(Post by Matt Grant, Worship Leader at 2 Pillars Church)
New things start our shiny and they smell good and usually they aren’t broken. Usually. We all like new things. Sometimes we get a box in the mail or a present from someone and somehow, the item inside is cracked, torn, or busted in some way. We see the smashed RC car or broken Victorian-era vase we bought off Ebay in pieces and we see what it could’ve been or once was. Disappointment sets in and we become discouraged. Ugh….
I sometimes feel that’s the risk we run with presenting new music in the church. There’s is always huge chance a new song is going to bomb on Sunday morning. More often than not, you the congregation is standing there confused or disengaged because it’s new or you don’t understand the context behind the song or maybe the slides aren’t rolling exactly the way we are singing it. It can be any number of things that throws us off. It’s easy for us to write a song off if it doesn’t jive with us from the get go. We look at it in the same way as we look at the busted toy in the box and say “Well, it was a nice try”.
Since we are a very young church with a very decided idea to be different with our music this is going to happen a lot. But Jesus has given us our voices and it is our intention to use them in ways that maybe we haven’t tried before. I know this can be uncomfortable for some, but our hope is that, with help from Jesus, you will find that new voice and you will sing out with gladness.
Sooo…….in an effort to make things easier, we are writing this post on a new song we’re going to do this week and including lyrics and links to a video and an mp3 to better serve the church in finding our voice.
This week our new song is “Skeleton Bones” from a song writer named John Mark McMillan. He wrote another song that we’ve done a few times (including this last Sunday) called “How He Loves”. Please spend some time reading the lyrics and watching the video this week. I think if you do, you will fall in love with the simple melodies and imagery that the song puts forth. My interpretation of the lyrics form a picture of stripping back all the worldly clutter that washes over our eyes and veils them from seeing Christ. The chorus of the song is a beautiful call to praise the Son of Glory set to a simple melody that only deepens the impact of the words. All in all its a wonderful song that, while at first may seem unconventional, soon becomes hard set in your heart after only a few listens.
Roll the Bones, Matt.
Ezekiel 37:3-5
And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: