Today started out just like any other day… the alarm went off at 6am, I got up, got clean, and was out the door by 6:40 and headed for the church.. I arrive at the church, unload all the sound gear (I have to set it up every Sunday, because we are renting a building that has a really poor sound system) start setting things up.. no biggie, pretty simple system to set up.. 2 mains, 2 monitors (all powered) run the snake to the back of the room (about 70 feet back) plug it all in, then run mic and guitar chords to the snake, and presto, it all works.. right… wrong.

Once I started running the sound check, I knew that God had something big planned today for someone.. why you ask.. because NOTHING went right.. sure, the system set up went smoothly, but, that was as far as it went.. I started by setting up my Line 6 POD X3 Live.. Live sits on the floor, mic goes into the mic in, wireless system goes into the guitar in, then from the 2 outs, into the snake, channels 2 and 3.. unmute them at the board.. nothing.. very confused.. so, I trace back all my cables, to make sure its all good.. sure enough, it was (after all, I’ve set it up 100 times before) so.. I think, “ditch the Live for the mic feed.. just run the mic direct into the snake” so I did that.. boom, the mic works.. as it should.. so, back the the pedal, to see whats going on.. snake input – left output.. thats all good.. check the pod settings.. yup, guitar (Tone 1) is set to left output, so, that should work.. look at the wireless system.. maybe thats the issue.. transmitter output, to volume pedal input, volume pedal output to line 6 input.. yip, all set up right.. same way I used it the day before at my house.. so, I check the wireless pack.. battery is full, everything is plugged in securely.. but, nothing.. no sound, not even a blip on the meter.. well then I though.. lets ditch the line 6.. see if thats the issue.. so now its XLR input from the snake, to XLR output on the wireless transmitter.. POP, theres some sound… and now its working… (FYI.. I’m still trying to figure out what the heck is going on with the Line 6.. its becoming to be a royal pain in the ass)

So, now my sound is working.. I’ve got guitar, I’ve got vox.. over to the piano player.. piano works fine..after all, its just a grand piano, no mics, no cables, just pop the lid, and play.. piano players vox.. crap.. they just sounded hollow.. We bought 4 Peavey PVM 22 mics a year back, and 3 of the 4 have this problem.. sometimes they sound great, sometimes they sound like crap.. the guys at the music store say they are fine.. mainly, I’m sure, because they know they have to replace them if there is something wrong (yay for warranty’s.. NOTE TO TECH PEOPLE.. NEVER buy those mics.. they SUCK) So, we scramble around, and find a new mic for the piano player.. Over to the drummer.. yay.. everything works..

Now we do the mix.. check the monitors, everything is great.. practice a bit, then, take a breather, pray with the group.. move along.

I go to the back of the church, to make sure the video camera is all set up and working (I’m still training people on how to set this stuff all up) camera is on the tripod, firewire in the mac, open quicktime, video feed works.. but wait.. wheres the audio? I look at the M-Audio Fast Track lights are green, which means its getting sound from the mixer.. but, nothing going to the computer.. 5 mins later, I figure it out, was human error, not computer.. fix that.. Look over to the lyrics guy, he’s got everything set up, but wait.. the picture looks really foggy on the screen.. I go down.. the cap is on the lens.. take it off.. wait.. still foggy.. lens was all fogged up from coming in the building from the outside.. switch the projector over to the other one, which has been climatized.. its now 5 mins late.. and we are suppose to be up playing the first song.. pastor looks at me and says “any time now would be great” so, I run up to the stage, pick up my guitar, the power light on my monitor isn’t on.. odd, I know I left it on.. flick the switch.. nothing.. look at my pedal board, nothing.. we blew a fuse.. CRAP.. now I gotta scramble around to find an extension chord to move everything.. found one.. time to rock.

As you can see, it was a very exciting morning.. I was pretty stressed out.. but, in the end, everything worked out and God was glorified…

Now.. on to the Sunday Set List:

1. Everlasting God (B) new song introduction.. it went great.. the people seemed to enjoy it. I played through the song, then read Isaiah 40:28-end (which is where the song comes from) while the band continued to play.. then back into the chorus.
2. Oh For a Thousand Tongues to Sing (G – David Crowder Version)
3. Hosanna (G)
4. Great Is Thy Faithfulness (C – Just acoustic guitar)
5. Here I Am To Worship (E – this was during offering)
6. In Christ Alone (D)
Sermon – Guide for How to be a Christ Like Husband – Part 1 (Watch it here)
Communion
7. How Great is Our God (G)
Closing Prayer/Get the heck out!

Heres the Flow Sheet from the Planning Center for those curious..

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You can read more posts like this over at Fred’s blog

This Sunday was a great Sunday… although it started off in a way that seemed it would be terrible.

First some background info.. we are curently renting a different church, because our church has grown so much, so quickly, that we no longer have room in our building, so, we rent the church next door and our service starts at 11am, and their ends at 10:30am… which means, we have 30 minutes to get everything ready.  We have been having a terrible time with the sound system in this church.. its not a very good system (one of the reasons we will be bringing ours over if we continue to rent there in the fall.)

So, we have 30 mins to get things ready.. 30 mins to set up all our instruments and mics (the service before us really doesn’t use much, mayba mic.. thats it.. so, we have to do a lot of work.) we have to set up the projector/computer, the video camera/computer and all the worship team gear, it makes for a very hectic morning.

Well this Sunday, things went crazy.. our sound guy was running a bit late, so I had to set up everything, we couldn’t find the vga cable for the projector, and we didn’t really get much time to do a sound check.  So we started the service, without lyrics for the congregation to sing along, which was fine, because most of them knew the first song anyway.

Eventually we found the cable, and the service was still great, God was certainly there, and we had a great time worshipping him!

Here was the set list!

• Beautiful One [key of G]- Tim Huges
  Mighty to Save (key of A] – Hillsong
  Hosanna [key of D] – Hillsong (new song introduction)
  Holy is the Lord [key of G] – Chris Tomlin
  My Jesus I Love Thee [key of D] – William Featherston
  Doxology [key of D] – Thomas Ken
  How Deep the Fathers Love for Us [key of D] – Stuart Townend (communion song)
  Be Thou My Vision [key of D] – Dal­lan For­gaill

It was a little longer of a set than we normally do, but it was still great, the congregation really took to Hosanna, so I think it will be a keeper.

This is part of Fred McKinnons “Sunday Setlist” check it out here

This week in Adult Sunday School we kicked off a new series. Our pastor wants to start looking at our worship set lists, during Sunday school, so that come time for the service, the congregation understands why we sing the songs we sing. In this series we are looking at things like “secular vs sacred”, “why we repeat sections in a song, and what the meaning is behind the songs we sing (hymns, choruses, and contemporary)

When the pastor told me this is what he wanted to do, I became very excited, because this is something very important to me, so it’s great for the congregation to be able to take part in such a study. I’m very excited for the weeks to come, as we look at the songs, today, acted as more of a “introduction” to the topic, next week we will be looking at the song Hallelujah (as done by Lincoln Brewster) and comparing it to the original by Rufus Wainwright, and discussing the idea of taking a secular song like Hallelujah (which really is all about sex) and turning it around to be something that can glorify God, an idea which will be interesting to see what the congregation has to say about it!

Anyways, with all that in mind, here is this weeks Sunday Setlist/Worship confessional:

Mighty to Save (key of A) – Hillsongs United
Grace Like Rain (key of Dm) – Todd Agnew
Doxology (key of D) – as done by David Crowder Band
All Creatures of Our God and King (key of D) – as done by David Crowder Band
Lord Let Your Glory Fall (key of D) – Matt Redman

During Communion:
Give Us Clean Hands (key of G) – Chris Tomlin
Heart of Worship (key of D) – Matt Redman

Before I started the worship set this morning, I talked to the congregation about our topic in Sunday School (because the whole congregation doesn’t attend) and I think that seemed to get people in tune with what we were doing.

We had a LOT of visitors today, as we live in “cottage country” so, the summer cottagers are starting to come out now. Summer time our church is always WAY over full, because we are generally full or close to it during the regular season, then, once the cottagers come out, it becomes a “sit on the lap of your neighbor” sort of deal (not literally)

It was great to see so many people out, and today you could visually see the congregation in a state of worship during the whole service, it was nice to see, because we don’t always get them, as some people are to worried about not knowing a song, or what effects are being used on the guitar (etc). I think the topic in Sunday school, and the preamble to the worship set, helped people to focus more, and not worry about the things they usually think about.

All in all, it was a great service! I was very encouraged, not just by God, but also the congregation. I got to play with my new Line 6 X3 Live today, and many people in the congregation came up afterwards and said “were you playing a different guitar, because it sounded great”… I was a little worried that people would be distracted by the display on the floor, but, no one said anything about it!

Here’s what I played through today.. I also ran my vox through it and added some delay to them as well.. it sounded great!

This post is a part of Fred McKinnon’s “Sunday Setlist” check it out here