My old minister, Jono Holt, has an article on the Sydney Anglicans site about “Jesus is my boyfriend songs” (JIMBFs), ie. songs that seem to work equally well whether you’re singing to Jesus or your boyfriend.

We have set up a false comparison between songs that express devotion (Jesus-my-boyfriend style) and songs that are true and therefore safe (a new doctrine for each verse, or the entire life of Jesus in one song).

I think Holty is right. My problem with the way we talk about “Jesus is my boyfriend songs” is that it implies that there is something wrong with language of love being used for God.

Actually, the problem with JIMBF songs is the shallowness of the love they talk about. The bible is full-on about using love language to talk about God. The church is Jesus’ bride (Rev 21). In the Old Testament a common image of God is as a faithful husband watching his wife run off with other gods (Ezek 6:9, Isaiah 54, etc).

In the bible, God is not some boyfriend who has a momentary crush on us — he is our lover who pursued us to the point of death to love us.

So let’s get rid of “Jesus is my boyfriend songs”… and replace them with some “Jesus is my fiance” songs.

You can read the whole article at the sydney anglicans site

Just back from the first of three amazing weekends at KYCK, the Katoomba Christian Convention for high schoolers.

We really enjoyed singing with thousands of great young people, and we were all challenged to think about living lives in light of the end times. The talks were by Scott Petty and Ross Ciano and based on Revelation - really cool book!

It struck me that we have heaps of great songs now about the end times - See Him Coming, Hallelujah to the King of Kings, Worthy is the Lamb, etc etc. This wasn’t always the case, and so songwriters like Mark Peterson got busy writing to remind us about what is to come in the future, and what we should be looking forward to.

In many ways I think songwriters like Mark act like prophets or teachers of God’s people. It is very important that songwriters be thinking about the balance of songs out there, what they are saying, and what churches need to hear.

I wonder what the next theme we should be writing on is?

Finally it’s done - after months of being locked in little rooms with little sunlight our new self titled album is released.

And if you’ve already got the album, and you’re thinking about introducing the songs in church, the sheet music is up for all the new songs on the album (that’s why the blog has been a bit quiet lately!).

I’d be very interested in what songs you end up using in church. Just by way of explanation, the album recording itself is meant to be listened to not sung to, and so our arrangements might sound a little impracticable for a church service.

However IT IS STILL AN ALBUM OF CONGREGATIONAL SONGS! The songs themselves we’re pretty confident will work well in many churches. Obviously some will be better suited to one style of church service than another. And some of them are deliberately pushing the boundary on what styles of music can be useful in congregational singing.

If you’re wondering where to start, let me suggest a few which I’m planning on introducing soon at my church:

- Hallelujah - very simple chords and really clear words of praise for what Jesus did on the cross. It was written originally for just piano and vocals so it’ll work whether you have a 14 piece band or just one piano player.

- Father’s world - again, don’t let the album arrangement scare you, it’s actually a very simple song. The chords are very simple, and the melody almost sings itself. It’s written in a semi-celtic hymn style and the words are amazing.

- Beneath the cross - fantastic hymn and again has only a few simple chords.

- The light has found us - this might sound heaps quirky the way we play it, but it’s got a real strong melody and great clear message.

Let me know how you go!