A Node in the Web of the Emerging Church

Terry Chapman: Letting go, in Three Acts

Posted Apr 15, 11:23 AM | 2 comments | by David Robertson | Link

Terry Chapman – Forked River Presbyterian Church

  • Terry Chapman
  • Scott Kushigemachi
  • 33 minutes


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Terry Chapman

Scott Kushigemachi

Believe

You’ve been trying to tame that cynical tone
But there’s so much going wrong in side of your home and there’s
So much going wrong in every time zone
And sometimes you turn on the news at ten on CNN and say,
“It feels hard to speak in any other way”

Try to put it in perspective, try to see with the eyes of faith
While your faithfulness varies from month to month, feels like
Waiting for someone to call your bluff while the
Makers of the star spangled Christs that glow in the dark make you mad
And you start to wonder if the things you do are just as bad

And you want to believe in Jesus
Without a laughtrack happiness and the pre-recorded applauses
And it’s hard when along the way you see Him pull away
The beards from the chins of your Santa Clauses
But you still want to believe
But you still want to believe that He speaks in this

Beautiful, horrible, beautiful, horrible world
Where people work for peace and people kiss their mothers where
People can be so cruel to one another, and you
Want to believe that He even speaks specifically to you
Is there something that He wants you to do?

And you want to believe in Jesus
Without a laughtrack happiness and the pre-recorded applauses
And it’s hard when along the way you see Him pull away
The beards from the chins of your Santa Clauses
But you still want to believe
But you still want to believe

And you can sing
You can sing for joy
You don’t have to sing it cheap, you can
Sing hallelujah without putting your conscience to sleep
You can sing hallelujah
You can sing hallelujah
You can sing hallelujah

———————————————————————————

Theme music provide by Kinley Lange

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Welcome to the Reader's Forum

1David May 24, 06:22 AM

As usual, the same dreary, nihilistic, blow-your-brains-out music from the emergents.
Emergents always represent “fake” Christianity as pretending there are no problems but their “honest” Christianity as real, even though it’s merely unbelief, even, as Samir put it once, wondering if nothing’s out there.

Power, love and a sound mind…ever heard of those?
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
But then, that’s scripture and scripture doesn’t work for you guys, does it?

2Scott Aug 17, 10:04 AM

Hi David,

I doubt that you’ll see this because it’s an old podcast by now, but I just came across your comment and as the songwriter I wanted to respond to what you said.

I feel like you misrepresent the song by making it sound as though it’s about how “real” the narrator is and how “fake” other people’s Christianity is. I was pretty careful about having that line about “the things you do are just as bad” to suggest that the person’s aware of their own capacity for artifice. There’s also the bit about their own “faithfulness vary[ing] from month to month.”

Also, I don’t know that it’s so nihilistic or lacking in “power” or “love.” It ends with worship…I was consciously trying to (maybe you don’t feel it’s convincing) write about the possibiltiy of faith and redemption. Part of the point is that faith can be present in the desire for faith.

Also, I don’t know if I’m being lumped in with “you guys” for whom “scripture doesn’t work,” but I do personally have a fairly high view of the Bible; I believe it’s the inspired Word of God, although I know people have very different understandings of what that means.

In any case, I just thought I’d give a quick response.
—Scott

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