Singing a New Song

Last night I had the honor of attending the opening of Epic City Church's new space in Norfolk. They are a church plant a little older than we are. Over the last year I've found a kinship with Robb, the Pastor and his family. (His wife Shaula keeps a great blog here.)

Last night was the culmination of so much effort on behalf of their people. As I stated in previous posts, this church appeals predominantly to a younger segment of the population so they didn't have the cash to pay for much and they got very creative with solving problems in their new space. I won't get into the details here (read Shaula's blog) but what I will say is that I felt in awe of what God has done through this band of brothers and sisters.

I was at their place about a month ago during construction and I was amazed at what they had done just in that time. Adversity after Adversity has hit Robb and his team but they were foolish enough to believe that God would come through on their behalf. He most certainly did.

The title of my post refers to a song they played last night. Robb has always been great about creating a powerful worship environment and last night was no different. One of the songs however hit me more than any of the others. It's the song "Blessed be your name" by Matt Redman. Although I've heard the song 1,000 times it was last night, in that place, among these people, inside of this moment, and with this history that the words resonated like never before:

"You give and take away
You give and take away
Yet my heart will choose to say
Lord blessed be your name"

Robb's church has experienced "giving" and "taking away". As that portion of the song hit I could sense a "new song" with these same words. Lets face it... you've sang that song too and until you can put those words into context we have no clue what it really means to praise God when he's taken it all. Saying that we praise God when he's taken it away sounds great when you're considering lunch plans at a nice resturant after church.... try shouting those words when you feel like the wheels have come off.

Last night when the crowd screamed those words out I could tell that this was a new song for this church. This song will never be the same humdrum song. They all know what it means to praise God no matter the circumstance and it's because of their Pastor. He was foolish enough to trust God and last night was one affirmation that God honors our faith.

Great job Epic! Keep singing your new song.

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