Winter Camp Wonderings

Winter Camp has come and gone. All the planning and scheduling is finally over and now we get to reap the benefits. It has been so encouraging to see the growth displayed by our students. While we have grown numerically, the spiritual growth has been fantastic. Personally, it has been a struggle to see people leave the church for various reasons. As a person in ministry, you always wonder if you had something to do with it. On the other hand, seeing growth within a ministry is humbling because you know God has used you to accomplish something special.

Right now I'm listening to Worship God Live from sovereign grace. The lyrics are so encouraging because they express an unashamed, Christ-exalting, God-honoring, Calvinistic approach to song writing. The writers take their texts right from historical writings on the Bible as well as directly from the Bible itself and they strive to make God as big as we possibly can with out limited human abilities. That is something lacking in today's CCM music. Lyrics typically come from personal experience or personal testimony about what the Bible means to them. Songs should be grounded in theology, not man-centered, self-help thinking. We need more Luther, Calvin, and Edwards in our songs and less Joel Osteen and Rick Warren.

Here are some lyrics that express what I'm talking about:

You are the Way

by Pat Sczebel

Verse 1

Dead in transgressions and sins, without God without hope in this world

Then the glorious light of Your gospel broke in

The Father stood up from His throne, opened His arms and called out my name

Grace irresistible drew me, opened my eyes to see

Chorus:

You are the way, You are the truth, You are the Life, Jesus

The only way, the only truth, You are my life, Jesus

Verse 2

You are the source of new life, the giver of every good thing

Withholding nothing You lavish Your kindness on me.

You emptied Yourself, became poor, humbled and poured out to death

Now highly exalted above all, Your name alone can save.