INTRODUCTION
| From man's first encounter with consciousness, songs have
been the emergence of his stance in the midst ofhis times and have dramatized
his struggle to live the only life which he has been given. Songs which
live are those which men have decided creatively articulate their response
to that life. Thus the songs which captivate the man of faith are those
which remind him of the Word and of his decision to actualize the Word
in humanizing structures. From the earliest cave men who chanted rhythmically
as they bore homeward their heavy load to the computer programmer who sings
along to the jazz, that glows from the computer, man has used song to disclose
the mood of his times. In a day when the technology of communication escapes
no one, it becomes apparent that songs are a tool for globalizing every
man's experience. Songs not only unite the man of faith with his past and
project him into the future, but they become a symbol of global responsibility.
DISCLOSING THE AWE Songs are like a time machine which allows one to step into any moment
of history and participate in the human style at that juncture of time
and space. David of the Old Testament, St. Francis, Ambrose, Charles Wesley,
and Harry Eemrson Fosdick live again and speak of the spirit wrestling
of their day es one reappropriates the songs which were created out of
their encounter with the Mystery. It is out of the understanding of past
churchmen's struggle with the Mystery that men of today are released to
embrace the struggle of this time for the sake of the future. To bring
to focus how the past has shaped us releases us to probe the deeps of how
the spirit winds were blowing and to discern the breakloose of the spirit
today. To participate in such an event dramatizes how the total past collides
at our juncture in history. KINDLING THE SPIRIT Songs function as the countdown which allows perpetual commitment to
the times. As a filter, they unveil the deeps which are present in every
human encounter. To see the necessity of unveiling the deeps is to have
decided in the midst of the historical milieu to be a people, and this
elicits the spirit from which songs emerge and are
participatory events. When songs like"Men of Faith" are a part
of the sung and unsung daily style, they become a basic mode of rehearsing
the corporate selfunderstanding. Thus new life wells up and is released
through the creation and participation in the songs which reflect the radical
decision to be this particular moment. |
CONSUMING THE WORLD The future is anticipated and created through the telescopic lens of songs. The images which reflect the decision to assume responsibility for the future are embedded in the consciousness of a people by songs. The continued rehearsal of futuric images such as "We shall Overcome" keeps the vision alive and releases to create anew the necessary forms which will actualize the future. Commitment to the revolutionary style is made possible by the songs which spin in our heads and continually call one to radically actualizing the future. Practical expenditure is concretized in the creation and singing of
authentic songs. The movemental church has always assumed responsibility for collecting and creating the repertoire of songs necessary for the sustenance of missional endeavor and the presencing of the sign of possibility. Traditional songs have been reappropriated in some instances by recontextualizing
in such a way that these songs may be sung with new fervor; in other instances
traditional words have been given new life by fusing them with contemporary
tunes. Songs which transform the captivating music of the day into songs
which rehearse contemporary theological poetry intertwine the sense of
the destinal significance with the mood of the times. The songs of the
future are born of the model building which is culminated in new images
end stories, and are circuited through the tunes which have for centuries
captured the lives of those who have been engaged in building new social
forms. This particular collection holds symbolically and actually the song life of the global movement. |