Setlist 9-27-2015

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

Come Thou Fount

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

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

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

Setlist 9-20-2015

This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of God's freedom.  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

Holy, Holy, Holy

Heart Won't Stop by John Mark McMillan

House of God Forever by Jon Foreman

Wild One by Jameson McGregor

Be Thou My Vision

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Holy, Holy, Holy: We sang this song to begin our time together by establishing that God is beyond us--out of our reach.  We offer our attention and praise to God, though God has no "need" of this, and really is not obligated to listen to us.

Heart Won't Stop: We sang this song to think about the fact that God not only chooses to take notice of us, but continually pursues us, even when we have made our home in places we might assume God will not go.

House of God Forever:  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.

Wild One:  We sang this song as a response to the tension presented between the first song and the second two:  God is not limited by who we expect God to be or by what makes sense to us.  God is holy and "removed," yes, but God is also present in the midst of what seems to be the farthest from holy, working to establish a relationship with creatures who[(m) i really never know which one] God could easily destroy and move on.  God is not hemmed in by red tape and policies in order to be holy--God is free.  And God uses this freedom in surprising ways, continually showing us just how little we understand about love.

Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Be Thou My Vision then: We sang this song as a communal prayer that God would transform the way we see the world, and the way we live in it.  [I changed a line of this song over the summer--if you missed the explanation for that change, you can check out the setlist from that week 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

Setlist 9-13-2015

This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of transformation.  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

Amazing Grace by Citizens & Saints

How Great Thou Art

Be Thou My Vision

Pain by Jameson McGregor

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Amazing Grace: Perhaps the most surface-level take away from this song is that the Grace of God has saved us, and I think that is legitimate, but we sang Amazing Grace this week to think about the fact that this gift of Grace does not merely change our status of salvation, but knocks around in our lives and transforms us into people who are more like Jesus.  

How Great Thou Art: We sang this song to practice recognizing the works of God in history, and responding with praise.  This response is something we partner with the Holy Spirit to cultivate within ourselves--a transformation that we would do well to leave ourselves open to.  We can easily get to a place where we accept the wonders of God as simply the way things are, but this song calls us to maintain a sense of awe--to allow ourselves to be transformed into a people who carry a sensitivity to such wonders.  This might look like being the kind of people who are excited--and driven to worship--when the scientific community discovers another layer of complexity in the cosmos, knowing that science more often than not opens up doors to seeing just how much we don't know about the way things work.  It might also look like being the kind of people who, upon seeing someone do something we would consider awful, turn our minds to the dark places in ourselves and think about what God has done for us, and how much more God can do within us.  

Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song as a communal prayer that God would transform the way we see the world, and the way we live in it.  [I changed a line of this song over the summer--if you missed the explanation for that change, you can check out the setlist from that week here.]

Pain: This song is about the danger of keeping our pain locked up in ourselves.  I have two broad categories of pain in mind here.  On the one hand, this pain might be considered externally caused--the emotional effects of something that has happened.  On the other hand, the pain I'm talking about is self-inflicted--it's the guilt, the fear of being found out, that accompanies our own downfalls.  I can't speak for you, but I know that my tendency is to try and ignore things that hurt me (in an emotional sense), regardless of how serious they are, thinking I can move on unscathed this way.  The problem is, I've found that pain has a way of poisoning me to a certain extent--be it through leaving me with a dull anger that affects my general mood, or through sizzling like white noise, clouding my thoughts and social interactions.  My inclination is to carry my own weight, so to speak, but I'm ill-equipped for such a task.  Jesus talks about setting aside our heavy "yokes" and taking up His easy "yoke."  I'm pretty sure he's talking about setting aside a meticulous code of religious laws, and taking up the law of love, but I don't think it is inappropriate to apply the same image to our own anxieties and sources of pain.  I've been thinking about anxiety and emotional suffering a lot lately, and I've been asking a lot of questions.  One of these is why the pain of [insert source of emotional suffering] fades over time.  Why do things that wreck us emotionally have the potential to get better over time?  One answer might be this: the context changes: the world didn't end, life moved on, or something good came out of a bad situation.  I think this sort of change of context is what we are offered by God.  While God doesn't necessarily take our pain away, the Gospel extends to us the hope of a context-change that just might take some of the weight away in the present.  In God, we find the potential for the way we think about pain to be transformed.  This is a new one, so be sure to check out the lyrics and email me with any questions.

Fall Afresh: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  Here's what we said about Fall Afresh then: We sang this song to voice our dependence on the Spirit for living life to the fullest and for taking our journey of faith seriously.  

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

-JM

Setlist 9-6-2015

This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of dependence.  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

Hope by Jameson McGregor

Your Love Is Strong by Jon Foreman

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

Feel by Jameson McGregor

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Doxology

How They Fit In:

There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme. 

Hope: We sang this song for the first time last week, and I would encourage you to go back and read the entry I posted here to get a better idea of what this song is about.  In the context of this week's songs, Hope reminds us that God is present with us in the midst of darkness, and we can depend upon God to carve meaning into our darkest moments.

Your Love Is Strong:  We sang this song to proclaim that we can depend on the love of God to take care of us in the midst of life's struggles, great and small.

Fall Afresh: We sang this song to voice our dependence on the Spirit for living life to the fullest and for taking our journey of faith seriously.  

Feel: The first long paragraph is a jumble of thoughts I have in the background of this song, and the the second paragraph is more directly about the song itself:

There are times in the journey of faith where God seems to go "dark"--where we don't feel God.  This is chronicled in the Psalms, the prophets, on the lips of Jesus.  It's something I've experienced, and something many of my friends have experienced.  With this in mind, I'm going to go ahead and assume that it's a normal part of the rhythm of faith.  Yet, we don't really talk about it (I think we should).  This is understandable to an extent.  We can expect to get better at most things we do in life over time.  Practice makes perfect, so to speak.  So, when we don't "feel" God anymore, the first assumption is that we're doing faith wrong.  But what if faith isn't like this?  What if instead of getting more and more connected to God over time, our experience is more akin to a journey over mountainous terrain, complete with high points and low points, and more high points, and more low points? This is hard to take in when the low points are marked by feeling abandoned by God in some way, but what if the feeling of abandonment actually had nothing to do with God abandoning us?  When relating to God, we enter a relationship where we do not see or hear the Other, but we do, in a sense, feel God.  This label of "feeling" is imprecise, but we might think of it as some assurance of God's presence with us.  Anyway, when the feeling is taken away, it naturally feels like God has gone away, but this is not necessarily the case.  In general, "God never leaves us.  God is perfectly faithful to us," is a safe theological statement.  The story of Scripture shows us as much as God remains faithful to people who are not faithful to God.  God's relationship toward us is about what God has decided to do, not what we deserve.  So how is God present when we do not feel God?  My answer to this works for me, but I by no means expect you to buy into it. It's this: God is present through the community of faith.  As flawed as it is, the fact that the community of faith is identified as the Body of Christ communicates to me that it is, in one way or another, the presence of Christ in the world (Yeah, I know that some people wear the label of "Christian" and don't act like Jesus--I'm not extending this to all people who label themselves Christians at all times.   Instead, I'm suggesting that those who are being formed in the way of Christ have the potential to be agents of God's presence).  We generally accept this idea when thinking about caring for the poor or loving people as the "hands and feet" of Jesus, but I propose that the same is true as we relate to one another.  We are agents of presence to one another--whether we are aware of it or not.

So.  This song is a collection of language I've used in prayer when I go through a season of not being able to "feel" God.  The temptation in these times is to stop praying altogether--if for no other reason, because it's hard.  But it's not quite as hard when we allow ourselves to be honest; to let the content of the prayer be about why we don't want to pray.  I should stop here and clarify: I wrote this song after having experienced this feeling of disconnect quite a few times, thus I have grown to expect that these seasons are temporary.  If you are experiencing something like this for the first time, I realize that you may not share my inclination to continue to seek God in any way through it.  I'm not trying to tell you that you are wrong, but I am being honest about how things have gone for me.  For me, these dark times have been awful, hopeless, draining, confusing, on and on, and I never feel like the darkness serves a purpose in the moment.  But.  On the other side of these seasons, I look at them as times of growth.  I don't think I can quantify this growth, but I'm certain of it.  And, while I may not feel God personally in these times, I have benefited greatly from being around those who do.  In a way, I have found that the people in my community of faith can feel God for me.  Thus, in the context of this week's songs, we sang this to think about depending on God through the people of God.  As always, I haven't said everything I want to about this song, though I've said more than most people wanted to sit and read.  If you have questions/concerns, please email me.

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