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Living in the Family of God

December 9th, 2011 | Posted in articles | No Comments
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Introduction

In the last quarter of 2011 I led Emmaus Church through a sermon series on knowing and experiencing the Holy Spirit. Throughout this series several themes appeared repeatedly, including the local church as the family of God. In response, a number of people in the congregation approached me with questions about precisely what this means and how it is supposed to play out in their life. Of special concern is how this idea of the church as family is to impact their relationship with their biological family and/or their own nuclear family.

Which family is to be treated as first priority?

What are my responsibilities to each family I am a part of?

What if my biological family is made up of Christians from other churches?

What role does my nuclear family play in my church family and vice versa?

Such questions cannot be answered in a simple sentence or two. Instead, each individual must apply the overall biblical theology of family to their own unique circumstances. It is my prayer that this brief document will help the Emmaus family (and others) do just that.

A Brief Biblical Theology of Family

1. God exists eternally in perfect family

God exists eternally in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of these persons is equally God (Matthew 28:19-20, 2 Corinthians 13:14) and functions in a unique role in working with the others to fulfill their unified purposes (1 Pet. 1:1-2, Jn. 5:19-30). They exist in eternal unity, mutually serving, honoring, and loving one another in the true and perfect family.

2. We are born outside of God’s family

In John 8:42-47 Jesus contradicts the idea that “we’re all God’s children.” Instead, he teaches that only those who believe in him and his words belong to God. All others belong to the Devil. Thus, since every human being is born in unbelief every human being is born a member of the Devil’s family. Our actions confirm we are alienated from God and his perfect family (Colossians 1:21) as we follow the Devil’s ways (Ephesians 2:1-3).

3. Jesus came to bring us into God’s family

As the perfect Son of God, Jesus came to transform us from enemies of God into children of God (Galatians 4:4-5, John 1:12-13). As we are united to Jesus in faith we become children of God precisely because, and only because, we are one with the true and perfect Child of God by faith (Galatians 3:26).

4. We are born into God’s family by the Holy Spirit

We only enter God’s family through faith in Jesus and we only come to Jesus in faith through the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14, 12:3). The Bible describes this as a “rebirth” whereby we are born anew by God (John 1:12-13) and his Spirit (Titus 3:5). In this new birth we are born into a new family — God’s perfect family — where Satan is no longer our father and the living God is (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6). Yet, since God has chosen to do this for countless men and women, we are not only united to God as Father but to one another as brothers and sisters.

5. The Church is God’s family and our family

Those who are in Christ have a common Father in God the Father (Romans 8:15-17, Galatians 4:6-7) and a common brother in Jesus (Romans 8:29, Hebrews 2:11). As such, every Christian is a sibling to every member of the Universal Church (the community of all Christians, in all places, throughout all times). However else we might describe our relationship to one another we are – above all else – brothers and sisters (Philemon 15-16).

6. As members of the universal Christian family we have a unique responsibility to our local church family

Just as a man may have family around the world but is uniquely and primarily responsible to and for his own household, so Christians are family to every Christian around the world but are uniquely and primarily responsible to and for the household God has placed them in. Biblically speaking, the household of God is the local church (1 Timothy 3:14-15) where we experience the most intimate family connections (1 Timothy 5:1-2). As such, it is our duty to care for those within our local congregation (1 Timothy 5:3-10), to select our own leaders (1 Timothy 3:17), submit to our own leaders (Hebrews 13:17), and provide for our own leaders’ needs (5:17-18), to use our spiritual gifts to serve our household (1 Corinthians 12-14), to carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), to restore those in our community who fall into sin (Galatians 6:1), and remove from our household those who refuse to repent (1 Corinthians 5). Christians are to fulfill these and other “one another” passages within the context of their local church.

7. Our identity as members of our local church family is of greater significance than our identity as members of our biological family

The Bible does not teach that the church is like a family or household, but that the church is God’s family and household. Those who enter into this family must leave their biological family in the process (Matthew 10:37, Luke 14:26). This does not necessarily mean that we physically leave our biological family, though there are circumstances in which this must happen (Matthew 10:34-36). It does necessarily mean that we spiritually leave our biological family and find our identity in God’s family rather than in our biological family (Galatians 3:28-29).

Jesus models this for us (Matthew 12:46-50) and his Apostle teaches it to us when he reveals that the Old Testament teaching that “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” is not ultimately fulfilled in marriage but in the local church (Ephesians 5:31-32). This is not shocking in light of the fact that the local church – not the biological family, the nuclear family, or even the Universal Church – is the temple of God wherein God’s Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16, Ephesians 2:22). No other community can provide such an intimate and profound spiritual connection.

8. Our identity as members of our local church family is of greater significance than our identity as members of our nuclear family

While marriage is created by God as a glorious institution for his glory and our good it is not eternal (Matthew 22:30). The Church, however, is eternal (Revelation 21:1-3, 9-14). Thus, our core identity is not found in our temporary role as husband/wife or father/mother but in our eternal role as a child of God and a sibling of God’s people, especially those in the household that is our local church. The New Testament epistles provide instruction for how a husband is to fulfill his unique duties to his wife (Colossians 3:19, Ephesians 5:25-33), how a wife is to fulfill her unique duties to her husband (Colossians 3:18, Ephesians 5:22-24), how parents are to fulfill their unique duties to their children (Colossians 3:21, Ephesians 6:4), and how children are to fulfill their unique duties to their parents (Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:2-3). Yet these instructions do not appear in isolation. Each of them appears within a larger context of directives for how to fulfill our unique duties to our local church (Colossians 3-4, Ephesians 3-6). Christians have significant responsibilities to their nuclear family as a small (but immensely important) portion of their equally significant responsibilities to the local church family. For this reason, many have observed that the local church is a “family of families” who do not exist independently of one another, but interdependently for one another.

Conclusion

The Scriptures place a tremendously high value on biological family and an even higher value on nuclear family. Yet as valuable as these families are, they are both overshadowed by the glories of the family of God (the church in unity with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in which Christians find their primary identity and in whom God dwells. The specific applications of this truth will vary from individual to individual but will certainly require that each individual give serious consideration to the local church before making decisions about time, resources, relationships, relocation, and life in general.

Stories Behind the Songs: God of Wrath

July 7th, 2011 | Posted in articles | No Comments
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On June 17th, 2011 Emmaus released our first CD of original songs titled, Church Songs. Each of these 8 songs was born in our congregation and for our congregation with a desire to serve other Christians and congregations around the world. You can download the CD and name your own price – even free! – at this link. Pastor Cole Brown co-wrote each of the songs and the following is the story behind one of them.

God of Wrath

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. That was certainly true with the song “God of Wrath.” I was preparing to begin a sermon series on the book of Judge and was excited for our community to hear from God through this book and encounter the ever-relevant themes found within it. The most common themes in the book are the tendency of God’s people toward idolatry, God’s righteous judgment on such idolatry, and God’s faithfulness to mercifully provide deliverance from the ultimate judgment his people to deserve.

In preaching these themes it was important that our congregation recognize that this isn’t just the experience of the ancient Israelites but that it’s also our experience. Though few of us bow to idols made of wood and stone we do the same thing in a different way. We give our love, our obedience, and our sacrifice to created people and things instead of to the Creator of all things. For that we have earned God’s wrath and deserve his judgment. Thankfully, God has raised up the true and perfect judge in Jesus Christ to deliver us from the wrathful judgment that we deserve.

Just typing those words moves me to worship and I knew that the people of Emmaus would likewise be moved to worship after hearing these truths preached from God’s Word. For this reason I wanted to ensure that we had several worship songs that we could sing together in response to this preached word. It was important to me that we found songs that spoke of these same themes, so that our response in song would match the responses of our hearts after hearing these truths. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything. I found many songs about our worship of God, but few about our idolatry. I found many songs about God’s love, but few about his wrath. And I couldn’t find any songs that connected these truths together. I was frustrated by this and didn’t know what to do. Eventually I decided I would try to write one myself.

At this time I had never written a song for our church specifically or for congregational worship in general. I wasn’t sure if I could do it. But we didn’t really have any other options at the time. So I tried. I was surprised at how quickly the words and melody came. To this day it was the easiest and quickest song that I’ve ever written, and it is also the most personal. When I wrote this song I was not writing a song for our church as much as I was repenting to God. Through my study of Judges I became increasingly aware of my own idolatry. From this increasing awareness and conviction I simply wrote down what I saw in myself.

The first verse was my confession of my idolatry in general: “We have all gone astray/we have all lost our way/we have all given chase/after gods that don’t save/we have all bowed ourselves/at the altar of self/we have all served our pride/at the cost of what’s right.”

The second verse was my confession of specific ways I saw this idolatry manifesting itself in my own life: “We have all sung the songs/we have all prayed the prayers/we have all said the words when our heart wasn’t there/we have all lived our lives/as adulterous wives/we have all spilled the blood/of the ones we should love.”

I wrote these verses first. But I had no intention of letting the song end there. I had to tell the whole story. So I wrote the chorus and then the bridge, both of which relieve the tension by confessing that we will not taste the wrath our idolatry deserves because Jesus tasted it for us. After completing the bridge I was confident that we had a song that would work for corporate worship during our series on Judges. There was only one problem: it had no music. Thankfully, my friend Jelani Greenidge came to the rescue. I sang the words and melody to him and he built the right music around it within a matter of hours (how anyone can discern a melody from my singing I am still unsure). Emmaus was able to sing the song for the first time just a few days later.

That was three years ago. The version you hear on Church Songs is a darker, stripped-down version of what Jelani and I initially composed (if you’re crafty you may be able to find the original online). While the original will always hold a special place in my heart I love how this acoustic version (from Jonathan Wold and Brandon Woods) captures a quiet mood of repentance and desperation, as that’s what I felt when I wrote it.

Stories Behind the Songs: Father to the Fatherless

July 3rd, 2011 | Posted in articles | No Comments

On June 17th, 2011 Emmaus released our first CD of original songs titled, Church Songs. Each of these 8 songs was born in our congregation and for our congregation with a desire to serve other Christians and congregations around the world. You can download the CD and name your own price – even free! – at this link. Pastor Cole Brown co-wrote each of the songs and the following is the story behind one of them.

Father to the Fatherless

As a pastor I have the privilege of doing a lot of pastoral counseling with people inside and outside of our church. As you can imagine, the counselees may be dealing with anything from the emotional stress of unemployment, to marital challenges, to sickness and the fear of death – all sorts of things. As we talk through these things together there is often one common theme that emerges: people struggle to believe that God is their father and that he is actively protecting them, providing for them, and present with them. Oftentimes they struggle to believe this partially because of the physical or emotional absence of their biological father. In such cases I often direct them to Psalm 68 where God is said to do all of these things because he is a “father to the fatherless.”

That God has chosen to reveal himself in this way is awe-inspiring. He is at once the all-powerful, transcendent ruler of the universe and ever-present, intimate father to his people. I wrote this song so that we as a congregation could be reminded of this magnificent truth and so that the fatherless among us could be reminded that we are not alone.

In doing so I tried to follow the themes of Psalm 68 without singing Psalm 68 word for word. For example, verse 1 of Psalm 68 reads, “May God arise, may his enemies be scattered; may his foes flee before him.” In the first verse of “Father to the Fatherless” we sing, “God when you arise/your enemies take flight/you’re a Father who protects.” Similarly, Psalm 68:9-10 reads, “You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance. Your people settled in it, and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.”  In the second verse of “Father to the Fatherless” we sing the same truth in different words, “When we’re running low on supply/and we don’t know how we’ll survive/you are everything/that we could ever need/you’re a Father who provides.” The third verse was similarly based on Psalm 68:19, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens” and the pre-chorus was lifted directly from Psalm 68:20, “Our God is a God who saves.”

I wrote the lyrics and melody while sitting in the Concordia University library (I was supposed to be working on my Hebrew homework) while thinking about the many fatherless people in our church and in our community at large. I was encouraged when Michael Dean offered to build a musical bed around the lyrics and melody I sang to him later that week. As we talked we decided we also wanted to add a bridge that could give the congregation further opportunity to reflect on God as our Father. We chose to do this in a sort of lyric-heavy, nursery-rhyme fashion with a musical and vocal build that would climax to end the song. Full disclosure: we were inspired by Jars of Clay’s magnificent bridges on “Worlds Apart” and “Oh My God.” While we certainly didn’t match the quality of their work, we have enjoyed singing this bridge live as it allows the congregation to rehearse in greater detail what the Bible teaches about God as our father.

Stories Behind the Songs: Hallelujah! What a Savior

June 29th, 2011 | Posted in articles | No Comments
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On June 17th, 2011 Emmaus released our first CD of original songs titled, Church Songs. Each of these 8 songs was born in our congregation and for our congregation with a desire to serve other Christians and congregations around the world. You can download the CD and name your own price – even free! – at this link. Pastor Cole Brown co-wrote each of the songs and the following is the story behind one of them.

Hallelujah! What a Savior

The story behind this song is much more a story of discovery than it is a story of creation. The lyrics to all five verses were written by Philip Bliss in 1875, but I never heard them until early 2008. While on a road trip with my wife we listened to a CD that was given to us by a friend. The CD was Upward: the Bob Kauflin Hymn Project released by Sovereign Grace music. “Hallelujah! What a Savior” was the fourth of eleven songs on the CD, and while all the songs are excellent this particular song captured me. A few weeks later I heard the song again, this time it was a darker arrangement on Mars Hill Church’s Rain City Hymnal. Again the song was one among many other well-written, well-arranged hymns but, again, this particular song stuck with me in ways the others did not. The reason for this was simple: Philip Bliss gave us a simple, memorable melody filled with the profound truths of the gospel story.

Of course most hymns speak of the truths of the gospel. But “Hallelujah! What a Savior” does more than proclaim the truths of the gospel. It walks us through the gospel story. The first verse speaks of Jesus’ first coming, the second and third verse speak of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, the fourth verse speaks of Jesus’ subsequent resurrection, ascension, and exaltation, and the fifth verse speaks of Jesus’ future second coming. As we sing each part of this story it only feels appropriate to conclude each portion with the refrain, “Hallelujah! What a Savior.”

I knew the song would be a perfect fit for the Emmaus community because we believe that the gospel (the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done) is not only the only means to becoming a Christian but also the only means to growing as a Christian. Thus, it is something we rehearse repeatedly every time we gather. This song would provide us with yet another way to do that as a church. So I called my friend Jelani Greenidge and asked him to create an R&B flavored musical bed for Bliss’ lyrics and melody. We sat with one another as he put it together and agreed that it would be nice to add a hook/chorus to complement the refrain. Jelani wrote the melody but initially we struggled to fill the melody with the right lyrics because the song already said so much so well. The next day I settled on the words you hear on the recording because they did not say anything new as much as summarize the story that Bliss’ words already told (“through your death we have died/through your life we have life”) and call us to respond appropriately (“to your throne, now we cry”).

I am grateful that Bliss gave us such a magnificent song to adapt for our own congregation over 100 years later. I will never tire of singing the gospel story with the people of God and his song allows us to do that in a powerfully simple way.

Stories Behind the Songs: Creator Sustainer Redeemer

June 27th, 2011 | Posted in articles | No Comments
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On June 17th, 2011 Emmaus released our first CD of original songs titled, Church Songs. Each of these 8 songs was born in our congregation and for our congregation with a desire to serve other Christians and congregations around the world. You can download the CD and name your own price – even free! – at this link. Pastor Cole Brown co-wrote each of the songs and the following is the story behind one of them.

Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer

I hesitate to say that I have a “favorite” Bible passage. But if you forced me to pick one I would pick Colossians 1:15-20. In this passage we find what has been called a “Christ hymn” wherein the Apostle Paul rehearses essential truths about Jesus in a rhythmic fashion that would be easy for his audience to memorize and repeat as those around them were trying to diminish Jesus’ glory. I don’t know how anyone could read this passage and not be mesmerized by the Jesus revealed in it. It reads like this,

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:15-20).

In this text we see Jesus revealed as our creator, our sustainer, and our redeemer. He is our creator in that he is “the image of the invisible God” in whom “all things were created.” He is our sustainer in that “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” And he is our redeemer in that “God was pleased…through him to reconcile to himself all things…by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” As I prepared to preach through the book of Colossians I was most excited about preaching this passage and proclaiming the excellencies of Jesus who made us, holds us together even as we turn from him, and redeems us by bringing us back to him. Yet I wanted to do more than just preach it. As I considered that Paul intentionally wrote this in what F.F. Bruce called “rhythmic prose” so that it could be easily learned and easily repeated, I wanted to put these same truths into a musical form that would be easy for the people of Emmaus to learn and repeat. So I wrote this song to an instrumental I received from my friend HR Crump.

In writing the song I followed the outline of the Colossian Christ hymn as best as I could. You’ll notice that the first verse focuses on who Jesus is as our creator, the second verse focuses on who Jesus is as our sustainer, and the bridge and vamp focus on who Jesus is as our redeemer. It is my prayer that this song could serve both as a tool for teaching and as motivation to worship. As we rehearse the doctrine of Christ through songs like this may we be more in awe of who he is and more opposed to any teachings that minimize his greatness.

Stories Behind the Songs: No One Else

June 27th, 2011 | Posted in articles | No Comments
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On June 17th, 2011 Emmaus released our first CD of original songs titled, Church Songs. Each of these 8 songs was born in our congregation and for our congregation with a desire to serve other Christians and congregations around the world. You can download the CD and name your own price – even free! – at this link. Pastor Cole Brown co-wrote each of the songs and the following is the story behind one of them.

No One Else

Psalm 73 is one of my favorite psalms. It’s one that we as a church have turned to time and time again. In this psalm the author, Asaph, begins by expressing his frustration over the state of the world. He is troubled that God’s people seem to suffer terribly while wicked people seem to prosper endlessly. In view of this apparent injustice Asaph initially thinks that perhaps he has lived righteously in vain. After all, if righteous people suffer and wicked people prosper what’s the point of living righteously? But before he can utter the words he stops himself and reminds himself who God is, what God will ultimately do to the wicked, and how God is present with his people in their suffering. As he reflects on these things he remembers that while the wicked may have money in this life he has God now and forever, and nothing could be more wonderful than that. He puts it this way, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25).

After preaching a sermon on this passage I knew that those words would be perfect for a congregational song. They capture a truth we need to be reminded of and rejoice over: that God is the greatest treasure we could ever obtain and that this greatest treasure is ours in Jesus Christ. That’s where the chorus to this song came from. The verses and pre-chorus came that same week. While on a plane flying to St. Louis I took out my computer and began to make a list of some of the ways God fulfills and surpasses our every desire: “Satisfaction for the hopeless/and forgiveness for the flawed/you are peace for the stressed and anxious/you are God.” The lyrics for the entire song were completed by the time I landed in St. Louis in October of 2008. But we didn’t sing the song in church until 2011. I simply couldn’t find the right melody.

After trying to shape the melody several times I had basically given up and placed the song in my mental file for “things I wish I could make work but will probably never finish.” Then one of our worship music leaders, Michael Dean, asked if I had any songs. I emailed him the lyrics to what would become “No One Else.” In less than an hour he replied with the song as it is now heard on our album. To get it there he had to make a lot of adjustments. In addition to creating the entire melody around the existing lyrics, he also transformed what was originally the second verse of the song into what is now the pre-chorus (“You are justice for the victim/you are riches for the poor/you are Father for the orphan/you are Lord…”). This turned out to be very wise as the pre-chorus is the most memorable part of the song, both melodically and lyrically.

“No One Else” is one of my favorite songs to sing with Emmaus. There’s something special about watching our entire family singing out who God is and reminding one another that God himself is enough for us regardless of life’s circumstances.

Stories Behind the Songs: Mighty Fortress

June 24th, 2011 | Posted in articles | No Comments
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On June 17th, 2011 Emmaus released our first CD of original songs titled, Church Songs. Each of these 8 songs was born in our congregation and for our congregation with a desire to serve other Christians and congregations around the world. You can download the CD and name your own price – even free! – at this link. Pastor Cole Brown co-wrote each of the songs and the following is the story behind one of them.

Mighty Fortress

In the previous post I explained how Martin Luther’s theology and songwriting inspired the song “What a Trade.”  Luther’s theology and songwriting did more than just inspire us on “Mighty Fortress.” The entire song is based on Luther’s famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” written in his native tongue of German in 1529 and translated countless times into English and other languages. Theologian James Moffatt called it, “the greatest hymn of the greatest man of the greatest period of German history.”

The song celebrates the victory of God and God’s people in the face of Satan’s lies, deceit, and other attacks.  As such, it became the “battle hymn of the Reformation” and was sung as an anthem by Luther and his contemporaries as they fought against the lies and injustices of the powerful Roman Catholic Church.

I have loved the song since I first heard it but it wasn’t until I started preaching a sermon series on spiritual warfare last year that I was convinced we had to adapt it for use in our congregation. At Emmaus we like to sing songs that match the themes we are preaching on so that our worshipful response is connected to what we just heard from God’s Word. That was very difficult to do during the spiritual warfare series as there simply aren’t that many congregational songs that fit with that theme (a special thanks to Sojourn for providing us with “Warrior,” which was perfect for the series). I couldn’t imagine a more perfect song for that series than “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to adapt it in time for the series. But I was able to adapt it eventually.

The initial challenge was finding a melody that was more consistent with the sounds of our culture. Luther’s melody was perfect for his day and time but a little complex by modern pop music standards. The second challenge was reshaping the lyrics into the language of our people. For example, “a mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing/Our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing” became “a mighty fortress is our God, a wall that never collapses/he is our help amid the flood of pain that never lapses.”

Lastly, the song needed a hook/chorus to drive the lyrical theme into our minds and hearts. I wrote that before having any music for the song. I was shocked when co-writer HR Crump sent me the track that would become “Mighty Fortress,” having never heard anything I had written for this song, and the chorus fit perfectly.

The lyrics Luther wrote in this hymn have been exceedingly meaningful to me over the years, especially through the challenges of ministry. For that reason I was especially nervous when I presented this adaptation to my wife for her approval (no song makes it out of my house until my wife approves of it). Normally I just sing her the song and wait for her to tell me whether it’s a keeper or not. This time I recorded a vocal reference on GarageBand and then left the room – nervously awaiting her response. I was relieved when she gave it a “pass” so that our congregation and others can sing out Luther’s powerful confession of God’s victory over all opposition, in our own language.

Stories Behind the Songs: What a Trade

June 23rd, 2011 | Posted in articles | No Comments
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On June 27th, 2011 Emmaus released our first CD of original songs titled, Church Songs. Each of these 8 songs was born in our congregation and for our congregation with a desire to serve other Christians and congregations around the world. You can download the CD and name your own price – even free! – at this link. Pastor Cole Brown co-wrote each of the songs and the following is the story behind one of them.

What a Trade

Martin Luther’s life and writings have had a tremendous impact on me both as a Christian and as a pastor. In fact, it was Luther’s example that led me to begin writing original songs for Emmaus’ corporate worship. In his cultural context he rediscovered what was then the lost art of congregational singing. He provided the Church with simple, easy-to-sing, easy-to-remember melodies, laced with theologically rich lyrics, so that every person could rehearse and retain deep gospel truths. He insisted that such songs be sung at every congregational gathering and believed that singing is like praying a second time. He helped me see the value of such songs for the life of the church and motivated me to do my best to provide them for our congregation.

Of course, this particular song was not just influenced by Luther the songwriter but also by Luther the theologian. One of his most famous teachings was his teaching on what he called “the wonderful exchange.” To Luther, the wonderful exchange is what happened when Christ died under God’s wrath in the place of his people. Through faith in Jesus Christ as our substitute the Christian gives her sin and the punishment for her sin to Jesus and Jesus gives his righteousness and the reward for his righteousness to the Christian. Luther explained it this way, “This is that mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ’s, and the righteousness of Christ not Christ’s but ours. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us with it and fill us with it; and he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them.”

This theological truth has changed my heart and life like no other. While it has always been at the center of our preaching at Emmaus I wanted it to also be at the center of our singing. To be honest, the song didn’t require much creativity at all. I simply listed the things that Christ has given to us in exchange for all he has taken from us: “My punishment for your reward/my death for your life, oh, Lord/my curse for your blessedness/and my curse for your blessedness/my filth for your cleanliness/my poverty for your riches/my enmity for your peace/and your joy for my suffering.” The most challenging part was figuring out how to make Luther’s phrase “the wonderful exchange” work melodically. After trying several times I eventually settled for a paraphrase of Luther’s great quote so that we as God’s people could marvel together, “Jesus, thank you, what a trade!”

Stories Behind the Songs: You First Chose Me

June 22nd, 2011 | Posted in articles | No Comments
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On June 17th, 2011 Emmaus released our first CD of original songs titled, Church Songs. Each of these 8 songs was born in our congregation and for our congregation with a desire to serve other Christians and congregations around the world. You can download the CD and name your own price – even free! – at this link. Pastor Cole Brown co-wrote each of the songs and the following is the story behind one of them.

You First Chose Me
The verses for this song come from a hymn written by Josiah Conder in 1836. I first heard the hymn when Matthew Smith did an acoustic rendering of it on his All I Owe album. As soon as I heard the words I knew I wanted to adapt it for use in our church because it covered a theme that few, if any, modern worship songs address: God’s sovereign election of his people.

The Apostle Paul teaches that the doctrine of election as a reason to erupt into praise and worship. We see this in Romans 11:33, 36 where, after spending several chapters explaining that God saves whom he chooses, Paul writes “Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!… For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory of forever! Amen.” In Ephesians 1 Paul writes, “praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” and then spends the rest of the chapter explaining why – because God chose us when we were unable and unwilling to choose him. Since Paul was so convinced that the doctrine of election was a reason to worship God it has always surprised me that this is something we seem to never sing about in corporate worship. I wanted to do something to change that and Josiah Conder’s hymn seemed to be the perfect lyric to do so.

One of the challenges of old hymns is that they don’t include what we would call a “chorus” or a “hook.” While hooks are not as essential in corporate worship as they are in pop music, they can be a very helpful teaching tool because they capture the theme of the song in a manner that is catchy and easy-to-remember. So my first task in adapting Conder’s lyrics into something that fit in our church was to write a hook. I wanted to write something that would summarize the main point of the song and drive into our heads and hearts both that we do not choose God (“I chose my sin/I chose idolatry”) and that we need him to choose us (“so how could I choose you/unless you first chose me?). After writing these words and the accompanying melody it became clear that I would have to change the melody of Conder’s verses to match the hip-hop feel of the new hook. HR Crump’s appropriately spacious mid-tempo, hip-hop track made that a fairly simple task.

Another element missing from old hymns is what we now refer to as a “bridge.” The purpose of the bridge is to serve as a sort of climax where the lyrical ideas of the verses and chorus are resolved. The bridge is certainly not an essential element to a congregational song but it was something we wanted to include, mainly to anchor the sometimes controversial doctrine of election in even more biblical support. I knew I wanted to sing out the truths of Romans 9 (which led Paul to respond in worship in Romans 11) and my wife, ReShawn, figured out how to make it work melodically.

To complete the transformation from ancient hymn into modern hip-hop song we called on Emmaus church member, and Humble Beast artist, Theory Hazit. His 8-bar verse is my favorite part of the song because it perfectly captures the theme of the song and is delivered in a way that is easy for the non-rappers (like myself) to rap along with. Every Christian can identify with his confession of hopelessness apart from God’s election, “I chose greed, I chose lust, yet you chose me/how could I choose you, I’m not worthy, woe is me.”

For Men Without Fathers

November 18th, 2010 | Posted in articles | No Comments
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The following was written by Emmaus’ Duoshun Pledgure.

This is my appeal to Men who didn’t have the consistency of fatherhood in their lives, just like me:
Consistency is something I value highly when it comes to the men who I consider mentors, big brothers, and/or positive influences in my life. My father was extremely inconsistent in his parenting, so when men in my life are inconsistent it can affect me very negatively. When the men in my life aren’t men of their words, or when they break promises, it can sometimes cause me to categorize them dealing wrath instead of mercy & grace. It can cause me to put the guard back up that I once let down to trust them. It can make it very tough for me to relate to them past their last shortcoming.

Also there are things in my life that I struggle to conquer as a result of never having those things demonstrated or taught to me as a young man. Some of my biggest struggles in life are in some way attached to the lack of male leadership in the home environment I grew up in. Many fundamental things about manhood I learned from a woman (my mother). And the other things that she couldn’t teach, I learned on my own either from good sources or skewed sources. One of my greatest fears is failing to be able to love and serve my family as a husband & as a father because I never had that example growing up.

By now you may be asking, “why does hearing about my issues matter?” Well the reason I share this information transparently is for the sake of encouraging and challenging men who are just like me.

I am open and aware of these struggle in my life and I am working through it daily to change my perception and my response to them. But the truth is, there are so many of us (men) who deal with “father issues” but never address them. Men who never talk about the lasting effects of not having their father in their lives. Men who never admit how broken their perception of manhood & authority is because they never saw their father be a father, a husband, a provider, a protector, a man. I wrote this to encourage men to begin that dialogue today.

Men it is time we lay aside the weights that cripple our manhood in these particular areas. It is time to confront those fears of failure that come from never having an example of what you are currently trying to be and master. It is time to admit that we need help, that we need wisdom and grace, that we need examples. It is time to heal and grow through these issues instead of suppressing them as if they don’t exist. It is time to be open, honest, and transparent.

We have to deal with these issues, we have to be real about how they affect us as men. We have to be an open book with the men in our lives that are dedicated to mentoring & being a positive influence in our lives, letting them know the struggle that threatens how we relate to them. And we have to establish a view/belief of God as the loving, caring, consistent, perfect FATHER He is and live out the reality of what that means for the fatherless.

If we do not these issues will continue to eat away at us. They will continue to mock and torment us mentally and emotionally. They will give us the wrong motivation for pursuing manhood. They will destroy us. It is time to throw away every false perception of manhood we have adapted and become real men.

“Sing to God…a Father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:4-5)

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