Come experience Urban Hymnal 3 is this Saturday. I’ve been told it’s post-modern worship music and apparently it’s a free/donation based concert. We’re making it a Ventus worship night field trip.

If anyone is in or around the area, you should join us! If you’re going - shoot me an email and you can join the bunch (sdelony@yd.org).

Here’s the details:

November 1st, 2008 - Kane Hall @ the University of Washington

Check it out here: Urban Hynmal.org

Here’s a Free Mp3: Psalm 13

Saturday was a great day.

We spent the afternoon with our YD youth and some from a local church @ World Relief in Seattle learning about the Refugee problems on around the globe. World Relief is an awesome organization partnering with refugees entering Seattle. It was pretty eye opening experience for many of the youth, learning about the horrors and struggles many endure as a way of life.

From there we dashed back to set up for Ventus.

That night was one of our smaller crowds, but one of the most impactful evenings for me. Our topic was worship. We had a local youth pastor, Clay, come and talk about why we sing in church. From there we had a rousing discussion with the teens and they shared their experiences in the past with worship. They mainly saw it as just singing songs that were “Jesus-y”.

Then something really cool happened. As we ended our discussion, Clay pulled out his guitar and explained the words to a song. Then the led them in worship,. Listening to those teens worship just broke me. They weren’t just singing songs - they were expressing their love for God. These are kids with no context for church, no religious background, and no real outward desire to seem Christian. And they were singing from somewhere deep within them. The Holy Sprint really moved. It was powerful. I love it when things happen that are so far beyond me. I just love to be there to experience the Lord at work.

It was a simple song. It was the one I was looking for (after Catalyst) a few weeks back. All I had a YouTube clip, and Kevin Twombly send me the chord chart. I gave this to Clay and a day or so later, we were worshiping the Lord (I love it when a plan comes together).

It was a great evening.

The song is “Glory to God” by the band Fee.

The chorus is so simple, but expresses something so powerful and deep to the Lord.

Glory to God

Glory to God

Glory to God, Forever…

If you want more, here you go:

Beautiful blood/Glory to God (mp3) (Glory to God hits around the 5 min. mark)

Glory to God Chor Chart (pdf)

Why is worship music always pretty? You know it sounds so… so nice and holy. We don’t live pretty lives. We don’t have pretty struggles. So why does our worship music seem to only come that way. I mean who started this? Pretty = Holy? It just doesn’t seem right.

Now, I’m not saying that we can’t have any nice, fluffy worship music (ie. Tomlin or Camp) from time to time. All I’m looking for is something with a little more teeth. Something raw and real. Something beaten and broken. If I’m torn up inside, I’m not looking for fluffy worship.

Our lives are hard. Read the psalms. David is not always a happy camper. He was raw and emotional. So why doesn’t our worship music reflect our struggles. Why doesn’t it feel like the grit under our fingernails or the sweat on our brows. Why doesn’t it sound like something raw or rough? Why doesn’t someone like Springsteen write worship music. Just a thought.

Holy and Anointed One