Christmas at Sojourn has always been a unique thing. From the first year in the life of the church, we’ve been fascinated by the more gritty side of the Christmas story. The church fathers chose the darkest time of the year to celebrate the dawning of the Light of Lights in the birth of Christ, the entrance of hope into darkness.
The Christmas story itself is one of contrasts – God as a baby. A king in a manger. His birth was welcomed not by crowds and royalty, but by outcasts and foreigners. Because the Christmas story is ultimately a story of hope for the hopeless, healing for the broken, and light in the darkness.
We’ve sought for many years to capture that emotion in our Christmas music. There’s a place for joy, a necessary and central place for celebration, but that joy and celebration has it’s most weight when seen in the context of the suffering and longing from which it emerges. So Christmas music at Sojourn has always had a dark edge, a sense of tension and angst, which points us to the darkness of our own hearts that longs for the light of Christ.
This new record is birthed almost directly out of our Christmas worship services. We recorded this one at home, so to speak, at the 930 Arts Center (our Midtown campus) and at Eddy Morris’s, our Production Director, studio (Ear Candy studios, where we also recorded Before the Throne and These Things I Remember). It’s an indie rock record, recorded the indie rock way, piecing together what we could to give you this homemade gift. It’s not perfect, but most home-made things aren’t. (more…)
