“Knowing Jesus” album is available on Sunday night at North Side. We are hosting our “Knowing Jesus ” worship event at 6pm and would love to have you join us for worship!
The album is 21 tracks. We would have done more, but we were seconds away from having to go double-disc. We have so much music, we aren’t doing it all on Sunday night, but I have listed a track list to give you an idea on what each of these songs are.
Last night, I had the privilege of listening through the “Knowing Jesus” album with our band at our home. They had each contributed in the writing, arranging, recording of the process, but none of them knew until last night that this project is 21 tracks. It is as close to 80 minutes that the disc will allow.
Why that much music? Why 21-tracks?
The end of John gives us a hint:
In addition to some powerful worship time, we were honored to have a Courageous Resolution ceremony for some men in our church who went through the study “Honor Begins at Home.” It was powerful watching these men make these commitments in front of their church and beside their families. It is even more amazing watching these guys live out the change. If you are interested in joining us for the next Sunday starting in 2 weeks, click here for more info.
We continue in our “Knowing Jesus” study. Jeff’s message was powerful. The entire service kept showing Jesus on display. Love hearing our worshipers get after it!
Today, we worshiped to:
You can tell a lot about something based on what words are used the most.
“Wordle” is a program that you can copy a section of text and it highlights the most used words by making them larger. The more the word is used, the larger it is displayed.
So, do you know where this wordle is from?
Great, impacting, insightful, honest worship today at North Side. I took this picture on my phone during Cole’s soundcheck and it looked like the heavens were opening up! Cole Strickland did a fantastic job on a Peter monologue to setup the message on Peter’s denial perfectly.
In addition, we heard a powerful testimony about mission work in West Africa this summer. She did such a great job making the passage of the day go along with her testimony. It was incredible to hear how someone who followed Christ across the world still struggled with denying Christ but saw him move anyway. So wonderful that 2 of our main worship leaders today were our college students. So great to see so many of these students not waiting until they graduate to serve, they get it now!
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What a wonderful day to be the church! In addition to our exciting things happening, we were so honored to have to roll out more tables for our college lunch with 100 students hanging out after services today. It was so great connecting with these wonderful students from Erskine, Lander, Piedmont Tech, and Presbyterian College. Just a reminder for you college students to join us on the City and get your free tunes!
Today was such a great worship service to be a part of. Wonderful stories of those being baptized. Worship centered on the cross. New song from the “Knowing Jesus” project. Incredible message on the arrest of Jesus – wow – Jesus is control. He doesn’t need our help. Jesus is the Great I AM. I felt like shouting today!
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What a great day to be a part of North Side! We celebrated a bunch of family dedications, communion, worship, wonderful teaching, and so much more!
It was great to have the local colleges back in session and to have so many rows filled with our college students again! We missed you and can’t wait to disciple you again!
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I am excited to announce the details for our “Knowing Jesus” Night of Worship. Mark your calendars for Sunday, September 30th at 6:00pm for an incredible night of Worship entitled “Knowing Jesus.” Get ready for a unique worship experience where we walk through the life of Christ and worship Him at every turn. We will also be releasing a new album with songs you will hear on this worshipful night. Invite your family and friends, and we’ll see you there (you can get more info on the City and also help us get the word out on Facebook).
Back in January, our worship team began studying Scripture and writing songs around pivotal moments in the life and ministry of Christ. Since that time, we have shared 4 songs from this upcoming project (It is Finished, Risen, All Things Are Possible, and I Will Follow; with more to come this Sunday and in coming weeks). We start with the anticipation of the Messiah, go to the incarnation, Jesus’ baptism, the temptation, and so much more. We eventually end up at the cross, the empty tomb, and the giving of the Great Commission.
We live in a very interesting time in American Christianity. In some ways, so much incredible Kingdom stuff is happening. In other ways, I feel like we can’t hear THE name because all we hear is YOUR name.
Translation: many Christian leaders and Christian ministries are focused more on building their kingdoms than they are on building God’s Kingdom.
What a special day as we celebrated the fact that Jesus prays for his disciples! In today’s service, we tried to connect the original disciples with current disciples. The call of Jesus is the same. The prayers of Jesus are the same. The goal is the same!
We were blessed to have Cassandra Erickson give us our 2nd installment of “Ni Zan Je” today as we continue to hear about our partnership with the unreached in West Africa. Her story was powerful. It was great to follow up her story with a new worship song our team has written called “I Will Follow.” The song was written for our upcoming “Knowing Jesus” worship album which highlights portions of the life of Christ. This song deals with Jesus calling of the disciples.
I played this song for Cassandra and some of the others this summer while we were in Africa during a power outage. It was such a unique time as we sang this feeling connected with Jesus calling us just as He called the first disciples. It was great to be able to share this song with the church as a whole today!
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Loved being back with North Side this morning as we dove into John 17 and the High Priestly Prayer. We focused the entire service on Jesus and the Father. The key thought was giving glory to Jesus for His life and work on this earth.
We were blessed to have our first installment of “Ni Zan Je” (“I Will Go”) as Lacy Little shared with us some of the work Jesus did around her and through her in West Africa this summer. I appreciated her honesty so much as she shared the roughness of the road Jesus called them to this summer.
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At North Side, we focused on prayer this Sunday. Instead of talking about prayer, we wanted to actually pray. So the service was built around prayer.
We studied in John 16 as Christ taught to pray in his name, so our worship time focused on the name above all names.
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“Your presence is heaven to me.”
What a wonderful day to be the church. I loved our time together as we focused on John 16 and Jesus’ promise that joy will come from sorrow. As we worshiped today, I was so moved worshiping with our church family and seeing the authenticity in the room. As a church, we share life together. And so when one hurts, we all hurt.
As our worship service (songs, message, video, prayers, etc.) all focused on finding our joy in Jesus even during hard times, watching those who were hurting worship from the depths is an impacting thing. Even in hard times, Jesus is good.
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What a passionate and eclectic day of worship today. We went everywhere from gospel to a capella and about everything in between. Last week, we had nothing but an acoustic set from the floor, this week, we had about everything else!
We were very blessed to have One Heart help lead us in worship this Sunday. Peggy is a part of our normal worship team, but she also sings with an a cappella group called One Heart. Becky and Beth were gracious enough to join us for our worship this Sunday. As we focused on the Holy Spirit, I asked them to do a medley of Spirit songs. I don’t think they had ever sang that arrangement until this morning, and it was so fantastic. What a way to welcome the Spirit’s presence.
Got to see some sights from last week’s Shake-n-Shine camp and hear stories from Jeff. Such an incredible mission-focused summer (Africa girls get back tomorrow). Jeff’s message on the Spirit was so refreshing. Baptists need to “remember” the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, he is the often neglected member of the Trinity. This message was a powerful reminder of the Spirit’s work in salvation.
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We planned today’s worship service all around the idea of being a friend of God and all that entails. In addition to some great worship songs that share that truth, we were thrilled to have Jeff’s son-in-law, Scott Hill, in town to preach for us. They are in the prep stage of serving as IMB missionaries.
Today’s worship list:
I always want to expose you to some great teaching. Matt Chandler, is the Pastor of the Village Church, author, speaker, and survivor from a recent brain tumor. Enjoy this clip from Matt Chandler from a Desiring God Conference and his powerful declaration that “Jesus Wants the Rose.”
As we planned for today’s worship, we studied the passage of John 15 concerning our need to stay connected to Christ to accomplish anything. So what we planned to highlight is to see the fruit of those who are accomplishing great things here in our church.
We highlighted some children’s and student ministry leaders. We wanted to hear them talk about their commitment and the reward of service.
We then wanted to be led in some of the “fruit” of their work. We had our student band lead worship for part of the service, and we also had some of our children lead us in worship. They sang one of the songs from this year’s VBS. When I heard them do it at VBS, I knew we had to use them. Such a beautiful expression of worship.
Today’s worship list:
What a great, unexpected, turn-at-every-moment day with North Side! As we were gathering for soundcheck this morning, the power went out completely out in the worship center. With flashlights going and people scrambling, it appears that all the AC units in Greenwood on non-stop decided to take out our air and electricity at 8:40 Sunday morning.
So, what is a worship pastor to do? I got the right people working on getting it back on, and I gathered the worship team in the commons area outside the worship center. I told them we would either do things acoustic in the dark or out in that open area with no AVL or we would try to setup up shop in the gym. But in the moment, we just gathered round some acoustic instruments and began to worship. I have actually planned for a more acoustic service later this month to worship like our family is over in Africa, and thought maybe God wanted it earlier. In our prayers, we didn’t pray for the power to come back on, we just wanted to be obedient in however God wanted to teach us this morning.
At about 9:20 when people were gathering to go inside the doors, our team was singing “I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about you, all about you, Jesus,” and then the lights came on. We went into the room with people finding their seats, plugged in our instruments, got a camera feed up so we could watch our baptisms, and started the service on time.
I say this a lot, but today is one of those days I don’t think anyone truly understands how serious I am about this: our worship team is amazing. They are incredibly flexible, no one was running frantic, no one seemed frazzled, no one was rude to one another, we just each did our part and God decided that we should have power back at that time. And as everyone came prepared, the services went off great without anyone able to see anything that would have said there was no run-through that morning. I am honored to work with such great people.
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What a wonderful day to be a part of North Side! We still have the Last Supper table setup on stage. Strutton did a great job recreating this scene for our stage. For weeks, Jeff will be preaching from the teaching that Jesus gave all from the Last Supper table. It’s surreal for me listening to this powerful Scripture and realizing that Jesus dropped all of it while he was eating a meal. And his dinner conversation could be the content for weeks and weeks of sermons!
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What a special day day of worship! With a full week of events associated with our “Enter His Gates” release, it was great to be able to celebrate it one more time with our church family. In addition to the new 16-track CD, we also had some new t-shirts and such. I have already received from very special encouragement concerning the new tunes. We are very grateful.
Today, we worshiped with songs from the new CD:
What a powerful day! Love, love what is happening in our church right now!
Loved having Lee commission our students to Charleston missions this week. The message on Judas’ predicted betrayal was unbelievable. I loved Jeff’s honesty and faithfulness to the biblical text. As believers, we are called to be faithful to one another, and yes, betrayal among God’s people happens and it is painful. What an incredible call!
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The only problem with today’s services is I could have done that a few more times. Incredible time with Jesus today. Absolutely incredible.
The above picture was taken during soundcheck today by one of our vocalists from her phone. The boys normally go to soundcheck with me. Today, amazingly enough, both of them had to go poo-poo during it and yelled it out really loud after we had finished a song during soundcheck. I love being a dad.
After everyone was out of the bathroom, it was a very special day indeed. Jeff’s message was powerful. He explained that Jesus’ example of washing the disciples’ feet was an expression of unity, acceptance, and service. What if every church, every home was full of people who applied this example? Still processing.
We had a great ensemble do a dramatic reading of the foot washing to setup the message. It was incredible. Every time that Laurie started saying, “You can’t wash my feet, I should be kissing your feet,” I couldn’t help but get weepy. Strutton did a great job of making a Last Supper table that will stay with us during these weeks of Jesus’ teaching through John 13-17. Amazing what he can do with stuff he got from Big Lots and the Dollar Tree. Love creativity on a budget!
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The Peak band did a wonderful job leading worship at North Side today. When our high school students lead, it’s not a novel gesture, they are really great worship leaders and we are honored to be led by them. Amanda and I were talking after services about how genuine, musical, and thoughtful they were with their leadership. So proud of each one of you!
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What a very special day of worship at North Side! In addition to recognizing our graduates, we also commissioned six college students who will be spending their summer in West Africa as North Side missionaries. God orchestrated a very appropriate and powerful service to send them off.
Jeff’s message from John 12 was specifically directed towards ministers. For all those who minister the Word of God to others, there are times when our souls become troubled. Jesus showed us how to speak the Word with grace and truth. For this message to fall in this week with these ladies being commissioned was a powerfully God-ordained moment.
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Special day at North Side! We had some info on promotion Sunday (June 3rd), family dedication with 9 families, great time of worship, great interview video on “who was Jesus,” and a wonderful message! Jeff’s teaching on John 12 was so good. So much to take in considering how we are to lay our lives down just as Christ was anticipating his sacrifice for us.
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What a great morning. The boys normally go to soundcheck with me, but birthday boy Obadiah was extra rowdy on the drums this morning.
It was such a powerful time of worship today at North Side. I can’t begin to tell you how much the Holy Spirit united the service today. There are times when we plan elements together and it’s great to watch them fall, and then, today, I listened to Jeff preach his sermon and use words that were verbatim of the last song we were going to do after his message on Mary anointing the feet of Jesus.
I figured he had looked at the flowsheet and studied the lyrics, but something also told me that maybe this was a God orchestrated thing. Turns out he didn’t know what the lyrics of the last song were, but as he preached in his message about “focusing on the gift instead of the Giver…Giver of every perfect gift…being satisfied in only Jesus…” It was wild.
Today, we worshiped to:
In our Christology, we have reached a pretty pivotal section: the resurrection of the Christ. Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed!
Few people deny the fact that a man named Jesus lived on this earth, gathered a large following, seemed to be a pretty decent guy, and then was killed. The point of debate has always been: did a dead man rise from the grave?
As we think about this section, here are some things to remember:
John 11:49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
What a wonderful text that led our worship time today! We focused on Jesus’ selfless sacrifice today and that is always time well-spent! Jeff’s message was plain ridiculous. The thought that we could possess a faith not to “offend Rome” really challenged some introspective time in my own life. Powerful!
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At this point in our Christology, we have arrived at the point where wrath and grace became forever entwined. The crucifixion of the Christ changed everything.
All 4 of the gospels report this event and yet each one has unique details. When put together, the 4 combine to provide many details about what happened when Love laid down his life willingly.
Here are some things to note:
Powerful. I’ve been looking forward to this Sunday for a while now. For one, I haven’t led worship at North Side in 2 weeks, and I’ve missed it! Two, we had some really powerful moments in today’s services.
In addition to an incredible message from Jeff concerning the resurrection of Lazarus, we were also blessed to have a good buddy of mine, Cole, a Lander student, do a monologue sketch from Lazarus’ perspective. As he was concluding this unbelievable scene (with grand awesomeness), we went into “I will rise when He calls my name, no more sorrow, no more pain.” Pretty neat.
Today, we worshiped to:
It was great to be back at North Side this week! We had a wonderful day focusing upon the first part of John 11 on the death of Lazarus. Jeff’s message was so good! He talked about how Jesus loved Lazarus and his family and yet he still waited to come. He could have come and healed his body, but he wanted them to experience the glory of God even more!
We were blessed to have the Erskine College Gospel Choir lead us in worship today! Their director, Tobe Frierson, is also an admission counselor at the school and has been leading this choir for a few years now. Many of those students worship with us at North Side and some of them are a part of my Wednesday night group. They did incredible! Love their sound and their passion for Jesus! If you are interested in hearing them again, their concert will be held at Erskine on Sunday, May 6th.
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I was unable to lead worship on Good Friday, since my daughter was morning, but I heard they didn’t miss me at all. I heard it was an incredible service of worship, prayer, communion, Scripture, and remembering the cross.
Good Friday worship set:
It’s Passion week. It’s the week we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s a week when we should be reminded the great level to which Christ forgave us.
And we, in turn, are to forgive others in the same way.
This subject matter is pretty intense. Dealing with past hurts in which we were the victim or the culprit are never fun to visit. It is extremely hard to forgive those who have hurt us
Read Colossians 3:12-15 to see how we should forgive:
Well, I planned today’s service with the good possibility of me not being there due to the baby’s arrival. While our band never needs me there, they really didn’t need me there today, so it was good just to come in and sing and play along with them.
They are so good, I’m honored they let me play and sing with them! And that is the truth.
Wonderful day with North Side today! Continuing on through John, we arrived at John 10 today focusing upon Jesus’ statement: “I am the door.” I have really loved this “Knowing Jesus” study.
Speaking of doors, Ms. Rosalie Cromer is normally seen opening doors on Sunday mornings for our worshipers, but today she was opening another kind of door. I asked her to read one of her poems that she has written during our worship today. Her poem, “The Greatest Desire of My Heart,” went perfectly into John’s song, “May Your Life Be.” It was almost as if the 2 of them wrote those pieces together!
She read from her book of poems entitled “If.” We have copies in the bookstore or you can get them online here.
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As we continue our weekly installment of a Christology, we have arrived into section 9: the invitation of the Christ. One of Jesus’ biggest criticisms was that he was a friend of sinners.
You have heard the phrase: “Hate the sin, but don’t hate the sinner.” That’s a difficult line to walk. How can we befriend sinners and not getting stuck in the sin that entangles them? You might think it is impossible to do it, but it’s not. Jesus hung around sinners but he never sinned. Oftentimes, I see Christians hang around sinners but avoid being intentional about Kingdom living. It’s almost an attempt to remain unscathed than it is to change lives.
How come most unchurched people avoid churched people because they are perceived as stuffy, judgmental, hypocritical goody-two-shoes, and yet sinners would invite Jesus to the party?
Here are some things to remember:
If you were at North Side yesterday, you got a snippet of the big project we are working on this year: The Jesus Album (working title). I was humbled by the response I’ve been receiving since yesterday when we led the new song, “It is Finished.” This was one of the first songs we wrote for this project, and the first one we have done live.
So, let me explain the big picture: 1) Our worship ministry desires to help disciple people, 2) Music has a way to make theology portable, 3) We are attempting 4 recording projects this year to do this, 4) We are currently studying through the Gospel of John on Sunday mornings and it’s been unbelievable, and 5) This project, #3, needs to reflect all of that somehow.
In a way to bring all that together, I felt led to challenge our worship team: What if we wrote an album that looked at the life of Jesus chronologically and worshiped him at every step along the way?
Crazy good day with North Side. We finished up John 9 in “Knowing Jesus” with the man who once was blind but now can see. For a bluegrass section at the end of the service, I was even able to talk Jeff into playing banjo with us at the end. So, so good. In addition to preaching a fantastic sermon today, he also played some mean banjo.
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As we continue in the Christology, this week we are studying the miraculous deeds of Jesus. These works served as a manifestation of the Christ and showed his omnipotence. With Jesus, truly, all things are possible.
The deaf can hear. The blind can see. The lame are rising up to stand upon their feet. He calmed the storm. He quieted souls. He mended the broken. The empty were filled. The sick made well. The mute began to speak of his glory. The dead were rising. With Christ, all things are possible.
But, do we really believe that? Do we honestly believe that Jesus can come in and fix that circumstance clouding our view?
What a fantabulous day at North Side! We were thrilled to release our new album “The Manifold Wisdom of God: Sermon Remix 2011” (photo courtesy of Taylor Wolfe). While I couldn’t talk Jeff into doing his part live, the band did accompany his preaching. We played track #10 off of the album which is in my top 2 favorite tracks.
Thank you for all that got copies today. I loved hearing about the lines at the bookstore! Hope the biblical truths are impacting you today!
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We were so honored to have the Faith Home choir help lead us in worship this morning. Mama Barnes of course had the place dancing and shaking as always. She and her choir did a wonderful job of worshiping Jesus and leading us to do the same. Faith Home is a Christian recovery program that we partner with here in Greenwood. You can get more info on their ministry here.
Today, we worshiped to:
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