RISE: Take a Stand for Jesus. One night of rocking praise, thought-provoking talk about truth and Christian worldview by Sean McDowell, hilarious skit, fun games, and an introduction to InterHigh Fellowship, with hundreds of youth and UC Berkeley college mentors from Koinonia, Kairos, and Acts2Fellowship.

All to encourage and empower the youth of the San Francisco Bay Area, to get them excited about taking a stand for their Christian faith. We are all so excited and expectant of how God will use this ministry to equip and empower the youth of our region to defend the faith and witness friends in their high schools and junior high schools. If you were there at RISE, let us know how it was!

As I was picking out the set for our Koinonia Welcome Night tonight, it occurred to me that, gee, this would be a lot easier if I knew what songs people enjoy singing! Picking out sets, we always try to be mindful of what songs and lyrics are singable, sound good, and most importantly, best lead others into a time of worship. So please comment and let me know what those songs are for you! It’ll make our job a whole lot easier. =P

Also, if you’re thinking… “What ever happened to that one song that we used to sing all the time?? I loved that song!” Let me know about it, and maybe we’ll bring it back at one of our Koinonia Bible studies this semester!

- Jon Chou, Koinonia praise leader

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to share with everyone an inspiring story about worship from Koinonia – Hsinchu.  As we all know, praise is something that can really help us connect with God, and good praise can really enhance a Bible study or a worship service.  But what do you do when there aren’t any musicians to lead the praise time?  Well, then it’s time for people to step up!

My peer, Chris G, following a storied tradition of Koinonia – Hsinchu staff members, has stepped up to the plate and is now playing drums out there in Hsinchu, Taiwan.  Now, it isn’t like Chris is unmusical – he’s played clarinet for much of his life, but he’s never touched the drums before he decided to go to Taiwan.  However, a couple weeks before he left, he was asked to learn drums, and after having a couple of lessons from some of our regular praise band drummers, he headed to Taiwan and started his new career as a drummer!  Last I heard, he’s been able to keep a beat with few mistakes – and although he hasn’t learned how to do any fills yet – he’s really come a long way, and I’m sure he’ll improve a lot before this year is out.  It just goes to show that oftentimes the most important thing is not talent or prior experience, but just a willing heart to do what needs to be done.  And sometimes to be in a situation where you’re just thrown into the deep end doesn’t hurt!

Good luck, Chris!  We’ll keep on praying for you and the rest of the Hsinchu church.  Looking forward to playing with you when you get back.

- David T, Keyboardist for the Gracepoint Berkeley Worship Team

WORSHIP SET:

Let God Arise – Chris Tomlin

Here is Our King / Everlasting God medley – Willow Creek

You’ll Come – Hillsong (from the album, This is Our God)

Gracepoint Fellowship Church Worship Team

Last Sunday, our graduating seniors sang “Available to You” as a song of commitment to live lives of availability to God and to others. Just wanted to post the lyrics to the song and a picture of the seniors.

Available to You

You gave me my hands to reach out to men
To show him your love and your perfect plan
You gave me my ears I can hear your voice so clear
I can hear the cries of sinners, but can I wipe away their tears
You gave me my voice to sing your Word
To sing all your praises to those who’ve never heard
But with my eyes I see Your need for more availability
I see hearts that has been broken, so many people to be free.

Lord I’m available to You. My will I give to You.
I’ll do what You say do. Use me Lord
To show someone the way, and enable me to say
My storage is empty, and I am available to You

Now I’m giving back to You, all the tools You gave to me.
My hands, my ears, my voice, my eyes; so You can use them as You please.
I have emptied out my cup, So that You can fill me up
Now I’m free and I just want to be more available to You.

Congratulations, seniors!

Just wanted to let you know about the “NewSpring Church” link that’s on the worship blog. NewSpring Church is a church in South Carolina:

“115 people met in a small auditorium of the local college in Anderson, South Carolina. Eight years later, we are 8000+ strong, seeing over a thousand saved and baptized, giving away houses and a mini-van to single moms, donating new shoes and coats to needy school kids, filling our county’s food pantries, meeting at two campuses and preparing to launch a third (not to mention an internet campus!), AND building new children’s and youth facilities at the site in Anderson.”

Tim Fitz let me know about their website because they post their services in full on it, including the worship time. What I appreciate from watching these is that they present themselves conservatively, and yet they appear very comfortable doing what they do, which adds a lot to the experience (at least on the videocast).

I get ideas and new songs from them when I get the chance. So if you’re looking for something like that as a resource, you can check out their website. As far as I can tell from their website, their doctrine is sound.

One of my favorite Steven Curtis Chapman songs, “Show Yourselves To Be“, is based on this week’s devotion text, John 15. This time around, what caught my attention was where it says “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” from which the song gets its title. The New English Translation says “My Father is honored by this…” This tells me that bearing fruit is what honors God. Bearing fruit is what demonstrates that I am a Christ follower.

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” — Galatians 5:22-23

That means it’s about my character. When I overcome my sinful nature — pettiness, a short temper, being easily discouraged and being discouraging, being harsh and unreasonable, among many, many other things — with the fruit of the spirit by surrendering my life and its parts to the lordship of Christ, that’s bearing fruit.

That honors God and shows that I follow Christ. Not singing the songs, not attending church events, not even evangelism and ministering to other people, leading people to Christ or teaching them the Bible. It’s being connected to the true vine and bearing fruit, changing my character and becoming like Christ. That’s harder, and I can’t just force my way to bear fruit like I can doing the things that I do. Instead it comes through being rooted in the word and prayer, and allowing my interaction with God to saturate the rest of my day in my decisions, actions and thought-life.

This is the song I chose for the Berkeley worship team to sing at the Gracepoint Fellowship Church – Austin farewell, a prayer for them, and a commitment for us who remain here to do the same.  And we will be connected with them as long as we all remain connected to the true Vine, remaining in Him, obeying his commands, and loving one another, demonstrating to the onlooking world that we are His.

The new school year at Cal is right around the corner.  For us, that translates into getting geared up and preparing for the biggest event of Gracepoint Fellowship Church’s college department calendar: New Student Welcome Night (NSWN).  

As I was talking with Jason Tarn yesterday, we realized that this upcoming NSWN will mark the 10th year that I’ve done the music for the event.  My first time was when I was a 4th year at Cal.  In terms of the music I don’t remember that much.  I do remember that I had both my guitars (fender strat and a Taylor 614ce) that night, and that I broke strings on both the guitars during the praise set.  Boy, was I nervous…

That was in 2050 VLSB (Valley Life Sciences Building), kind of a “home” for me since that was the first place I led worship for our college department Bible studies.  We’ve since moved to Wheeler, and now Pauley Ballroom for this year.  And every year, it’s such a wonderful time to see so many young students coming to find out about our group, taking the opportunity to hear the message of the gospel, many for the first time.  It could even be their first step toward crossing the line of faith. 

I went over to Jeannie Lee’s office to share with her the realization that a decade has gone by, and I’m still doing NSWN. (Patrick and Jeannie Lee were the senior class directors when I was a senior way back when.) We laughed and joked about how old we’re getting…

After 10 years, we laugh. Another 10 years, we’ll cry…

C’mon, you vocalists. We need to raise up worship leaders. <sigh>

James Kim
Gracepoint Fellowship Church – Worship Director

This post is a sharing from Kelly Kang that we would like to share with you.

From Kelly —–

This past week as we are hit with the news of 800 fires throughout northern CA, I was reminded of our total vulnerability and powerlessness before fire. As I was driving back to Alameda, I thought about the possibility of the fire hitting Sierra Lodge. It doesn’t matter how many hours we put into building that house, furnishing it and stocking it with everything to make that place into such a wonderful place to be at, If the wind decides to pick up and change towards the direction of our house, we are completely at its mercy. All is lost. In the mist of constant checking on the status of the fire, I was reminded of 2 Peter 3:10-14

10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. 11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. 14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

As I was reflecting on this verse, I was thinking about our home in heaven, the home of righteousness. No fire can destroy it. it’s eternally secure. I have my permanent residence there. in the meanwhile, while we are in this earthly tent, we can invest in eternity. We can invest in our home in heaven. I was thinking about all the hours of fellowship, bonding, hard work, perseverance, sacrifice that resulted as we built Sierra Lodge together. I realized that even if all is lost by the fire, not ALL Is lost. In fact, ALL is gain because we are eternal beings and the work that we put in, we did as a sacrifice and a fragrant offering to God.

Btw, the fire in this area is 35% contained and things are looking better although air quality is pretty bad still.

It’s been three years now that I’ve gotten to be a part of the praise band at Gracepoint Fellowship Church.  I’ve gotten to witness a lot of artistic development of our worship services and message series from the background, literally (usually you can find me on the second keyboard behind a music stand .

This year I had the opportunity to serve in a role as Praise Band Administrator (PBA).  I take care of a lot of the logistics, try to make scheduling work for everyone, and help move forward the growth of not just the current praise band, but all the future praise bands that will be involved in our future church plants.

One of my favorite parts about being PBA is seeing the addition of a new face to the band.  Of course, it makes my job of scheduling rotations a lot easier  :) , but more than that, it’s a privilege to see the growth and amazing development our our praise band.  Seeing how God has already “banded” together a worship team for Austin amazes me and pushes me to be faithful to the tasks, though sometimes mundane, that God has given me here.

I am looking forward to see how God will continually use our praise team to bring worship to our world. 

Sandra Kim
Gracepoint Fellowship Church – Worship Team Administrator