Where You Lead

2009-05-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

This song was written in response to a direct request from my senior pastor to have a song to close each of our services that would function as a sort of signature song for our congregation and that would leave us thinking missionaly as we leave from church each Sunday.
Lyrically, I had a number of thoughts that came together to form this song. For the first verse I was thinking of sowing and reaping and hoped to challenge us to think about being led by God as we go through the week and intentionally looking for opportunities to sow seeds as we go, wherever God may lead. I was also hoping to challenge each one of us to consider whether we might be the answer to the prayer in Mark 9:37 in which Jesus tells his disciples that "The harvest in plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
The second verse takes a line from our vision statement when it says "I will Proclaim your kingdom Lord, and attempts to communicate the idea found in Acts 1:8 which speaks of being witnesses locally and to the ends of the earth. We have an amazing message of love and hope to share!
Of course words are only one part of our witness, and our actions had better back up what we say, both in order to validate what we speak and also to glorify God (which is worth while in and of itself). This is the basic message of the chorus.
Musically I had a lot of fun with this as well. It started off being a bit slower and a bit more mellow but as we began to play the song in rehearsals it started developing a groove all of its own and transforming a bit. It really came together musically, however, with the addition of the horns. I stole the horn line from Elvis' CC Rider (and just about every other 60's soul tune for that matter), and condensed it to fit as a response to the vocal lines. It all came together to become what is now our Sanctuary Milton mini-anthem, and definitely a signature song four our congregation!

Beautiful

2009-05-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

I wrote this song for some dear friends, part of our church family, who sensed a call back to the international mission field (they had served in Cambodia before becoming a part of our church family in Canada.) We prayed with them as they began the process of discerning where God would have them serve next. During a conversation one day, I asked them to share with me some of the scripture that God had used to call them into missions, and one of them shared a passage from Romans 10. In this chapter Paul shares his heart that his own people (the Israelites) would come to faith and be saved. As a part of that discussion Paul lists the conditions necessary to call on Christ and be saved. This list is found in Romans 10:14-15, and is the verse that Go used to call them to Missions and upon which my song is based:

¹⁴How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

I sat down one afternoon and started strumming some chords and humming a melody with the intention of working these words of scripture to fit. To my surprise I did not have to work very hard at all as they seemed to just fall into place. We sang this for them the very next Sunday at their commissioning service.
It took about a year of prayer, a time of family grieving after the loss of a nephew, more prayer and then a time of training but God finally reveled to them a place to serve and they have been overseas serving for almost six months now.

"Beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

Behind the Songs

Where You Lead

Beautiful