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
This past Sunday was the first 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
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
Eternal Anchor by ubcmusic
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
Drawing in the Dust by Jameson McGregor
This past Sunday was both Palm Sunday and ubckids Sunday, 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
Here is Our King by David Crowder* Band
Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
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.
Here Is Our King: We sang this song because honestly what other song would you sing for Palm Sunday while a parade of children danced in waving palm branches?
Just A Closer Walk With Thee: This song gets to one of the primary concerns of Lent: being formed in the way of Christ.
Fall Afresh: We sang this song to invite the Spirit to continue to transform us and to guard our faith from complacency.
Lord, I Need You: This song offered us a prayer to carry us through the end of Lent.
Be Thou My Vision: This song will accompany us through Lent, reminding us to turn to God for our vision, wisdom, and security.
This past Sunday was the fifth 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
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
Come Alive 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.
Wayward Ones: This is our communion hymn, and it contemplates Christ's self-giving love that is displayed and remembered in the eucharist.
Wandering: We sang this song to remind ourselves and proclaim aloud that God is faithfulness is constant when ours falters, and that God is, for whatever reason, choosing to draw us in to God’s work in the world despite how unreliable we can be.
Come Alive: This song is about our coming alive as we learn to do the dance of Christ.
Be Thou My Vision: This song will accompany us through Lent, reminding us to turn to God for our vision, wisdom, and security.
This past Sunday was the third 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
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by ubcmusic
There by Jameson McGregor
Mother 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.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: We sang this song as an anchor in the midst of Lent, reminding ourselves that the Living God clings to us despite our shaky discipleship.
There: This song is an anchor of a different kind, reminding us that, while God is present in our suffering, God also stands above and beyond it.
Mother: This is a song about God as Mother, offering comfort and wisdom in the midst of growth and suffering.
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 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 first 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
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
Chasing the Wind 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.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to take on its confession of dependence upon the Spirit as we make our way further into the Lenten season.
Wandering: We sang this song to celebrate God’s faithfulness to us despite our failing to be faithful to God.
Chasing the Wind: This song is about the emptiness that comes with trying to make ourselves whole.
Be Thou My Vision: This song will accompany us through Lent, reminding us to turn to God for our vision, wisdom, and security.
This past Sunday was Resurrection Sunday, and our 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:
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
Hope by Jameson McGregor
Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan
Mystery by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Charlie Hall)
When Death Came Calling 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 is a stream of stories about God showing up in the midst of despair in the Bible. It carried us through Lent, and on Sunday it was our entry into Easter.
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.
Hope: We sang this song to give voice to the hope of Resurrection.
Death In His Grave: This song narrates Jesus' defeat of Death and rescue of humanity from destruction.
Mystery: We sang this song to proclaim Jesus' rise from death at the hands of political and religious oppressors, and raised this as a challenge for us to rise to the aid of the oppressed.
When Death Came Calling: This song is a song of grief and resurrection.
Be Thou My Vision: Throughout the Lenten season, we have closed our liturgies with these words to reaffirm our desire to seek our vision, wisdom, and security in God alone. On Easter, we added the final stanza into the mix, and asked Christ to be our victory as well.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and our 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:
Here is Our King 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.
Here Is Our King: We sang this song to enter into the part of the Jesus story where he enters Jerusalem.
Come Thou Fount: This song offers us language to seek vitality from God in the wilderness of Lent, and encourages us to look at who God has been for us in order to expect who God will continue to be for us.
Rise Up: We sang this song as a petition for God to rise to the defense of the weak in a world that privileges the strong.
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 fourth 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:
Your Love Is Strong by Jon Foreman
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
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.
Your Love Is Strong: We sang this song to begin our gathering by proclaiming the self-giving love of God.
Wandering: This song gave us language to celebrate God's faithfulness to us despite our inconsistent faithfulness to God.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about O Love That Will Not Let Me Go then: 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.
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:
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
Yesterday was the first 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:
Rise Up by Bifrost Arts
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
For Those Tears I Died by Jameson McGregor
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.
Rise Up: 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.
Come Thou Fount: This song offers us language to seek sustenance in who God is and root our hope in who God has been for us.
Wandering: This song praises God’s faithfulness in the midst of our own inconsistency and selfishness.
For Those Tears I Died: This song is a cry of lament. I’ve thought of these words as being directly related to too many tragedies to even remember—it’s just a blur of despair at this point. And I hate that. But these are words I return to time and again to process my rage when faced with a reminder of how very evil we humans are capable of being.
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 Easter Sunday, and our songs were gathered with the death and Resurrection of Jesus 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
Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan
Mystery by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Charlie Hall)
Hope 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.
Death In His Grave: This song narrates the death and Resurrection of Jesus, and underscores the outcome of this Event: the death of death. It also captures the reality-altering implications of this event for humans that Paul likens to Jesus being a second Adam. We sang this song to step into this narrative in a more deliberate way and experience it anew.
Mystery: This is a protest song. And Easter is a protest day. In the Resurrection of Jesus, we have the defeat of death, yes, but we also have an empire and religious institution put to shame as their supposedly final assertion of power over the trouble-maker Jesus doesn't work. If the power that corrupt systems of oppression carry is falsified, these systems cannot hope to stand for long. So, the formula Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again is multi-valent, and one of those valences is of the raised-fist variety. This was true then, and it is true now.
Hope: This song uses the image from John of God setting a light in the darkness that the darkness did not overcome as a reference point for present hope (and interprets this image to refer to the Resurrection). In the Resurrection, we see in action what we have hoped to be true: that God is present and active in brokenness, and is in the habit of making all things new. And when we look back on our own lives in the moments most marred by pain, we find that they too evolved into something like broken pieces coming back together. So when those pain-marred moments are our present moments, we can look back on the Resurrection and the resurrections we have experienced for the hope that God will raise us up again.
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
This week was the final week of Lent (Palm Sunday), 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
Here Is Our King by David Crowder* Band
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
Anthem by Leonard Cohen
Up on a Mountain by The Welcome Wagon
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.
Here Is Our King: We sang this song to engage the story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. As the people who gathered to welcome him in, our assumptions about who Jesus is and what Jesus is about to do are questionable. We can say that we understand that Jesus is going to grasp victory through defeat, glory through humility, etc., but there is still something in us that clings to a Jesus whose power looks like whatever sort of conquering images are engrained in us. We are people who, even though we know how the story of Jesus' death turns out still have to force ourselves to slow down and engage the weight of the suffering and darkness that precedes the Resurrection. And as a result, we rob ourselves of any hope of grasping the profundity of that Event.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song for two reasons. The first is the same reason that we have been singing it during some of the other weeks of Lent: to remind ourselves that the transformation that we are reckoning with is work that the Spirit is doing in us, and to rehearse offering this confession so that we can find these words in the moments we need them the most. The second is related to the call that is presented as Jesus enters Jerusalem: will we ride with him? Will we walk the path that he is on? Will we follow him to the place that not even he wants to go? If we have any hope of saying yes to any of these, we will need the aid of God.
Anthem: This is a Leonard Cohen song. Which means it is multi-valent, dense, and profound. We sang it at the end of Lent because we are exiting a season in which we know that we are not capable of making a perfect offering out of our lives, whether through being burt out by our lenten practices, our on again/off again relationship to our lenten practices, or our failure to even develop and attempt a lenten practice. Lent leaves a crack in any sense of self-righteousness that we have accumulated over the past year, and makes way for the Light of Easter. This is something I talked about in the newsletter on Friday (you can read that here), which I suppose also led to this song showing up yesterday.
Up on a Mountain: This song jumps ahead to Thursday night in the narrative of Holy Week, where we find Jesus having a breakdown in the garden of Gethsemane. In his loneliness and his fear, we find that we are not alone--that the Christ has entered into the depths of the human condition (with more depths to come on Friday and Saturday), and has met us there.
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 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 fourth 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
There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)
Pulse by Jameson McGregor
Up to the Mountain (MLK Song) by Patty Griffin
Wandering 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: 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.
There's A Wideness in God's Mercy: 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.
Pulse: This song is a confession that the love of God and the love that we claim to embody are not always the same thing, and a plea for God to reconnect us to God's active, dynamic, life-giving Spirit and rewrite our notions of love.
Up to the Mountain (MLK Song): This song was selected and sung by Natalie Ramirez, so I asked her for her thoughts on it--here's what she said: There's a lot of humanity and struggle and hope expressed in a simple way in this song. Sometimes life feels like it is too much. Sometimes I question myself and my ability. Sometimes it feels like the good places God wants to take me are going to be too much work or I distrust they won't actually be good. Sometimes God is hard to notice or see or feel and it's hard to see the good or even enjoy the good even when it's there. Sometimes it feels like life is only going to be hard and tiring. But there are moments and glimpses to hold onto where God speaks in what can feel like quick whispers reminding me that I am loved. Reminding me that He asks me to carry on not as an order or a test or to make me more tired but because He loves me and believes in me and is with me. And even if this life may not have a complete peace, trusting in the Voice that may feel like it's coming and going allows me to hope that I'll hear it again and one day will know it fully.
Wandering: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Wandering then: During Lent, we enter the wilderness to ask the question of who we are and what we are for, using Jesus as our mirror, and ask the Spirit to transform us more fully into this identity. Though we make a point to do this for 6 weeks, this sort of wilderness wandering is something most of us do often. The Christian life is a push-pull between being more fully formed in the way of Christ and settling back into the rhythms that we are seeking to be transformed away from. If we look inside of ourselves for some sort of consistent cause for hope, we will not find it. But if we look to God, we will find that God is faithful to us throughout our own ebb and flow of learning to live like Jesus. So if we build our hope on God's faithfulness to us, we are well on our way to having more solid footing to move forward. We sang this song to proclaim this truth, to worship God in light of it, and to remind ourselves that our overarching life of faith is tied to who God is for us (not solely if we can look in the mirror and see a perfect Christian). You can find a studio version of this song here.
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 third 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
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle
Shadow by Jameson McGregor
House of God Forever by Jon Foreman
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.
Wandering: During Lent, we enter the wilderness to ask the question of who we are and what we are for, using Jesus as our mirror, and ask the Spirit to transform us more fully into this identity. Though we make a point to do this for 6 weeks, this sort of wilderness wandering is something most of us do often. The Christian life is a push-pull between being more fully formed in the way of Christ and settling back into the rhythms that we are seeking to be transformed away from. If we look inside of ourselves for some sort of consistent cause for hope, we will not find it. But if we look to God, we will find that God is faithful to us throughout our own ebb and flow of learning to live like Jesus. So if we build our hope on God's faithfulness to us, we are well on our way to having more solid footing to move forward. We sang this song to proclaim this truth, to worship God in light of it, and to remind ourselves that our overarching life of faith is tied to who God is for us (not solely if we can look in the mirror and see a perfect Christian). You can find a studio version of this song here.
Fall Afresh: As we enter further into Lent, our introspection can begin to conjure a weight that doesn't seem worth carrying. We sang this song to ask for help, to ask the Spirit to cultivate transformation in us.
Shadow: There is a theme of Lent that is centered on learning how to die to ourselves in order to be more like Christ. This song traces the internal struggle that this concept can ignite within us, using the image of talking in our sleep--having the sense of what we are trying to do, without the sense to actually execute it meaningfully. The end of the song brings in the thought that perhaps God has given us the Word we need. I'm not talking specifically about the Bible, though the Bible plays a role in what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the Word-made-flesh of Jesus, who we come to know through the witness of the Bible and the embodiment of Jesus in other people who are being formed in the way of Christ. The point isn't to offer a "solution" to the "problem" identified in the "talking in my sleep" image, but instead to suggest that God has not left us to our own devices in our transformation. The word we couldn't call to mind has been spoken for us, and it reverberates around us even as we try to get our mouths to form it ourselves. You can find a studio version of this song here.
House of God Forever: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about House of God Forever then: This song serves as an early reminder that we will need time and again during Lent that God cares for us in the midst of our struggles (whatever they may be). God brings safety into our danger, a feast into our hunger, and a light into our darkness.
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 second 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
House of God Forever by Jon Foreman
Fever by Jameson McGregor
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
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.
Just A Closer Walk With Thee: This song hones in on a particular aspect of Lent: a focusing of discipleship. It confesses our need for God's help to be formed in the way of Christ, without removing any responsibility from ourselves. It also confesses that we will likely fail time and again at leaning in to this transformation, but confesses that God has entered our condition, knows how difficult life can be, and carries the weight with us.
House of God Forever: This song serves as an early reminder that we will need time and again during Lent that God cares for us in the midst of our struggles (whatever they may be). God brings safety into our danger, a feast into our hunger, and a light into our darkness.
Fever: This song is about how the status quo of what we are battles against our efforts to become more like Christ, and imagines this self-correcting-for-the-worse in the same way as our bodies use fevers to restore our biological environments when we are sick. Keeping with this image, it voices a desire for a wilder pathogen to infect us and overwhelm our built-in defenses to wholly change us. If you want to give this song another listen, you can find it here.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is was we said about Lord, I Need You then: 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.
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