Truth Within the Static
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Matthew Kruse is the Lead Pastor of 7 Mile Road, an Acts 29 church just north of Boston. On September 15 the church is releasing their first original worship album entitled Truth Within the Static. We've invited Matt to guest blog about hopes for this CD and about some of the theology that undergirds the project. Purchase information, lyrics, and chord charts can all be found at http://www.carmendei.com/.
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So we're releasing an original worship album.
Crazy.
No, I mean it.
The probability that our church would release an album is right there with the probability that Paris Hilton won't ever be in court again. We began with a core group of 7, none of whom could even play the spoons. Rather than go the a cappella route, I rang up the one guy I knew who could strum a guitar and didn't hate the idea of God or sleep until noon on Sundays, a student I had taught several years before. Surprisingly, he agreed to my job offer: he would play the guitar on Sunday mornings, and I would pay him $50.
And so John would show at 9:55, strum the three chords necessary for most of our songs, listen to the preaching with a blank-stare, and cash his check. The cycle went on for nearly three years: 3 chords, Gospel preaching, $50. But then, without any warning, one November night in a parking lot while on tour with his band in Georgia, God extended unexpected grace. The seeds of the Gospel that had been planted took root, John was saved, and the musical life of our church was altered forever.
Over time a vision grew in our hearts for writing and recording our own songs. We had received such grace from God and wanted not only to talk about it and preach about it but sing about it. Once Imagine was written, we were sure of it: we really were going to create unique, inspiring, theologically sound worship music to glorify God, music that could be used as a vehicle for worship in Jesus' church throughout the world.
3 years and 10 songs later, Truth Within the Static is our first shot at seeing that dream become a reality.
There are three distinct hopes we've held onto as this project has unfolded:
1. That our music would capture the grace that God has extended to our church.
From the moment we began talking and dreaming about having original worship emerging from within the life of the church, our hope was that it would be a community endeavor. There was something attractive to us about songs coming not from the isolated mind of a single song-writer as he or she engaged God and life on their own (which is cool), but from the experiences and perspective of a congregation as we sought to know and respond to God together. Whether that meant songs connecting to sermons series we preached, salvation we witnessed, storms we endured, or lessons we learned, we longed for our song responses to remind us of God's redemptive grace as it had been freely received by all of us.
We've tried hard to make this hope become a reality with this album. Imagine, which calls us to consider both the present and future realities of the Gospel, was birthed as we preached about Jesus' blood speaking a better word than that of Abel's. Soli celebrates the centrality of God in the Gospel, and the song burst out of us as we first introduced the congregation to the doctrines of grace. Awakened is an autobiographical reminder of the regeneration of John's soul specifically and all of ours collectively. Foolishness dropped into our hearts and minds as we preached through the paradox of the cross of Christ. Sovereign God came after much corporate wrestling with Romans 9 and Pharaoh's heart. Height From Which I Fell connects directly back to our wonder at the all consuming presence of a holy God among sinners that we discovered preaching through Exodus. Glorious Love was written just as we stuck the Gospel in the center of our church's life.
And so it goes. Every song we've written triggers in us memories of ways that God has worked among us. In a sense, each tune is like a postcard from some place along the journey we have taken as a people. If we ever make a compilation album, I suppose we'll call it Songs from the Seven Mile Road. May that album contain hundreds of songs reminding us of the thousands of ways God has extended grace to us.
2. That our music would be saturated with Biblical theology.
We are troubled by the fact that shallow, man-centered, glory-robbing silliness marks much of what ends up being sung in churches in our culture. So another hope of ours has been that all our songs would center on God, shouting about His glory in His Gospel of grace, hammering over and over and over again rich theological truth as it emerges from the Bible.
Every song we've written centers on our graceful God and is rooted in the text of Scripture. Awakened echoes Acts 12 and God's grace to Paul along the Damascus Road. Imagine speaks of God's mercy that has made redemption possible from Hebrews 12 and Revelation 21. Height From Which I Fell reflects upon the grand visions of both Isaiah 6 and John 2. Living Sacrifice reeks of Romans 12. Glory of God hits I Corinthians 10. Soli and Glorious Love tie themes together from throughout the Bible.
But Foolishness is, by far, our favorite example of incorporating theologically rich lyrics in our Sunday song response. There is more theology jammed in the chorus of this song than there are reckless drivers in Boston. Affirmations of the doctrines of propitiation, expiation, justification, atonement, adoption, ransom, and the victory of Christ can all be found, and that's just in the chorus.
We think that this kind of thing is good. We long for 7 Mile Road to be a people who are shaped by God's Word. Why should we read the Bible and preach the Bible, but not sing the Bible? The Word is the thread that binds our gathered worship together, singing included. May every song we write be nothing more (or less) than an echo of what God has already spoken.
3. That our music would reflect all the realities of our redemptive experience.
One cool thing about the Psalms is that they are all so different. One minute the Psalmist is giddier than I was in October 2004 when the Red Sox swept the last 4 games of the ALCS after being down 3-0 to the Stankees; the next he's more depressed than Michael's Vick's publicist. Dancing, shouting and tambourine whacking is followed with weeping and mourning. First David is convinced of God's empowering presence, then he's wondering if God is really there, and then he realizes God never left. Start at Psalm 1, and 150 chapters later you're gloriously dizzy.
And that's because life and sanctification are a roller coaster. We are works in progress. In beautiful and Fatherly grace, God is redeeming us moment by moment. Sometimes he is disciplining us, sometimes instructing us, sometimes blessing us, and sometimes allowing us to suffer. And while His work is always good and for our benefit, we're not so consistent. Sometimes we are responding in trust and obedience to His work in us. Sometimes we're stubborn punks refusing to listen. Sometimes we get it and want to run the streets shouting, but sometimes we're so lost and faithless we want to hide and eat a bucket of cookie dough. This reality necessitates that a wide variety of songs be available to a congregation, songs that bring the Gospel to bear wherever we are in our journey.
This is why the tone and pace and volume of our tunes is all over the map. Awakened is a song that you sing while doing 75 with the top down on a Friday night, singing to the steering wheel at the top of your lungs. Height From Which I Fell is best sung with your head buried in your hands, broken by your sinfulness and idolatry and refusal to honor God as God, only to suddenly discover that the Gospel runs deeper than even your sin. Sovereign God is there for you when the roof has caved in. Imagine reminds you that heaven's roof never caves in, forcing you to lift your head and take in the future grace that approaches.
And so we don't want Truth Within the Static to be the kind of album in which you cherry pick favorites songs. We long for people to feel compelled to listen to all the songs, in a row, over and over again. And in doing so, we pray that their souls are taken to depths and heights and everywhere in between, and that Jesus and the grace of His Gospel is the constant that meets them at every turn of the chords.
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