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Music Review: Living By God's Grace ::
LOREN BECROFT – reviews a collection of songs from SMBC
Source: Perspective Vo9 No4 © Perspective 2002
Publisher: Sydney Missionary and Bible College
Reviewer: Loren Becroft
In 2000 the first Sydney Missionary and Bible College (SMBC) Music Conference was held. The aim of the Conference was to encourage and train church musicians who wanted to do music well within evangelical church life. It became clear that there were many people writing original material who were keen to share it with others. From this conference the idea for Living By God’s Grace was born with the book being launched at the second SMBC Music Conference in July 2001.
Living By God’s Grace is a collection of mostly congregational songs that were chosen for the book based on their biblical content and “singability”. One of the things that impressed me about Living by God’s Grace is the quality of the lyrics of the songs. Many of the songs tackle topics which aren’t often focused on in many modern-day congregational songs – e.g. praying for the day Jesus will return etc – using remarkable imagery and contrast. ‘Living by God’s Grace’, the title song of the book, is just one example of an excellent congregational song from this book.
This song has been tried and tested at many Katoomba Christian Convention (KCC) conferences over the years and has proved the test of time. This song, as the title suggests, focuses on how the only way that we, who are dead in our sins, are saved by God’s grace, not works, and that’s how we continue to live. Because of its focus on grace not works, this is an excellent song to use when preaching through Galatians (see page 14).
One of the downsides to Living By God’s Grace is that there is no CD to accompany the book. So, unless you were at the second conference, it’s difficult to entirely understand the feel of all the songs. However, some songs have been recorded on unrelated CDs – ‘This is the Word of God’ and ‘Faithful God’ by Michael Morrow can be found on Songs for the Wealthy Beggar by Ruth Buchanan and you can hear ‘Living By God’s Grace’ at most Katoomba Christian Convention (KCC) conferences. Living by God’s Grace is available directly from SMBC.
Loren Becroft is a congregational musician at the Ann Street Presbyterian Church, Brisbane and is the “token” young person on the Perspective team.
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