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One thing that’s been weird the last year or so for me while leading worship at church has been getting used to in-ear monitors. I like ‘em a lot for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that (I think) my tuning improves with them as opposed wedges… the biggest flaw I’ve encountered is the lack of connection with a congregation—and really, I mean an emotional, internal connection rather than an outward, stage presence type connection. I think I’ve done a fine job in overcoming the awkwardness of in-ears in terms of whether or not the congregation still relates with me. But this week, while we sang ‘Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)’ at the last service of the weekend, something really cool happened…

I had taken one ear out, as I sometimes do, so that I could get a little more feel of the congregation singing ‘Mighty to Save’ which was our second tune… the transition came a little quick and when I put my guitar down and headed over to the piano to start ‘Amazing Grace,’ I didn’t have a chance to put my right in-ear back in. As we started singing, I realized two things: first off, people just love to sing Amazing Grace, so I realized that the congregation was at that glorious point of no return in their worship experience, ready to pour out their voices to our Creator. Secondly, I realized that unlike my acoustic—which is panned pretty hard left (so that I can hear it really well even when I remove my right in-ear)—my piano was panned pretty hard right… so I really couldn’t hear it all that well. As much as I love to hear the instrument I’m playing, just for tuning and preventing mistakes, etc. I began to hear the swell of voices—400 to 500 strong in our auditorium just filling the place with His praises. I wasn’t about to put my right in-ear back in, and I just bathed in the sound of our voices lifted to Him. It was very cool, and I realized once again what I often miss having both of those suckers pluggin’ up my ears.

But I digress… it was a great weekend, and our setlist looked like this:

A Thousand Hallelujahs - (M. Roach)

Mighty to Save - (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) - (Tomlin and Co.)

feature tune - I Can Only Imagine (MercyMe) - acoustic version

Hosanna - (Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown)

 

this post is also part of Sunday Setlists