New song this weekend

Hey all,

I’ve been challenged a lot over the last few months (and years) in regards to the box that I fit praise and worship into….I think we all (for the most part) have an idea of what we feel it should look like – the kind of music it should be, the reactions people should have, etc….and when things challenge those ideas, our natural reaction is to write it off or run away from it – back to our safe zone….

I grew up in a church that looked very different than my church now – piano only (sometimes an organ too), no clapping or getting excited during the singing, which back then was all it was to me – just song time….every song was sang pretty much in the same tone…..which could have been partly because of where I was in my spiritual growth, and partly because that’s what was acceptable….

However, I started asking a lot of questions about the box I put praise and worship into – why do I feel those things?  why have I created those boundaries?  It’s amazing how you can grow when you start to ask questions and prune away things that don’t matter and aren’t based in God’s truth….

So out of this challenge to think outside of the box, I began reading more, listening to more and more music – finding myself worshiping in my alone time and not just corporately on the weekends….it’s an amazing thing – actually feeling yourself drawing closer to God…..sometimes hard to put into words…..

I find myself having great conversations about God and music and life with my roommate (Shep), and often I walk away from those conversations wishing that they had been recorded so I could go back and transcribe them directly to this blog for other people to read – I’m sure we don’t always get it right, but I think a big part of what the church community is meant to be is a place where people can have those conversations and work through ideas and challenges and struggles and share your victories and joys…….

And now here I am…..I feel very passionately about music and the role it plays for us as Christians….so I wanted to talk some about a new song that we’re singing this weekend at church.  It’s called “The Time Has Come”, by Joel Houston of Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia.

I first heard the song almost 2 years ago – I had ordered some new music for use in Detour (our youth program), and that was one of the songs on the Hillsong United cd “United We Stand”.
I first sang the song to the Detour teens back at the beginning of the summer-we were at the beach for the night, playing games and having our ’service’ down there…..
There’s a line that stands out in the song:  “The time has come to stand for all we believe in”…
What a great line!!  That line is actually a reaction to the verse, which says “I found love-beyond all reason-You gave Your life, Your all for me, and called me Yours forever;  caught in the mercy fallout-I found hope, found life, found all I need-You’re all I need”…..

We’re singing the song in conjunction with our baptism video from this year – I never thought the song would be one that we sing in our regular weekend church service – it’s pretty upbeat; but I had lent Pastor Ben the cd about 6 weeks ago-to give to Britney, who had requested to borrow it.
When we were putting the video together from our first baptism – a very cool video from our hurricane-weather baptism we had 2 weeks ago, Pastor said to me-what about that first song from the cd you lent me?
After I recovered from shock that he was asking for that song, I thought the tie-in was great – baptism being us “taking a stand” publicly – showing those around us that we are Christ-followers….so I think it will be a powerful song this weekend…..

And now you know….how we came to sing this song at Cape Cod Church
Until next time, keep singing and praising!!

-Alan