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

Setlist 12-6-2015

This week was the second week of Advent, and our songs were gathered around the theme of peace.  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 (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

Come Thou Fount

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic

Make This Go On Forever (Refrain) by Snow Patrol

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 (There Will Come A Light):   I wrote this song a couple of years ago for the first week of Advent.  A few months ago, I wrote songs for all the other weeks, too, so we will sing the whole series of songs over the next few weeks.  I recently recorded some video sessions of these songs with some friends in Austin.  The video for this song has been posted here.  

Come Thou Fount: We sang this song to think about the peace that God has extended to us as people who are not necessarily deserving of reconciliation.  If you don't know, the "Here I raise my Ebenezer" line is referring to the idea of a monument that would remind us of what God has done for us--it's the "looking back" that we talked about last week as being our source of Hope.

Future/Past:  We sang this song to think about the looking back and looking forward that comes along with Advent.  The reconciliation that God offers us is not limited to a fixed point in time, but is instead an activity that is carried through all of time--something we can look back at with gratitude and look forward to in faith.

Peace (Change Everything): This is a song that voices a longing for peace.  More accurately, this song voices a longing for several different kinds of peace: peace from existential despair, physical violence and threats, less tangible violence and threats that exist in our minds, and the threats that accompany the natural processes that carry our bodies from birth to death. We'll be singing this song a few more times this month, so feel free to listen to it again here.

Make This Go On Forever (Reprise): We once again closed this week's advent song with this reprise from the end of a great Snow Patrol song (spoiler alert: we'll do this next week and the week after as well).  The point is to voice the longing that we live in during Advent: while we may not understand how it will happen or when it will happen, we know that God is the One who can save us from this present darkness.

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 9-27-2015

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 7-26-2015

This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of dependence upon God.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, 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

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

All I Can Say by David Crowder* Band

Come Thou Fount

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 for the first time last week during the offering.  On a pragmatic level, we sang this song again this week to build familiarity with it so it is more accessible in the future.  This song offers us language from Psalm 139 to bring to the forefront of our minds just how far the love of God will go to reach us.  Not even taking up residence in the deepest reaches of darkness can make God change God's mind about how radically God loves us.  In light of this week's thinking about dependence on God, we can say two things: (1) Whether we know it or not, we are dependent upon the love of God to hold us together at all times--especially when we try our best to turn ourselves against God. (2) God is dependable in God's consistent pursuit of us--we don't have to worry that we will at some point be bad enough to convince God that we aren't worth loving.  Even though there are things about us that make us seemingly unlovable in human terms, God has scandalously decided to be God for us; One who loves us. 

Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to proclaim (and remind ourselves) that we are dependent upon God for our vision, wisdom, contentment, and hope.  These faculties are things that we rely on to make it through each day, and God offers them to us in abundance.  It is easy to try to generate all of these things on our own, through self-help practices, making plans, etc.--and we should no doubt spend time thinking about ways to live a purposeful and motivated life (!)--but we are ill-equipped to do these things alone.  [Note: A few months ago, it was brought to my attention that one line, "Thou my Great Father, and I Thy true son," can be a difficult/dissonant line for women to sing, since women do not typically self-identify as the son of anyone.  I was aware of this tension, but I did not have an alternative line to offer at the time.  In the months since, I have spoken to several women about the way they feel about this line, and have found that some (the majority of the group I informally polled) have no problem with singing "I Thy true son."  It is apparent, then, that changing this line is not the universal desire of women, but it is a concern nonetheless.  After giving this more thought, I chose to seek out an alternative line for the song, in hope that we could find words to sing together that we could all get behind.  After looking at that stanza intently, it seems like the point of those four lines is to convey the idea that God, the source of Wisdom, is present within us and can be our source of wisdom--that means the first two lines, "Be Thou my Wisdom and Thou my True Word//I ever with Thee and Thou with me Lord," and the final line, "Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one," are perhaps the most essential lines of this stanza.  "Thou my Great Father, and I Thy true son," while not pointless, does not contribute to the sense of this stanza as potently as the others.  In light of this, I chose to replace the third line with, "Thou my Great Father, Spirit, and Son."  This alternative line seems to preserve the integrity of the stanza as a whole, and focuses in on just what kind of God is indwelling us and imbuing us with wisdom.  I would love to elaborate on this further for anyone who is interested, and I would also love to talk to anyone who has concerns about this change.  Feel free to send me an email.]

Fall Afresh: We sang this song to proclaim that we are dependent upon the Spirit, and are ever in need of a reinvigorating of our awareness of the Spirit's presence within and among us.

All I Can Say:  I chose this song for the Offering song for a couple of reasons.  In keeping with the theme of dependence, this song embodies our need to take our concerns to God, and to be honest about our pain--even when that pain is in part because we feel that God has forgotten us or ignored us (This theme features prominently in the Psalms, after all, if you are looking or further permission from Scripture for this kind of candor in prayer).  The third verse reassures us that we can take our pain to God without fear that God will be angry at us for some lack of faith and give us the silent treatment.  Outside of our theme, I tend to think about All I Can Say whenever something tragic happens in the news (which seems to be at least weekly, if not daily, now)--people killing eachother, people finding ways to preserve their own faults by pointing fingers at others, people allowing their hatred of the "other" to be the wind in their sails.  Though this is perhaps a step removed from the direct language of the song, I think that it indeed carries a sense that we are upset about (insert upsetting thing), feel helpless, and don't know what to say.  Rather than attempting to fein some kind of apathy, this song lays out pain and discontent on the altar, knowing that God can take it.

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 last week: We sang this song for two main reasons: First, outside of our theme, it puts words into our mouths to call upon God to meet us in worship (God by no means conjured by us, but this is a way to express that we are open to meeting God and that we desire that God would teach us how to worship better).  The second reason, in light of our theme, was the final stanza:  Though we are prone to wander, the love of God does not abandon 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 7-19-2015

This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of the relentless love of God.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, 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 or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Come Thou Fount

This Is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham

Deliver Me by David Crowder* Band

Heart Won't Stop by John Mark McMillan

How Great Thou Art

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 for two main reasons: First, outside of our theme, it puts words into our mouths to call upon God to meet us in worship (God by no means conjured by us, but this is a way to express that we are open to meeting God and that we desire that God would teach us how to worship better).  The second reason, in light of our theme, was the final stanza:  Though we are prone to wander, the love of God does not abandon us.

This Is Amazing Grace: We sang this song to reflect on God's grace and mercy in what Jesus did for us.  Though God was by no means obligated to save us, Christ died for us.  This is a surprising love that goes against what one might consider fair or just.

Deliver Me: We sang this song to proclaim that this God who is love is able to deliver us from the depths of our depression, our anger, and the false versions of ourselves that we present to the world to feel accepted.  

Heart Won't Stop: This song uses language from Psalm 139 to talk about the fact that the love of God pursues us despite all of our failures, and all of our conditions.  One line, "I could lay my head in Sheol, I could make my bed at the bottom of the darkness deep, but there is not a place I could escape You," is pulled almost verbatim from Psalm 139, and it's profound: Sheol, while not necessarily the same as our concept of Hell, was the closest equivalent idea that they had in the Hebrew mind.  What kind of love is this, that continues to pursue even one who has not only laid down in hell, but "made a bed" in the deepest points of darkness?  It is nothing less than relentless.

How Great Thou Art:  We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about How Great Thou Art last week: This song traces the works of God that are evident through creation, the story of Jesus, and the hope of the resurrection, and declares God to be Great.  There is language sprinkled throughout this song--experiencing "awesome wonder" in observing the universe, scarcely being able to take in the sacrifice of Jesus, our hearts one day being filled with joy in the resurrection--that extends to us a chance to reflect upon God in terms that are anything but numb, and to reawaken within us an understanding of just how glorious God is.

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 5-17-2015

This week, Josh preached from Acts 1: 15-26.  Our songs were gathered around the theme of the Ascension.  The Ascension is the moment when Jesus "was taken up" and "hidden by the clouds" in Acts 1.  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 or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.

Songs

Come Thou Fount

All the Poor and Powerless by All Sons and Daughters

Oceans by Hillsong United

Up On A Mountain by The Welcome Wagon

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 think again about the work of Jesus in light of the Ascension and to begin anticipating the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost (next week). This song can be understood to be firmly planted between the Ascension and Pentecost--especially when we look at the stanzas out of order.  The second stanza talks about raising an "Eben-Ezer"--a throw-back to the time Samuel made a monument to signify God being with Israel in a battle against the Philistines (1 Sam 7:12)--to remember what God has done for us in Jesus.  The third stanza looks back on the work of Jesus as well in acknowledging the fact that we stand as debtors in light of what Jesus did for us [Note: We are not debtors in the sense that God has a cosmic ledger that shows us in the red--Jesus wiped that ledger clean.  We are debtors in that we know that Jesus did something for us that we can in no way repay, and our gratitude drives us to respond in love.] Ok. So. We look back before the Ascension in the second two stanzas.  In the first stanza, we look forward to the coming of a "Fount of Every Blessing" that can "tune our hearts" and teach us a song sung by "flaming tongues above." This fount that we call for is the Holy Spirit.  

All The Poor and Powerless: In the Ascension, we see that Jesus did not simply rise from the dead for a time, only to die again.  Instead, He stepped beyond the realm that we might call physical to be with the Father.  He didn't die--he left.  The power of the resurrection held true.  This means that the hope of the resurrection and the hope of the Kingdom movement that entered the world through the ministry of Jesus live on, even in the absence of Jesus walking among us.  This is means that the poor, the powerless, the lost, the lonely, thieves, cowards, and all those who society would quickly rid itself of if given the option, can find their Hope.

Oceans: Before Jesus' ascension, He promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would come empower them to continue His work.  In His leaving, Jesus called His followers to stay the course.   We too are called to continue His work--and seeking to do this can be equal parts confusing and overwhelming.  Oceans uses the image of walking on water to illustrate at least two things: doing things that we are literally incapable of doing without God's aid, and entering into chaotic and unknown territory.  As we contemplate what it means for us to be Jesus in the world, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are neither able nor expected to do it alone.

Up On A Mountain: This song reminds us of the dread that Jesus had before the crucifixion (like any of us, he did not want to die), and that He was aware of what would ultimately become of the human race if he did not die.  Despite all of this, the third verse points out that the work of Jesus for us did not cease after the cross.  Though Jesus is no longer among us in flesh and blood, Jesus is still intimately concerned for the human race--He is praying on our behalf and is with us through the Spirit. Though Jesus ascended, He is not wholly gone--we are not alone.

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

-JM