Forever Reign

I'm starting a new blog series. You know what this means, you guys won't be hearing from me for a while. You're prayers are answered. Instead, you'll be hearing from some close friends of mine who are either worship leaders, have been worship leaders, or are involved in some type of ministry at their church that invokes and aids worship. My challenge to them was simple: write me a blog that dissects a modern song that you are either playing or have recently heard in the church. I wanted to hear their thoughts on the theological relevance of what we are singing in corporate worship. I love the generation that I'm a part of and have the opportunity to lead. We are so passionate and long to experience God and not just view Him from a distance. However, along with that emotion comes a heavy dependence on our worship being simply "something with a good beat and cool guitar parts." It can become a dangerous game if we do not step back from time to time and make sure we believe what we are singing. My goal was to selfishly learn from some of my friends that have experience with worship, and in turn hope that you can learn something as well. Maybe they will grow to love a song more strongly, maybe they will decide it's no longer appropriate for their service. I'm very excited to see how it turns out and I hope you guys join me over the next month as we dive deep into modern day worship.

My first guest blogger is one of my great friends, Jason Dunton. Jason and I were brosephs at DBU, roommates, bandmates, and just good friends above all else. If you know Jason, you know he is about as solid as a guy can get. He is one of those guys who has never had a bad day, even if he's currently going through one. He is always so positive, and is a scriptural beast to say the least. His original songs are more often than not pulled directly from the Psalms, and he does them justice. I can't tell you how much he means to me as a man of God, and I have read this blog over and over learning from him. I hope you get just as much out of it as I did.


A friend of mine and fellow worship leader recently told me about a new blog series he is putting together on the theological accuracy and relevance of modern worship songs. He offered an invitation to me and few others to participate in the series, to which I graciously accepted. Along with this invite he communicated his desire for us to choose a modern praise song and evaluate it's theology and relevance. Is it biblically sound/ theologically accurate? Is it relevant? Do we even know what we're singing? Are these songs truly stirring up the hearts of God's people towards Him? These are the questions he wanted us to answer in our evaluation of the song we would choose. I greatly appreciate his heart in asking these hard questions, and challenging us to examine the songs that we often sing. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Prov. 27:17.

As someone who leads worship multiple times a week, it's easy to neglect this principle and just plug in the catchiest, the latest, or the most trending songs at our disposal. By God's grace, the Holy Spirit (as well as leaders like my friend) always give me great caution as to the danger of this practice. I'm reminded that it's incredibly vital as leaders to never present anything before our people before we ourselves have wrestled with it in light of the scriptures. We must always prayerfully strive to only bring elements into our times of corporate worship (whether it's an auditorium of 700 or a living room of 20) that primarily glorify God and secondarily teach, disciple, encourage, and nourish our people. This means testing EVERY song that we want to present, from the call to worship to the special music. "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15)

I have to admit. This assignment was not that hard. It's extremely difficult for me to NOT be hyper-critical of songs in general but especially ones that are meant to draw us into a private or corporate time of intimacy with Christ. So when asked to do so, I can with relative ease. To be honest, the first time I hear a new worship song, I automatically slip into my proverbial "Worship Pastor lab coat" (I so wish that was a real thing) and begin to dissect it. My jumping point is always the same: lyrics. What good is brilliant instrumentation, creative production, and solid performance if the lyrics are suspect, theologically inaccurate, or just outright dumb? As I am writing this I am replaying a video in my head, one that I'm sure you've seen on YouTube. If there was a way to scrub something out of your brain, I would definitely utilize it for this. The video is of a guy, who looks strikingly similar to the dude from the TGI Friday's commercials with the frosted tips, leading a youth rally while twirling a sock around his head. As he's twirling, he singing,or chanting, or chinging: "You spin my head right round, right round like a record Jesus...". Ugh. I just threw up in my mouth a little. There's a LOT more I could say about this... but I digress.

Anyways, my point is that the content of our songs should always take a very high priority, even over performance. Don't get me wrong, style and performance DO play an important role. We should always strive for excellence in our performance as we are doing it unto the Lord. It's really difficult to get people to listen to a great message when the messenger sounds like a garbage disposal. Anyone who has ever been to "Talent Night" at a Youth Camp can testify to this. But if I am going to lean heavily on one and not the other, it will be substance every single time. Style alone can draw a crowd for a season but ultimately accomplish little to nothing in the arena of nourishing our sanctification and urging us unto Christ-likeness. God's Word never returns void. Ever.

The song I have chosen to evaluate is 'Forever Reign' written by Jason Ingram and Reuben Morgan. This song has absolutely exploded over the past year and has been included on various projects including albums from One Sonic Society, Passion, Shane and Shane, and Hillsong. It is also part of our regular rotation at HBC Houston. The story behind the song as well as the demonstration on how to play it are below.


First thing:
In answering the theological questions about FR, I guess the best way to go about this, or at least the way I'm going to do it, is to address each section of the song with scripture and break it down line by line. In this case, I'll divide it into 3 parts: the verses, the chorus, and the bridge. Here we go:


The Verses:

You are good, you are good when there's nothing good in me
We see a few things here:
God is good: Ps. 25:8, Na. 1:7, Matt. 19:17, Zech. 9:17, Rom. 2:4.
We are not: Gen 8:21, Deut. 32:10, Job 4:17-19, Acts 8:23, Rom. 3:9-20
Christ's sacrifice and The Holy Spirit make us new: Gal. 5, 2 Corin. 5:17

You are love, You are love on display for all to see
1 John 1:7-8, Eph. 3:16-21, John 3:16, Eph, 2:4-5, Ps. 36:5-7

You are light, You are light when the darkness closes in
John 8:12, Matt. 5:14, John 9:1-41, Isaiah 58

You are hope. You are hope , You have covered all my sin
Couple of things:
God is hope/ Our hope is in Christ:
Ps. 119:114, Ps 31:24, Ps. 39:7, Lam. 3:24, Rom. 15:4, Eph. 1:18. Acts 24:15, Col 1:27
Christ is the propitiation for our sins:
1 Cor. 15:3, 1 John 1:9, Ps. 51, Is. 43:25, Matt. 26:28, Eph, 1:7, Col. 1:14, Rev. 1:5

You are peace You are peace when my fear is crippling
Ps. 27:4, Ps. 29:11, Is. 9:6, Is. 26:3, Is. 54:10, Mal. 2:5, Matt. 11:28-30, John 14:27, John 16:33, Rom. 5:1, 2 Corin. 13:11, 1 Corin 14:33, 2 Thess. 3:16

You are true, You are true even in my wandering
1 John 5:20, John 15:1, Luke, 2 Corin. 1:18, Ps. 19:9, Luke 15:11-32

You are joy, You are joy, You're the reason that I sing
Ps 16:9-11, Luke 10:17-24, Ps. 4:7, Phil. 4:4, Ps. 122:1, 1 Chron. 16:27, Zeph. 3:17, Ps. 33:1-3, Rom. 5:3, Is. 51:11. Rom. 15:13

You are life, You are life, in You death has lost it's sting
John 3:16, Gal. 2:20, Rom. 6:23, John 11:25, John 10:10, John 14:6, John 17:3, Heb. 4:12, Gen. 2:7

You are more, You are more than my words will ever say
Ps. 8:1-4, Ps. 18:4-5, Job 38:22, Ps. 93:1-2,

You are Lord, You are Lord, all creation will proclaim
Ps. 19:1, Romans 1:20, Phil. 2:9-11, Ps. 24:1-2, Ps. 46:8-10, Ps. 97:1-6

You are here, You are here, in Your presence I'm made whole
Ps. 16:11, James 4:8. Matt. 18:20, Matt 28:20

You are God, You are God, of all else I'm letting go
Phil 3:7-14, Matt 19:27, Matt 8:22, Jer. 32:27, Ex. 20:1-17

The Chorus:

Oh I'm running to Your arms, I'm running to Your arms
Ps. 18:32-36
The riches of Your love, will always be enough
Rom. 11:33-36, Eph. 3:14-21, Eph. 2:4-7
And nothing compares to Your embrace
Gal 3:23-29, Rom. 10:11, Deut. 31:6, Ps. 23, Ps. 30:10-12,
Light of the world, forever reign
Rev. 11:15, 2 Sam. 18:29, Is. 9:6-7, 2 Sam. 7:16, Luke 2:10-11, Dan. 2:20-22


The Bridge:

My heart will sing no other name : Jesus, Jesus
2 Sam. 22:50, Ps. 13:6, Ps. 18:49, Ps. 30:12, Ps. 57:7, Eph. 5:19, 1 Corin. 14:15, Col. 3:16, Heb. 12, 13.

Secondly, as to the relevance of FR:

This song not only ascribes glory, honor, and praise to God, but it also teaches us about the nature and character of God. This is what makes it so powerful. It has a profoundly simple melody (very singable, but not melodically boring), congregational appeal brought by it's predictable meter (repetitive, easy to learn), and the artistic creativity of the instrumentation (the drum cadence is awesome). This song oozes "relevance". It's a song that teaches about God and leads people to God. There's not much more you could ask for from a corporate worship song.

So that's my boy Jason breaking down one of my new favorite worship songs. Next week I'll have a new one from another friend, so I hope you keep coming back. I posted a link to Forever Reign below. I tried to be all techy and post the video, but there was an error posting it, so I've gotta go old school and you'll just have to copy the link into your browser. See you guys soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVFLZH0LlNc&feature=player_embedded