Sunday July 4th 2010

Set List:

“Our God Is Love” – Lee McDerment

“Jesus Saves” – Carlos Whittaker

“How He Loves” – John Mark McMillan

“The Stand” – Hillsong

This sunday was crazy! I honestly couldn’t wait for it to come all week. Then in the middle of the week we decided to change some things around and it made me even more excited and it definitely lived up to my expectations. I was actually gone all week in Illinois for a festival called Cornerstone. Its probably the biggest festival they have every summer and it was really amazing. I got to see how other worship leaders and musicians do things and I got to see some of my favorite people. But the whole time I was there is just made me more and more excited to come home and be a part of yesterday.

I do want to share one thing though and it is probably the most amazing thing that happened while I was there. There is a band called Sleeping Giant and I am continuously blown away by these guys. The weirdest thing is that they are a straight up hardcore band from California but they worship harder every time they play than most churches do on any given sunday. Their lead singers testimony is intense and he knows that because of this people will find Christ and he is not afraid of it. They never shy away from making people know that Jesus is the only reason they exist. They talk boldly and live just as bold. I would encourage you to check them out even if you don’t like that style of music.

I am just really excited about the future and I hope you are too. Its gonna be great!

Brendan

Sunday May 30th 2010

Set List:

“Run” – Hillsong

“Jesus Paid It All” – Kristian Stanfill

“Your Love Never Fails” – Jesus Culture

“Your Name High” – Hillsong United

This week we changed things up a bit. We decided to change the order of how things flow and I think it worked well. A big thanks to those who helped out on sunday with Your Name High. having all those extra drums really make thats song the best.

A week or two ago we played a song called No Reason To Hide and I want to post some of the lyrics here.

We’ve got nothing to lose
We’ve got no reason to hide
We’ve got the answer inside of us
It’s time we took the disguises off
Well see Your glory revealed
And see Your Name lifted high
There is nobody else for us
Jesus You are the only One

You’re alive and we are free
You are everything
Everything we need

There’s not a minute to waste
Not a second to lose
There’s a city that waits for us
It’s time we took all the lamp shades off
Well see Your glory revealed
And see Your Name lifted high
There is nobody else for us
Jesus You are the only One

I just love this song because it is a challenge. It is saying there is no time to waste, so lets go and reveal God’s glory to everyone. It is because Jesus died and also rose again that we are free from the bondage of sin and anything else that would hinder us in this goal. and I am just so glad that we are able to remember this and use it as fuel for our fires as we go out and shine brightly so people will see who God is in and through us and come to Him. Its the best thing there is.

Be Blessed
Brendan

Sunday May 23rd 2010

Set List:

“Love Is A Battlefield” – Pat Benetar

“Come Thou Fount” – David Crowder Band

“Your Love Never Fails” – Jesus Culture

“No Reason To Hide” – Hillsong United

This week was super fun. It was the last week of our I love The 80′s Series and I feel it was a good one. We finally got to play “No Reason To Hide” and it was great. I apologize if you didn’t know the words but we were just excited to get it out so now everyone can hear it a bunch of times. It just gets me pumped to play it and i suggest you add it to your get pumped mix on your iPod. Especially if you have a gym mix.

Just want to say a quick thanks to Zak Perry. He played guitar for us for the past two weeks and is going to be seen a lot more often. I am so excited that he is gonna be playing with us.

Right now I am sitting in the office and listening to a pandora mix based on Sigur Ros. If you don’t know who that is, they are a band from iceland and they make what I consider some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. I have been thinking about this a lot lately because I have seen many other people including other worship pastors that consider their music worship. They are not christians themselves in the band but you can’t deny that if you listen to their songs it certainly sounds like something that could be offered up in worship to God. Some people disagree though. Not me. I think that God can use anything and everything to reach your heart, even if its the music of someone who may have wrote it for a million other reasons.

I heard someone say recently that it should be christians that create the most beautiful music. People who believe in the One who created anything that could inspire someone to write or sing or dance. I sort of take that as a challenge. I am the son of the God of everything and He even created the idea of playing music so I am determined to create something that I can call the most beautiful. I want to offer my best to Him.

Sunday May 9th, 2010

Set List:

“Don’t Stop Believing” – Journey

“Hosanna” – Hillsong United

“Fire Fall Down” – Hillsong

“God Of This City” – Chris Tomlin

“Come Thou Fount” – David Crowder

Hey! Sorry I haven’t updated in like two weeks. We are right in the middle of our “I Love The 80′s” Series. Last week we kicked off the series with Bon Jovi’s “Living On A Prayer” and of course Mike spoke about prayer and what it really is. This week we played a song that most people when they hear no matter how young or old will sing along. Every time “Don’t Stop Believing” comes on the radio or is on the mix of songs a company plays in their stores I immediately know it. We played it this week to talk about faith and particularly to the mothers considering it was mothers day. Esther was in a crazy situation and was going to be killed along with the rest of her people but she didn’t give up and with the help of her uncle knew that she was there for such a time as this.

God knows what we can handle and even when things seem at their worst He is still working and knows how to help you grow. We can never stop believing that He is in control and wants the best for us. Things aren’t always going to play out exactly like you thought and there are going to be times when we are faced with tough decisions, but if we believe that God wants whats best for us and have faith that He is in control, it will be a lot easier to go the right way.

We still have 2 more weeks in our I Love The 80′s series and I am really excited to see how God will reveal Himself and His truths as we look back on that crazy decade.

Be Blessed
Brendan

Sunday April 18th, 2010

Set List -

“Do You Feel” – The Rocket Summer

“The Stand” – Hillsong

“Your Love Is Strong” – Jon Foreman

“Your Love Is Everything” – Jesus Culture

In the past we have played two other songs by this band “the Rocket Summer.” I really respect Bryce Avary, the man behind their music. Not only is he an incredible musician, he played every instrument on his albums, he is also not afraid to write about his faith and what he believes. The song we played this week is just another example. It’s even better that I have heard a song off of his newest album on our radio here in CT. If it’s on the radio here then it probably is everywhere considering the lack of good radio stations in this area. I just think it’s nuts that even though he has been shot up to the mainstream of pop rock he isn’t compromising his faith. I like that.

On an unrelated note I have been thinking about the words to the song “Hosanna” by Hillsong United. The beginning of the second verse starts off by saying “I see a generation rising up with selfless faith…” and it is haunting me. What does it mean to have selfless faith. What would it look like if as a generation of young people we were to adopt this as our primary way of life. I think it would be out of control. In the best way.  There would be more giving, more doing and more lives changing for eternity. Especially as a follower of Christ living in this part of the country which is obviously on it’s way to an awakening, things would be huge.

I also thought about what it would look like on a personal level. For me I have always grown up with prayer and knowing what it was. I would pray every night for my family as a child and that  my mom, dad, brother, sister, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and me would be safe and healthy and that was the extent of it. It has become a habit for me in my prayer life to focus more on God giving me health and helping my life to change. This idea of selfless faith is changing my perspective. I believe that in order to pray for something you need to have faith that God will answer the prayer. Obviously. But what if instead of me praying that I would be able to be healthy or have my life changed or anything else about me, I pray for everyone who comes to catalyst and have faith that God will change their hearts and lives. If I use my faith that I have in Jesus knowing that He can do everything He says, and focus on others, things would change drastically. After all that would be a life changing thing for me too so both prayers would be answered.

One more thing that I know will come with selfless faith is giving. I have a hard time giving to what God is doing in this area sometimes because honestly I feel out of control the moment I designate a part of my paycheck. It is super easy to buy into the lie that it would be money better spent if I kept it and focused on getting out of debt first so that I can give later. But thats just an excuse not to do it. If I am making excuses now then of course I am going to make the same ones later on. In order to have selfless faith I believe it is necessary that we give our tithe of 10 percent, but also even beyond that. It would be the ultimate test. Do I have enough faith that God can work bigger and stronger with my little extra than I could? Its a tough question and it will only be answered by what I do.

I am excited to play this song again and I am even more excited to see what happens next. Its coming to a time where huge things are going to start happening and I want to be a part of it. So I will be faithful with the small. I will be a part of a generation who will  rise up with selfless faith.

Be Blessed,
Brendan

Sunday April 11th 2010

Set List:

“Your Love Never Fails” – Jesus Culture

“Holy Is the Lord” – Chris Tomlin

“Jesus Paid it All” – Kristian Stanfill

“O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” – David Crowder Band

This week was one of those weeks where it was pretty obvious that the Lord was working behind the scenes to bring everything together. Mike had planned on his last point in the message being about God’s holiness and how we should chase after it and the song we had chose ahead of time to follow that was Holy is the Lord. Its a funny and amazing thing when that happens. I love it.

I really just want to say to anyone who reads this that if you feel like you would want to help out with the worship team or anything else for that matter, let us know as soon as you can. We are definitely in need of people who can commit to play with us for a time so that it can be less up in the air week by week who is playing. I am so glad God has brought together who He has so far. I am excited to see who else is going to step up and help out.

Be Blessed
Brendan

Sunday March 28th, 2010

Set List:

“Your Name High” – Hillsong

“SMS” – David Crowder Band

“Run” – Hillsong

“Mighty to Save” – Hillsong

It’s funny when I write out the list of what we played each week to see which groups we use music from the most. Obviously this week it’s Hillsong. I don’t feel bad about it though. With all of the things going on this week I almost forgot to do this so I apologize. I am really excited about what’s going on this weekend. It is easter weekend and so we are doing our Egg Drop on saturday and having a crazy easter sunday service so I hope that people will come to both and let God blow them away.

This sunday is going to be crazy. I hope everyone is excited for what we have planned and I hope that you are even more excited to experience easter like never before. After all this is the celebration of the single greatest moment in human history. Thank you Jesus for doing what you did for all of us.

Brendan

Sunday March 21st, 2010

Set List:

“SMS” – David Crowder Band

“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” – David Crowder Band

“Glory to God Forever” – Steve Fee

So this week we technically only played 3 songs but we eneded up doing “SMS” twice. We did that because I was actually pretty excited that we were able to find a song that was so relevant to what we were talking about. This series is called “Text” and of course SMS is another name for text messages. The songs is all about God making a connection with us and our series is about how that connection is made known through the Bible, His “Text Message” to us.

We were also able to play “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” again which I was really pumped about. Its probably my favorite song that we play right now. I hope that you can check out the song and read the lyrics to it because it reveals so much about God’s character. Also check out last weeks post to read the story behind the song because its pretty amazing.

I am just super excited about where everything is headed and I feel like God’s got so much in store that we can’t even imagine yet. I definitely want to encourage anyone who feels like they may be interested in joining us on the worship team to either let Mike or myself know any Sunday. You can also fill out a simple form and let us know what drives you and what you might like to do at www.catalystchurch.tv/volunteer and we will partner with you and get you involved.

Be Blessed
Brendan

Sunday March 14th, 2010

Set List:

“Run” – Hillsong United

“Wholly Yours” – David Crowder Band

“How Great Is Our God” – Chris Tomlin

“O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” – David Crowder Band

Charles Wesley was an english leader of the methodist movement and is more commonly known for being a writer of hymns. He actually wrote Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. He was obviously for most of his life, a man of faith but in 1738 he was dealing with some sickness and also having major doubts about what he believed in. He became so ill that he was bed ridden. While he was sick a group of christians came and took care of him. They shared their own testimonies with him while giving him basic care for his sickness and this really affected his heart. So he bagan reading his Bible and became even more affected by the words which he read. He had found reason to believe again. He very quickly became healthy again. He wrote about his experience counting it as a renewal of his faith. Very soon after this he found out his brother had shared a similar experience and they got together and sang a hymn that Wesley  had written about the experience. A year later he felt he needed to write a song in remembrance of this amazing renewal of his faith and the hymn that followed was a longer version of “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.” The title and the first line of our song actually came from a quote from a london scholar that Wesley had been studying under that said “Had I a thousand tongues I would praise Him with them all.”

Its amazing to me to learn the stories behind the songs we sing. This man was sick and in despair doubting something he had obviously based a large portion of his life on. But because of the service of people like ourselves and because of what he read in God’s word, which coincidentally we are talking about the importance of this series, he was able to find a renewal of his relationship with God and go on to write a hymn that is possibly one of my favorite songs we have ever sang. I would encourage you to read the lyrics because they explain about who God is.

I am just so glad to serve a God that can inspire such amazing songs and all other forms of art. “Had I a thousand tongues I would praise Him with them all.”

be blessed,
Brendan

Sunday March 4th 2010

Set List:

“Use Somebody” – Kings of Leon

“Glory to God Forever” – Steve Fee

“How Great is Our God” – Chris Tomlin

“Jesus Paid It All” – Kristian Stanfill

First off I want to apologize for not posting last week. Secondly I would like to voice my opinion on the greatness of our God. He’s pretty great. This Sunday felt like a release. It was like the culmination of a hundred and one things that can’t be controlled all being let go. I know in my own life for sure that is the truth. The seres we are in now is called Text. It is basically about how the Bible is God’s text message to us to let us know what to do. I am excited that for the next couple weeks we are going to be better equipped to read and know God’s word which will in turn give us a much better understanding of what songs like “How Great is Our God” truly mean. We can only see His greatness through His word.

I feel that now is a more appropriate time than ever to be singing “How Great is Our God” and “Glory to God Forever” considering the incredible things He has worked out so that we can have the best easter this town has ever seen. Its gonna be ridiculous and I am so excited to see what comes of this. For some reason this week I have just been thinking back to when we met together a year ago in a house and had these crazy ideas for stuff and to see how far we have come already it has just been awe inspiring. I can’t see how anyone couldn’t be excited at where we are going considering the progress so far. I just pray that God will continue to use us and that our hearts and my heart will continue to be usable and moldable so the His purpose can be served with all of this.

Be Blessed
Brendan