This week a latest set of worship songs is released, written by a few of the UK’s most outstanding song-writers, guided by theologians.
The project is named ‘Boundless’, because the songs worship a God who cares and is intimately involved in every aspect of our lives, including our places of labor.
The lead track is ‘As we go’. It is an honest try and re-institute the concept of a ‘Song of Dismissal’ which sadly so often has been forgotten in our rush to a ‘time of ministry’ at the tip of a service – at times, just focused on us quite than the world we’re leaving the room to serve.
Yes after all we’re asking for a fresh infilling of his Spirit that we would pour ourselves out to the world, but culture eats strategy for breakfast, and the incremental impact of an ‘in-the-room’ focus can leave us with a more individualised lens on our faith.
In the words of ‘As we go’ we speak to one another in addition to God, encouraging those present to ‘go within the strength of the Lord’ and ‘keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, his Spirit will lead us’.
As Mark Greene from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) has often said, in every decade because the Second World War, a special theologian has won the theological battle when it comes to the secular-sacred divide. The concept that what happens ‘in church’ is in some way more essential than what happens in ‘the world’. Its lingering influence is the explanation we’ve got to fight hard for our Christian young people to aspire to be politicians as much as worship leaders is only one example!
The divide has nonetheless been obliterated. The battle has been conclusively won by the likes of John Stott and Leslie Newbiggin etc.
But Greene goes on to say something scarily profound. He says that the battle has been won, but that it has never led to a functional change within the Church. Our ecclesiology has not caught up with our missiology. We happily embrace a holistic gospel and long for the transformation of all of society – for the Kingdom to are available in all its fullness, but when you do an audit of where churches invest their money and time, the overwhelming majority are still invested within the gathered quite than the scattered church.
We can’t appear to get away from attempting to placed on the very best show possible, and even worse, attempting to be the very best show on the town. Our time, roles and funds are mostly engaged with our buildings and services. Where is the investment within the places where our people spend most of their time? Where is the particular training? Where is the commissioning of all of the people quite than simply the ‘skilled Christians’?
“Keep your faith within the Father, his Spirit will scatter us all.”
This line puts front and centre the reality that it’s his will that we be ambassadors in our day by day lives, and that if we might only heed the decision, he would place us strategically in every corner of society.
This song was written after the songwriters involved had been taken on a tour of Parliament, praying and singing their way around those hallowed halls. Something shifted. The songs that were written after the visit were tangibly different to those before the trip. The heads and hearts of the writers were not only in ‘sanctuary’ mode regurgitating ‘sanctuary language’ which frequently fails to straddle into the real-world contexts by which we discover ourselves.
Perhaps just possibly, the pre-eminence of our gatherings is one in all the things we’d like to let go of. As the chorus says, “Let your Kingdom come, let our kingdoms go …”
Some backstory: for a number of years, LICC and myself had been working on a project called ‘Changing the Soundtrack’. It’s based on the fact that you would be able to’t change a culture until you alter its language. The words we sing because the Church have develop into a primary type of spiritual formation, yet quite than curating this culture-forming space, we’ve got largely outsourced that responsibility to the wilderness of the marketplace. Out there, often whatever is newest, shiniest and best promoted tends to grab the eye.
The first fruits of this partnership were the brand new hymn ‘We Seek Your Kingdom’ which went viral as we emerged from lockdown, with the decision to “transform, revive and heal society”.
‘Boundless’ has been formed by the organic coming together of a few of the UK’s most gifted songwriters with razor-sharp theologians. A camp took place in 2024 where songwriters collaborated with three or 4 others in a room combined with a theologian, there to make sure theological consistency and throw in concepts and thoughts. The fruit from that process was remarkable.
In a musical world often dominated by ego and celebrity, it was truly inspiring to see writers and artists travel a whole bunch of miles to easily sing one verse or sing backing vocals for his or her fellow writers. This project has obviously grabbed the hearts of those involved, and also you get the sense that the artists understand its potential impact on the UK Church, and have subsequently been willing to sacrifice a lot of their time and energy.
The songwriters/artists involved in ‘Boundless’ are Lou Fellingham, Noel Robinson, Philippa Hanna, Graham Kendrick, Elle Limebear, Steph McLeod, Lucy Grimble, Jemimah Paine, Andy Flannagan, Sam Hargreaves, Joel Payne, Nick Herbert, Laura Farrar, Steve Renswick, Nathan Jess, Marc James, and Donna Akodu.
The co-writers on ‘As we go’ were Marc James, Jemimah Paine, Nick Herbert, Andy Flannagan and Rev Graham Hunter. It is published by Integrity Music and London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.
