“Our efforts in creating this hymnal are geared at building a resource in which both praise and protest coexist, in which our admiration for the integrity of the kingdom of God is juxtaposed with a similar passion to challenge and root out injustice in our world. Our hope is that the marriage of the two will catalyze God’s people to become a real and transformative prophetic voice in the corrupt and unjust systems in which we live.
In recent times, in Christianity, we have excelled in the practice of praise, but not been exercising the muscle of protest much. Yet, there are many issues in our broken world that need addressing. Therefore, our building of a library that contextualizes our worship in the issues ranging from racism to sexual abuse to excessive capitalism to gender equality to gun violence to extreme poverty to the dignity of the LGBT community to the environment to mental illness to propaganda to war to capital punishment, and the list goes on. “
The Kingdom is Yours
Blessed are the ones who do not bury
All the broken pieces of their heart
Blessed are the tears of all the weary
Pouring like a sky of falling stars
Blessed are the wounded ones in mourning
Brave enough to show the Lord their scars
Blessed are the hurts that are not hidden
Open to the healing touch of God
The kingdom is yours, the kingdom is yours
Hold on a little more, this is not the end
Hope is in the Lord, keep your eyes on him
Blessed are the ones who walk in kindness
Even in the face of great abuse
Blessed are the deeds that go unnoticed
Serving with unguarded gratitude
Blessed are the ones who fight for justice
Longing for the coming day of peace
Blessed is the soul that thirsts for righteousness
Welcoming the last, the lost, the least
Blessed are the ones who suffer violence
And still have strength to love their enemies
Blessed is the faith of those who persevere
Though they fall, they'll never know defeat
“It’s time for the collaborative culture of “the priesthood of believers” to be restored as the ecosystem for kingdom life, and consequently the framework for worship and ministry.
Step number one is to virally spread this idea in every nook and cranny of the church, spurred on by Victor Hugo's famous quote: "There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come."