Let me just start off by saying it was the most epic event I’ve ever been a part of. The venue we used sat about 1500 people and it was pretty much full for both morning services and for the RebelChurch service at night. Now, I come from small beginnings, leading for small youth groups and churches between 300-800 in attendance, so anytime I get to lead worship for a bigger venue like this, it always blows my mind. The power that is in 1500 voices being lifted to God and the fact that God is using you to lead these people is just unbelievable. Very exciting!

For this Easter we wanted to play Our God, but we wanted to do it the right way. So we hired a string quartet to bang out those amazing string arrangements that are found in Chris Tomlin’s album version of Our God. I also composed a back-up strings track in Logic which made it sound huge. That was a lot of fun.

Now, I don’t know about you, but my tendency for picking songs for a big event is to do ALL new songs. Forget the old stuff! We need new blood! But I’ve learned that that’s not necessarily what the people want. When people come to any service, especially big events like this, they’re expecting to worship! They’re expecting to sing! So, you have to find a healthy balance of playing new songs and also giving the people a chance to sing along with tunes they know.

We hopefully accomplished this with the above set list. I think All My Fountains is one of the easiest songs to learn and love quickly, which was evident for me on Easter. Freedom Is Here we’ve already done a bunch for RebelChurch. Like A Lion is a song that’s been around now for a while; we’re also playing it on our radio station, 90.9 Life:FM. Beautiful Exchange was for sure one that people didn’t know, but it’s an amazing Easter song and we followed it up with one that everyone knows and loves, Our God. I thought the set had great flow and went really well.

Something else that spiced up my Easter was the fact that my wife had just given birth to our baby boy three days earlier. My emotions were definitely running wild. People might think I’m crazy for leading after such a huge event in our lives, but my wife and I both believed this was something extremely important that I needed to lead for and be a part of. Oh and, by the way, having an amazing wife always helps you do ministry better.

One more thing I wanted to mention was how cool of a guy Charlie Hall is. Him and his band played for our Easter services and I got to talk to him some. Super cool, down-to-earth guy. He’s also quick to pour and invest into others, which I always appreciate in worship leaders I look up to (and is a quality I’m trying to cultivate in my own life). He even prayed over me right before I left, which rocked my world.

All in all, this event was a complete win. Loved every part of it. Hope your Easter went well! Until next time…