So I had a blast leading worship this morning. Steve is taking a couple of weeks off, and I took this morning for him and will also be on stage next week. Here are some highlights from today…

We added some singers to the band this morning. We usually just have 3 or 4…today we had 6 or 7. Doing it again next week. I loved it. Having more folks on stage just adds a new dynamic.

I tortured the team unnecessarily. For some reason I told them to be ready to play at 7:15am. And they were. The problem was in that my alarm was set for its normal time, so when I woke up this morning, my mistake hit me square in the face. By the time I arrived on campus, the band, singers, audio crew were warmed up and ready to go. This made me feel very guilty. But they were good sports about it.

The band and singers made it a very fun morning for me. They are a bunch of all-stars. Jake Collier, Brad Avery, Jason Foust, Jon Osbourne, Chris Foust, and John Marsten were the players. I feel a little like a high school kid coaching the Lakers when I’m leading these guys. Corey Brown, Judy Bloye, Paul Estes, and Allison Weathington (and Jason Foust) were on mics with me. It’s hard to beat that lineup!

During the first service, Brian was so excited to start teaching that he jumped onstage one song too early, so we ended up cutting a song unexpectedly. It was a good thing, though, because he ended up going WAY over his time! I tell you what…give the man a few weeks off, and he’ll make up for the time when he gets back! Hah!

Brian taught on prayer and absolutely nailed it out of the park. I love it when he gets to dig in to something that he’s that passionate about. It’s contagious.

The Set List:

• Glory Of Your Name [Watermark]
• How Can I Keep From Singing [Tomlin]
• Perfect Love [Hillsong United]
• Til I See You [Hillsong United] (only during the first service)
• Wonderful Maker [Tomlin/Redman] (only during second service…piano and vocals only…very tasty)

It rained like CRAZY most of the morning. My brother said it was drowning out the delay and even the piano in portions of Wonderful Maker. And the ceiling is 40-feet over the crowd!

I led the entire morning with my fly open (not intentionally)

Now to go sleep it off.