On Saturday, September 11, 2010 we will be meeting here at The 815 for a night of worship and prayer from 7pm-8pm. This will be the eve of going public for 2 Pillars Church.  We will be singing songs together, praying together, breaking bread together, and asking Jesus for wisdom and strength during this next phase of the church. Please mark this date on your calendars and make time to come together in song and prayer.

• “My God, My Father” – Red Letter
• “Beautiful Things” – Gungor
• “Death in His Grave” – John Mark McMillan
• “Help My Unbelief” – Red Mountain Music
• “Overcome” – Desperation Band
• “Dry Bones” – Gungor

Not familiar with some of these?  Download the lyric sheet, google them up (or YouTube) and get your heart and head tuned in prep for Sunday.

(Post by Matt Grant, 2 Pillars Church Worship Leader)

This week, I’m dubbing our Sunday gathering as “New Music Sunday”. Ok, now don’t get worried that were going to be doing a bunch of weird songs no one has ever heard of or that we are going to have our Electronica sunday (which we may do in the future) with blacklights and really, really weird dancing. New Music Sunday is basically what it sounds like. We are going to have a few new songs that are going to stretch and pursue us. I want to make sure we aren’t heading towards a rut of some sort with the current song selection, so what better time than this Sunday to introduce new music to you, the church body.  With the overwhelming response to last weeks new song, “Overcome”, it seemed apparent that the church was hungry for some new tunes. So this week our new songs are:

“Dry Bones” by Gungor

“My God, My Father” by Red Letter

(Post by Matt Grant, 2 Pillars Church Worship Leader)

We’re looking to grow our worship team.

Who is Matt asking to come forth from their musical hiding?

1) First and foremost proficient musicians. I’m looking for people who display a certain level of excellence on their instrument and have some experience playing in a group setting. It could be orchestral or choral or band. You don’t have to be Bach or a “professional musician” to try out, but I am looking for people that are able to hold their own on the instrument and can adapt to a normal band setting. Would you be able to hold your own if I (Matt) wasn’t there to tell you what to play? Are you confident on your instrument? Have you been in worship groups in the past with success? If you’ve answered yes to these questions, then chances are you should be in our band now! Get over here. Quick. We want to work with you. We’re not asking necessarily for a weekly commitment (maybe though if your feeling that), but we will ask for a certain level (i.e. # of times per month) for you to commit to including rehearsal time.

2) Secondarily, to those who are not quite proficient, but moving towards getting there through their own training, I invite you as well. Due to time constraints I can’t promise you that you’ll be able to participate (at least initially) in worship, but one of the things that we are doing is inviting younger/older guys/girls/men/women to be mentored by coming to practice, praying with the team, and hopefully spiritually and technically preparing both your heart and your hands for worship; through the discipline of prayer and the discipline of practice. Are you thinking: I’m not ready now but I could see myself doing music in the church in the future? Then you’d fit here. This would be not those who are saying: “I’ve never played guitar before but it looks fun” but rather the people who already play but are still “getting there.” Those who have started their musical journey and are on their way but not yet proficient or confident for playing with the team.

Pray about it. Think about it. If either of these are you, we’d love to hang out, get a cup of coffee, run into you at a rehearsal, or even just exchange emails. Lets connect. This church is full of way too much talent that is untapped. This is your sincere invitation from the team and myself to you. We value you as members of the body and we want to free you up to use your gifts here in this season of growth at 2 Pillars Church.

Email me: matt@2pillarschurch.  Or come to the Worship Team Meeting this Sunday following our Sunday gathering.

This Sunday at 12pm after the gathering, we are having our first ever Worship Team meeting. If you have ever felt the call to minister through song or feel the  need to get involved and help out in anyway, then this is your opportunity. We will go through some Worship Team specific materials, expectations for musicians/vocalists, sound guys, and slide runners, and we will breifly touch some software ideas. Specifically, we need 4-6 volunteers to learn how to run our slides for Sunday worship. We have 2 guys right now that do it on a regular basis and it would be great to get more people involved to give them a bit of a break.

If you’re interested in learning more, come on Sunday morning for our Sunday gathering, then stick around afterwards for the meeting.

Below is a video shot from the back of our space this past Sunday to put you in the mood.

(Post by Matt Grant, 2 Pillars Worship Leader)

At 2 Pillars Church, we strive for transparency in our worship services. No magical fog machines, fancy lighting, or cool moving images behind the lyrics on the screen. We try not to dilute Jesus with fluffy songs that don’t really say anything or move us spiritually. We develop each worship gathering as a continual movement from beginning to end, from first song to sermon, from communion to final prayer. This is done, sometimes with difficulty, to evoke a response from the heart. A response that cuts. A response that breaks down walls and tears through sin and allows us to see Jesus as our Savior and Healer. Jesus is the reason we sing. Jesus is the reason we sweat it out in our surprisingly hot building and listen with intention to the teachings each Sunday. Without Him, we are lost. Jesus is our Hope and Promise.

We look forward to worshiping Jesus together with you this Sunday.  In order to serve you, below is the list of songs we’ll be singing together.

This week I wanted to send everyone this Sundays complete music set list with links to videos so you can spend time on your own listening and growing in the songs we sing at 2 Pillars. Our goal is not perfection in worship, for which I know our earthly bodies can’t attain. Nor is it so we can film a super sweet worship video and post on our site so everyone knows how much more awesome-er we are then them at worshiping. Even though, we may be pretty rad, that’s just not the case. It could be that we just want you to fall in love with Jesus and sing your hearts out in your homes and at church on Sundays. That just might be it……

Included below are videos of the songs we’ll be doing this Sunday and the names of the artist involved. At the end of the post, there is also a PDF linked with the lyrics to each of the songs.  I do this in case you want to find more music from the artist. There are tons of great songwriters and bands out there once you get passed the “Christian Top 40″ found on K-LOVE.

And…without further adieu…..

“The Earth is Yours” – Gungor

“What Wondrous Love is this” – Ex Nihilo

“Jesus, You are Worthy” – Benton Brown

“Death in his Grave” – John Mark McMillan

“My Jesus, I Love Thee” by Page CXVI

No video for this one, but you can click over to the Page CXVI MySpace page and give it a listen.

“Skeleton Bones” by John Mark McMillan

Download a PDF of the lyrics.

(Post by Matt Grant, Worship Leader at 2 Pillars Church)

New things start our shiny and they smell good and usually they aren’t broken. Usually. We all like new things.  Sometimes we get a box in the mail or a present from someone and somehow, the item inside is cracked, torn, or busted in some way. We see the smashed RC car or broken Victorian-era vase we bought off Ebay in pieces and we see what it could’ve been or once was. Disappointment sets in and we become discouraged. Ugh….

I sometimes feel that’s the risk we run with presenting new music in the church. There’s is always huge chance a new song is going to bomb on Sunday morning. More often than not, you the congregation is standing there confused or disengaged because it’s new or you don’t understand the context behind the song or maybe the slides aren’t rolling exactly the way we are singing it. It can be any number of things that throws us off. It’s easy for us to write a song off if it doesn’t jive with us from the get go. We look at it in the same way as we look at the busted toy in the box and say “Well, it was a nice try”.

Since we are a very young church with a very decided idea to be different with our music this is going to happen a lot. But Jesus has given us our voices and it is our intention to use them in ways that maybe we haven’t tried before. I know this can be uncomfortable for some, but our hope is that, with help from Jesus, you will find that new voice and you will sing out with gladness.

Sooo…….in an effort to make things easier, we are writing this post on a new song we’re going to do this week and including lyrics and links to a video and an mp3 to better serve the church in finding our voice.

This week our new song is “Skeleton Bones” from a song writer named John Mark McMillan. He wrote another song that we’ve done a few times (including this last Sunday) called “How He Loves”. Please spend some time reading the lyrics and watching the video this week. I think if you do, you will fall in love with the simple melodies and imagery that the song puts forth. My interpretation of the lyrics form a picture of stripping back all the worldly clutter that washes over our eyes and veils them from seeing Christ. The chorus of the song is a beautiful call to praise the Son of Glory set to a simple melody that only deepens the impact of the words.  All in all its a wonderful song that, while at first may seem unconventional, soon becomes hard set in your heart after only a few listens.

Read the Lyrics

Watch the video on YouTube

Listen to the MP3 on MySpace

Psalm 25 (ESV)

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. Remember you mercy, O Lord, and you steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord! Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being and his offspring shall inherit the land. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring out of my distress. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. Consider how many are my foes, and with that violent hatred they hate me. Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his trouble

As we sing we will focus on verses 8-10.  We realize that this song will be new for many and so we are posting the lyrics and flow of it below.

Psalm 25

Verse 1

Good and upright are you Lord,

You teach us sinners in your ways.

Good and upright are you Lord,

You teach us sinners in your ways.

Chorus 1

You guide the humble in what is right

And instruct them in your ways.

You guide the humble in what is right

And instruct them in your ways.

Verse 2

All your ways are loving, faithful

Lord, to those who seek your face

All your ways are loving, faithful

Lord, to those who seek your face

Chorus 2

You give grace to the humble hearted

And instruct them in your ways

You give grace to the humble hearted

And instruct them in your ways

Verse 1

Chorus 1

Chorus 2