Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Hebrews 12:1

The March/April 2008 issue of Worship Leader magazine arrived in my mailbox not long ago, and I was excited to see that the focus of this issue is “Songwriting For The Church: Treasures Old & New.”  My excitement grew when I read John Andrew Schreiner’s article “Writing Songs For The Church: You Are The Branches” and realized that he may as well have been sitting in on some of the inside discussions about Sojourn’s forthcoming worship album — an album for which over twenty songwriters spent the better part of three months on an ambitious and spiritually rewarding assignment.

Specifically, these quotes from Schreiner spoke to me:

“Because of our inheritance from our forefathers, each generation should be richer in the lexicon of praise than the one before it ….

“We are not the first believers, and we are certainly not the last.  Rather, we are part of a heroic procession spanning thousands of years of disciples whose hope is in Jesus Christ.  To ignore God’s past gifts to the Church would be indeed foolish.  Why should we miss out on the wisdom and beauty found in devotional arts of past generations ….

“There is strength we can draw upon knowing we are connected to Christ just as our predecessors were.  Like a trip to the Holy Land, there is benefit to acknowledging our connection to the past.  Remembering allows us to experience God’s faithfulness with our historical community and take our place in the procession of followers of Christ, receiving our sustencance from Him.”

and even more so, his clarification at a later point in the article let me know that he had come to the same point that we at Sojourn had come to, that Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper had outlined in giving out the assignment to us last November 1.  Schreiner said:

“… I don’t mean to take a well-known hymn and turn it into something hip or trendy.  That is being done quite often, and there is an important place for it.  However, I’d like to challenge worship songwriters and leaders to delve artistically deeper …”

This challenge is important.  How do we learn from the past without simply revoicing it?  How do we benefit from the theological and artistic work done by masters of Christian song, letting their work inform us but also move us to take the mantle and go where they have not — to speak to our own culture, musically and poetically?

One way to do that is to find the great hymns of our common Christian faith and to come up with fresh arrangements and new melodies.  In fact, we do this at Sojourn, and we appreciate others who do so.  But are there other ways, and can we take a fresh approach? 

We believe so, and we’ll share more of that with you in the weeks and months to come as Mike and Neil Robins begin to put together the teams who will go into the recording studio, and as our new songs come together.

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