I decided several years ago that I wasn’t going to go to church to lie, to myself or those around me. I have enough stuff to deal with already; the last thing I want to do is purposefully indulge my proclivity toward self-deceit. That meant that, if I didn’t want to commit the greater sin of singing words I don’t think about, I’d have to keep my mouth shut during the performance of a good number of the popular songs sung in churches today. Sure, I may wish that “all I want to do is praise You”, but that’s not the truth. I’m not going to sing “You’re all I want”, when a casual glance at my weeks activities shows quite the opposite.
Enter Indelible Grace. Kevin Twit is the campus pastor for Reformed University Fellowship at Belmont University. Several years ago, after observing how the students he worked with were fed up singing words they either didn’t mean or that really didn’t say anything, he started writing new music to old hymn texts with help from some friends. Now, 5 CDs later, Indelible Grace songs are widely sung in college ministries and churches, PCA churches particularly, and are, in fact, one of the main reasons I attend the church I do now.
I first met Kevin about 4 years ago when working with Michael Card on his radio program, where Kevin was a regular guest. I still remember the first time I heard Kevin tell one of his favorite stories, before I started helping with the program. I was living in Chattanooga and working at a TV station at the time, and one night while working a 4PM-Midnight shift, I walked outside to listen to the first part of Mike’s program on my car radio after starting an hour-long movie. I remember sitting on the hood of my car on top of Lookout Mountain, looking up at the stars, and listening to Mike, Kevin, and Wayne talk about the genesis of Indelible Grace. Kevin said the interest in the old hymns could be summed up by a sign he saw once in an antique shop – “Our Grandparents bought it, our parents sold it, and now we’re buying it back.” (Another thing he said in the same program has stuck with me, that while he didn’t see a strong loyalty to denominations in the younger generation, there was a loyalty to a local church that had been missing from their parents’ lives.)
The new Indelible Grace CD, Wake Thy Slumbering Children, was just finished , and Kevin gave me a copy a couple weeks ago to review. Like the previous installments, it features vocals from Andrew Osenga, Jeremy Casella, Matthew Perryman Jones, Sandra McCracken, Derek Webb, Matthew Smith, and others. After giving it a couple spins, my favorite tracks are O Help My Unbelief (Andrew Osenga), Abide With Me (MPJ), O Heart Bereaved and Lonely (Sandra McCracken), and In the Hours (Emily Deloach).
O Help My Unbelief is probably my favorite song musically, with Andy’s opening guitar lick making a great hook. The text, by Isaac Watts, gets to the heart of an issue under renewed debate today: Namely, do we need only to open our eyes today to God, to realize His presence and His work, with nothing more required from us, or are we on some deeper level separated from God by our sin and in need of a reconciler, a Savior? Is it up to us, or do we need something (someone) greater to intervene? In the third verse, Andy sings “Stretch out Thine arm, victorious King, My reigning sins subdue / Drive the old dragon from his seat, with all his hellish crew / A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, on Thy kind arms I fall / Be thou my strength and righteousness, My Jesus, and my all”.
I have enjoyed, with this setting, really hearing the text to Abide With Me for the first time. When I ran into Matthew yesterday at Portland Brew, I mentioned that the traditional tune to Abide With Me is very simple musically, and so is one of the first songs in most beginning band and orchestra books. Since that was my first exposure to it, it is impossible for me to hear the tune without being reminded of a bunch of kids trying to get the right notes out of their new instruments, not exactly the most pleasant sound. So when I hear Matthew sing “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide / The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide / When other helpers fail and comforts flee / Help of the helpless, abide with me /” to the new setting by Justin Smith, I’m able to focus on and appreciate the text for what it says, without distractions. Matthew said that, of his contributions to this record, this was his favorite tune, and every time I listen to the record I find myself hitting repeat on this track.
In O Heart Bereaved and Lonely (text by Fanny Crosby), Sandra sings “O cling to thy Redeemer, Thy Savior, Brother, Friend / Believe and trust His promise to keep you till the end / O watch and wait with patience, and question all you will / His arms of love and mercy are round about thee still”. I love just about everything that Sandra sings, but her voice seems particularly suited to this type of lyric. The album is worth its price just for this song.
As I mentioned before, I like Indelible Grace for giving me lyrics that I can (most of the time) sing honestly, lyrics that focus on the character of God and not my feelings about Him. In The Hours is another example of this. The opening lines are “In the hours of pain and sorrow, when the world brings no relief / When the eye is dim and heavy, and the heart oppressed with grief / While blessings flee, Savior Lord we trust in Thee!”. While I can and do try to remember to thank Him for the blessings, they are not why I trust in Him. I want to trust Him “while blessings flee”, not just when they don’t. I trust because there is nothing else, not because my life will be better or more comfortable by doing so.
Wake Thy Slumbering Children can be purchased directly from Indelible Grace, and should be showing up in Christian bookstores before too long (if you frequent those types of places). If you want the leadsheets for any of these songs, they are available (for free) on the IG hymnal website. Luke Brodine transcribed these songs for Kevin, and I spent a couple days the beginning of the month helping Luke edit them. Hopefully they’ll be of some help in making these songs known to wider audiences.
If you need another reason to pick up a copy for yourself, listen to these words that Kevin wrote in the intro for the liner notes: “These hymns help us express our heart cries in words richer than our own, and open our eyes to see the beauty of a Savior who has promised the blessings we need most. We commend these hymns because we believe they have power to wake us to the reality of our great need for Jesus and open our eyes to see that we have a great Jesus for our need.”
Excellent review – I’ve heard of Indelible Grace, but never listened to the music. I fall under the category of people who love to listen to the old hymns and enjoy seeing them brought back to life. I’ll definitely be checking them out.
Hi,
I put your review over at http://www.igracemusic.com/forum/
Thank you,
A fellow Indelible Grace fan
PS
“Luke Brodine transcribed these songs for Kevin, and I spent a couple days the beginning of the month helping Luke edit them”
Thank you for the work you did to help with Igrace V!
Interesting thoughts. While I understand the thoughts about singing words we don’t necessarily live, sometimes I consider the vehicle or simply put: Hymns v Choruses.
We had one particular older gentleman in our church who stands staunchly and defiantly silent when we sing choruses. He even turns down his hearing aid. He sings along when we sing the ‘sacred’ hymns.
Some modern choruses touch my soul and encourage me better than the hymns. Are the hymns old and stale from repetition? Some hymns inspire and encourage. The hymns have survived the ages for a reason.
In reality I don’t surrender all, but I try. But the attempt to die daily isn’t the problem. Absence of intelligence in my fellow beings is killing me. I try to renew my mind and forfeit my rights and help my fellow man. I’ll try to pick up some of these tunes. Maybe they can nurture my quest to be less like me and more like Him.
Steve,
I would say that Robert doesn’t sing along to the choruses for their syncopated rhythms and strong beats on 2 and 4 as much or more so than in protest of their lyrics. But I do see what you’re saying. I’m not trying to advocate, in any way, a complete rejection of choruses and uncritical embrace of hymns. Just as there exist many bad hymns (although many that fall into that category have been lost to history), there are plenty of good choruses being written today – we sing a number of them at my church. In fact, we are working on an album featuring songs that have been written in my church that should be out in a couple of months.
Case in point about bad hymns: I remember one sermon about three years ago when Doc preached a message from the Psalms, a pretty good message, one that talked about trusting God even when everything is going wrong. And then, for the invitation, the song leader choose a hymn, unwittingly no doubt, (I’ve forgotten which one, I have it written down somewhere) that was basically a point-by-point rebuttal of the sermon. But nobody noticed, because it was a familiar and cherished hymn! Nobody cared what they were singing! So I’m glad for music, like Indelible Grace, that makes the familiar non-familiar, that gives me a second chance to think about what I’m singing.
Nice reference to I Surrender All. I think I would differentiate it from lyrics like “you’re all I want”, because it is more of a declaration of what I want to be, what I try to be, than a description of what my feelings are. And that comes back to a main difference between a lot of hymns and choruses – do they focus on the character of God or on my feelings?
I just know that I need to sing lyrics that reflect, not “I believe, and everything is great!”, but “I believe, help my unbelief.”