Easter at Calvary is going to be a wonderful day. People from all over the community will gather to hear a message of hope that is found exclusively the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many songs that we will be singing as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. To help you be prepared to fully engage in our worship, I am posting video links from YouTube of original recordings of the songs that we will be using. My prayer is that listening to these songs this week will help you not only be ready to sing on Sunday, but to be praising the Lord throughout the entire week.
Here are the songs that we will be singing:
Christ Arose - Traditional
Risen Today - Aaron Shust
Christ Is Risen, He Is Risen Indeed - Keith & Kristyn Getty
You Have Been Raised - Sovereign Grace
Behold Our God - Sovereign Grace
Forever - Kari Jobe
Come ready to worship the Lord on Easter Sunday at 9:15 or 11:00 a.m.
Good Friday us a special opportunity to gather with other churches as together we remember the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Once again this year, congregations from Calvary Baptist, First Baptist-Zeeland, and Immanuel Church will meet for a special evening of worship and communion. To help our church family become familiar with the songs that we are singing, I am posting YouTube samples of each song so that you can listen, learn, and be prepared to sing with great zeal to the Lord on Friday night.
Here are the songs that we are using:
Come As You Are - Crowder
The Wonderful Cross - Tomlin/Redman
Man Of Sorrows - Hillsong
Behold The Lamb - Getty
Jesus Paid It All - Passion
The Power Of The Cross - Getty
O Sacred Head Now Wounded - Traditional
I hope these links will help you to fully engage with us in worship on Friday evening.
It has been weeks since I have updated the Worship Arts blog and I am without excuse. So it's time to start rolling with weekly updates once again.
This week at Calvary, Pastor Paul is continuing his series in Genesis, preaching through the second half of chapter 3. Our music will focus on the hope we have in Christ.
Once again we will be led in worship by Kyle Harrington. It is truly a great joy for me to see young men who have grown up at Calvary begin to take roles of leadership. I am privileged to join the band this week on acoustic guitar.
We will open the service singing Forever Reignby Hillsong. The lyrics of this song boldly declare the goodness of our Lord and our dependence upon Him for everything in life.
We will also be singing Jesus Paid It All from the Passion movement. This song talks about the atonement and erupts in doxology with the closing line Oh praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead.
Before the message we will sing the Sovereign Grace song Grace and Peace. The lyrics are filled with awe and wonder that the grace of God would come to me, the vilest of sinners.
After the message we will close the service with the Sovereign Grace song What A Savior which is an arrangement of the Philip Bliss hymn, Hallelujah What A Savior. Again we explore the theme of the atonement and the place that has been made for us in Christ.
I pray that you will find joy and peace in Christ this week and come ready to engage together with God on Sunday with great zeal.
As we enter week four of the Second Chances series, Pastor Paul is preparing to preach on the passage from John where Christ asks Peter three times if he loves him. The story of Peter is a clear description of the forgiveness and second chances that we have in Christ.
To help us to engage with God this Sunday, here are the songs that we will be singing as a congregation: 10,000 Reasons- Matt Redman All I Have Is Christ - Jordan Kauflin Completely Done- Ryan and Jonathan Baird, Rich Gunderlock Jesus, Lover Of My Soul - Paul Oakley Along with our congregational singing, I am very excited to have our Worship Choir singing for us this week. The choir will sing Come People of the Risen Kingby Keith and Kristen Getty.
Take some time this week to prepare your heart for corporate worship on Sunday. Perhaps you can use these songs in your devotional life. I trust as we gather on Sunday that you are ready to engage with God and be transformed by spending time together in His presence.
This week at Calvary we begin a new series called A Second Chance. This series is about God's grace to us and we will begin exploring God's grace through the life of Jonah. What is God's grace? The part of God’s character through which He shows himself generous, compassionate, loving and kind, shielding us from His wrath, forgiving us, and giving us what we need to live and grow in faith and obedience. You will not want to miss this series.
We are opening our Sunday gathering singing the Robin Mark song Lion Of Judah. We have been singing this song for many years at Calvary and it truly a congregational favorite. The lyrics tell the story of the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the coming reign of Christ.
Lion Of Judah
Next we will introduce a new song by Joel Sczebel of Sovereign Grace Ministries called Grace and Peace. This lyrically rich modern hymn begins with question of how can the most vile and least among us share in the grace of God when we deserve death. The second stanza answers the question by declaring that Christ's death is the atonement for our sin. The last stanza is a call to wonder, praise and adoration at the mystery of Christ.
Grace and Peace
After the offering, we will sing Paul Baloche's All Because of the Cross. This song takes the familiar hymn Nothing But The Blood and weds it to a new chorus. The closing lyrics are very powerful as we sing,
On the cross our sin erased, in Your death our life was raised. I think this will be a very moving song for us.
All Because of the Cross
After the message, we will close the service with a video from The Rend Collective Experiment called Second Chances. This is about God's forgiveness and I think you will enjoy learning it on Sunday.
Second Chances
I hope to see you Sunday as we seek to draw near to God and to encourage one another in our faith.
This Sunday marks the end of our Journey Through John. Pastor Paul will be finishing the study through John and we will be celebrating the resurrection of Christ as we gather together on Sunday.
We will open the service singing Tim Hughes' Happy Day. This uptempo song is a great celebration of Christ's triumph over the grave. We will continue singing about the risen Christ with the song You Have Been Raisedfrom Sovereign Grace. This song begins with questions about forgiveness and redemption and answers them with the bold assertion that Christ has been raised and that hell and its powers have been defeated.
We turn our focus from the resurrection to Christ Himself with a new song from Sovereign Grace The Gospel Was Promisedand Chris Tomlin's Jesus Messiah. These two songs serve to remind that Jesus Christ is our only hope and source of life.
After the message we will close with a song by Keith and Kristen Getty O Church Arise. This song is a call to action for the church. In light of what Christ has done and accomplished for us, we are to serve in boldness and confidence because the outcome of our battle is secure.
I hope you will prepare your heart in private worship so that you will be ready to engage fully as we meet corporately to worship God at Calvary this Sunday.
This Sunday we celebrate Labor Day, Pastor Paul preaches the next to last message in the Journey Through John series and our Worship Arts team is bringing back the 80's with the music that we are going to use to help us worship God. We have spent a few Sundays throughout the summer looking back on various eras of worship music and this Sunday we want focus on the praise choruses that were part of a significant shift in church music in the 1980's.
One of my favorite attributes of praise choruses is the seamless flow of music from one song into another. You will see that Sunday morning as we have a couple medleys that combine some of our favorites from that era.
