Keep It to Yourself

2011 January 20

by Tyler

As a worship leader and musician, I tend to listen to a lot of music. Very rarely do I work at home or in the office without music playing. Anytime I come across I song I really like my first inclination is to find a way to play it at church, whether on a Sunday morning or during a youth program time. I think this is a bad mentality of mine though.

Not every song I like is meant to be served up to my whole church. I remember when I discovered the song Beautiful Things by Gungor. That one was a no brainer. It was too perfect, but that kind of song is the exception to the rule.

The past week I’ve been listening to a song by Jesus Culture (young adults group at a church in Redding, California) titled Come Away. You can watch the live version of the song here (click here to watch RSS readers):

I love so much about the song: the guitar riff, the drum pattern, the words of the bridge, the lyrics are written from God to us which is different and sweet, and I’m a sucker for driving but slow worship songs. But I know this song wouldn’t work well at my church or most churches for that matter. The lyrics aren’t deep theologically (“it’s gonna be wild”), the song has a strong charismatic emphasis, and the song is far too repetitive for many people to engage with for the whole song.

Not every song is meant to be shared with the church, even if I love it for myself.

This one I’ll be keeping to myself (and sharing with you).

What are songs you love that you’re keeping to yourself?

Filed under: church Tags: music

http://thoughtsaboutnothing.com Kyle Reed

Honestly, i never even noticed the wild lyric. Funny, i do think that says something about the generational gap between 20 somethings and those in there 40′s or 50′s but we don’t need to get into that.

There are a ton of songs that I wish was played at church but are usually kept quiet…like any U2 song would be killer.
http://manofdepravity.com Tyler

The thing to remember here is that the audience is mostly college students at a conference. The church (Bethel) in Redding doesn’t do songs like this on a Sunday morning when all ages are represented. Their still more charismatic, but the style of it is somewhat different.
http://www.ourrisingsound.com Kyle

I’d say the “it’s gonna be wild” in reference to God’s calling on our life is more culturally contextual than age contextual. Singing “it’s gonna be wild” when discussing what the journey as a Christian may be like cuts across an entire swath of cultural realities that aren’t universally shared. My journey of faith looks a lot different than my Xian brother in China for example. So “wild” becomes a pretty untactful way of communicating that journey for some.

But in any case, I don’t see any issues with the song being both contextual as far as age and culture, that’s fine. But as you say, may not be right for our own contexts.

As far as songs I’m keeping to myself for now. I’m not sure I’m holding any songs back because of their appropriateness, more often the case I’m working on an arrangement that makes sense for us. Example of this would be Shane & Shane Embracing Accusation. Love the song, think it will work for us, but I gotta a lot of work to do on the arrangement.
Luke Coles

Leaving Eden by Brandon Heath
Love Is by Anthony Evans

Those are a couple of many songs. Good hooks with good production.
http://www.contentunderpressure.net Josh

love that song, Kyle…

That’s one I’ve kept to myself more than I’d like to. I have brought it out a few times, though.
http://manofdepravity.com Tyler

I love that song too. Wicked high though.
http://manofdepravity.com Tyler

Haven’t heard of Anthony Evans but I dig Brandon Heath.
Rose Braun

just listened to this song like 6 times. i am hooked.
Jordan

This song was actually written by an amazing band called “United Pursuit”. Jesus culture did add the bridge (“open up your heart”)…Anyway, another unbelievable United Pursuit song is “Break Every Chain”. Jesus Culture has been covering that one a lot at live events.
Dave

Kyle – what “generational gap” ?
I’m in my 60s but I like this music too.

Remember – there are still lots of old Jesus freaks that appreciate real praise music.

Dave
Nathan

So I thought I might add to this conversation the story behind this song. Context is really important.I was there when this song was first played, and I was there when this song was first recorded in a studio. I’m apart of United Pursuit Band, and the writer of this song is a guy named Brock Human. We all met in Mozambique at a mission school in 2006, and Brock sang this chorus spontaneously one day during worship.

This school was made up of 150 young people from 15 different nations, all ready to give their lives to reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus. This was the end of the summer, and the speaker was sharing God’s plan for our lives, and how incredible and amazing it will be. We were all on our knees, praying together, and that’s when Brock started singing this simple chorus.

“come away with me, come away.
Its never too late, its not to late for you.
I have a plan for you,
its gonna be wild,
its gonna be great,
its gonna be full of me.”

It’s that simple. This song was born of the Spirit, perfect for the moment. It wasn’t written with Jesus Culture in mind. It wasn’t written to be the next worship anthem. It was a gift of the Spirit to breath encouragement to us that day, to trust God’s plan for our lives, leaving behind our flesh’s desires, and to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth. It was in its purest essence a prophetic song from God’s heart towards us. Its not a theological agrguement, its just what God was speaking to us that day.

1 year later, we were back in America, in the studio we built in our house. Come Away became a anthem for our lives, and we wanted to capture it in the studio and share it with others. During the recording process, we were worshiping one afternoon, praying over our generation, and Brock started singing “open up your heart, and let me in.” We felt the Spirit on those simple lines, and felt it connected to the song come away. That’s where Let me In came from. Context is important.

So when you say, “keep it to yourself”, i hear you saying not every song is right for everyone, because the Spirit is speaking in all kinds of ways to His church. There is NO one perfect song to fit everyone. We never imagined this song spreading like it is, but we guess God wants it too. We didn’t ask Jesus Culture to cover this. They just did on their own accord. I’m sure they prayed into the set list, and felt that thousands of people needed to hear this.

I need to hear these words from my Father everyday. To come away with him to the secret place, to the place where he speaks, and I am quieted by His love.

Its gonna be wild seems to fit this just about perfect to me, but hey, I’m biased:)