new tuneage

We've got another new one coming down the pipes this week at Karis...

Song Title: Help My Unbelief

Author(s): Lyrics by John Newton; Music and Chorus lyrics by Clint Wells

Why did I choose it? It is all too easy too neglect an essential aspect of our worship: the expression of doubt and confusion, the mourning over our own hardness of heart. The psalmists did not fear such barren plains, and nor should we. We need songs that give expression to our unbelief and put melody to our pleading with God to increase our faith and open our eyes. Rather than pretending that our faith is flawless and perfect, we can humbly express our doubt as a body and in doing so, proclaim our trust in our Sovereign Lord to overcome our unbelief and deepen our faith. I can't tell you how many conversations I have had with brothers and sisters who say "I can't feel God's presence. I want to repent but I don't even feel that I can!" This is common Christian experience as we wait for the Lord to reveal himself to us and overcome our sin and blindness. Let's not ignore it, but pray with each other as we sing, proclaiming with the father in Mark 9:24 - "I believe; help my unbelief!"

My favorite line:
The second verse -
"I would but can’t repent,
Though I endeavor oft;
This stony heart can ne’er relent
Till Jesus makes it soft.
Till Jesus make it soft."
As we sing this, those whose hearts are hardened will come alongside those whose are softened, having their burdens borne by brothers and sisters and praying together that Jesus would break through and melt the ice. Is that not a beautiful picture?


Why teach it right now: We're going through the Gospel of Luke at Karis, in which we are seeing the stark contrast between the response of faith and the response of unbelief in Jesus' various encouranter. This Sunday we land on the story of John the Baptist and his disciples questioning whether Jesus is truly the Messiah (Luke 7:18-35). Jesus response is clear: look at what he has done. "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me," he say. Much of our unbelief comes as we in our sin take offense at Jesus. He doesn't fit our expectations exactly...he calls us to turn from some tightly held sin...he shows love to someone we'd rather he didn't. What a great opportunity to, in repentance, pray that he would overcome our doubt, overcome our offense and increase our faith and love for him.


Can you hear it? There is a clip here - just scroll downward to the title. and click on the mp3 clip.

new songs at karis

I'd like to start a new series on my blog today featuring the various songs we teach at our church here in Columbia, Karis Community Church. For those of you who don't know, I lead the music and am the Pastor for Worship and Mission at this church. We're interdenominational Christian church that is part of the Acts 29 Network, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and in general seeking to be both Biblically faithful and intentionally contextual to the city, place and time where God has us. You can read more about our mission, vision, values, etc. at our website (see link above), but for now that is an ever-so brief intro.

In any case, at Karis we value a good balance of rich, historic hymns that span the history of the church along with great new songs that are written from the modern context and give voice to our praises, prayers and longings in our own vernacular. So at Karis, you'll sing your share of "thees" and "thous" but you'll also sing a wonderfully singable chorus such as "How Great is Our God." This is of great value for many reasons, but I'll just mention two. First, singing old hymns that have stood the test of time gives us a way of connecting with the saints who went before. The language may be different at times, but they still give expression to the very same struggles we face today and give us hope as we join old warriors of the faith in writing God's truth on our hearts through song. And that leads to my second point. Many of the older hymns give a richer and broader expression to the truths of Scripture and Christian experience we so need to meditate on. Our modern vernacular simply does not contain as many of the tools for a beautiful, diverse vocabulary of prayer and praise. The language itself hasn't failed, we just aren't as adept at using it. Given this fact, I find that a healthy mixture of rich, old hymns (often set to modern music) mixed with the better modern praise choruses provides a great way for us to deepen our capacity for reveling in God's truth and to express the full range of Christian experience (hymns offer more opportunity for voicing our pains an trials than most modern choruses), while still embracing the strengths of simpler modern language and choruses. Both offer great vessels for our praises - especially when used together.

But don't get me wrong. There is much being written today that I think will stand the test of time. Great songwriters are more and more using their gifts to serve their local congregations, but then they are also being noticed by the broader church as well. This is exciting to me because it goes against the grain of the "praise and worship" industry. Many of these songs we use are written by songwriters who will likely never "make it big" in the industry, but that's ok - great, even! These songwriters are faithfully serving local bodies, yet their songs are also being used by God as a blessing to the church universal. For instance, at Karis, we use several songs written by Joe Day and Tim Smith, pastors at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, along with songs written by Joel Lindsay, a pastor at the Journey in St. Louis. And we're getting ready to teach one written by one of the musicians at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville. This song is a great example of a simple modern worship chorus that gives us a voice for singing of both our joy and trial with a hope-filled, psalm-like shape. So without further ado: on to the Songteach (this is what I have called it thus far with our church - maybe a new name?) We're teaching this one on Sunday, and as always, I'm excited!

Song Title: Come and Sing
Author(s): Jeremy Quillo
Why did I choose it? Again, this song has a psalm-like quality. This is one of those prayers written in the midst of joy - an eager expression of praise to God. Yet it looks with wisdom toward the troubles that will inevitably come and says "I will walk through the valley but I still hear his voice..." It echoes a life lived "before the throne of God" as the record from whence it came is titled. As the folks from Sojourn say, "This life is a rich and varied experience of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, prayer for guidance, prayers of repentance and communal sharing of God’s peace, blessing and love." In other words, as we live before the throne, we know that everything we do is in God's sight and is brought as an offering through Christ alone. Given this reality, the song, though in a sense a "call to worship," serves more as a call to gathered worship. It implies that we have been worshiping and enjoying God's work throughout the week, and so as we come together for our meeting, we are literally overflowing with melody toward God. This song is a joyful encouragement to let that song loose! "Come and bring him your song," it invites. Further, continuing in the vein of the psalms, there is present here an understanding that this exuberant singing gives the watching world a witness ("We must sing if or hearts have been changed by God. Let the whole world know that he has come.") As such, the invitation to sing becomes one both for the moment of gathered worship - a potentially powerful, eye-openeing moment for those who do not yet know Christ - and also for a life of metaphorical song, bursting in God's praises as our friends and neighbors watch and wonder.
My favorite line:
The second verse -
"I will walk through the valley but I still hear his voice
For the words of the Lord are in my heart
I will rise in the morn' with the joy that is my strength
Remembering the sound of his voice."

There is the full perspective of the Psalms. "I have joy now, but I will again walk through the valley. Yet I have God's very word on my heart and know his voice. He will sustain me through life's trials. I will sing." The psalms are replete with exhortations to sing to God - we do well to obey, and it's a joy!

Why teach it right now: Our community is in need of more avenues for expressing the joy of singing to our God, and of more calls to an overflowing gathered worship. This song fit the bill the minute I heard it, and I can't wait to hear our congregation take hold and sing.

Can you hear it? I don't know of anywhere online that you can hear it right now. But if you search for the album Before the Throne by Sojourn on iTunes, you can listen to a clip or download the song. Check it out!

I hope that before long our community here at Karis will begin to write some songs for our own use in gathered worship. We certainly have been blessed with talented artists, so I think it's only a matter of time.

thy blood was shed for me

Although I love the Lenten season, I often find it difficult to actually observe it. In the end, I think it reveals how much restructuring my whole life needs, not just for this one season a year, but for every day. Not enough space is made for prayer. My ears are not open and my heart is not as attentive as it should be. I live like a frantic, worried soul when I should be at peace.

Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline spoke deeply to me this week. Two of his chapters revealed to me what I lack (among many other things): simplicity and solitude. He refers to these as two of the outward disciplines, but stresses that the outward manifestation flows from an inward reality. "It is possible for a person to be developing an outward lifestyle of simplicity and to be filled with anxiety," he says. The inward must come first. This is what Lent should be about: a pursuit of the deeper inner realities of the Spirit-filled life; those realities that can only express themselves outwardly.

Strangely enough, all of that was simply an intro to what I am actually posting about. My point is that I am actively trying to observe Lent and go deeper, so here is something to that end.

I'll be teaching the song "Thy Blood Was Shed For Me" in church tomorrow. This is a somber and penitential hymn originally written by Charles Wesley and put to new music by Matthew Smith, one of my favorite modern hymn-writers. The melody is wonderful in its ability to capture the two sides of repentance the lyrics portray. First, we see our sin and grieve over it. But then, we leap in faith into Christ - casting our sins onto Him. So musically this works itself out beautifully. The start of each verse is low, quiet and sorrowful, a deep meditation on our poverty. But then the melody immediately soars like an insistent plea as the lyrics turn from sorrow over our sin to a surrender to Christ and his ability to cleanse us. My ability to describe it stops here - I can't begin to portray the arrangement in words. You can hear part of the song as Smith's website. Just scroll through the tunes on the main page.

It's a fitting melody, but ultimately it is the words that anchor a hymn in place. And these lyrics powerfully portray our situation both apart from Christ and in communion with him. Here they are in full:

Let the world their virtue boast and works of righteousness
I, a wretch, undone and lost, am freely saved by grace
Take me, Savior, as I am; let me lose my sins in Thee
Friend of sinners, spotless Lamb, Thy blood was shed for me
They blood was shed for me

Full of truth and grace Thou art and here is all my hope
False and foul as hell, my heart, to Thee I offer up
Thou wast given to redeem my soul from iniquity
Friend of sinners, spotless Lamb, Thy blood was shed for me
Thy blood was shed for me

Nothing have I, Lord, to pay nor can Thy grace procure
Empty, send me not away, for Thou knowest I am poor
Dust and ashes is my name, my all is sin and misery
Friend of sinners, spotless Lamb, Thy blood was shed for me
Thy blood was shed for me

That first verse is especially relevant to our Lenten journey. This is ultimately where we must go: seeing the depth of our lostness, we turn from self-boasting to see the breadth of Christ's fullness and we declare "Take me, Savior, as I am. Let me lose my sins in Thee!" In this season of the "Christian Passover" may we speak these words and know their truth: "Thy blood was shed for me."