Kingdom Harbor

I was 31 years old when Keri and I planted MainStreet Covenant Church, and now 50 is not far away. A big chunk of my life has been lived out in this small, quirky faith community. Looking back, one thing I am especially grateful for is how MainStreet has allowed me to grow and change, experiment and pursue various ministry paths and projects along the way. Like everyone else, pastors are on their own journey and need the grace and freedom to change course, change their minds, and enjoy the gift of fresh beginnings.

For most pastors, that means pulling up anchor and accepting a new call at another church when things grow stale or difficult. One reason I am still at MainStreet a decade and a half later is that MainStreet has allowed me to pursue new beginnings within my current role. I’ve lived several pastorates in this one church, and for better or worse, my long-suffering congregation has experienced several different iterations of Jeremy.

The church has supported me in completing a doctorate, being an itinerant adjunct professor at five schools, writing and publishing books and short stories, guest preaching at other churches, leading students on Jesus Walks in nature, putting on polkadot shirts and performing oldies concerts for seniors as the ‘Roaming Reverend’, and this fall combining disc golf and discipleship. In short, the church has allowed me be my creative and unconventional self in what can be a quite conventional role.

A couple summers ago, God used music to pull me out of a depressive funk. I picked up my guitar and started doing oldies concerts at senior campuses around the metro. I thought it would remain an occasional side hobby playing other people’s music. The invites kept coming and my gig calendar kept filling up.

Then last summer I began jotting down some song lyrics of my own. Melodies soon followed. This spring I had an idea: why not revisit the songs and love poems buried in my journal from college and my early 20s, and set them to music? For months I’ve been quietly working on an album of original recording, with 14 songs in the works. I’m recording and producing it myself in my basement studio using Garage Band software on my laptop.

The album is a coming of age odyssey of spiritual awakening and young love. Two romances unfold in simple, unpretentious lyrics that reveal my new found faith in college. Silly, sappy, lighthearted love songs tell the story of falling in love with Keri and our early marriage. These songs are a time capsule providing a window into the heart, mind and soul of my 20-something year old self. Then we jump forward twenty years and the album closes with some newer songs from a more travel weary, middle aged troubadour with plenty of life’s mud on his boots. 

What does this have to do with faith? What does this have to do with pastoral ministry? Everything. At a recent show, I shared the following testimony after performing Neil Diamond’s song Play Me:  “Since giving my life to Christ in college I have had one primary goal: to be an instrument in God’s hands, to let God use my time, talents and treasure for his purposes. To live in step with the rhythms of the Spirit and draw others into the eternal dance that will carry on into eternity.”

I expand on this theme in my book The Father’s Song where the Apostle Paul riffs on this truth in Romans 15.  He prays that God will “develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus” (Rom 15:3 The Message). Elsewhere he says our lives of faith are like a “letter” that others are reading, and hopefully its a “love letter” (or a love song!)– that points people to the goodness of the God revealed in Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 3:2).

While I enjoy going about singing old songs and connecting familiar lyrics to the timeless truths of the gospel, I am excited to begin singing some of my own songs as well that testify to God’s work in my own life.

At the center of the pastoral vocation is helping others sing their own song of God’s love, and to help their life become a redemption song that ministers to others. One of my favorite pastoral moments was sitting down with Jocelyn, a MainStreet teenager, last summer and helping her put her own song from a journal to a melody that she then sang at her baptism. A priceless moment. Pastoral gold, in my opinion.

Whether its a literal song, or our living witness, we are each called tune our lives to the truths of Scripture, “keep in step with the Spirit” and draw others into the “unforced rhythms of grace.” So, what song are you singing and living these days? 

I’ll be testing out my original material at some shows this fall, and I hope to have the album ready for release in time for the holiday season. Selah!