Setlist 5-31-2015

This week, Josh preached from Luke 12:13-21.  It was also Trinity Sunday, which is the day on the Church calendar that we make a point to acknowledge, contemplate, and appreciate the fact that God has been revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--Three, yet One.  Our songs were gathered with the Trinity 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 or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Holy, Holy, Holy

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

House of God Forever by Jon Foreman

Wild One by Jameson McGregor

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

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.

Holy, Holy, Holy: This song presents the tension between God being glorious, such that there is no one else that stands on equal footing with God, and the fact that God is both One and Three.  This is most apparent at the end of the third stanza when "there is none beside Thee" and "God in Three persons, blessed Trinity" are placed side by side.  There are various ways to think about the word "holy," but perhaps one of the most straight forward, when speaking of God, is the idea that God is Wholly Other.  This means that what we can know about God is fundamentally limited--even though God created us in way that we can be in relationship with God.  The mystery of the Trinity is incoherent in terms of human reason, but it would be presumptuous to assume that we have the capacity to map out and comprehend One who is Wholly Other.

Just A Closer Walk With Thee:  We sang this song to focus on God the Son.  In Jesus, God crossed the boundary between being Wholly Other and experiencing existence as a human.  Though humans cannot hope to ascend to the heights of God and understand everything there is to know about God, God came to us and showed us who God is in a "language" that we can understand.  Aside from showing us what God is like, Jesus called us to be a particular kind of people--people of love.  With this in mind, we sang this not only to acknowledge Jesus as God, but to ask for help in being people who are more formed into His likeness.

House of God Forever: We sang this song to focus on God the Father.  Though God is Wholly Other, God cares for us.  Though there is much about God that we cannot understand, God fully understands us, and knows how to meet our needs.

Wild One: I shared a reading from N.T. Wright's For All God's Worth before we played this song, and I think his words sum up the place of this song better than I can articulate. You can read the selection here.

Fall Afresh: We sang this song to focus on God the Holy Spirit.  Though God is Wholly Other, God has come to dwell among us in the Holy Spirit, transforming us into something new, and connecting us to one another and to Godself.  We also sang this song to look over our shoulder at last weeks' songs.  This is what we said:  When we come to Pentecost each year, we are celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts, thanking God for blessing the Church with the Gift of God's continual presence.  We are also reminding ourselves that this Gift has been given to us as well.  In reminding ourselves of this, we are hoping for a renewed awareness of the Spirit's presence.  We shouldn't reduce Pentecost to a yearly refilling station for caring about the Spirit, but we also should not pretend that we live lives that are fully aware of the Spirit at all times.  Pentecost is a time to remember that we are a people who have been given a Gift, and to live into that reality.

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 5-24-2015

This week, we were fortunate to have our friend Liz Andrasi preach to us from Acts 2:1-13.  Our songs were gathered around the theme of Pentecost.  Pentecost is when we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Church in Acts 2.  Josh wrote about Pentecost in the newsletter this week, so be sure to check that out if you haven't yet.  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

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

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

Holy Spirit by Jesus Culture

Oceans by Hillsong United

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.

Fall Afresh: When we come to Pentecost each year, we are celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts, thanking God for blessing the Church with the Gift of God's continual presence.  We are also reminding ourselves that this Gift has been given to us as well.  In reminding ourselves of this, we are hoping for a renewed awareness of the Spirit's presence.  We shouldn't reduce Pentecost to a yearly refilling station for caring about the Spirit, but we also should not pretend that we live lives that are fully aware of the Spirit at all times.  Pentecost is a time to remember that we are a people who have been given a Gift, and to live into that reality.

All Creatures of Our God and King: Pentecost is significant for the Church, yes, but it is also significant for the whole of the cosmos.  When we think about the Holy Spirit, we should think of the Spirit of Life who mediates God's love to the things that God has made--people, plants, animals, subatomic particles, etc.  God is active and present in the farthest reaches of space, and is weaving a multitude of smaller stories into one great story.  

Holy Spirit: This song focuses more on the personal encounter of the Spirit.  I'd like to note a few unrelated things about this song.  First, it is not an accident that we gather together to sing this song.  The Spirit is certainly able to influence us when we are alone, but it seems like the Spirit is much more active among a community.  As Liz pointed out in her sermon, the focus of the Acts 2 narrative is what the Spirit does through people.  Second, I want to clarify that, while this song centers around expressing an openness to the Spirit, we should not fool ourselves into thinking that the Spirit needs our permission or invitation to move among us--as if we could conjure the Spirit.  Third,  I've had a few people tell me that they didn't like a few lines of this song, specifically "come flood this place and fill the atmosphere."  Let me confess: I don't like that line either.  It feels like a forced rhyme with "welcome here." I find it within myself to sing this song because I ultimately do want to express an openness to the Spirit, and to petition for a greater awareness of the Spirit's presence and power.

Oceans: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at the songs we sang last week.  Here's what we said then: Before Jesus' ascension, He promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would come empower them to continue His work.  In His leaving, Jesus called His followers to stay the course.  We too are called to continue His work--and seeking to do this can be equal parts confusing and overwhelming.  Oceans uses the image of walking on water to illustrate at least two things: doing things that we are literally incapable of doing without God's aid, and entering into chaotic and unknown territory.  As we contemplate what it means for us to be Jesus in the world, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are neither able nor expected to do it alone.

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 5-10-2015

This week, Josh preached from Acts 10:44-48.  Our songs were gathered around the theme of the 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

Your Love is Strong by Jon Foreman

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

How He Loves by John Mark McMillan

The Sun Will Warm Your Heart by Sarah Dossey Keilers

Holy Spirit by Jesus Culture

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.

Your Love Is Strong: This song uses the Lord's Prayer to explore the ways that God provides for us out of God's abundant love.  This is a love we can count on to carry us when everything else seems to fall away.

Wandering: This song explores the fact that God continues to want to be God for us even when we misunderstand our role in this relationship: we try to do things our own way--to manipulate God into giving us what we want--yet God remains faithful to us.  This is a love that we can count on to carry us even when we fall away.

How He Loves: I would encourage you to go watch this video to hear John Mark McMillan talk about this song. This is a love that we can count on to be our light when everything else seems like utter darkness.

The Sun Will Warm Your Heart: I've long known Sarah to be a great songwriter, so I asked her if she would be interested in sharing one of her songs with us during the Offering.  She agreed! I asked her if she would write a few sentences about what this song means to her. This is what she said: 

I adapted the words for this song from a William Cowper poem that I first read just a few months ago in the book Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. 

In darkness, sometimes the only light that can truly break through for me are those little spiritual nuggets of truth about God's character -- His omnipotence trumps my fear and lack of trust every time. So, during this time of some serious struggle and heartache in my life, I've found Cowper's simple and solid words to be encouraging and empowering - both upon first read, and now each time I get to sing them. 

Holy Spirit: We sang this song to take a look over our shoulder at last week's songs. I would encourage you go back and read what we said about it in that post, but it has a different significance in light of Josh's sermon this week (the podcast will be up on Thursday, so be sure to listen).  Because the Spirit dwells within us, we are given the chance to extend the love of God to those around us in creative and imaginative ways.  When we ask that God would make us more aware of the Spirit's presence, we are asking that God would help us express the love of the living God.

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 5-3-2015

This week was our Commissioning Service for all of our graduating students. Our songs were gathered with this in mind, but also in light of the Resurrection (this was the fifth Sunday of Easter). 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

Amazing Grace by Citizens & Saints

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

Holy Spirit by Jesus Culture

Future/Past by John-Mark McMillan

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.

Amazing Grace: As we part ways with a number of our community who are moving on to another a phase of life, we sang this song to rejoice in the grace that we share. Remember also that we sang this on Easter to proclaim that, because of the Resurrection, we are no longer trapped in our brokenness. 

All Creatures of Our God and King:  We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  Last week we said: God does not plan on abandoning the world. God is making all things new. The Resurrection means that the created world--plants, dirt, animals, people--have the hope of being made new.  This song is one of those songs that says "oh, praise him," a lot, but there's not much else to say in light of that kind of news. This is all relevant to this week as well--especially as many of us prepare to enter new chapters of our lives.  If God is worthy of our praise, God is just as worthy of our trust as we enter the unknown.

Holy Spirit: Some variation of "God doesn't have an A team and B team among Christians" was mentioned several times today.  We firmly believe that God is calling all Christians to be ministers--not just pastors.  We sang this song about acknowledging the presence of the Holy Spirit and longing for a greater awareness of the Spirit's presence because it is the transforming power and imaginative guidance of the Holy Spirit that we need the most for finding ways to live as Christ in the world.

Future/Past: This song dwells on the scandalous truth that the infinite God has chosen to have an interpersonal relationship with finite creatures in time and space.  In part, this song uses the image of a human(who experiences time) being swallowed up in a Love (that is not limited by time) that is not subject to change from one moment to the next.  This is the Love that our graduates carry with them as they move to the next phase of life, and its the Love that we maintain as we say goodbye to them.  

Wayward Ones: We always sing this song when we do communion, and we always have communion on the first Sunday of the month.  We sing this song as Resurrection people remembering the events that led up to our Hope (the Resurrection).  We are broken, wayward people with the hope of being made new.  Part of taking communion is to identify ourselves as part of a community of Resurrection people much larger than ours--a community that our graduates will not be leaving.  

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

-JM