Singing of Southwest Ministers

A few weeks ago we had a bunch of ministers from our family of churches across the Southwest come into town for an annual retreat.  We hosted the gathering at our regular midweek location and I put some songs together with some of the ministers who are also worship leaders.  There was a stereo digital recorder set up in the back of the room to record the lessons by tapping into the sound system.  However, the device was accidentally configured to record through it’s own microphone.  So it ended up capturing the sound of the room instead of what was coming directly through the microphones.  This made the lessons sound pretty distant but it was an unexpected treat for me because when I went to edit out the lessons I got to listen back to the voices of all the ministers singing.

I love these recordings because as a worship leader, this is exactly what I’m going for –listening to the voices of the brothers and sisters praising God, calling out to him, expressing their hearts for him.  We try to be careful that whatever we are doing on stage is accenting and inspiring congregational engagement, encouraging the voice of the church and not drowning it out.  Supporting, not supplanting.  (There are certainly times and places for inspiring performances or loud concert-type worship music too, but I’m speaking of most of the time when I’m called to lead singing).

So these are raw recordings, but I thought I’d share them.  I love hearing the voices of my brothers and sisters.  I listed the names of the songs and the keys below.  A few notes:

• The first worship set was with the women and men together, and then the women had their own program the rest of the time, so the other recordings are just the brothers.
• Ryan and Virginia Weekly and Gina Stickley were the other singers on the first set.  I played piano on the first song and then moved to acoustic guitar. The other musicians were Jay Minor on piano, Marshall Mead on the second acoustic, and Ralph Lua on cajon.  I like the mix and I love making music with these guys!
• You’ll hear in that first set a bit of a struggle on the song “This Is Amazing Grace” because I hadn’t set up the lyrics properly for that one.  Ryan did a good job of leading the congregation through it anyway as the situation got corrected and it finished really strong.

SW Retreat Opening Worship Set 2016  – Ryan Weekly led most of this

Holy, Perfect, Always, Forever Cm
One thought on worship (to “exalt,” Psalm 145)
Scripture – Psalm 145:1-12
We Will Glorify E
We Praise Thee O God E
Great Are You Lord G
Prayer
10,000 Reasons F
This Is Amazing Grace F
Scripture – Psalm 145:13-21
The Spirit’s Fire C
A Faithful Witness A
Prayer

SW Retreat – How Great is Our God – Nick Galang led this one

 

SW Retreat – O Rock of Ages – This one was pulling a bunch of ministers back from fellowshipping –not an easy task, and you can hear it a bit in the recording from the back of the room.  Still good though.

 

SW Retreat – Praise the Lord O My Soul – Second day, early morning worship. I thought this was just the brothers singing, but I’m pretty sure we captured some angelic beings singing along on this one as well.  Where did all these harmonies come from?

 

SW Retreat – Come Thou Fount

 

SW Retreat – Rise Up O Men of God

 

SW Retreat – Stand in Awe – This one prominently features the brother doing lyrics who was singing right next to the recording device. Love it when the guy doing lyrics is belting it out!

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