tag:kylematthews.com,2005:/blogs/behind-the-songs?p=2Behind the Songs2023-09-12T18:36:35-04:00Kyle Matthewsfalsetag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/72723682023-09-12T18:36:35-04:002023-11-04T00:26:20-04:00You Belong Here<p><span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong>Lev 19: 33 </strong><i>“‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. <strong>34 </strong>The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”</i></span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong>Acts 8: 34 </strong><i>The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” <strong>35 </strong>Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. <strong>36 </strong>As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”</i></span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">—————————————</span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">Notice the huge span of time and history between these two passages! They are at the temporal poles of the Bible, yet the same message speaks in both places with equal power. God’s welcome spans all of scripture.</span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">So, why doesn’t the Christian reputation better reflect it?</span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">When personal faith becomes organized religion there seems to be a universal temptation to set membership requirements and assign status. In his book <i>The Struggle to Be Free</i>, Wayne Oates says that after growing up desperately poor, uneducated and socially inept with a crippling inferiority complex, becoming a Christian came with the realization that he would never be inferior or superior to any other person. That epiphany was part of his life-changing liberation. But many are still imprisoned in the joyless, always-comparing, judgment cycle of either feeling perpetually inadequate or promoting themselves to be God’s gatekeepers!</span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">We start down that road the instant we start defining salvation as a kind of membership. Even when we’ve insisted that salvation is a gift of grace, there is still an impulse to think of ourselves as insiders and to promote ourselves to be the Grand Arbiters of who has <i>accepted </i>grace and who has’t, replacing pagan hierarchies with “Christian” ones. While this has the appearance of being authoritarian, it’s really just fear looking for an organizational remedy for insecurity. Jesus’s parable of the wheat and the tares (Mt. 13) was a nice way of telling his followers to knock it off, to relinquish the illusion of control, and to let God be God.</span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">Once we leave the clubhouse, we realize that the Bible also describes salvation as a process of sanctification, of becoming, of being made whole.<span> </span>Paul sometimes wrote that he “had been saved,” in other places that he “was being saved,” and in still other places that he “would be saved.”<span> </span>He saw himself as a work in progress. His declaration was not: <i>I’ve earned a place in heaven!</i> It was: <i>I am not the man I used to be!<span> </span>I am being redeemed and repurposed for God’s ongoing kingdom work in the world!”</i></span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">We cannot earn our salvation; we are helpless to do anything but fall upon the grace of God. And we certainly cannot “save” others. But we can submit to sanctification by leading an other-centered life and, as Paul taught the Philippians: 2: 3-4 <i>Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.’ </i>The result will be a transformation of our selves and then, consequently, our communities: the kingdom comes, here and now.</span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">This is the Bible in a nutshell: God leading God’s people from a members-only, circumcised, circumspect tribe to an in-Christ-there-is-no-</span><wbr><span style="color:#ffffff;">difference church. Old world, pagan membership clubs replaced with community servants practicing justice and mercy, humility and hospitality.</span></wbr></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">I once met a man who had recently been baptized as an adult. I asked him about his experience. He said, “This church sure cared a lot more about me before I got saved.”</span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">In the membership mentality, once a person is deemed “saved” they are considered to be a completed project. This enables insiders to remain essentially unchanged, causing churches to limp along essentially unchanged, and leaving the communities around them unchanged, all while they smugly sing: “when we all get to heaven,” another convenient distraction from self- examination.</span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">But in the sanctification mentality, all are sinners, all are broken, and the potter is still at work so that transformed people can transform society, which is, ultimately, what pleases God.<span> </span>From that perspective, there is always more room to grow, more work to do, more hospitality to be extended, more discoveries to be made, more joy to be celebrated.</span></p><p><span style="color:#ffffff;">We don't have to wait for heaven to experience that. The joy we seek is found precisely in those places where we offer to others the belonging we so deeply long for for ourselves.</span><br><br><a class="no-pjax" href="/songbooks-and-sheet-music" target="_blank"><span style="color:#ffffff;">/songbooks-and-sheet-music</span></a></p>Kyle Matthewstag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/51046052018-02-28T21:30:29-05:002023-12-10T14:35:01-05:00The Strange Saga of "We Fall Down"<p>I wrote “We Fall Down” in season of life when two things were happening. The CCM music industry was moving very quickly toward an almost exclusive diet of “praise music,” and we songwriters were being specifically asked to avoid the dark themes of human frailty and failing, human relationships, human issues, and focus instead on uptempo, happy, clappy, vertically-directed love songs to God. After 9-11 especially, people wanted to be happy, to be assured, to lose themselves in confident praise of their protector God. </p>
<p>At the same time, my denomination was fighting and splintering, and accusing one another of heresy, and the five or six most gifted preachers in moderate Baptist life were forced to leave the professional ministry because of personal failings. How sadly ironic, I thought, when the Church, composed of people who consider themselves to all be “sinners saved by grace,” becomes selective about that grace when it comes to their own. Instead of passing along the forgiveness we claim to have received, the Church has sometimes ostracized those who disappoint us as if they have brought a contagion into our camp, even though the testimony of Romans 3:23 is that we each have that germ already: All have sinned. All. But no publishers were asking for songs on that passage! </p>
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<p>It reminded me of a story I heard John Claypool tell when I was very young. The oldest source I've been able to find for the story I found in a book by Catholic nun Sister Joan Chittister, and even she references it as simply “an ancient tale” without attribution. It was the story of a medieval peasant, a poor traveling tinker, who passed a walled monastery that was a self-contained village. They grew their own crops, they had their own well water, and everything was pristine and clean. In a brutally hard, poverty-stricken age, they were self-sufficient. They didn’t appear to have to struggle in the world like he did. One day the peasant saw a monk from the monastery seized the chance to ask him: ‘What is it like to live there?’ To his dismay the priest said simply, “We fall down and we get up.” </p>
<p>That was the end of the story. But it spoke volumes to me about the difference between superficial realty and spiritual reality. I thought it might be the beginning of a song. It took me forever to write it because the entire story had to be told before the chorus, and because conventional song form demands a second verse, I had to figure out what should come next without being unfaithful to the story or preaching too much, and I had to find a way back to the chorus. I wound up writing 23 second verses over 18 months before settling on the one I chose. I recorded it on an indie CD called “Waking Up to the World,” and my publisher began pitching the song to established artists. </p>
<p>After five or six years of rejection, the song was recorded by Bob Carlisle on an album called “Stories from the Heart”-- his follow up to his multi-million-selling hit “Butterfly Kisses”-- and Bob debuted the song on the 1998 Dove Awards show, the internationally televised Christian music award show. It was a huge production; he performed it with the Nashville Symphony and the Nashville Children’s Choir. Before the second verse, people were rising for a standing ovation! My publisher leaned over to me and said, “I think you’ve got a hit there!” </p>
<p>To our surprise, though, the label waited five months before getting the single to radio. Then, few Christian radio stations agreed to play it. Some of the main reporting stations said it was “too Catholic” and refused to play the song on principle, so it was a disappointment to Bob's label—and all the rest of us. Mark Lowry, of Gaither Vocal Band fame, also recorded it, producing it more faithfully to the demo, but it was never a single. The following year, it began to look like we’d had a bunch of excitement over nothing. </p>
<p>What we didn't know was that night at the Dove award show, a traditional gospel artist named Donnie McClurkin was sitting in the third balcony with Cece Winans and pop star Whitney Houston. He said they teased one another over which one of them would cover the song first. Donnie said: “I knew when I heard Bob sing the song that it was a wonderful song. I also knew most folks wouldn’t understand its power. And I knew I needed to record that song.” </p>
<p>“It wasn’t the verses that struck me,” says McClurkin. “It was the chorus. It’s the perfect summation of the Christian life. As saints, we are nothing more than sinners who fell down, but then got up again by the power and forgiveness of God. Proverbs 24:16 says ‘for a just a man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.’ It is an encouragement that no matter what situation is presented, God can recover you. No matter how many promises you’ve made and broken, He will forgive you.” </p>
<p>Record it he did, and the result was a phenomenon rarely experienced in the Christian music world: a gospel song become a secular hit. It was originally released on McClurkin’s Live in London and More CD, recorded at historic Fairfield Hall in Croyden, England. But a short time later, Donnie and his choir were performing the song at a church in the U.S. when-- to everyone’s surprise-- Stevie Wonder was led down the aisle. He said, “Donnie, I don’t interrupt performers, but that’s my story. I have to be in on this.” He went to the piano and sang and played along, and he wept. </p>
<p>Stevie Wonder owns a chain of R&B radio stations. Who knew? He made sure that the gospel song was added to their regular R&B playlists at popular stations such as KISS-FM in New York City, WGCI in Chicago, and KJLH in Los Angeles. </p>
<p>Then an amazing thing happened: the song began to get 72% more airplay on secular than Christian stations. It was in rotation on the BET network and it broke the Billboard Urban top 40, lingering in the top 50 for 36 weeks. It won the Dove for Traditional Gospel Song of the year in 2001, the Stellar Award for Song of the Year, and even the Soul Train Award! </p>
<p>Of course, the irony in all of that is that when I finally heard McClurkin’s version of the song, the verses were gone! When recording the song in London, Donnie couldn't remember the verses, so he just left them off, which is not only illegal, it also opened the door for some pretty drastic misinterpretations of the song. One artist said to me “That's not how you get saved!” Without the verses, there was very little lyric to provide clarity. </p>
<p>I have no platform to speak to those issues and stem the tide of criticism. It’s painful to be misunderstood, and the larger the scope of the misunderstanding the worse that feeling is. But that's the diabolic nature of fame: we are never in control of it. All I had tried to say with my song was this: on the inside of the church fence as well as the outside; we all struggle. There are no exceptions. It is our common ground. It is the human condition. To deny it is folly. The only antidote is the grace of God. With that cure, we have the chance to become a community of mutual understanding and compassion. </p>
<p>Thankfully, the personal stories of the song’s influence have proven to be far more meaningful and encouraging to me than all the awards and attention. I’ve heard stories from celebrities and children in an inner city Atlanta classroom. The many references made to it on television from Oprah to Steve Harvey to Jesse Jackson have indicated that it’s also been the subject of many thoughtful private conversations. One African American pastor told me, “you have no idea what that song means in the black community.” It’s more evidence that the song was never mine to control in the first place. </p>
<p>So, a song intended for the church was essentially rejected. But through the Traditional Gospel community, it became my first Billboard Top-40 hit, and ultimately-- and miraculously-- it became a message of encouragement to the larger secular world which, I believe, wishes the church could bring itself to be honest and confessional about its struggles and treat others with the grace and mercy that each of us so desperately needs. </p>
<p>The bad news about publishing is you have to let your stuff go where you can no longer control it, and you can never predict how it will be utilized. But there's another sense in which it's clear that if any of us who wrote, published or recorded the song had tried to control it, we might have chosen a very different path, and we would have robbed ourselves of the joy of seeing all the surprising things God has managed to do with it.</p>Kyle Matthewstag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/50963732018-02-23T19:20:19-05:002023-12-10T13:57:21-05:00Prayer after yet another mass shooting<p>Several folks have asked for the prayer I prayed last Sunday after the Parkland massacre. Are any words adequate? I don't think so. But here's an effort I hope helps.</p>
<p>peace,</p>
<p>Kyle</p>
<p>--------------------</p>
<p>Pastoral Prayer, kyle matthews, first baptist greenville 2/18/18 </p>
<p> </p>
<p>O God, we need you this day. We gather here from the gamut of life experiences </p>
<p>some of us exalting in the beauty of this day and the many blessings we enjoy </p>
<p>others of us come so low, so burdened, so worried, so grief-stricken we could barely dress ourselves. </p>
<p>But we come with one voice of thanksgiving that we are yours, that you love each of us, </p>
<p>and that there is no circumstance where you are not present and at work… </p>
<p>…even in Parkland, Florida, where, in the wake of yet another horrendous and pointless explosion of violence </p>
<p>your people are crying out “how long, O God?” </p>
<p>As others react in their way, guide your church first toward empathy for those most directly and personally affected. </p>
<p>Be close to those families in abject grief this morning, and help us be unafraid to feel pain along with them. </p>
<p>And move us from a sense of helplessness to a greater sense of responsibility as your people. </p>
<p>Show us again that we cannot expect peace where we persist in </p>
<p>isolating ourselves, stigmatizing and marginalizing mental illness </p>
<p>and turning a deaf ear to the cries for help of those around us </p>
<p>Convict us that we cannot expect things to get better </p>
<p>when we participate in the celebration of violence as entertainment </p>
<p>guns as toys, and vengeance as a solution, if not a salvation. </p>
<p>Forgive us, O God, for spending more effort </p>
<p>protecting our rights than we spend protecting our children </p>
<p>and for so quickly hurling blame as we shirk our responsibility for troubled persons </p>
<p>you have so clearly called us to love and care for. </p>
<p>And heal us of the delusion of thinking that because we never hit anybody </p>
<p>we haven’t damaged one another </p>
<p>Expose our own verbal violence, our weaponized words and emotional blackmail… </p>
<p>Remind us that the first victims are those closest to us </p>
<p>And that we cannot harm others without harming ourselves. </p>
<p>We come to you this hour under the conviction that worship </p>
<p>is the cure for all our violence, </p>
<p>worship that centers our lives on you, so that we can be centered and calm </p>
<p>mindful that all things are yours, grateful for what we have, </p>
<p>capable of forgiveness and release. </p>
<p>And send us from this place full of the courage of knowing there is no danger </p>
<p>that we cannot face in your name, </p>
<p>and that you go ahead of us to work your will in the world. </p>
<p>Send us with the knowledge that when we casually ask, “how are you?” </p>
<p>the answer might hold existential importance, </p>
<p>And that being your open-eyed, open-eared, open-hearted, </p>
<p>and ever-vigilant people </p>
<p>might be a matter of life and death. </p>
<p>Amen.</p>
<p> </p>Kyle Matthewstag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/40518872016-02-20T17:08:23-05:002023-12-10T12:08:13-05:00A Dream Worth Dreaming<p><span class="font_large"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/119174/11ee91e4cb6b7ef36923ab21277d3960dda6f7cd/medium/img-1205.jpeg?1412176410" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" />When Kenneth and Lisa Lee Rust became aware of the desperate need in their community for a shelter for women and children, they brought together churches, city leaders, social services professionals, and caring donors to do something about it. Their vision was to give a generous gift to the city: a modern facility complete with a kitchen and a live-in social worker to provide leadership, aid and security for the guest families. <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/119174/07b633349c65e04c8026c57905c41144ce0388bc/medium/exterior1.jpg?0" class="size_m justify_right border_" /> Last year, they invited me to do a fund-raising concert in support of this project, which was a gift to m</span><span class="font_large">e as well; an opportunity to connect what the songs try to say with their real-world expression of compassion. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">As 2016 arrived, so did these beautiful photos of the final product: a flourishing new ministry born of a lived-out faithfulness to the teachings and example of Jesus. The Rusts know that it is always the right time to do the right thing, it is never wrong to be generous, and it is more blessed to give than to receive. What can you say, but “Wow”? <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/119174/164fcce848ebe601a3492c0441f3d709b7c299aa/medium/bunks.jpg?0" class="size_m justify_left border_" /></span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">Is there some need in your neighborhood that might be helped by a fund-raising concert, an awareness-raising worship service, or an educational retreat? Call me and let’s see what we can create together! </span><br> </p>
<p><span class="font_regular"><em>Go within <br>Cease and desist <br>Rest and resist the urgent voices </em><br><em>Let God lead you <br>To a dream worth dreaming <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/119174/8fecf3b4bfa0a6db42e4a18d2f51b0cc0da35b5b/medium/plaque.jpg?0" class="size_m justify_right border_" />The love that gives life its meaning <br>Dream it, and then <br>Start again</em></span></p>Kyle Matthewstag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/32675462014-11-05T11:21:56-05:002023-12-10T12:08:12-05:00Professional Faux-Pas No Match for Sleeping Beauty<p><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px;">File: The Power to Bless</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica;">Talk about embarrassing… I was doing a concert for the good folks at First Baptist Church of Knoxville, in one of the most beautiful sanctuaries in the country, when, after years of writing and weeks of recording and rehearsing, I got halfway through the title track of my album “Be Here Now”… and forgot the words. I paused, admitted forgetting, made a joke to buy time, and tried again…but no, it wouldn’t come. I finally had to just start another song and move on. My audience was gracious, but, gosh, what a helpless feeling… How badly I wanted to just disappear, erase the whole evening from my mind and my audience’s mind… Yuck.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 12px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica;">After the concert, a lovely woman with long hair was one of the first in line to speak to me. She grabbed my hands and pulled me close so that I had to look into her face and could not avoid her intense stare. She then proceeded to thank me for how deeply moving and meaningful the evening had been for her at a very personal level. I was so full of embarrassment I was not able to receive that, and suspected that it was probably pity. But she left me no room to wriggle away from hearing it.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 12px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica;">As she walked away, the next person in line said: “You know who that is, don’t you?” No, I said. It was Mary Costa, the voice of Sleeping Beauty, “Aurora,” the last of the original Disney’ princesses, the opera star who sang on 44 of the world’s great concert halls from the Hollywood Bowl, to the Royal Opera House in London, to the Bolshoi in Moscow, the acclaimed artist who not only premiered Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress,” but sang on pop TV specials hosted by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dinah Shore. She sang— get this— for John F. Kennedy’s memorial service at special request of the First Lady who, in those horrible and confusing days of personal and national tragedy, wanted to hear Mary’s voice. Just type her name into Google and read for yourself the long list of lifetime achievement awards, recognitions for charity work, and honorary doctorates. </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 12px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica;">But everyone is from somewhere, and Mary was from Knoxville, where she returned in retirement. Her bio on Wikipedia includes this line as though it were very important: “she sang Sunday School solos at the age of six.”</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 12px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica;">Then, I remembered; that morning, at the end of the service, the pastor, Tom Ogburn, had walked up the aisle speaking words of personal blessing for all to hear: “Bob, I’m grateful for you and your contribution to the life of this church…” “Ashley, I look forward to your happy greeting every Sunday morning. Thank you for blessing me with your smile…” Beautiful blessings. Then he walked out of my line of vision and I only heard him say: “And Mary, I want you to know that we love you for who you are, not who you were, and we are grateful to God for all the ways you find to bless us.”</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 12px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica;">He was talking to that same Mary, who had devoted her life— not to regaling people about her glory days in the world’s spotlight— but shining the spotlight of her own blessing on others. Somewhere along the way she must have realized that most people will never know adulation, many will never get the affirmation they long for, and some may never know the blessing of God’s love and acceptance and delight. Maybe she feels that her unique opportunities came with unique responsibilities, or maybe she has simply discovered the joy of being an agent of grace.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 12px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica;">When people went to hear Jesus teach, the first words they heard were blessings. But notice <i>whom</i> he blessed: the depressed, the grief-stricken, the hard-working, victims of injustice, the forgivers, the heart-driven, those engaged in the thankless work of trying to bring about peace and reconciliation, those under persecution… maybe even those who spent their brief time in the spotlight forgetting the words to their own songs. </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 12px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 10px; font-family: Helvetica;">A blessing is not a compliment. It is not a well-deserved congratulations for a great accomplishment. It is a sacrament, a game-changer, a life-transformer. Its power to do all these things lies <i>not </i>in how much we’ve earned it but in how much we <i>need</i> it.</p>Kyle Matthewstag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/32122592014-10-01T11:11:53-04:002023-12-10T12:00:41-05:00So That...I was privileged <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1356400834" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Sunday</span></span> to perform a concert to benefit the Lumberton Christian Care Center in Lumberton, NC as they began to realize their dream of building a facility that will provide shelter and much-needed support services to homeless families in one of the poorest counties in North Carolina, including mothers with children, a growing population where most shelters are able to take only men. Once this facility opens, their next goal will be to provide counseling and job preparedness/placement services.
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<br><b style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/119174/11ee91e4cb6b7ef36923ab21277d3960dda6f7cd/medium/img-1205.jpeg?1412176410" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" /></i></b>
</div>
<p><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">My hosts were Lisa Lee and Kenneth Rust, two of the first to respond to our “Prepare to Share” campaign. That means they gave two gifts at once; by supporting our efforts they provided the program to benefit this vitally important and compassionate ministry to people who are falling through the cracks. When I ask Lisa what inspired all this generosity, this is what she said:</span></p>
<ul> <li style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><i>"Kenneth and I use 2 Cor. <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1356400835" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">9:11</span></span>— Be generous on every occasion so that your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God— as our guide and seek to be, as that translation of the verse says, “so that” people. One of our companies is even named SO THAT as a reminder that what we have is really not ours and that with financial success also comes additional responsibility. We try to use what we have creatively so that it will cause others to recognize the goodness of God. There are lots of opportunities to do this both in our professional and personal lives."</i></li>
</ul>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;">You can’t help but notice who ultimately receives the “thanks” in that passage. All this is a beautiful example of the way our offerings can produce exponential good when we first ask not “how can I do good?” but rather: “what is God doing and how can I be part of it?” </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Does their generosity inspire your own? If so, checks may be sent directly to them at: </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><strong>Lumberton Christian Care Center</strong></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">PO Box 1712</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Lumberton, NC 28359</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Lisa has asked that you reference “Kyle Matthews Benefit” in the memo line. <b><i>Thank you!</i></b></p>Kyle Matthewstag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/31909802014-09-17T09:23:12-04:002023-12-10T12:18:38-05:00What's Behind Be Here Now<p><span class="font_regular">The Word never changes. But the “words” certainly do. The words we use to describe the word, to sing about it, to relate it to others, change with every generation. <br>In 1873, the words included “visions of rapture,” “angels descending,” and being “washed in blood,” but even though people still sing “Blessed Assurance” from time to time, I don’t know a single Christian, however devout, who expresses their spirituality in those terms today. The folks with whom I live and share ministry are no less interested in the spiritual life than their parents and grandparents, but their idea of “seeking the kingdom” is defined more as seeking spiritual intimacy, exploring their gifts and opportunities for ministry, finding an abundant life, a relational faith, a communal identity, and a life connected to things that are everlasting.</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">The question I wake up asking every day is this: what are the words for that? What are the words that help us, as we’re driving to work on those days when we least want to go, when after a sleepless night are angry at the world and full of existential doubt, what are the words that help us to be the Christ-like people we want to be and profess to be? What images might help us find our spiritual bearings?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em;">Not surprisingly, I found my answers in Jesus’ own words. These songs are essentially interpretations of the Beatitudes and other key ideas in the Sermon on the Mount. They represent twelve perspectives that have become, for me at least, central to what it means to be distinctively Christian, the frame of mind and heart that helps us walk in Jesus’ steps. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">First, consider the songs for their content. Here’s how the themes line up when paired with scripture:</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: <strong><em>Row to the Other Side</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted: <strong><em>What is it like to be You?</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth: <strong><em>Love that Does What it Says</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em;">Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled: <strong><em>A Dream Worth Dreaming</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy: <strong><em>The Line in the Sand</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em;">Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God: <strong><em>Be Here Now</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God (Also Matt. 10:40-42): <strong><em>Radical Welcome</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: <strong><em>I’d Rather Serve</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em;">Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matt 5)... </span><span style="font-size: 1em;">Everyone has been given something to do that shows who God is. (Also I Cor. 12:7, the Message): </span><strong><em><span style="font-size: 1em;">The Power to Bless</span></em></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em;">You are the salt of the earth, light of the world… don’t hide your light: <strong><em>Dancers</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em;">Do not worry about what you will wear or what you will eat. [Also: “Fear not,” the most common message from God in the Bible]: <strong><em>Be Not Afraid</em></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 1em;">Secondly, consider the song order in light of the liturgical flow of worship. Discipleship is a process, and worship is a microcosm of that process, walking us through the steps and stages of personal transformation. Here’s the rationale behind the song order and flow:</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">SONG THEME</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">1) Radical Welcome Radical inclusion</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">2) The Line in the Sand What God has done in Christ to be with us</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">3) Be Here Now What we do to have intimacy with God and one another</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">4) Love that Does What it Says Responding in faithfulness, integrity</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">5) Row to the Other Side Sabbath-keeping, nurturing the inner life</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">6) What is it Like? Compassion: relational awareness and sensitivity</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">7) A Dream Worth Dreaming Visioning: converting the imagination, kingdom-seeking</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">8) I’d Rather Serve Being “in not of” the world: service</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">9) Say Yes Building a life upon commitments </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">10) Be Not Afraid Trusting God in the face of fear</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">11) The Power to Bless Embracing spiritual gifts: being in the flow of God’s activity</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">12) Dancers Finding self- acceptance through the love of God</span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">I hope this look behind the scenes adds some meaning to your listening. In the blogs to come, I’m going to go much deeper into the scriptures and thinking behind each song. Please write to us with connections and stories of your own. Who knows how your insights might encourage somebody else along the way?</span></p>Kyle Matthewstag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/23348812014-01-12T17:39:23-05:002023-12-10T12:06:19-05:00This Changes Everything #1: Resolving to HopeThis month, we're starting to roll out the tracks from my musical "<a contents="This Changes Everything" data-link-label="The Musical ~This Changes Everything" data-link-type="page" href="/the-musical-this-changes-everything" target="_blank">This Changes Everything</a>," a series of vignettes from the gospels set to music for your vocal ensemble to perform. Normally, we'll release one song per month, but the two pieces that set the table at the beginning need to be heard together. <br><br>They present two prevailing notions about the hoped-for Jewish messiah before Jesus came. One was that anyone holding out for change after centuries of destruction and oppression were kidding themselves. Things will never change, they thought, and the best you can do is learn to survive "what is." That's a great many of us to this day. We lack the capacity for hope. We demonize change. We are cynical about idealists. We walk through life singing "this is the way it is, no one can change it…" <br><br>The other idea alive and well in first century BCE was the belief that a messiah would come, but that he would be essentially a Jewish Caesar (the titles later given to Jesus by the church-- Son of God, Lord of Lords, King of Kings--- had long been titles given to the Caesars), and that his solutions to "the way things are" would be a combination of economic prosperity, political revenge and military might, and divine religious power. It just so happens that these were the three temptations Jesus rejected before he ever started his ministry. To this day, people pray to God for blessings that take precisely those forms, and judge God for not coming through on cue. We want a God who will "take all of our troubles away," rather than one who calls for us to develop a spiritual life and a Christ-like character, and to employ our unique gifts in communities of faith.<br><br>Before we get on with the rest of <a contents="the musical" data-link-label="The Musical ~This Changes Everything" data-link-type="page" href="/the-musical-this-changes-everything" target="_blank">the musical</a>, it's worth thinking about how much these two ideologies infect our thinking and living each day, how the first is a commitment to despair, and the second is a recipe for it.Kyle Matthewstag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/22187122013-12-12T15:02:09-05:002023-12-10T12:09:23-05:00The Christmas Journey<span class="font_regular">Most songs grab our attention and then fade away just as quickly. So, it's been interesting to me that one song people seem to appreciate <i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">more</i><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"> with time, is </span><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The Christmas Journey,</i><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> about the inward journey to Christ. It was inspired by this insight: the </span><font face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">sentimentalism of the Christmas story can wear thin, especially for people struggling this time of year, but the purpose of Advent is make a personal and spiritual journey. What is my deepest longing? Where do I find hope? What is my faith struggle? Where is love leading me? What relationship needs peace? I am not in the same "place" I was this time last year, so Christ's coming has new meaning given where I am. We are perpetually on our way to God, but Christ is always coming where we are, too. Where are you on this journey right now? And, where is the light leading you?</font></span><br><br><em><strong>The Christmas Journey</strong></em>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Hope, searching from afar, set out for the brightest morning star, </div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">and along the way Hope was transformed into Faith.</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Faith, bearing gifts for kings, came upon a child without one thing,</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">and its heart was touched, and it changed Faith into Love.</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">And this is the Christmas journey I take.</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">This is the grand discovery I make:</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Somehow the one I've come so far to see</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Has come to me.</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Love, falling to its knees, gladly offered all it had to bring.</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">And worshiping the boy, love turned to Joy.</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Joy fell into a dream, warning of the world's most vicious schemes,</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">And as it woke from sleep, Joy turned to Peace.</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">And Peace, following the child, works to see the world be reconciled</div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">And everywhere it goes, everywhere it goes, </div>
<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">...it turns to Hope.</div><br> Kyle Matthewstag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/20016592013-11-06T17:18:58-05:002023-12-10T12:32:48-05:00Inconvenient Christmas I'll be the first to acknowledge that the world doesn't need more Christmas songs competing for attention. I wrote some, though, because so few traditional Christmas songs relate to real life. They tend to be a celebration of the kind of perfect-- or perfectly cute-- Christmas that exists only in a Norman Rockwell painting. As a husband and father, I know how much work goes into Christmas and how rarely the thing goes off as planned!<br><br> I can't find a perfect Christmas in the Bible. The first Christmas is set in one of the darkest periods of human history. It is impossible for any of us in the modern Western world to imagine the depravity of the ancient world, a time before medicine, public sanitation, plumbing, or anything resembling the Bill of Rights... a time of public pagan rituals, brutish men, temple prostitutes, and child sacrifice... to say nothing of what it was like to live as persecuted Jewish community under Roman occupation.<br><br> But the good news is that Jesus was born precisely into such darkness and for its sake. I need to hear that again every year. God's own “Inconvenient Christmas” and the “true meaning of Christmas” are one and the same thing. God has gone out of God's way so that we could be shown the way. God inconvenienced himself in Christ, so that we would learn to inconvenience ourselves for others and take the light into dark places.<br><br> Those can be troubling, difficult journeys to take. But if the helpless newborn in the filthy stable says nothing else, it says that there are no short cuts. The detour is the true path.Kyle Matthewstag:kylematthews.com,2005:Post/19701052013-11-01T11:17:31-04:002023-12-10T11:46:12-05:00The Gifts We Give Gifts are great. Love to get 'em. Love to give 'em. Even non-Christians know it's inherently Christian to give and give generously. Fewer people know that it's just as important to receive gratefully. It completes the gift, actually, and fuels a beautiful cycle: we can only give what we have received.<br>That first Christmas gift was not completed when the baby was born. Somebody had to become responsible for the care and nurture of that child, and it was hard work. Babies are needy. But everything Jesus was ever given, he passed along others.<br><br> Jesus never gave in a way that made people feel obligated or embarrassed. He was poor, for one thing. For another, his generosity was targeted at deep needs, a good goal for all of us. One of our deepest needs, ironically, is to feel capable of giving. So, Jesus often asked something of the recipient: give me a drink of water, rise up and walk, go show yourselves to the priests, I'm coming to your house as a guest..., not to make people feel they must earn his gift, but to say, in essence: I see your value and your abilities and empower you to share them. I give to you so that you can know the joy of giving too.<br><br> God doesn't merely give to us, but through us, because our giving make complete God's gifts to us, and gives just a taste of the joy of divine generosity.Kyle Matthews