Monday, November 26, 2007

Indelible Grace V

I was completely jazzed to get the new Indelible Grace V: Wake Thy Slumbering Children in the mail today. I think I've gotten the last several albums (as well as the Matthew Smith and Sandra McCracken albums) as soon as they've been released. What I've always appreciated about my friend Kevin Twit and his co-laborers is their on-going endeavor to make the theology and piety of hymnody accessible to this generation.

But I've also appreciated how they have helped me worship. One of the major turning points of my life was at the 2003 General Assembly. Up to that point, I held a perspective on worship that was, well, fairly rigid and starchy. I came by it honestly--through my time with very Reformed Baptists and then hanging with Old School Presbyterian types. And there was a great deal of truth in what this sojourn taught me. The only problem was that I hadn't actually worshipped, truly worshipped with my heart engaged with God, in a long time.

Until the Thursday service at that General Assembly, when Kevin led a small, acoustic IG ensemble and Tim Keller preached. Singing "Arise, my soul, arise" engaged my heart with God in ways that had been long missed. Here was not mere, superficial contemporary music (which Al Mohler once described as "one word, two notes, three hours") and yet it was not funeral dirge hymnody either--rather, the beauty of hymnody was married to accesible and modern tunes in such a way that my mind and heart engaged with God's Truth and God himself.

And really, I'll never be the same--both my view of worship (and the "worship wars") and my view of God's love and grace were changed that day. That is why I am eager for these modern hymns to continue to pervade our church and others as well--so that Christians will learn the grammar of faith and piety for the good of their souls and the glory of the King.

7 comments:

Geoffsnook said...

Sean,

Well said. I hope more folks like you (professors, prominent Christian leaders, etc..) can challenge those folks who embrace your former views on worship. I think the IG stuff is fantastic, and we ought to praise God that the these lyrics are now accessible and even cherished by our younger generations. Even the youth at our church love them. So preach on brother.

Terry said...

"Well said."

Yes. That's why I thought I'd post it at the Indelible Grace forum.
http://www.igracemusic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=670#670

Unknown said...

Sean,

I don't know if you have heard of these guys yet, but if not I think you will like them. BTW, how you doing?

Josh Powell

http://www.redmountainchurch.org/rmm/alb/albums.html

Terry said...

I became familiar with Red Mountain Music via the Indelible Grace forum~

God has used their music as well as Indelible Grace in awesome ways to encourage and strengthen our family in our faith.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your kind words Sean! Did you know that Wesley said he got more letters about people being converted while singing Arise than any other hymn he wrote? Bruce Hindmarsh told me that once. Pretty cool story. Hindmarch found an unpublished notebook of Charles Wesley's in which he had pasted letters he had received from people describing how his hymns had impacted them.

Sean Michael Lucas said...

Hi, JP--long time since I've see you! Yes, I love the Red Mountain Church's music and especially the Gadsby project they've been working on. Doing well here...email me some time. sml

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