This past Sunday was the fourth Sunday of Epiphany, 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:
Wideness by Ubcmusic (adapted from F. Faber)
House of God Forever by Jon Foreman
Pulse by Ubcmusic
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
Lifted//Lifting by Jameson McGregor
Eternal Anchor by Ubcmusic
Yesterday was the first 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:
SMS [Shine] by David Crowder* Band
Lifted/Lifting 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.
We Three Kings: This song captures the part of Jesus' story where the wise men visit him with gifts, which is observed at the feast of Epiphany. It also underscores the symbolic freight of the gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh, which point to Jesus' divinity, kingship, and death.
Be Thou My Vision: In Epiphany, we encounter the person of Jesus for the first time, and in doing so, come to know what God would have us know about who God is and who we are. This song acts as a petition for God to shape the way we see Jesus as we enter this season.
SMS [Shine]: This song is about the Light of God entering the darkness. We sang it because Epiphany is a season of learning to see the world in the Light of Christ.
Lifted/Lifting: This song is about the lifelong pursuit of coming to know Jesus and being formed in the way of Christ.
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 was the sixth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind, and heavily influenced by the selection from Psalm 145 in this week's lectionary set. 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 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
Up On A Mountain by The Welcome Wagon
Anthem by Leonard Cohen
Lifted/Lifting 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.
How Great Thou Art: We sang this song to begin our time together with a word of gratitude to the breadth of God's work of creation and redemption.
Wandering: This song allows us to confess our tendency to, knowingly or not, attempt to use God for our own ends, while also praising God for being consistently faithful.
Up On A Mountain: We sang this song as a reminder that Christ has entered into our afflictions, knows the depth of our pain, and that the Spirit is present with us, drawing creation toward redemption.
Anthem: This song acknowledges the depth of the brokenness of the world, and imagines the wounds of existence as the points through which the Light enters our stories.
Lifted/Lifting: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Lifted/Lifting last week: This song is a plea for God to continue to develop the things we think we already know about who God is, and also to continue to form who we are more fully in the way of Christ.
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 was the fifth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind, and heavily influenced by the selection from Psalm 145 in this week's lectionary set. 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 live recordings of a few of them from Sunday morning , 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:
All Creatures of Our God and King
Crown Him With Many Crowns by Jameson McGregor
Lifted/Lifting by Jameson McGregor
Future/Past by John Mark McMillan
Recordings:
From time to time, we'll post live recordings of the songs from Sunday morning. These recordings aren't what you would call polished--sometimes guitars are out of tune, sometimes the vocals are off--but they are records of moments we've shared together. Here are the songs from this week:
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: We sang this song to begin our time by praising God as our Creator and Lord both with our words and with an attempt at grasping for a view of other creatures as equally created and loved by God.
Crown Him With Many Crowns: We sang this song to remind ourselves of the lordship of the Suffering God who has drawn us to Godself by drawing near to us in Christ.
Be Thou My Vision: This song is a petition for God to be our vision, wisdom, security, and hope, and we sang it because this is the sort of divine-human relationship that drives the people of God out into the world to join in God's redemption project in creation.
Lifted/Lifting: This song is a plea for God to continue to develop the things we think we already know about who God is, and also to continue to form who we are more fully in the way of Christ.
Future/Past: This song was a look over our shoulder at last week's songs (I was out of town, so there aren't any thoughts from last week's post to place here).
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 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 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:
Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle
Lifted/Lifting by Jameson McGregor
Pulse by Jameson McGregor
Burn It Down 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.
Fall Afresh: We sang this song to step into the Pentecost story by confessing a desire for the Spirit to indwell our community and set us on the way of Christ.
Lifted/Lifting: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Lifted/Lifting then: 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.
Pulse: This song talks about the Spirit of Life indwelling all of creation, and raises a plea that God would reconnect our hearts to this Spirit. Wrapped up in this plea is a desire to be transformed into people who work alongside the Spirit in spreading the work of Christ's redemption throughout the world.
Burn It Down: This song is a petition for the Spirit to use the people of God to tear down systems of oppression.
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 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
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
This week was the seventh Sunday of Epiphany, 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:
Amazing Grace by Citizens & Saints
Rise Up by Bifrost Arts
Lifted/Lifting 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.
Amazing Grace: We sang this song to begin our time together acknowledging the grace of God as it is revealed in the person of Jesus, and the way that this grace has impacted and continues to impact our lives.
Rise Up: This song contrasts the disposition of the God of justice with the inconsistent presence of justice in the world, and rises to a plea for God to act and set things right in the world. It serves a double-purpose: to confess the truth about who God is and to raise a petition for God to show up, and also to remind ourselves of the way we should seek to conduct ourselves in the world if we are to call ourselves people of God.
How Great Thou Art: This song is an exercise in wonder. It allows us to practice connecting the wonders of creation, the redemption story that unfolds in the Bible, and the reconciliation Hope we carry, to the One who is responsible for all of them. This is ultimately the same function of the season of Epiphany.
Lifted/Lifting: This song is about being more fully formed in the way of Christ. When we encounter the Person of Jesus through the Bible, a sermon, etc., we are unable to erase this experience, and are thus changed in some way. When we embrace that Person and seek to become more like him, we are further changed. Somewhere in the midst of this, one might say that a veil is lifted, revealing both who God is and who we are. But the journey toward being formed in the way of Christ is a life-long pursuit. We keep changing and the veil keeps lifting. This song confesses this reality, and asks that the Spirit would continue to transform us, to cultivate the fledgling Hope we carry into full bloom, and to spread the fruit of this hope through the world where the Light is not overcome, yet there is still darkness.
This song is still a work in progress, but I recorded a rough demo of the way it exists now, in the event that you want to listen again:
Holy, Holy, Holy: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Holy, Holy, Holy last week: We began with this song to start off our morning calibrating our attention to the Triune God, confessing that our comprehension of God is blurred by our human condition, yet also confessing what we do know to be true: God's might, mercy, power, love, and lordship over all of creation.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM