This past Sunday was the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 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:
Chariot by Page France
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
Where God Has Always Been by Jameson McGregor
Noise by Jameson McGregor
Mystery by ubcmusic (adapted from Charlie Hall)
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.
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.
Yesterday was both the fifth Sunday of Eastertide and Children's Sunday. Our songs were gathered with these things 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
Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle
There's a Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)
All the Poor and Powerless by All Sons & Daughters
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.
Jesus Loves Me: The littlest of our little ones began our gathering by offering us this theological gut-punch that proclaims the truth of Divine Love, God's strength in weakness, and our connection to the Word of God in Christ that is mediated through the Bible.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to speak of our dependence upon God in our journey to being formed more fully in the way of the Resurrected Christ.
Fall Afresh: We offered this song as a petition for the Spirit to reinvigorate our hearts and help us to seek to know God more fully.
There's A Wideness in God's Mercy: We sang this song to offer ourselves a critique of the limits we place on the love of God, and to celebrate God's generous mercy.
All the Poor and Powerless: This song reminds us that God stands with the poor and powerless, and offers us a challenge to proclaim the Gospel: God's freedom for the captive, vindication of the oppressed, and weaving together of history to raise the lowly from the depths.
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 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 was the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs:
Hope by Jameson McGregor
Up On A Mountain by The Welcome Wagon
There by Jameson McGregor
Wearing Thin 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.
Hope: This song is a declaration of hope against hope. It offers us language to acknowledge God's presence in the midst of pain, and to raise the stubborn cry that all of this is headed toward a day where every broken piece finds its place again.
Up On A Mountain: We sang this to proclaim Jesus' solidarity with us in suffering, the depths of human pain, and the ongoing presence of God with us via the Spirit.
There: This song locates God as an Anchor over and above every source of anxiety in the world, and reminds us of the good news that God's commitment to be God for us outlasts the world itself.
Wearing Thin: This song is about the wearing thin that comes with facing the myriad seemingly unsolvable problems in the world, and turns to a petition for God to enable and embolden people to rise to challenges that seem insurmountable.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Lord, I Need You then: We sang this song to begin our time together with a confession of our dependence upon God to transform us into people who live as the presence of Christ in our particular time and place. These words offer us a chance to rehearse a prayer that might be offered in some way or another every day.
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 twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs:
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Ascend the Hill)
When the Saints by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Louis Armstrong)
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 begin our time together with a confession of our dependence upon God to transform us into people who live as the presence of Christ in our particular time and place. These words offer us a chance to rehearse a prayer that might be offered in some way or another every day.
Be Thou My Vision: This song carries the theme of the previous song, and adds the particulars of God forming our vision, wisdom, security, and hope.
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: This song gives voice to the hope against hope that not even death can separate us from the love of God.
When the Saints: This song expresses the truth that we are a part of a story that greatly precedes us, locates us in community with those who have gone before us, and looks ahead to the Resurrection as a great parade that we join as a completed community united around Christ. Since we don't play this song often, I threw together a demo (read: not good) recording of it in case you wanted to listen 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 was the seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind, and heavily influenced by the lectionary texts (particularly, the weeds & wheat passage that Josh preached from). 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:
Hope by Jameson McGregor
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
There by Jameson McGregor
For Those Tears I Died by Jameson McGregor
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.
Hope: This song clings to the hope that the work of redemption made visible in the Resurrection will spread to the entirety of the cosmos. This hope is characterized as such because, at the moment, things are still not as they should be--the weeds are growing up with the wheat, so to speak.
Lord, I Need You: This song is a confession of our need for the transformation of the Spirit in our own lives to form us into people who are like Christ, and for the Spirit to hold us together as we face any number of struggles in living in a world that is still broken.
There: This song proclaims that the same God who is imminent with us in our suffering also stands over and above every kind of brokenness as an Anchor that is holding us in place in the midst of the turbulence of history.
For Those Tears I Died: This song holds in tension both the solidarity of Christ with human suffering, and the cry of "how long?" from the worn-thin world.
Wandering: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Wandering then: 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.
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 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
This was the twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of healing. 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:
Wandering by Jameson McGregor
Amazing Grace by Citizens & Saints
There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)
Breathe For Me 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.
Wandering: We sang this song to celebrate God's faithfulness to us, even though our faithfulness to God is inconsistent, at best. With the theme of healing in mind, we might think of God's relentless choice to be God-for-us as the method of God's healing us. God is actively healing us of our brokenness all the time, though this process is slow. And, because God has chosen to redeem what God has made, we can trust that God will be faithful to do exactly that.
Amazing Grace: This song is an exercise in looking back to look forward. The saving work that God has enacted in our lives is not a one-off event, but instead is indicative of the way God acts toward us in general. So, looking back at the glimmers of hope or healing in our stories, we move forward knowing that there will be more.
There's A Wideness in God's Mercy: This song confronts our tendency to try to talk ourselves out of any confidence in God's faithfulness to be God-for-us--as though we could disqualify ourselves. Instead, it reminds us that the love of God is not limited by our own sense of what kind or degree of mercy we deserve.
Breathe for Me: The healing we experience in our lives of faith tends to cycle--that is, we usually break again in one way or another. This song is a record of re-breaking, and a plea for healing: for God to start over with the dust and ash of what is left, form it clean, and breath into it again.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Lord, I Need You Then: This song voices our need for God's help in all aspects of life, but particularly when it comes to doing the things that we should do. Left to our own devices, we have a tendency to disappoint--or, worse, harm--ourselves and those around us. Over time, we might find ourselves more permanently formed by the Spirit, but we never get to the point where we do not in fact need God's presence.
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 twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of our need for God, and God's faithfulness to us. 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:
All Creatures of Our God and King
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
Up On A Mountain by The Welcome Wagon
For Those Tears I Died 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.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to begin our time together acknowledging our interconnectedness with all of creation through our mutual praise of God. This song was born out of the writing of Saint Francis of Assisi. He is memorable for many things, but one overarching theme of his life was an awareness of our siblinghood with creatures that are not human. He extended this familial relationship even to the sun and the moon. Every created thing bears witness to the work of the Creator, and sings a song in praise of God's sustaining work. God's sustaining work is ongoing, and we are ever-needful of it. This song allowed us to begin our liturgy by practicing the correct orientation of our attention.
Lord, I Need You: This song voices our need for God's help in all aspects of life, but particularly when it comes to doing the things that we should do. Left to our own devices, we have a tendency to disappoint--or, worse, harm--ourselves and those around us. Over time, we might find ourselves more permanently formed by the Spirit, but we never get to the point where we do not in fact need God's presence.
Up On A Mountain: This song recalls the story of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, allowing us to meditate on the inner anguish he faced as the time of his death approached. The point of it is that, when faced with this horror, he was at no point interested in forfeiting the outcome of his death. He knew it was a long way down. He knew what was at stake. And now he is our advocate, and sent the Spirit to be our Comforter. Because of this, we are not alone, but are held in the mind of God.
For Those Tears I Died: I've played this song once before. It's consists of equal parts confession, despair, anger, and hope. When I wrote it, I thought I knew what tragedy it referred to, but it now points to an ever-growing list of tragedies. I recently recorded an acoustic demo of it, which you can stream here:
this song was written in the summer of 2016 in the wake of a series of tragic events that continues to grow. it is loosely inspired by the Martha Stevens hymn by the same name and includes most of that hymn's chorus.
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 tenth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were gathered with the intent of re-tuning ourselves to enter into the work 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, 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
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
Hope by Jameson McGregor
There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)
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 confession of God's greatness. After another in a series of weeks marked by pain and uncertainty, it is easy to lose sight of all the glory in the world. In voicing these words, we began to tune ourselves to regain whatever has been lost through navigating the complexity of the world this summer.
Fall Afresh: We sang this song to confess our need for the Spirit to transform us into people who are working together with God in God's reconciliation project. We are prone to growing so familiar with our own ideas of who God is and what God is like that we functionally fall asleep to the movement of God. Thus, we continually need a wake-up call from the Spirit, breathing new life into our dry bones.
Lord, I Need You: We have had many reminders over the past few weeks that we are a part of several systems of violence. Our complicity in these systems is at odds with our being formed in the way of Christ, and is thus sin. This song speaks to personal struggles against sin, and allows us to rehearse turning to God for help rather than only attempting to self-regulate ourselves out of destructive behavior.
Hope: For the past several weeks, the offering song has been used to give voice to lament. This week, it seemed fitting to give voice to hope. Lament and hope are directly connected to one another, and may well be considered two sides of the same coin. Lament is but noise without the hope of change, and hope is only a facade if it is not born from lamentable circumstances. This song picks up on the image in John 1 of God setting a light in the darkness that the darkness did not overcome. We might see this as a statement about the Incarnation in general, the Crucifixion in particular, or maybe the Story of God and creation as a whole. This image gives us hope because it acknowledges darkness and almost axiomatically establishes that the darkness will not overcome the light.
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 was said of There's a Wideness in God's Mercy then: We sang this song to meditate on God's mercy. For the past several weeks, we have been bombarded with news of various horrific kinds of violence. Humans are particularly skilled at finding ways to reject the divine image in one another. With what I know of God from Scripture, my assumption is that God is deeply grieved by our violence, and if we had one of the prophets writing today, God would most certainly talk at length about how God wanted to be rid of us. And rightfully so. But God's not going to rid Godself of us. Because that's not who God is. The Noah story shows us this quite clearly. God wanted to start over, and started that process, then realized how terrible that was--how deeply painful that was--and resolved never to do that again. Instead, God decided to fix things from the inside, entering into the story to suffer our violence and conquer it with love. That conquering is accomplished, but still unfolding. It's horribly slow for my taste, but it's there nonetheless.
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 sixth Sunday of Lent, also known as Palm Sunday, and our songs were selected with 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, 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:
Here Is Our King by David Crowder* Band
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
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.
Here Is Our King: We sang this song because it was Palm Sunday. We sang these words to take the posture of the crowds welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem. This is in some ways strange, because we know that Jesus was not actually bringing about the political revolution that they expected, and we also know that this disappointment would ultimately make them turn on Jesus with the authorities. Perhaps this can serve as a reminder to us that there is a difference between who God is and who we expect God to be, and the former is the one that deserves our worship.
Just A Closer Walk With Thee: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Just A Closer Walk With Thee then: 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.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song because as we continue to seek transformation in this last week of Lent, we need God to be the one who changes us. The petition in the bridge of the song (teach my song to rise to You when temptation comes my way), is in some ways answered in singing this song, as the chorus raises a song to God in the midst of temptation. We have been singing it often during this season to allow God to root these words deep within us.
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.
Up On A Mountain: We sang this song to fast forward to Thursday night when we remember Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane, where he has essentially already been abandoned by his friends, and is terrified of what is to come. If you aren't familiar with this song, you should check it out:
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 fourth 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
In the Night by Andrew Peterson
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.
Wandering: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Wandering then: We sang this song to proclaim God's faithfulness to us despite our tendency to try to bend God to our own purposes. As we continue in Lent, it is necessary for us to not misconstrue our fasting as spiritual clout by which we might contractually obligate God to do things for us. We are instead hoping that God will change us.
Come Thou Fount: 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.
Lord, I Need You: We really only sing this song during Lent--it expresses something that is always true, but we have fixed it in this season because we are trying to give voice to this truth in a particular way for the duration of these weeks in the hope of experiencing a transformation of self that burns the message of this song into our minds.
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.
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: 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 second 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:
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
House of God Forever by Jon Foreman
Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle (with an addition 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.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Lord, I Need You then: 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.
House of God Forever: We sang this song to declare God's presence with us in the wilderness of Lent. Though this is a time marked by struggle, we are not alone, and thus we do not rely solely on our own strength to make it through this time.
Fall Afresh: We sang this song to confess our need of the Spirit's presence in Lent because the Spirit is the One who is able to transform us into people who are more like Jesus. Also, as we continue our communal journey through Lent, reckoning with our place in a culture marred by sexual violence (this part of our Lenten journey is introduced here), we are seeking that the Spirit would shape our imaginations to find new ways of being the presence of Christ in our world.
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, our songs were gathered around the theme of need. 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 atjamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs
This is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham
Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher
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.
Come Thou Fount: We sang this song to express our need for God to partner with us in life and in our acts of worship. At ubc, we often talk about seeking to be formed in the way of Christ. This choice of words centers our attention on God's action within us. We don't get to pass through life without trying to do things (live like Christ, eat pizza, dance, throw dinner parties, worship, etc), but the things we do are worthwhile because of what is done in us by God.
This Is Amazing Grace: We sang this song to think about the radical grace of God, who is clothed in unlimited cosmic power, yet cares for humanity enough to endure suffering and to patiently coax us into a relationship with Godself.
Lord, I Need You: We sang this song to remind ourselves quite clearly that we need to turn to God when we think the least of ourselves. The grace we sang about in the previous song means we don't have to be afraid that God is going to run out of patience with us. Furthermore, we don't have to try to make ourselves look and less broken than we are in order for God to want to come to our aid. The Christian life is the life of a work in progress.
Shadow: Sometimes in Christian circles, we talk about "dying to self." I won't claim to fully understand this image, but I think it communicates the idea that, though the way we operate as humans is ultimately a selfish existence, Jesus calls us to focus our attention on God and other people. This song is about the lingering impulse to keep our thinking turned in on ourselves that we have to kill in some way daily, and that we are are ultimately in need of God's help every day to make this happen. I wanted to write a really long post explaining the ins and outs of every image in this song, but I think these few sentences are enough to provide the context for you to read the lyrics for yourself and see what the images say to you. As always, feel free to email me with any questions or concerns about this new song.
House of God Forever: We sang this song to take a look over our shoulder at last week's songs. Here's what we said about House of God Forever then: We sang this song to proclaim that God does not simply pay attention to us or pursue us. Instead, God draws us near--takes care of us. At this point, we are a far cry from what we might expect of the Holy God we sang about in the first song.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
