smoothjazz”. Drew is a fellow “IndieHeaven.Com” artist - we met a few years ago, and he’s an incredible jazz musician.
  • Free Graphics - Russ Hutto is offering a free “wallpaper” graphic each month - this month is a way-cool one of Psalm 57:10 that you can use as your desktop background on your computer.  Check it out here.
  • Locals?  This Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, and that means “Fam  Jam” at SSCC - if you have kids in the 1st-5th grade range and you live nearby - come checkout this awesome service where “kids bring their parents to church” this Sunday at 10:00 AM in the Kid’s Clubhouse Theater.

In closing … I’d like to show you how I disposed of my Christmas Tree:

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And that’s with NO gasoline … man, those things go up quick.  I said “I wonder if this thing will burn since it’s still so green” … well, I almost paniced … that fire had to be at least 25 feet high and started hitting the trees above it.  Too bad it only lasted about 2 minutes.  I was always a pryo-maniac.

How did you dispose of YOUR Christmas Tree?  Post your response, and any other random “FreePlay Friday” information below!

Happy New Year - Christmas Eve Reflections

Posted on January 1st, 2009 in Church Life, Faith by Fred

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To all of you who visit here, I pray that God’s favor, peace, grace, and blessings will abound in your life in 2009!

As we begin 2009, I’d love to reflect back to our Christmas Eve service at St. Simons Community Church.  Chris Moncus took some incredible pictures (as always)  … I’m posting a couple of my favorites.  Click the image for full size, and see ChrisMoncus.Com for the entire photo album of our Christmas Eve service.

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The Sanctuary @ SSCC - I love the lighting in this photo.  Best I can tell, it’s taken from the vantage point of our video/media room wall.  This was probably around the time where David talked about the 400 years of silence between Malachi and Matthew, and when he lit the first candle, symbolic of Christ coming as the “Light of the World”.

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Candles - a great shot of the congregation after they each lit their candles.  It was a beautiful moment as we sang “Silent Night” and worshiped together.

For more great pictures of this event, be sure and visit ChrisMoncus.Com.  As always, great pics, Chris.

So - how did you spend Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve?  Comment and let us know.

2008 Stats

Posted on December 31st, 2008 in General, Life and Family by Fred

statsHappy New Years Eve

It seems like the thing to do (from what I’m seeing in my blogroll) is share stats today.  So here we go, the stats for FredMcKinnon.Com, just in case you’re interested.

But before I do stats, I’d like to encourage your reply to my “Questions for 2009″ post yesterday.  (click to open it in a new window)

Top Refererers

1.  google.com
2.  Twitter
3.  Facebook (no doubt, as a result of Twitter’s updating my status)
4.  TheWorshipCommunity.Com
5.  (a site that I found out had some bad stuff on it, so I’m not linking there anymore, thanks for the heads up, Chris (what in the world?)
6.  SSCommunityChurch.Com
7.  images.google.com (I guess people love my pics)
8.  webmail.att.net (I guess people actually read my emails)
9.  stumbleupon.com
10.  ragamuffinsoul.com (thanks Carlos)
11.  chrisfromcanada.com (thanks, Chris)
12.  mikeymo1741.blogspot.com (thanks, Mike)
13.  billchia.com (thanks, Billy, what a year, right?)
14.  burnsidewriterscollective.com (thanks Jamie)
15.  rmckinno1.wordpress.com (my brother, Robert!)

Top Posts:

#1 - Palm Treo versus Blackberry (sad, that has NOTHING to do with worship!)
#2 - Mike Guglielmucci Exposed
#3 - The O Holy Night Saga Category
#4 - How He Loves Us
#5 - About Me

Top Search Terms: (redundant keywords and phrases skipped)

#1 - fred mckinnon (duh)
#2 - mike guglielmucci
#3 - palm treo versus blackberry
#4 - how he loves us lyrics
#5 - tyranny of the urgent
#6 - bad o holy night
#7 - gators wear jean shorts (hahahahahahah)
#8 - mandisa god speaking
#9 - steven curtis chapman’s family
#10 - manual worship leader

That’s out of over 60 keywords, most of which have to do with the top 4 search terms.  “bad singer fred mckinnon o holy night” is probably the craziest.  In my search for weird terms in the list, I didn’t find those great ones like “wet my pants” that Mandy has … so I suppose “redneck naked” is the most controversial search term I could find in my Google Analytics at #159.

Well, I suppose I should blog more about controversial topics and head-to-head gadget reviews if I really want more traffic, right?  Nope … it ain’t about the traffic.  It’s about downloading, and hopefully, encouraging someone.

With that said, here’s a reminder to go back and answer these “Questions for 2009“.

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