This week I’d like to share something I’ve observed from being involved in leading worship. To help me prepare for worship, I have accumulated a vast array of resources (and instruments – shush! Don’t tell Fran!). The songs I regularly use I keep in a file and, because I’ve not fully adjusted to the digital world, they’re all paper copies, stored alphabetically.
For years I’ve been aware that there is one letter of the alphabet that is disproportionally represented in my collection. It’s the letter ‘I’. The picture below shows two piles of songs. The larger pile is songs beginning with ‘I’, the smaller pile songs beginning with ‘J’.
I don’t have a problem with the songs beginning with ‘I’. The idea of these songs is to enable us to connect with God, and I fully intend to continue to use all the songs I have whatever letter they begin with.
However, I can’t help looking at that ‘I’ pile every time I prepare worship. How did we end up with so many worship songs beginning with ‘I’? And what happened to the name of Jesus?
On Sunday, we deliberately took a step away from the ‘I’ pile. We worshipped to songs that took any and every excuse to call out and worship the name of Jesus; our friend, our Saviour and our companion. The Jesus who loves us and died for us, the Jesus who wants to spend time with us so we can get to know each other better. As the songwriter Martin Smith writes, “what a friend I’ve found!”
Go Deeper & Reflect
Below I’ve attached the verses that was read to us on Sunday from the book of John, and there is also one of the songs we sang.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servant, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other. – John 15:9-15
