Saturday, February 26, 2011
A day of silence
Last night I read my bible for a while and read through some information for my sermon I'll be preaching in a couple of weeks. First Sunday of Lent so I'll be teaching a little about Lent, Ash Wednesday (we are holding an Ash Wednesday service for the 2nd year in a row..this time in the evening)...and then preaching a little about those whiny Hebrews in the desert wishing they were back in Egypt... and then God sends them manna and quail. You would think by then they would have faith in God.. after all they had seen.. I mean we have it all figured out don't we?
Anyway...
Got up this morning...shook Austin to get him off to work.... and read my bible some more. Then washed dishes (by hand..washer is broke) and cleaned up the kitchen while Donna is away working the Emmaus Walk this weekend.
Finished the dishes then I took a ride on my bicycle for about 16 miles.. it was hard..first ride in a while but my knee responded wonderfully and I'm feeling the work in my abs and legs right now. That's good..hope I can stand and play a guitar in church tomorrow.
Took a hot bath..read my bible some more..and dozed off for a bit.
Then I got up and planned music for mosaic for Sunday night and worked on this song a little bit that I'm supposed to do during lent called "Then the Quail Came". I have most of the chords figured out but I haven't charted it yet. If you know this song and have charts please let me know :-)
My day of silence is about to end when Austin gets home and we head out to Broaddus together. All in all it has been a great 24 (more or less...more less than more I think but that's ok) hours. I look forward to doing it again in the next 3 months.
Praise God from whom all Blessings flow!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
And the next weekend..
You see the previous weekend I went to Dallas to visit a very special member of our church and his family. Well unfortunately that church member passed just a few days later. This was a giant of a man in our church and in the church in general. He was a business leader, a philanthropist, a tireless worker in our church up until he drove himself to Dallas. He sang in the choir, took care of money, has done just about anything you could do in the church. A patriarch.
Here's little ole me..just did my first funeral on a 16 hours notice. Now I was being asked to do another just a week later.
I got a lot of input from the family. They were a joy to visit with. I got input from my friends and former co pastors. I did visitation at the funeral home Friday night...then I spent a little time at the Lufkin Panther game.... then I went home, stayed up till about 1:00 a.m. and put together what I hoped would be a message that would honor this man and a message that would please his family and friends.
I was never really very nervous. I had so many of YOU praying for me. I also had a great man to speak about. A rich and full life and a joyous family that shared their love with me.
No doubt. Many people in the church were not sure just how well this green, part-time pastor would do. I did have that other funeral you know...but I didn't write the message for that. That one I was blessed to use the message of my co-pastor..who was suffering from double pneumonia.
So I got up Saturday, went through it a few times. Went up to the church to visit family at their brunch, came back home, put on my not so seldom worn suit and headed back to church.
It was a wonderful service. The singing was great. He loved to sing so I know that would have pleased him. I did what I was supposed to do and then we had a brief reception after.
From the feedback of those there I think I did ok. Something more happened there though. And this may be more inside me than anything that was thought by everyone else in church. I actually felt like I WAS their pastor now. I felt like I had served in an important pastoral role to someone much older than me and that part of the church community now saw me a little differently.. that was probably more my own perception than anything else. But even if it was...it was a nice feeling.
Home and some rest... Up and to church the next morning. It's 8:45 and our guest pastor has not arrived. We had some announcements that morning..and they went a little long.. and I was ok with that. We also started just a few minutes late..that was on purpose. We still didn't have a pastor once I had done communion and so it was time for a message. I had been rolling ideas around in my head all morning in case our guest pastor didn't arrive.
I read the scripture..
Matthew 9
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
1Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."3At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"
4Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 6But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." 7And the man got up and went home. 8When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.
I said a short prayer...and fortunately we didn't have much time left..but I gave a short message.. and nothing that I had planned (in the last 40 minutes) came out of my mouth.. my message went to a place about the discussion of "which is easier" I've always wondered which is easier but hadn't thought it through. Now the Holy Spirit was walking me through. You see I had always thought it would be so easy to say "your sins are forgiven". I know I couldn't tell someone who couldn't walk to get up and walk... and make it happen. But I could always tell someone their their sins are forgiven. Then I started thinking about our modern technology and how we can heal so many things now that so many years ago would have killed us. We have computers and machines and advanced knowledge way beyond those days. We can heal people and make them walk but we are still fragile, imperfect, human beings. What is easier for us to do? Is it easier to heal a man or to forgive a man? So we are called to forgive. but it is difficult isn't it? It's also healthy for us.. for the others as well as ourselves. I said some other stuff but the part that truly enlightened me was that I finally learned what Jesus was meaning about it was easier to heal than to forgive sins... to for give those who sin against us.
Our guest pastor showed up in time for late church. We had a great service. A few hours later I gave the message and led music for the youth that evening. So...it was another busy but blessed weekend.
What's next weekend? Maybe I'll let you know.. after... got to go to bed.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
a short sabbatical from twitter/facebook etc...
First.. a little catching up.
I put new strings on my guitar before church Sunday morning.
I was really tired and it was tough getting up for church Sunday morning... but church was great. Wow, the congregation was singing big time..more than usual.. and we had such a small team Sunday morning too. 2 acoustics and and electric..2 female vocals and myself.. I was really planning to speak to my congregation about why the students could sing so loud at camp but we couldn't/wouldn't in church... but I had nothing to say..they sang out..I don't know why but they were awesome!
Did laundry Sunday afternoon and napped.
Worked Monday and Tuesday at the Ex but mostly catch up from being off last week while at camp... made progress on a couple of things like processing a new hire.. Yay!!
Napped at night..good grief.. it is so hard for me to recover from camp this year. I think part of it is because my allergies are driving me crazy.. I'm also older.. been doing crazy things like playing softball and beach vollyball way before I should (I was making some good progress with my daily walking and was feeling very good but I pushed too much too fast and am now fighting a lot of pain..)
Stayed on my diet pretty well most of camp week until all we had to eat was sandwiches and pizza.. oh well. I've been bad the last couple of days too... Haven't stepped on a scale but my belt notch has not changed...that's a good thing.
I pretty much forgot to twitter Sunday and Monday just because I was too tired and to busy at work to mess with it. Tuesday I realized it and decided to make it another day just so I can say I did. It's been 3 days and no facebook or twitter (besides a couple of replies that I would not ignore..I'm not a jerk).
I'm about to hit the sack and I will get up tomorrow..pack, head to Ft Worth with Donna and Hannah and go through orientation at TCU. We'll stop in Athens on the way and get coffee..
If you are ever traveling through or near Athens Tx and need a coffee go to the Flying Gato.. They have the best coffee I have ever tasted anywhere.. I'm not a coffee snob like Cory but of all the local shops I've tried in Tx and New York as well as the Starbucks I've been to the Gato is the best.. Give it a try some time.
I'll be back on twitter tomorrow..I think I've caught up on my sleep now and hope my allergies are calming down..
If you want to see some vids of camp last week check out Romack's youtube.. camp was great. I love playing with those guys and the kids were awesome. Thanks Cory and the NEA reps for giving us the opportunity to lead worship there. Donna also posted a bunch of pics and vids on her skydrive.. check them out here.. a great week!!!
Ok.. going to sleep now.. Peace out!!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Sunday Morning Worship 5/10/09
10:45 Celebration Service
Gathering Music-Revolutionary Love
Enter the Light of Christ
Welcome and Announcements
Praise Music-
Choral Anthem- Simple Praise
My Hope is You
Forever
Prayer Time and Lord's Prayer
Prayer Response
Children's Sermon
Greeting
Worship Music
Handbells
Open the Eyes of My Heart
Scripture Reading-1 John 3: 1-7
Sermon-Only a Mother could Love
Call to Communion
Prayer for Elements
Communion and Offering
Communion Music - Unashamed Love
Invitation to Respond
Invitation Music- Open the Eyes of My Heart
Going Out Music- Revolutionary Love
This is a part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists
Monday, May 4, 2009
Sunday Morning Worship 5/3/09
10:45 Celebration Service
Gathering Music - Forever
Enter the Light of Christ
Welcome and Announcements
Choral Anthem
Praise Music- You Never Let Go
Jesus Messiah
Children’s Sermon
Greeting
Worship Music- How Great Thou Art
All Creatures
Prayer Time and Lord’s Prayer
Prayer Response Artie (Instrumental)
Call to Communion
Prayer for Elements
Communion and Offering- instrumental
Sermon
Invitation to Respond
Invitation Music- Jesus Messiah
Going Out Music - Forever
You can see more worship sets at Fred McKinnon's blog here
Monday, April 20, 2009
Sunday Setlist 4/19/09 Youth Sunday
This was a Sunday that was not without it's struggles.. I was out of town during the week so no weekday practice.. It was youth Sunday so youth singing and leading worship..some tech issues with sound.. regular sound guy was cooking fish for the fish fry luncheon we have after every Youth Sunday event.. We had a drummer for the first time in weeks... a new one...trying to blend all that together was a little tenuous... but it all worked well.
Cool thing was my daughter Hannah brought the message. You can see all this at our church website here eventually once it is archived. I was very proud of her..
Below you can see the flow of the service. It was a great day.. our youth did a wonderful job!! You can see how others worshiped our risen Lord here at FredMckinnon.com
Yes...I know there is lots of Crowder... it's OK.. I promise...
Gathering Music (Glory of it All- Crowder)
Enter the Light of Christ (Tyler Day)
Welcome and Announcements (Cory)
Greeting
Children’s Sermon (Lauren Skelton)
Praise Music (PT & youth singers)
O Praise Him(Crowder)
How Great Thou Art(Hine/Baloche)
Call to Communion (Shelby Garcia)
Prayer for Elements (Mariah Melvin)
Communion and Offering
Communion Music (Never Let Go-Crowder)
Worship Music (PT & youth singers)
A Beautiful Collision(Crowder)
Here I Am Lord(Schutte)
Prayer Time and Lord’s Prayer (Scott Skelton)
Scripture (Dylan Goodier)
Sermon (Hannah Anderson)
Invitation to Respond
Invitation Music (Surely We Can Change, Megan Yeager(Crowder))
Benediction/Prayer for Food (Brax Turner)
Going Out Music (How Great Thou Art)
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Song set April 12th Easter Sunday!!
Handbells were awesome today.. The choir's arrangement of "He Arose" was great..festive. We had 4 baptisms, the praise team rocked "Here is our King" and " Better is One Day"..it was just a Spirit filled wonderful morning...here's how it went..
Easter Sunday
10:45 AM Celebration Service
Gathering Music – True Religion (Brenton Brown)(Praise Team)
Enter the Light of Christ
Choral Anthem-He Arose
Call to Worship
Welcome and Announcements
Praise Music
Jesus Messiah-(Tomlin, Carson, Reeves, Cash)
Wonderful Cross-(Reeves, Tomlin, Walt, Watts, Mason)
Children’s Sermon (Cory)
Greeting
Worship Song – Here is our King-(David Crowder)
Act of Christian Baptism
Through baptism, we are buried with Christ, that we, like Him, may be raised from the dead to walk in newness of life.
Worship Song – Better is One Day-(Matt Redman)
Prayer Time and Lord’s Prayer (Artie)
Prayer Response (Handbells)
Call to Communion (Mike)
Prayer for Elements
Communion and Offering
New Members’ First Communion
Scripture (Cory)
Sermon (Mike)
Invitation to Respond
Invitation Music – Jesus Messiah
Going Out Music – Jesus Messiah
See how others worshiped our risen Lord here
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Song set April 5th, 2009..Palm Sunday
10:45 AM Celebration Service
Gathering Music (King of Glory, Praise Team)(Carr/Avery/Powell/Lee/Anderson)
Enter the Light of Christ
Opening Music (Handbells)
Welcome and Announcements (Artie)
Praise Music
He is Exalted-(Paris)
Sing Alleluia-(Stassen)
Procession of the Palms (Sing Alleluia) – FCC Children
Children’s Sermon (Kathy)
Greeting
Worship Music
King of Glory- (Tomlin/Reeves)
You Alone-(Crowder)
Prayer Time and Lord’s Prayer (Artie)
Prayer Response (possible choral anthem)
Call to Communion (Cory)
Prayer for Elements
Communion and Offering
Sermon (Mike)
Invitation to Respond
Invitation Music - You Alone (Crowder)
Going Out Music -King of Glory (Tomlin/Reeves)
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday Setlist 3/29/09
Gathering Music (announcements on screen; lighting of candles)
Wholly Yours - Crowder
Welcome to FCC
Teaser (dramatic reading/monologue of portions of Psalms 51 & 32.)
Choral Anthem: "Create in Me a Clean Heart"
Praise Music
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)Tomlin/Giglio/Excell/Reese
Change My Heart, O God-Espinosa
Here I Am, Lord-Schutte
Children's Sermon (Kathy)
Greeting
Worship Music
Open the Eyes of My Heart-Baloche
Pure Heart-Caraway
Prayer (Cory)
Communion/Offering (Kathy - meditation)
Communion Music - Take My Life-Powell, Carr, Avery, Lee, Anderson
Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34 (Artie)
Sermon (Mike)
Invitation - Here I Am, Lord
Postlude - Pure Heart
See other cool Sunday sets here
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Sunday Setlist 3/22/09
March 22: Restoration
Prelude (announcements on screen) - Restored (Camp) -Artie Anderson
Enter the Light of Christ
Opening Song- Everything Glorious (Crowder)
Welcome to FCC/Announcements
Youth Ski Trip Video
Praise Music- Take my Life (Holiness) (Underwood)
Enough (Tomlin)
Children’s Sermon (Kathy)
Greeting
Worship Music- Better is One Day (Redman)
- Empty Me (Way/Comer)
Prayer Time & LP (Mike)
Prayer Response
Communion/Offering (choir - It is Well) (Artie at Table)
Sermon– Cory w/Youth (scripture embedded: 2 Samuel 7:1-16)
Invitation- Enough
Going Forth- Everything Glorious
Check out other cool Sunday Setlists done today here
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Sunday Worship 3/15/09
10:45 AM
Gathering Music – The Cross of Christ (Wright) (announcements on screen)
Enter the Light of Christ
Praise Music
God of Wonders (Byrd/Hindalong)
How Great Thou Art (Hine/Baloche)
Welcome and Announcements
Introduction to Theme (Donna: Exodus 20 video)
Choral Anthem – Alas! and did my savior bleed? (Banks) (Guest Choir Director, Mike Hunter!)
Children’s Sermon (Kathy)
Greeting
This morning we invite you to introduce yourself by stating which of the Ten Commandment YOU think is the most important.
Worship Music
All in All (Jernigan)
Wonderful Cross (Reeves/Tomlin/Walt/Watts/Mason)
Prayer Time & Lord’s Prayer (Kathy)
Prayer Response – Enid Hunter, oboe
Scripture Reading – Exodus 20:1-17 (Artie)
Sermon – Does the List Matter? (Mike)
Invitation to Respond
Invitation Music – Sanctuary (Thompson/Scruggs) (transition to table on second verse)
Call to Communion (Mike)
Prayer for Elements
10 Word Exercise
This morning we invite you to circle the word identifying the commandment you struggle with most. You will keep one copy for yourself and bring one forward to lay at the foot of the cross before you participate in the offering and communion.
Communion & Offering (praise team instrumental)
All Christians, regardless of denomination, are invited to participate in this meal of love and remembrance. Come forward to lay your tablet at the cross, before presenting your offering and partaking of communion. You may come to the Table when you feel led and depart on your own.
Go Out in God’s Peace…
See more Sunday worship setlists here
Peace everyone..
Thursday, March 12, 2009
CC (DOC) NEA CYF/Chi Rho Mid Winter..
Monday, March 9, 2009
New tune..
You can also check out some other cool original tunes here.. at the online songwriters showcase..
Sunday's worship.. 3/8/09
On the other side they wrote all the things that they were, could be names or titles .. I wrote husband, father, song writer, worship leader, freight guy, friend, bald guy, fat guy, friend, lazy, workaholic, but the key thing is no matter what I'm called I'm a child of God.. here's how worship flowed..
March 8: Blessing
Prelude – Nelda (announcements on screen)
10:45 AM - Lighting of candles
Opening Praise Set
Give Thanks-Smth
Hallelujah (You’re Love is Amazing)- Brown/Doerksen
Stethoscope video
“I got a name” (Croce) – Artie
Welcome to FCC/Announcements (Mike)
Children’s Sermon (Kathy)
Greeting (introduce yourself with label – “Hi, I’m an accountant”)
Worship Set
Every Move I Make -Ruis
Wonderful Cross- Reeves, Tomlin, Walt, Watts, Mason
Short Prayer & LP (Cory)
Sermon – Genesis 17 (Mike)
Transition Music (Sing Hallelujah)-Stassen
(Elements and Guitars lead procession to FH)
Name Making Experience (Cory sets-up, background music on iPod)
Words of Institution (Mike)
Communion – at multiple stations (choir music)
Invitation (Wonderful Cross) Reeves, Tomlin, Walt, Watts, Mason
Prayer of Dismissal (Mike)
Postlude -Give Thanks-Smith
It was a very good Sunday, The experiment with recording practice and posting it on youtube for at home rehearsal for those who need it or can't make practice is still proving to be a big help to the Sunday morning offering by the team.. I really appreciate the effort they are putting in to making worship a priority.
Check out other Sunday worship offerings here
Thursday, March 5, 2009
348
Anyway.. that was my one indulgence...stress induced as it was.
Hope to put up a few more posts later today..
FYI.. if you are not on youtube.. I'm posting video of our worship practice on youtube. It came from the fact that we are changing worship times and we will not have the time we used to on Sunday morning to run through the songs. I also have band members that have conflicts on Wednesday night that can't make practice but they will invest the time to be ready on Sunday if they have the music.. this gives them the music the way we will do it.. not the way Crowder, Tomlin, Baloche or Wright does it but how we will do it and they can work on how they fit in to the mix and be ready Sunday morning. There are also those in the praise team that need more reps on the songs and this way they can sing along with the rest of the praise team to get a better feel for the music.
We only have time on Sunday morning to do a quick run through of our transitions.. example.. this week we'll work on the transition between the last half of the chorus of "Give Thanks" in to the first verse of "Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)"..that's it.. then the end of "Every Move I Make" in to "The Wonderful Cross".. We'll touch on one other song quickly and then we're done.
We did this last week..and with all the confusion of set up and new service times and getting settled in to where we were supposed to be along with pluggin in and tuning it probably took us between 15 and 20 minutes to work on our transitions between our 2 three song sets...and the music in church was AWESOME!! Everyone came prepared and the church loved the first set so much they applauded us.. that just doesn't happen in our church very often.. one other time in the last year and a half it's happend (when we introduced our rockin' version of "How Great Thou Art"..kinda like Baloche but not...). We got tons of great feedback on the music and how good it was..the church was in to it and the Spirit was moving.. it was a great day...anyway...
The vids go up at www.youtube.com/artieanderson and Donna has been doing the editing because Moviemaker keeps cratering on my pc. She's good and pretty quick. She also worked very hard on getting the sound right on the internet feed and our vids this week sound much better..(we are pulling our vids off our computer/video feed we use for Sunday morning live feed broadcasts). The ones last week were not bad but she's got them sounding much better.
In the short run this little experiment has turned out to be a great success.. Hope it continues to be a tool for a quality music offering on Sunday morning.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Catching you up...

, ate at Uncle Julio's with Donna, Hannah and Katie Anderson.. yeah. a table full of Andersons... but not all mine.
Yes.. our wallpaper is coming off the wall in our bedroom... we'll be fixing that some day soon.
And that's a PBJ..yes I ate it right after shooting that vid.
Oh and by the way. We had myself on Acoustic Guitar and Amanda Hutchinson on bass..that was our whole band.. We had several singers and thank you Scott Skelton, Tara Watson, Bill Malnar and Tina Peavey for being there along with Amanda..
You can see the video of Cory's ordination here.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Gospel Fest..on video
---------------------------------------------------
For those who were not able to attend Bonita UMC's Gospel fest this year, it can be viewed and heard at the following link:
www.bonitaumc.org
At the bottom left of that page, click on <1> under "Gospel Fest Video"
There are 3 parts. Part <2> will be uploaded and available by Thursday and then Part <3> on Friday.
There was wide diversity in the musical styles and among those in atttendence -- but there was unity in the Spirit.
DeColores
Don Clark
------------------------------------------------------------------
I haven't had a chance to look at it yet..can't do that from work but I hope to later tonight.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Gospel Fest
A few members or our praise team and myself ventured to Bonita United Methodist Church today and participated in their annual Gospel Fest. My friend Don Clark and others have organized this for a few years now and I've gone every year. This is the first time I've brought church family with me.
It's a great time with all kinds of gospel music performed from CCM (that would be us) to black gospel and even secular tunes with a spiritual message.
Wonderful people from the church also make or bring great food (especially the desserts) and an offering is taken up to help Love Inc.
I tried to take those that were there on a little bit of a spiritual journey with God from our first understanding of a great and wonderful God that we don't understand..to the coming of our messiah to the fact that we are saved and it is time for us to respond.. The set list was..
God of Wonders (Byrd/Hindalong)
Forever (Tomlin)
Rain Down (Crowder)
Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel (a la Sufjan Stevens)
A Beautiful Collision (Crowder)
Jesus Messiah (Tomlin)
How Great Thou Art ( a la Baloche)
All Creatures (a la Crowder on Illuminate)
Surely We Can Change (Crowder).
It was a great time.. some of the gospel groups we heard and worshiped were phenomenal. We received great feedback regarding our presentation as well. It's always a great time to hang out with loving Godly people and worship with them.
