This week in Adventures with Sunday Setlists and the Blog Carnival (sponsored by Fred McKinnon) Cherry Creek Pres. Worships AGAIN!

*ahem!*

1 – All People That On Earth Do Dwell  –  William Kethe, 1561 / Zac Hicks, 2009 
This new hymns arrangement contains an emphasis on the audience physically responding to the worship with the claps of their hands. I find that it is always scant to find a group of people actually clapping. The arrangement is a simple pop tune with a full band.

2 – Father, Long Before Creation  –  Ancient Chinese Hymn / Andrew Osenga, 2005 
This song has “fun and happiness” written all over it. It’s an old, obscure Chinese Hymn written, um…a long time ago; translated into English by Frances Jones and brought into the New Hymns Movement in 2005 by Andrew Osenga. It is truly remarkable and unexpected to receive a hymn from a Chinese brother. The new tune is an off-beat, smile-cracking, pop-ska melody.

3 – Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken  –  Henry Lyte, 1824, 1833 / Bill Moore, 2001 
As we prepare for Lent, we must take up our crosses and follow Christ. This hymn says “Perish every fond ambition, All I’ve sought or hoped or known. Yet how rich is my condition! God and heaven are still my own.”  In other words, “May everything I ever hoped for, found familiar, or pursued become nothing; God and Heaven are still mine.”

3 – Bread of the World in Mercy Broken  –  Reginald Heber, 1827 / Zac Hicks, 2006
Our call to Holy Communion was this song (another new hymn). All acoustic and simple, “Bread of the World” beckons us to the table in humility and thankfulness with an atmosphere of joy.

4 – We Will Dance  –  David Ruis, 1993 
My mother loves this song. As it is driving and full of movement it also reflects a reverence as shown at a wedding. But when the chorus hits, the tune breaks into a joyous melody that inspires the dancer in all of us. It is a fitting response to the receipt of Communion

See you next week!

~Robert