This past Sunday was the second Sunday of Lent, and 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. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Lord I Need You by Matt Maher
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
What the Dry Years Took Away by ubcmusic
Yesterday was the second Sunday of Lent, and 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:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
For Those Tears I Died by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Marsha Stevens)
Acetone by Jameson McGregor
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.
In the Night: This song traces the thread of God’s presence within struggle throughout the biblical narrative, and invites us to step into the lineage of hope-in-despair.
Deliver Me: This song offers us language to carry through Lent as we turn toward the Living God.
For Those Tears I Died: We sang this song to accompany a time of prayer and lament for the mosque shootings in New Zealand.
Acetone: This song is about God cutting through the decorative ways we wear our religious convictions, revealing to us the tombs we disguise.
Be Thou My Vision: This song will accompany us through Lent, reminding us to turn to God for our vision, wisdom, and security.
Yesterday was the second Sunday of Lent, 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:
Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
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.
Fall Afresh: We sang this song to give language to our need for the Spirit to occupy the wilderness space of Lent alongside us and carry out the Spirit's vitalizing work of transformation.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: Lent can be a daunting season as we come to terms with our sin. We sang this song to remind ourselves of the enduring love of God.
Deliver Me: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Deliver Me then: We sang this song as a petition for God to deliver us from the cycles in our lives that push against being formed more fully in the way of Christ.
In the Night: This song carries us through Lent all the way to Easter. It is a record of God’s showing up in the midst of despair throughout the biblical narrative.
Be Thou My Vision: Throughout the Lenten season, we will close our liturgies with these words to reaffirm our desire to seek our vision, wisdom, and security in God alone.
-JM
Yesterday was the second Sunday of Lent, 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:
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
Rise Up by Bifrost Arts
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
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.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to give voice to our reliance on God for transformation in the wilderness of Lent.
Deliver Me: We sang this song as a petition for God to deliver us from the cycles in our lives that push against being formed more fully in the way of Christ.
Rise Up: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Rise Up then: We sang this song to petition God to rise to the defense of the vulnerable, and by extension a reminder to ourselves that to be the people of God is to take up the cause of the vulnerable.
In the Night: This song carries us through Lent all the way to Easter. It is a record of God’s showing up in the midst of despair throughout the biblical narrative.
Be Thou My Vision: Throughout the Lenten season, we will close our liturgies with these words to reaffirm our desire to seek our vision, wisdom, and security in God alone.
-JM
This week was the fifth week of Lent, and 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 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:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)
At the Gate by Electrofolk Revival (performed by Emily Hass)
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
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.
In the Night: We will be adding a piece to this song every week of Lent. It traces a thread of struggle through the biblical narrative, ultimately building a case to hold hope in the midst of immense darkness. We recorded a live version of this song last year, which you can download for free here.
Deliver Me: As we draw near to Easter, this song voices the longing that is going to be addressed in the Resurrection. In the resurrection, our deepest existential anguish is confronted and shattered. But standing before this moment in our journey through the Christian story, the weight of tragedy, the madness of the world, our own fears, and our own tendency to be driven by scarcity, presses in all around us, and we begin to wear thin from holding on to the hope that this Jesus we have been coming to know is who we think he is.
There's A Wideness in God's Mercy: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about There's A Wideness In God's Mercy then: This song speaks a word of mercy into our desert of Lent. Even as we take time to notice our sin and to lean more deliberately into transformation, we sang this song to remind ourselves that the ever-wide mercy and ever-broad love of God wholly embraces us.
At the Gate: I asked Emily what drew her to this song. This is what she said: I forget that eternity is something to look forward to. This song refreshes my understanding.
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.
Be Thou My Vision: During Lent, we depart from our typical singing of the Doxology to close our time together. As we wander the wilderness of Lent, learning more about who we are and what we are for, we carry these words on our tongues, time and again asking God to be our vision, wisdom, and security.
-JM
This week was the first week of Lent, and 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 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:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
Wearing Thin by Jameson McGregor
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
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.
In the Night: We will be adding a piece to this song every week of Lent. It traces a thread of struggle through the biblical narrative, ultimately building a case to hold hope in the midst of immense darkness. We recorded a live version of this song last year, which you can download for free here.
Deliver Me: As we go through Lent, we will likely dredge up a host of inner conflicts we typically work hard to suppress, and this song prepares us to give voice to the longing that accompanies such pain.
Lord, I Need You: Continuing to build our vocabulary for engaging the inner struggles of Lent, we sang this song to voice a declaration of our reliance on God's help to have any hope of transformation, and implicitly to voice a petition for God to come to our aid.
Wearing Thin: This song is about the wearing thin that comes with holding a conviction about the way things should be while observing a world that consistently plays out contrary to that vision. It is also about knowing that something should be done in the name of the-way-things-should-be, feeling powerless, and imagining what it would take to feel less powerless.
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.
Be Thou My Vision: During Lent, we depart from our typical singing of the Doxology to close our time together. As we wander the wilderness of Lent, learning more about who we are and what we are for, we carry these words on our tongues, time and again asking God to be our vision, wisdom, and security.
-JM
This week was the fifth Sunday of Lent, and our songs were selected with this theme 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, 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:
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
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.
Come Thou Fount: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Come Thou Fount then: As we continue through Lent, we are ultimately hoping that some change takes place in us that isn't undone as soon as Lent is over. We mainly sang this song for the final stanza, where we acknowledge our tendency to wander, and express a desire for God to fix us in place.
Just A Closer Walk With Thee: We sang this song to declare one of our intentions as we walk through Lent together--to reach the other side as people who are more fully formed in the way of Christ. When we sing this song at ubc, the second stanza is probably the most important, underscoring that the Christian life is one in which we all falter from time to time, but that our burden is shared by Jesus. In Lent, this takes a slightly different meaning as we think about our time in the wilderness together. Even in this more intentional time of formation, we are prone to wander, but we can press forward knowing that Jesus understands our struggles.
Deliver Me: As we near the end of Lent, we sang this song to express that we continue to rely upon the Spirit to pull us through and to change us into people who are more like Jesus.
In the Night: This song is a journey through the biblical narrative, cataloguing the process of struggle and victory, woundedness and healing, etc., strung together by the refrain "In the night, my hope lives on." We'll add a verse each week during Lent as we move toward Easter, when Hope really takes root.
Be Thou My Vision: We will sing this song every week during Lent to close our time together. As we go back into the wilderness of Lent, we will ask once again for God to be our vision, wisdom, security, and hope.
-JM
This week was the first Sunday of Lent, and our songs were selected with this theme 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, 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:
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
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 for two reasons. First, to confess that God is faithful to us as we wander in the wilderness of Lent. Though this time of self-examination is difficult, God is with us in the midst of it. Second, in the spirit of examining our lives and being aware of our sin, to point out that our sin is sometimes located in the way we try to use God for our own purposes, and to praise God for finding ways to evade our grasp without evading God's love for us.
Lord, I Need You: This song is a confession that we rely on the presence of God in order to acknowledge our sin, and for the strength to begin the hard work of repentance. It ends with a petition to have God teach us to break the habit of self-sufficiency when trying to become people who are more like Jesus, and instead to turn to the One who can help when we struggle along the way.
Deliver Me: We sang this song to reiterate the basic spirit of the previous song--that we rely on God for any hope of transformation toward being people who are more like Jesus--but in a more direct, petitionary way, asking God to deliver us from our sin, and confessing that God is the one to pull us through.
In the Night: This song is a journey through the biblical narrative, cataloguing the process of struggle and victory, woundedness and healing, etc., strung together by the refrain "In the night, my hope lives on." We'll add a verse each week during Lent as we move toward Easter, when Hope really takes root.
Be Thou My Vision: We will sing this song every week during Lent to close our time together. As we go back into the wilderness of Lent, we will ask once again for God to be our vision, wisdom, security, and hope.
-JM
This week was the first week of Advent, and our songs were gathered around the theme of hope. 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 at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
Rescue Is Coming by David Crowder* Band
Hope (There Will Come A Light) by Jameson McGregor
Make This Go On Forever (Refrain) by Snow Patrol
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.
Deliver Me: It can be difficult to think/sing about hope without naming any of the circumstances that would demand the looking-foward that comes with hope. This song was intended to open our time together with a hint of tension; a pleading for deliverance. While it provides few specifics we might categorize as the things from which we need saving, it does give us the chance to say at least 6 times, "I know that You're the One to pull me through." The Christian hope, the Advent hope, is not a vague kind of hope--it is a hope singularly focused on the faithfulness of God.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel: We sang this song to move from a plea for deliverance, and the acknowledgement that God is the One who is the object of our hope, to asking that God would come and save us--to enter into the darkness we call home and flood it with light.
Rescue Is Coming: We sang this song to put hope into our mouths, proclaiming that rescue is coming. This is a hope we can shout, but its also a hope we can live in--one we can carry with us without having to escape our every day lives. It's a hope that allows us to keep moving.
Hope (There Will Come A Light): I wrote this song a couple of years ago for the first week of Advent. A few months ago, I wrote songs for all the other weeks, too, so we will sing the whole series of songs over the next few weeks. I recently recorded some video sessions of these songs with some friends in Austin. The video for this song has been posted here.
Make This Go On Forever (Refrain): We attached this brief refrain to the end of the offering song because it seems to sum up the longing of advent exceptionally well.
Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Be Thou My Vision then: We sang this song for a couple of reasons. First, we sang it to find language to offer along with the people of our congregation who shared their stories with us this week, asking for God's wisdom and presence with us. Second, we sang it to offer the words of the final stanza in light of Christ the King Sunday.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of the relentless love 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
This Is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham
Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band
Heart Won't Stop by John Mark McMillan
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.
Come Thou Fount: We sang this song for two main reasons: First, outside of our theme, it puts words into our mouths to call upon God to meet us in worship (God by no means conjured by us, but this is a way to express that we are open to meeting God and that we desire that God would teach us how to worship better). The second reason, in light of our theme, was the final stanza: Though we are prone to wander, the love of God does not abandon us.
This Is Amazing Grace: We sang this song to reflect on God's grace and mercy in what Jesus did for us. Though God was by no means obligated to save us, Christ died for us. This is a surprising love that goes against what one might consider fair or just.
Deliver Me: We sang this song to proclaim that this God who is love is able to deliver us from the depths of our depression, our anger, and the false versions of ourselves that we present to the world to feel accepted.
Heart Won't Stop: This song uses language from Psalm 139 to talk about the fact that the love of God pursues us despite all of our failures, and all of our conditions. One line, "I could lay my head in Sheol, I could make my bed at the bottom of the darkness deep, but there is not a place I could escape You," is pulled almost verbatim from Psalm 139, and it's profound: Sheol, while not necessarily the same as our concept of Hell, was the closest equivalent idea that they had in the Hebrew mind. What kind of love is this, that continues to pursue even one who has not only laid down in hell, but "made a bed" in the deepest points of darkness? It is nothing less than relentless.
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 last week: This song traces the works of God that are evident through creation, the story of Jesus, and the hope of the resurrection, and declares God to be Great. There is language sprinkled throughout this song--experiencing "awesome wonder" in observing the universe, scarcely being able to take in the sacrifice of Jesus, our hearts one day being filled with joy in the resurrection--that extends to us a chance to reflect upon God in terms that are anything but numb, and to reawaken within us an understanding of just how glorious God is.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM