The emergedetroit community values locally created worship arts. So, for our worship gatherings we have begun compiling new songs and prayers that have served as a part of our worship liturgies. Some are totally original, others are reclamations of older texts or tunes. Below are some links to these songs, prayers, texts, etc. Please use them, share them, give us feedback on them!

Along with these worship arts, the emergedetroit community values regular celebration of Holy Communion. Following United Methodist belief, our Communion table is open to all who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in Christ for the world. In that regard, the bread and the cup are offered freely by Jesus who instructed us to remember him in this act, but they are not offered cheaply. What God in Jesus expects of us who take Communion amounts to nothing less than our whole lives!

At other times we have reclaimed the Methodist practice of Love Feasts (inspired by the Moravians during the 18th Century) as a modern worship-act. These simple meals of bread and water are shared along with the communal witness by participants about how God has delivered and inspired them.

We also celebrate the other communities around the globe who are practicing local liturgy creation and look for ways to share together the worship art that we all are creating for the glory of Jesus.

LOCALLY GROWN MUSIC
The Wesley Project (iTunes Link)
Red Mountain Music
Idelible Grace Music
Church of the Beloved

Wesley Project - Advent Hymns

Those Infant Hands (pdf)

Away With Our Fears (pdf)

Jesus Will Not Refuse the Song (pdf)

No More Turning From the Child (pdf)

Shepherd's Hymn (pdf)

Heaven Cannot Contain (pdf)

The Wesley Project, Volume Number One

Buy The Studio Version On iTunes!

All Praise To Our Redeeming Lord

Building each other up and worshiping together allow us to give all our praise to God. Particularly striking in this song is the wordplay - God both joins us (or is present with us) and joins us together (unites us) by his grace.

chart (pdf) | mp3 demo

And Are We Yet Alive

This is a traditional text sung at yearly conferences of Methodists. In the early days it literally celebrated the fact that these frontier circuit riders were still living on this planet! Now the words, in light of the troubles our churches have seen as institutions, remind us that with a focusing on the mission of Jesus Christ for us - to make disciples for the transformation of the world - we may continue experience life in Christ together.

chart (pdf) | demo mp3

Band of Love

This song captures the ever-present teaching of Methodists hymns that the closer we get to one another in the spirit of Christ, the closer we are to God. We celebrate a common Lord, we celebrate a binding together that because of God's strength cannot be broke. We also get a taste of the hope the Wesley's had for Christian perfection.

chart (pdf) | demo mp3

Bend Beneath Abyss

This song captures a sense of God's greatness and unimaginable depth. It also reminds us of our baptisms during which we die to our selves and Jesus claims us for his own. Even this power, though, that seems crushing is a power bound by the love of goodness of God.

chart (pdf) | demo mp3

Charge to Keep

As we hear the Gospel and God's call in our lives we have the responsibility to respond. This song imagines that response as a charge placed upon us by God. Keeping it is the way of life. Ignoring or working against it is that which deadens us.

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Close By Your Steps

In the midst of painful lives, thirsty times, and unmet wishes we turn to God. This songs rehearses a confidence in God's way even when the storms of life rage. Inherent in this is a prayer for patience, humbleness, and rest.

chart (pdf) | demo mp3

Enter My Joy

This song revels in lives lived as pleasing servants of God. Even this life that seems so difficult or so short can be lived beautifully and the nearness of God's glory is offered.

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From Strength to Strength

Many hymns use military imagery to talk about how we follow Christ or win over evil. But, Jesus in no way would have us attempt to bring about his kingdom by force. His armor (as described in Ephesians 6:10-18) is always conditioned - it is the breastplate of righteousness, shodding your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. This song reminds us that even if we use images of war in our hymns they should always be helping us to move from our own forms of strength (military violence) to Jesus' form of strength - which is love.

chart (pdf) | demo mp3

Hasten to the Day

The call in this song remembers God's redeeming hope for the whole world - ours is not a God who will forsake anyone. The love that Jesus announced was radical in it's breadth as well as its depth.

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In This Hour

Built around the story of the hemorrhaging woman, this song recognizes her great faithfulness and asks if we too may have such faith in Christ. When we reach out to him, through study of his words and his work we may tremble. But, we remember that Jesus healed and cleansed, and always with an eye toward nurturing the faith of the individual and the community through such witness.

chart (pdf) | demo mp3

Let There Be Light

Some hymns use light imagery only in contrast to "darkness." But, the light of Christ and the Holy Spirit also offer us vibrant lives lived amidst all the colors of the world. They deliver us from blandness - not just darkness.

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The Love Feast

Jesus constantly revealed God's love for the world to small groups around a meal. But those dinners became so much more. In their sharing disciples remember Jesus, pray to God and for one another, and give testimony to the coming heavenly banquet of God. The Love Feast was also a practice of early Methodist communities (and some - like Emerge - still today) in which bread and water and witness are shared together.
chart (pdf) | demo mp3

Maker In Whom We Live

Charles Wesley once wrote an entire hymnal filled with songs about the Holy Trinity. Rarely do pastors, let alone songwriters attempt to discuss, explain, or interact with this mystery of the faith. Here Wesley capture the Triune God in a text that cries our for that God to remember creation and humanity.

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This Rebel Heart

Not only do we turn away from God, sometimes we actively work counter to God's will for the world which is love, justice, mercy, goodness. This song uses the term "rebel heart" to describe that state of being so interested in one's own way as to miss or undermine God's.

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Substance In the Shade

From time to time the "how" of worship replaces the "why". At these moments we may find ourselves doing all the right things for none of the right reasons. This song acknowledges those moments and asks God to help us reconnect to the substance of those practices.

chart (pdf) | demo mp3

Upon the Furious Waves

Moments of loneliness creep up in our lives. In these dangerous moments we remember with this song God's continual care for us. Like Jesus asleep on the ship in the storm, we can connect to that great calm that God offers. Also, as we travel in our lives - moving from home, setting out to define our lives - we may feel caught up in storms and dangerous travels. This song reminds us of God's presence even along tumultuous travels.

chart (pdf) | demo mp3

Who Camest From Above

The Gospel of John reminds us constantly of Jesus' divine otherness. Sometimes the only way we know how to talk about that is by talking about Jesus as the one who "came from above." This song uses that motif to usher Christians into a spirit of awe around this Jesus who was the incarnate God.

chart (pdf) | demo mp3