Nineteenish hours from now...

The countdown begins... In roughly nineteen hours from now, as I type this out, I will have accomplished one of my dreams. At the second largest baptist church in Canada, sitting at 1636 people who consider themselves part of the Grandview family (as of October 18, 2006), I have been given the privilege to lead worship for them. I've led worship at other places before, but nothing of this caliber. After joining the church and interning there since September, I have been given quite a few responsibilities. I've learned so many things and even as a student at Heritage College I'm able to apply the textbook knowledge to this church.

Tomorrow is so nerve-racking. I'm feeling the stress and people have continually told me "Just give it up to God and don't worry about it!" or "You'll be fine, you were given the chance because we trust you will be amazing!" It is encouraging and concurrently feels like there is more pressure because they are assuming that I will be great. It's a lot to live up to, at least for me. My other problem is the first comment people have made. "Just give it up to God!" Easier said than done, right? When you are so used to dealing with things on your own, like studying and making sure you know it all for a mid term or like making sure that you have everything is appropriately lined up for work proposal or a meeting that you are in charge of. There is a lot of time and work put in, so how do you just give it up? I don't know. I'm sure I'll figure that out soon enough. Tomorrow seems like it will be the day to fully comprehend that.

There is a lot to consider going into creating a service and after a lot of debating of what and where things should be, it was all finalized monday morning. There are two worship sets, with the offering, a baptism, prayer focus, and the teaching in between. I'm doing all the transitional talks and prayers and I'm scared about how it will flow. (ASIDE: I don't like to think of the prayers as a transitional tool, but for flow of the service it does help. It provides the band with a way for getting off or on stage without much notification to the congregation or time being wasted.) As I was going through the song lists I was continually doubting what I wanted, but I knew I wanted one song, Mighty to Save, and thankfully Grandview had just added that as one of the new songs on their repertoire list for 2007. I'll explain my love for this song after the worship sets that are in the following list:

Set 1:
All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises by Paul Baloche
Mighty to Save by Hillsong United (the new one)
Mighty to Save (reprise during offering)

Set 2:
Offering by Paul Baloche
How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin
Holy is the Lord by Chris Tomlin
You are Holy by Michael W. Smith

So let me talk about this new song, Mighty to Save, by Hillsong United. If you haven't heard it yet, you are definitely missing out. look at the lyrics under "song of the month" and if you want I'll totally send you the song. It has this sweet A/B/C# guitar riff right at the start of the song. After 4 bars of the drummer giving a one-two-three-four beat on the high hat, he jumps in with some awesome drumming of 16ths on the high hat and snare. This has started me down the road of truly appreciating the talent that drummers have even more. Two bars later the band slowly enters in. At this point, listen to the second guitar that comes in and its effect pedals. The song begins to sound so SWEET!

After a few more bars the lyrics begin, but the song still remains quite soft. The chorus approaches and the instrumentalists crescendo and quickly decrescendo keeping the essence of a quiet praise song. Head through verse two and then the chorus. This is when the band begins to hit it hard. The song now has gone from the quiet subtlety of a prayer inside to aloud worship and praise making you feel His mightiness. The bridge then begins powerfully with lyrics of "Shine your light and let the whole world see/ We're singing for the glory of the Risen King/ Jesus." And then we go through a chorus a few more times and then the bridge a few more times until the end of the of the song.

This song has become one of my favourites, as I am sure it as and will for many others. It is strong lyrically with a feeling of how mighty our God truly is. Hillsongs has been so influential in the way praise and worship is done nowadays. They continually reinvent themselves and create such amazing songs. Now I'm not saying that every song is a big hit like Mighty to Save, but I think they have put the talents God has given them to great use. Starting out as a small band who just made music to bring praise to God and from that love for God evolving us into this new generation of music, where we can be relevant to the secular world of music around us. To be relevant for the non-Christians around us, is what I want to be part of. We cannot reach others if we cannot relate to them.

How ended up talking about how Hillsongs has revolutionized Christian worship songs for the new generation I will never know. Although, I'm glad I did because it has made me realize that no matter how scared I am and nervous about a situation like this I am still thinking of how much God can do and remove our fears if we just bring the praise back to Him. I guess me spending this time writing all of this out has just made me relax more. I've brought the thinking process out on "paper" and I've realized that it is in His hands. I want tomorrow to be amazing not to show myself off or say "what a good job I've done," but to be a tool for God to show others how awesome He is. That in everything I do I can try my hardest so I can give him true praise. And so that he can use me, a scared, nervous kid who loves praising Him, to help let His light shine to the world.

L8s, latex, and all that love stuff
nathizz