Setlist 5-20-2018

Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday.  Our songs were gathered with this in mind.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics.  Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs:

Bonfire by Jameson McGregor

Fall Afresh  by Jeremy Riddle

Pulse by Jameson McGregor

Waking Life by Jameson McGregor

Hope by Jameson McGregor

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Bonfire: This song is about the contrast between God and humanity and the contrast between the already and the not yet of the Kingdom.  We sang this song to acknowledge what God has done and to look ahead to the re-Creation of all things.

Fall Afresh: We sang this song to petition the Spirit of God to reawaken us to the presence of God among us and to draw us into what God is doing in our world.

Pulse: This song is about the Breath of Life in all of creation, and petitions the Spirit to reawaken our hearts to our interconnectivity to all creatures, that we might be moved toward loving as God does.

Waking Life: This song is about the Spirit crashing into the stories we tell ourselves about the world and our place in it, offering us a different way to live and move and have our being.

Hope: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Hope then: This song looks at the mini-Resurrections that God has spread across creation in order to look ahead to the re-Creation of all things.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

Setlist 1-21-2018

Our last liturgy was the second Sunday of Epiphany, and the songs were gathered with that in mind.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics.  Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs:

Bonfire by Jameson McGregor

All the Poor and Powerless by All Sons & Daughters

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

Shadow by Jameson McGregor

How Great Thou Art

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Bonfire: This song explores the contrast between God and humanity, and looks forward to the coming reconciliation of all things to God; the reconciliation that is sometimes glimpsed in the world around us in justice, redemption, and love. You can hear an album version of this song here.

All the Poor and Powerless: This song is about the hope of Christ in the lives of the oppressed, trampled, criminal, and hopeless, and more broadly about the love of God for God's creatures.

There's A Wideness In God's Mercy: We sang this song to remind ourselves that our best ideas of God's love fall short of grasping it in fullness.  During Epiphany, we hope to suspend our assumptions about God's love along with everything else we think we know about the Person of Jesus, in hopes of encountering Jesus anew.

Shadow: This song is about the impossibility of dying to self and the vision for humanity embodied in the person of Christ. You can hear an album version of this song here.

How Great Thou Art: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about How Great Thou Art then: As we travel through Epiphany, most of the gospel readings will depict someone acknowledging Jesus as Lord.  This song offered us language to join in this posture of acclamation. 

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 10-29-2017

This was the twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost.  Our songs were gathered with this in mind.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics.  Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs:

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Ascend the Hill)

Murdered Son by John Mark McMillan

Bonfire by Jameson McGregor

Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Wandering: We sang this song to proclaim God's faithfulness to us in the midst of our tendency to attempt to steer God toward our own devices.  In doing so, we reminded ourselves that God has decided to pull us into God's story, and our own shortcomings or inconsistencies are not powerful enough to change God's mind about that.

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go:  This song gives voice to the hope against hope that not even death can separate us from the love of God.

Murdered Son: This song proclaims the work of God in Christ, holds up the truth about how far God was willing to go to set things right with us, and ultimately poses an open question to us about what this means for a group of people who are seeking to be formed into the presence of Christ in their time and place.

Bonfire: This song traces the vast distance between what it is to be God and what it is to be human, and looks ahead to where that divide is ultimately transgressed.

Death In His Grave: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Death In His Grave then: We sang this song to tell again the story of Christ's entering into suffering to the point of death and emerging victorious over Death and sin.  This story is the foundation of our hope, and one of the most revelatory moments regarding the lengths to which God is willing to go to set things right with us, and it is also an image of the re-Creation that God is actively working in history.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 5-28-2017

This week was the seventh Sunday of Easter, as well as the Sunday closest to the Ascension.  Our songs were gathered with both of these themes in mind.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find recordings from Sunday morning of a few of them, and below the recordings, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs:

Crown Him With Many Crowns by Jameson McGregor

Mystery by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Charlie Hall)

Rise Up by Bifrost Arts

Bonfire by Jameson McGregor

Lifted/Lifting by Jameson McGregor

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Crown Him With Many Crowns: This song is equal parts an acknowledgement that Jesus Christ is Lord and a spoken reminder to ourselves that this is the case.  The values that Jesus' lordship represent are not synonymous with our cultural values, and so this reminder has implications for the way we think and live.

Mystery: As we exit the Easter season, we sang this song to once again proclaim the truth of Jesus' defeat of death and stealing of the bite of systems of power.  

Rise Up: In the Ascension, there is both a direct charge given to the disciples to spread the good news of the Kingdom throughout the world, and an implicit charge to grow in to the body of Christ and continue the work Jesus had begun.  This song is a plea for God to rise up in our midst and transform us into agents of hope, change, and justice--to continue to transform us into the presence of Christ in our immediate surroundings.

Bonfire: This song looks forward to the coming of the Kingdom in fullness, envisioning a great assembling of God's creatures, broken or otherwise, on the shores of a redeemed earth.

You can stream this song for free here. 

Lifted/Lifting: This song is about the continual coming-to-understand of the Christian faith.  Any idea that we grasp about who God is can only serve as a placeholder for a deeper understanding of God as we are further renovated into the presence of Christ on earth.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 8-7-2016

This was the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were gathered with anticipation of the Kingdom in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find recordings from Sunday morning of a few of them, and below the recordings, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs:

Chariot by Page France

Amazing Grace by Citizens & Saints

Pulse by Jameson McGregor

Bonfire by Jameson McGregor

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Chariot: This song embodies the longing for God to break into history and deliver the distinctively untragic end to the story God is weaving.  The history of Christianity has been marked by a constant sense of waiting on this moment, and this waiting is significant in at least two ways.  The first is direct in that we await the return of Christ and the resurrection of the dead.  The second is indirect in that this waiting for God's redemptive project to be completed colors the way we move about in the world--namely, we should allow the vision of the Kingdom in fullness to be the pattern that we live by.  We don't have to wait for the Kingdom to come in fullness to live as though it's already here.  Because it is here--or can be-- among those who have been shaped by the story of Jesus.

Amazing Grace: This song engages our anticipation of the fullness of the Kingdom of God by reflecting on the way that God's rule has already been present in our lives through God's grace, and it also looks ahead to the joyous abundance of the Kingdom (when we've been there ten thousand years...). 

Pulse: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Pulse then: We sang this song to be reminded of the gift of life that God has given to all of creation, and to lament our tendency to ignore the dignity of this gift in people who are different than us.

Bonfire:  This song traces the vast difference between what it is to be God and what it is to be us, and looks forward to the fullness of the Kingdom where the pain brought by this difference is mended.  It also notes the fact that the Kingdom breaks through even now and undermines the fears that we have called our refuge. 

Wayward Ones: We sing this song every time we take communion to remind ourselves of a couple of things.  First, we are a broken people--though we are seeking to become more like Jesus, we often fail at this.  Second, Christ has given Himself for us despite our brokenness.  We take communion to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf, even though we did not, and do not, deserve it.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 6-28-2015

This week, Josh preached from Luke 13:22-30.  Our songs were gathered around the theme of the radical grace of God.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band

This is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham

All the Poor and Powerless by All Sons & Daughters

Bonfire by Jameson McGregor

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme.

All Creatures of our God and King: This song runs with the idea of the whole of creation praising God--the idea here is that, in creating the cosmos, God is Lord over all of it, and the very existence of stars, planets, and particles way too small to see, declare the glory of the God who made them all.  We sang this to begin our service thinking about the grandeur of God.

This is Amazing Grace: This song juxtaposes the grandeur of God with the sacrifice of Jesus--in Jesus, this Holy God chose to become human and to endure the worst that the human condition had to offer.  The Incarnation was an invitation for humanity (all of us) to know what the Creator is like, but also to know the Creator.  

All the Poor and Powerless: This song focuses on the significance of the invitation to know God for those who are socially disadvantaged, those who feel they have no hope, etc.  The hand that is extended in Jesus is for everyone--not just those who society lifts up as ideal citizens.

Bonfire: We sang this song to think about the day when God will make all things new, when the things that are broken inside all of us, and in the world around us, will be mended.  All of us are broken in different ways, and we have no ground upon which we may stand and call ourselves somehow better than any other person.  In the end, we will likely be surprised at just how many different kinds of formerly broken people God has drawn together.

Future/Past: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  Last week, we said this about Future/Past: We sang this song to emphasize the fact that to be related to God through faith is to love and be loved by One whose perspective is much greater than our own.  This means that God is worthy of our trust and worship in the midst of suffering, and that we can be confident that God is weaving human history into something more beautiful than we can imagine.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM