Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: Sojourn’s Worship Music Set List For Sunday Morning, June 8, 2008

The focus for this week’s posting of Sojourn’s music set list will be slightly different.  Instead of commentary on the songs, I’ll walk you through our liturgical pattern, showing how the songs fit into that.

Our services are meant to drive people to the cross. We need to be reminded of the gospel everyday and this is why our services are structured as they are. The order is:  (1) Call to Worship, (2) Confession of Sin, (3) Assurance of Forgiveness, (4) Giving of Peace, (5) Preaching of God’s Word, (6) Response through Communion and Singing Songs of Praise, (7) Benediction.

This week, we sang Hold On (Keep Your Eyes On The Prize), a folk gospel song by Pete Seeger as the service began and people were still coming in.  We followed this by a corporate reading as our call to worship and then answered that call with a song of adoration — “Bow” by Sojourn’s own Jeremy Quillo, from our These Things I Remember CD.

The lyrics to this song make it a perfect congregational or individual expression of adoration to the One True God (chord sheet in the sojournmusic.com These Things I Remember page).  A sampling:

God of earth and sky, You have come and You’ve shown us

everlasting light, and a hope that endures for all time

So I raise my voice with the sky and the sea

Yes, I raise my voice and say:

     All in Heaven will bow

     and the earth will cry out and sing,

     “You are holy, holy, Lord Almighty.

     Holy, holy, Lord Almighty!”

This week the order was a little different in that it was a baptism Sunday — nine believers followed Christ’s command to be baptized.  We held the baptisms following “Bow,” in the part of our liturgy that is typically our Confession, followed by Celebration of Assurance.  What better way than with a baptism to witness and dwell on these two aspects of worship liturgy — that we are all sinners in need of repentance and confession, and that, having done so, we call upon the name of the Lord and die to sin, buried and then resurrected to new, abundant life.

Following the baptisms we sang “My God Has Rescued Me” by Michael J. Pritzl of The Violet Burning, continuing to celebrate the assurance we have in Christ:

“My God has rescued me

taken my life and made me clean

opened my eyes so I can see

My God has rescued me …”

Following this we entered into the portion of our service known as “Giving of the Peace,” in which we greet each other - old friends and new - in the peace of Christ, celebrating the fact that we are no longer divided by race, politics, socio-economic status or in any other way, but that we are one in Christ.

Following the Giving of the Peace, Pastor Daniel Montgomery performed the Preaching of the Word.  He taught on Romans 8:1-13, reading the passage and expounding on the text to tell us of our freedom from condemnation (Romans 8:1-4) and life in the Spirit (8:5-13). 

Following the sermon we entered into the part of our liturgy known as Response Through Communion and Singing Songs of Praise.  We take communion each week at Sojourn.  The way we’ve chosen to do it is to have four stations at various places, and different volunteers each week manning these stations (our community groups alternate responsibility for this, and we encourage all members to serve in this way as the opportunity arises).

As we sing a communion hymn (this week, Sovereign Grace O’er Sin Abounding, words by John Kent and music by Sandra McCracken), Christians form lines in front of the various stations, taking turns tearing off a piece of bread and dipping it into either wine or grape juice (we give the opportunity for each person to choose one or the other, as their conscience permits).  As each Christian takes a piece of bread from a volunteer, the volunteer says, “The body of Christ, broken for you.”  As the believer dips his bread into the cup, the volunteer holding the cup says “The blood of Christ, shed for you.”

We also have volunteers with baskets stationed in convenient locations so that members and regular Christian attenders can drop their tithes and offerings into the baskets.  We emphasize that givers should do so sacrificially out of joy, not guilt — that giving, like singing, is an act of worship, done out of an overflow of love and thanksgiving in the heart of a believer.

We then sang two more songs of praise and commitment: “The Wonderful Cross,” by Isaac Watts (When I survey the wonderful cross/ on which the Prince of glory died / my richest gain, I count but loss/ and pour contempt on all my pride) and Jeremy Quillo’s “We Are Listening,” from our Before the Throne CD.  Hear the mp3 and view the chord sheet from the sojournmusic.com Before the Throne page, and read Jeremy’s “story behind the song” as well.

The final portion of Sojourn’s corporate liturgy is the benediction, a blessing for the road.  This week’s was taken from p. 420 of The Worship Sourcebook:

“The God who created the waters of the world; the Christ of living waters; the Spirit of cleansing waters be with you now and always.  Amen.

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Come back tomorrow for the final lecture that Harold Best delivered at Sojourn’s home, The 930 Art Center, during our Cultivate Beauty festival.  This lecture, “What Creative People Can Learn From The Creation,” will be available for streaming here and for downloading on our podcast, Sojournmusic.com Radio.

Of course, we’ll also have more new content on this blog each day of the rest of the week, including a feature  on worship leader Rebecca Elliott, whose voice you hear on several tracks on Before the Throne and Advent Songs, and whose songwriting skills are on display in Sojourn songs ”In the Shadow of the Glorious Cross,” “All I Have Is Yours,” “I’m Coming Back,” and “Let Justice Roll Like A River”. 

And in the week’s to come, audio interviews with Sojourn Lead Pastor Daniel Montgomery, Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper, Worship Leader/ songwriter Jeremy Quillo, updates on our forthcoming CDs based on the hymns of Isaac Watts, and more.