Setlist 2-18-2018

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

Come Thou Fount

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

For Those Tears I Died by Jameson McGregor

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Be Thou My Vision

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

Setlist 1-7-2018

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:

We Three Kings

Be Thou My Vision

SMS [Shine] by David Crowder* Band

Lifted/Lifting 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. 

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

Setlist 11-5-2017

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

Be Thou My Vision

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)

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. 

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:

When the Saints

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

Setlist 9-3-2017

This was the thirteenth 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 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

Be Thou My Vision

Rise Up by Bifrost Arts

Shadow 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. 

All Creatures of Our God and King: We began with this song to join our voices with the rest of creation in expressing thanks and wonder toward the Creator.  

Be Thou My Vision: This song is a petition for God to walk alongside us in the midst of our ordinary lives as our vision, wisdom, security, and hope.  It is also a challenge to ourselves to order our concerns around God's concerns.  

Rise Up: We sang this song as a prayer for those who are trampled upon and treated as less than, asking that God would rise to their defense.

Shadow:  This song is about the impossible task of dying to self, and the frustrating complexity of trying to be more fully formed in the way of Christ. You can hear a studio version of this song here.

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

Setlist 7-9-2017

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

Be Thou My Vision

Lifted/Lifting by Jameson McGregor

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

Doxology

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:

All Creatures of Our God and King

Jameson McGregor

Crown Him With Many Crowns

Jameson McGregor

Be Thou My Vision

Jameson McGregor

Lifted/Lifting

Jameson McGregor

Future/Past

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. 

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

Setlist 4-9-2017

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

Be Thou My Vision

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

Setlist 4-2-2017

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

Be Thou My Vision

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

Setlist 3-26-2017

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

Be Thou My Vision

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

Setlist 3-19-2017

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

Be Thou My Vision

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

Setlist 3-12-2017

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

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

House of God Forever by Jon Foreman

Fever by Jameson McGregor

Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher

Be Thou My Vision

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

Setlist 3-5-2017

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

Be Thou My Vision

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

Setlist 10-23-2016

This was the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of breaking/mending.  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:

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

SMS [Shine] by David Crowder* Band

Come Thou Fount

Anthem by Leonard Cohen

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. 

Just A Closer Walk With Thee: We sang this song to express a simplified version of what our aim is as we gather: namely, to follow Jesus more closely on the road he has walked before us.  As is typical when we sing this at ubc, the second verse holds particular significance in its underscoring of the significance of Jesus' sharing our burdens with us.  We are prone to falter in our approaches to faith, but that does not devalue our journeys.  This journey is fundamentally difficult, wrought with pain and failure and the pursuit of reconciliation.  Which makes sense because this journey is ultimately a relationship, and relationships are marked by all of those things.

SMS [Shine]:  This song is an exercise in seeking God in the midst of affliction.  It places the truth on our tongues that God is still "Light" when we don't see light, and that we have a sign of life from God in the Person of Jesus, his story and his resurrection.  This story is good news for broken people, though it is at times difficult to call to mind and embrace when we need it most.  Singing these words helps us develop a habit of claiming this hope that may make it easier to remember when we need it most.

Come Thou Fount: This song asks that God would tune our hearts to sing the story of God's presence in our lives, as well as confesses our proneness to wandering.  Perhaps it is in having a clear understanding of the way that God has entered the broken places in our lives in the past that we are able to make it through brokenness in the future.  So, like the prayer offered before we sang this song (that will be posted with the Liturgy blog on Wednesday), we has God to flood the dry and broken places within us with a renewed understanding an appreciation of who God has been for us in our lives.

Anthem:  There's a lot going on in this song.  In light of the other songs this week, we might think of it like this: it begins with a call-back to what Jesus said about birds and worry in Matthew 6, then develops a sense of how the world continues to be an uncertain and imperfect place.  In the midst of this development, however, we find the chorus: ring the bells that still can ring//forget your perfect offering//there's a crack, a crack in everything//that's how the Light gets in.  It is in the midst of the mess--the brokenness and uncertainty--that the Light makes its way in.  

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 to practice asking God to override the false, shame-driven, narratives about ourselves that we replay time and again in our heads.  

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 10-16-2016

This was the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of shame.  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:

Heart Won't Stop by John Mark McMillan

Be Thou My Vision

Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan

Noise by Jameson McGregor

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

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. 

Heart Won't Stop: This song is centered on the idea that nothing can sever use from the love of God.  The shame we carry is a false narrative about who we are that is shattered by the love of God.  The true narrative about who we are says that we are God's beloved children.  That's not to say there is not a place for guilt when we do what we should not, but instead that we are not capable of amassing a guilt that cancels out the love of God.

Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to practice asking God to override the false, shame-driven, narratives about ourselves that we replay time and again in our heads.  

Death In His Grave: We sang this song to proclaim the story of Jesus' death and resurrection, reminding ourselves in a more particular way why our shame narratives are false.  The things we do are not able to change who we are in light of what Jesus has done for us. 

Noise: This song made an appearance because of this line in the chorus: when i was a broken promise, You made me another one. There are several ways you could interpret that line, but for the sake of this week, let's go with this one: God does not leave it up to us to reconcile the rift in the divine-human relationship.  God is reconciling us to Godself, and our inconsistent leaning-in to this doesn't get to override what God is doing.

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 last week: 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.

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 8-21-2016

This was the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were gathered with God's pursuit of reconciliation 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:

Heart Won't Stop by John Mark McMillan

Be Thou My Vision

All Creatures of Our God and King

Wild One by Jameson McGregor

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

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. 

Heart Won't Stop:  We sang this song to begin with the confession that there aren't any barriers that God is unwilling to transgress to reconnect with God's children.  

Be Thou My Vision: With this God of relentless love and grace in mind, we sang this song to ask that God would be our vision, wisdom, security, and hope, forming us into people who love relentlessly as well.

All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to proclaim that God is Lord of all creation, and that God thus cares for all of creation intimately.  Keeping the petition from Be Thou My Vision in mind, this song also functions as a charge to ourselves to care intimately for all of creation.

Wild One: We sang this song to worship the Unbound God. These words serve as a pointed reminder to ourselves that we cannot control God and that God's love is not limited to the things or people that we love.  God is active and on the move in the world around us, telling a dynamic story that's better than the best kind of story we could think up.

Future/Past: This song is a further response to the theme ofWandering. Beyond God's faithfulness, it traces several layers of God's grandeur, and notes the surprising fact that God has called us friends.  The divine-human relationship is an unequal partnership.  It's the kind that leaves the lesser party (us) wholly caught up in the undeserved grace of God to allow us to enter into a project of which we are not worthy.  God stands before us and beyond us, and somehow still stands with us.

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 7-17-2016

This was the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were gathered with the weight of systemic violence 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:

There by Jameson McGregor

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

Up On A Mountain by The Welcome Wagon

Burn It Down 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. 

There: We sang this song to begin our time together proclaiming God's transcendence.  God was there before there was anything (including the kind of pain that we've been living in the midst of in a particularly acute way for the past several weeks), God is there now, and God will continue to be there after the last star burns out.  This song focuses on the fact that God stands above and beyond any source of pain or anxiety, and so there is always hope--God will not be toppled by even the most terrible evils we experience in the world.  This transcendence is a part of what we can say about God, but it is thankfully not the only thing we can say.  If it were, this transcendence would mean little to nothing for us in the midst of the world's chaos.  In truth, God has chosen to be involved in what God has made, interacting with creation with the most absolute of loves.  This love from-without is the source of our hope.

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy: 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.  

Up On A Mountain:  We sang this song to contrast There, and to proclaim the work of Jesus.  Up On A Mountain contrasts There because it focuses on God's immanence.  God is not just "out there," removed from the weight of the violence of the world.  Instead, God came down low and entered our mess, experiencing anxiety, fear, betrayal, suffering and death.  And so, we aren't alone.  Jesus has shared our experiences, and has sent the Spirit to carry us through the best and worst parts of life.

Burn It Down: This song is a plea for the Spirit to shape us into people who can tear down systems that impede the hope of Christ.  These systems are legion--we could think of the rampant racism and xenophobia that we encounter so often through our TV's, phones, and laptops, or perhaps the ways that culture elevates the voices of particular kinds of people, while silencing the voices that have not been endowed with the privilege of assumed legitimacy, on and on.  Yesterday, Amy preached an incredibly brave and prophetic sermon on sexual violence.  When we talked about sexual violence during Lent, one of the driving themes was that the Church's silence on that issue in some way authorized the prevalence of sexual violence that plagues our culture, and that this silence was sin because it did not mirror in any way the response of Jesus to affronts on the dignity of a human person.  So we sang this song in order to petition the Spirit to shape our lives and words into firebombs that target the system of sexual violence that we are living in. 

Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to close every liturgy during Lent, which was also when we were first wrestling with our place within a culture of sexual violence.  We sang Be Thou My Vision today in response to Amy's sermon and the Litany of Commitment we read together as a way of acknowledging that we rely on God to shape our imaginations to enact change within systems of violence.

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

-JM

Setlist 5-29-2016

This was the second Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were once again gathered with the Holy Spirit 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 atjamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs:

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

Your Love Is Strong by Jon Foreman

Be Thou My Vision

Pain by Jameson McGregor

Holy, Holy, Holy

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. 

Just A Closer Walk With Thee: In the wake of Pentecost, we have entered into ordinary time, though the Holy Spirit is still very much on our minds.  Just A Closer Walk With Thee is in many ways a song we might think of as being directed toward Jesus, but the Spirit is our connection to the Person of Jesus.  Furthermore, the presence of the Spirit among us is central to our following Jesus, as Jesus lived by the Spirit.  With this in mind, the core petition of this song is addressed to Jesus, but seeks the guidance of the Spirit.

Your Love Is Strong: This song is essentially a meditation on the Lord's Prayer, with an emphasis on being transformed into Kingdom people.  When we think of transformation, we think of the Spirit--the Spirit is the One who does the weaving of our stories, who dwells in our interconnectivity and helps to shape us.  We sang this song to ask the Spirit to continue this work.

Be Thou My Vision:  As with the previous two songs, we sang this song as a petition to the Spirit to shape us into people whose vision, wisdom, security, and hope, are all oriented toward the love of God.  

Pain: I had the opportunity to share this song a couple of months ago at a service at Baylor that was a Space for Lament for people affected by sexual violence.  This song is ultimately about how damaging pain of all kinds can be when buried inside of us, and how God is able and willing to take the weight of our pain.  By that, I don't mean take it away, though I believe in time God moves us forward on a journey of healing (however that might look), but instead I mean that God takes the weight upon Godself--that we don't carry it alone.  The second verse of the song has a more particular kind of pain in view: that of keeping secrets, of sweeping our own evils under the rug and carrying around the guilt.  God carries this pain with us as well, and enacts healing for these situations.  Last week, the institution of Baylor began the process of reckoning with its own evils.  And this reckoning has the potential to be painful in many different ways.  But God is in the midst of this kind of pain too.  I recently put out a video of this song, which you can watch here:

Holy, Holy, Holy: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at our songs from two weeks ago (I was out of town last week).  This is what we said about Holy, Holy, Holy then: We sang this song to begin our time together singing about the particularity of God, as we acknowledge the Spirit as part of the Trinity for the first time in the Christian calendar this year.

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 4-24-2016

This was both the fifth week of Easter in the life of the Church calendar, and Mister Rogers Sunday in the life of ubc.  Mister Rogers Sunday is a commissioning service of sorts where we celebrate our graduates and commission them to continue to seek to be the presence of Christ to the people they encounter as they move on to new things.  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:

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

Be Thou My Vision

There by Jameson McGregor

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

Doxology

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 a couple from this week.

Be Thou My Vision

ubcmusic

There

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. 

Future/Past: This song contrasts God's power, might, and status as Wholly Other, with the notion that God has chosen to be God-for-us and God-with-us.  The Resurrection really seals the deal for both of these ideas, and ultimately intertwines them.  And so, as we live out our stories and grapple with our own anxieties in the face of change or struggle, we can lean into the idea that, though God transcends our problems, God is taking them on with us, carrying with God the same Lordship that places God above our problems in the first place.

Fall Afresh: We sang this song as a prayer, voicing together our desire for the Spirit to be with us.  In this season, it is fitting to dwell on the fact that the Spirit of the Living God is in fact the catalyst of the Resurrection.  The Spirit is the power that makes dead things live again. In the call to worship yesterday, we acknowledged that there are many kinds of death that we experience, not all of which involve our hearts ceasing to beat.  Change of all kinds is a kind of death, and change seems to be a fundamental part of life.  The Spirit is constantly working to raise us to life--life to the fullest.  So, as many of us are on the edge of new seasons of life (either because we are moving to new schools, new jobs, or because we are ready to break out of a rut we've been in), we sang this song to petition the Spirit to raise us up once again.

Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to close this season of life in our community by seeking guidance in the next season.  As a community who seeks to be formed in the way of Christ, to embrace beauty, and to live on mission, we are in constant need of God to be our vision, wisdom, security, and hope, because we are in constant need of transformation. 

There: This song is an exercise in perspective, noting that God was present before any of our problems, is present in the midst of them, and will be present long after they all fade away.  It is also a personal confession of the unhealthy relationship I've built with anxiety, which is somewhere between addiction and idolatry (if there's even a difference in this case).  

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: We sang this song because it is during Easter that we see just how wide God's mercy is.  We are well-versed at finding reasons why God's mercy would not apply to us, and we are perhaps even more well-versed at finding reasons why God's mercy would not apply to them.  This song shines a light at the lies at the heart of these assumption--God is wilder than we ever dreamed, and God's mercy is no different. 

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 3-20-2016

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

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Up On A Mountain by The Welcome Wagon

Be Thou My Vision

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

Setlist 3-13-2016

This week was the fifth 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:

Come Thou Fount

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Be Thou My Vision

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 look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Come Thou Fount then: 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.  

Just A Closer Walk With Thee: 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.

Deliver Me: As we near the end of Lent, we sang this song to express that we continue to rely upon the Spirit to pull us through and to change us into people who are more like Jesus.

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

Setlist 3-6-2016

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

Come Thou Fount

Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher

In the Night by Andrew Peterson

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Be Thou My Vision

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