Vintage21 Church Worship

With Advance 09 and RE:Sound under our belts, I’m spending time looking at the rest of the summer. Here are a few things under development in the worship and production ministry of Vintage21 Church.

Durham Service
We’re five months in with our service at Rigsbee Hall. In that time we’ve learned a lot about operating as a multi-site church and we are excited about our future in Durham. Band leader Brandon Squizzato is leading the majority of weekends there, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive for his band, leadership, and contextualization. The band I lead is in Durham this Sunday – stay tuned for a post next week about the service in Rigsbee Hall.

Tech Development
Vintage21 has always operated as a DIY church. This hasn’t always been our preference, but instead we are passionate about presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ and calling people to respond in worship to Him, so we go to great lengths to make do. Our techs are creative and hardworking, and I plan on spending a good part of the summer training, thanking, and getting them what they need to effectively run video, slides and sound.

Recording
With the original songs and arrangements at Vintage21 Church, my goal has been to get good live recordings. This is both so people can become familiar with the songs, enabling them to focus their hearts more on God and less on trying to learn a new song. In addition, we hope to take our cultural understanding of worship- music and singing on Sundays- and broaden it to a more biblical view: living every second of every day in an appropriate response to Jesus Christ. A reason to record is in the hope that the congregation of Vintage21 Church would take their praise through these songs out of the Sunday service and into the world. This is more than Sunday, more than a service.
We’ve been limited by gear for years now. Our recording setup should take 16 tracks into pro tools, but the reality is that rarely happens. I’ll put time into this, but even more time into praying that the right people would come along who are talented in and passionate about recording, that can develop this aspect of our ministry.

Stay tuned for more! See you Sunday.

Almost half of the songs sung at Vintage21 Church are original tunes, a majority of late coming from the weekly writing sessions Thad Cockrell and I have committed to (although I’ve been selling him out lately – sorry, Thad). Without adequate recording gear and time, they don’t actually take full shape until band rehearsals prior to Sundays. Our hope is that we’d be able to record the songs, post them for people to listen to ahead of time and learn. That way, people can simply worship without having to learn the song. Our overall goal is to get people to worship through singing – that’s what it should come down to for every church. We seek to do this by writing and arranging songs with attainable and good melodies, well-written lyrics that ring true, and a groove that makes people want to move, and then we pray and ask Jesus Christ to lead us to worship God.

This week we have the privilege of listening to and learning an original song prior to Sunday. Thad’s band will be introducing his song “Great Rejoicing” from both his e.p. and upcoming full-length album “To Be Loved”. This is a beautiful song about what we’ll experience in the presence of the Father through his son Jesus. I’ll leave his lyrics to explain any more than that:

Click here to listen to “Great Rejoicing”

Great Rejoicing
Words and Music by Thad Cockrell
Copyright Razor and Tie Publishing and Little Hoos Publishing

There’s gonna be a great rejoicing
There’s gonna be a great rejoicing

The troubles of this world
Will wither up and die
That river of tears made by the lonely
Someday will be dry
There’s gonna be a great rejoicing

There’s gonna a be a great joy river
There’s gonna a be a great joy river
Questions of this world
Someday will be known
Who’s robbing you a peace
And who’s the giver
There’s gonna be a great joy river

Someday you will find me guarded in His fortress
Open heart and wings that never touch the ground
Someday we will gather in a grand reunion
The debts of this old world are nowhere to be found
Are nowhere to be found

There’s gonna be a great rejoicing

Alright, Vintage21 Church, here’s your chance. Listen and learn, and let’s lift our voices to God this Sunday!

This may seem re:dundant, but it’s actually a valid reason to attend Re:Sound, the event: to learn more about Re:Sound, the label.. The following is taken from Pastor Tim Smith’s post on The Resurgence. We at Vintage21 Church couldn’t be more excited to learn more about this highly anticipated launch, and if you attend Re:Sound this Friday night, you’ll be among the first to find out more information.

“I am pleased to finally announce the official launch of Re:Sound (ReSound.org) on June 4th at the Advance 09 conference in Raleigh, NC. After a great deal of blood, sweat, and legal fees, I could not be more excited to bring you the musical wing of The Resurgence. Just as Pastor Mark has established Re:Lit to make available culturally accessible, biblically faithful resources in print, we will do the same with music. Re:Sound music will be a consistent stream of music that is theologically unified, stylistically diverse, and musically excellent. Better yet, these resources will be FREE for any non-commercial or ministry use. ”

Visit The Resurgence to read the remainder of the post.
Invite your friends on the facebook page for Re:Sound.

Last summer when I visited several campuses of Mars Hill church, the music was even better than the reputation that precedes. Their bands are made up of local musicians who have a love for both music and Jesus. The best part was, it was specific to that church in that city in that time. There is possibly no better example of contextualization than the bands of Mars Hill Church. And, for the first time ever, Pastor Tim Smith’s band Ex Nihilo is heading East to lead at Advance 09 and Re:Sound.

Perhaps one of the most difficult cities to contextualize the gospel in is Seattle. This is what makes Mars Hill church so effective at teaching about contextualization and missionality – they have effectively taken the gospel to a culture that would make most shirt-tucked, clean-shaven suburban church leaders cringe and question their methodology. And no other city is so identifiable with a music scene as Seattle. The band Ex Nihilo is a beautiful example of amazing worship music and contextualization. Their versions of “Here Is Love” and the Miller tune “All My Tears” are enough alone to come. You’ll praise God, and then geek out on their pedals.

Check out Ex Nihilo here.
Invite your friends on the facebook page for Re:Sound.

I’m attempting to approach each Sunday with great expectations. If the God of the universe is here, and this is his church, then there’s no such thing as “just another Sunday”. With all the people in attendance, and the detailed way God draws people to himself, today
there will be conviction, confession, healing, praise, and even people calling on Jesus for the first time. Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Willingly
Words and Music by Matt Stevens
We began the service today with a passage from Hebrews 4:14-16, which was an appropriate call to Jesus – the reason for our praise, and the leader of our worship.

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For
we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are,
yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of
need.” – Hebrews 4:14-16

Before The Throne Of God Above
Words by Charitie Bancroft, 1863
Music by Vikki Cook
Arrangement by Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky. They will be joining us for Advance 09 and Re:Sound this week. Vintage21 Church loves this song and their arrangement, and I’m looking forward to worshiping with the band from Sojourn in a live setting.

Sermon: Acts 6:1-7
Finishing out our series on “Advancing The Local Church”, Pastor Tyler Jones preaches on the chance we have to serve as deacons and elders in the local church.

And Can It Be That I Should Gain
Words by Charles Wesley
Music by Thomas Campbell
Arrangement by Vintage21 Church

We stepped up the tempo and feel of this one to give it some more energy. The words are invaluable, and my prayer today was that it
convicted the hearts of those here who do not know and follow Jesus. “And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior’s blood?” It really is an outrageous claim. And man, the singing at the 11:00 service was so loud, right from the get-go. Beautiful.

Thank You
Words and Music by Thad Cockrell and Matt Stevens
We wanted to write a song where we could simply thank God over and over for what He’s done. We have so much to be thankful for.

“There’s no sorrow where we’re going;
You’ve prepared for us a home.
So I fix my eyes on Jesus,
He tells me that I am His own.”

God Of This City
Words and Music by Richard Bleakley, Boyd Aaron, Peter Comfort, Ian
Jordan, Peter Kernaghan, and Andrew McCann

This song was introduced to Vintage21 Church during this series on the local church. It’s a beautiful proclamation of faith, and I pray
people will sing it with confidence and expectancy for what God will do. Otherwise, we’re wasting our breath.

Band
Sound: Matt “Saved Us” Nickerson
Bass: John “Groove Daddy” Bass
Drums: Daniel “Bojangles (Chicken, not Mr.)” Deese
Backing Vocals: Tiffany “Birthday Girl” Ashford
Keys: Scott “Black Mac” Andrews
Lead Guitar: Caleb “Swayze” Smith
Guitar, Vocals: Matt “Still No Sleep” Stevens

Today’s Sunday Review is posted in collaboration with other church music ministries atFred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlists.