CITYALIGHT
www.cityalight.com
A ministry of St Paul’s Castle Hill, Sydney
In a music training session recently, I asked people if they could name songwriters from the Old Testament. The first answer was ‘The Gettys’!
Keith and Kristyn still serve us well with congregational songs, even if they don’t quite sit at the same level (or era!) as David, Solomon and Deborah, but more recently it’s wonderful to have been given such strong input from CityAlight, who are similarly committed to writing songs that congregations can actually sing. Not only that, but the average church musician is able play their songs too!
Here are (what I consider as) the strongest of their songs. They are faithful to Scripture, are deeply Christ-centred, and cover a depth of theological truths without being turgid or dry:
Jesus, strong and kind (a collaboration with Colin Buchanan): a simple children’s song, but suitable for adults too, about relying on the loving and faithful strength of Jesus.
Christ is mine forevermore: perseverance in Christ through temptation, darkness and persecution.
See him in Jerusalem: the horror and victory of Jesus over death and sin at the cross.
Ancient of Days: the sovereign rule, power and glory of God.
Yet not I, but through Christ in me: unconditional grace won through Christ’s victory over sin and His indwelling of the believer.
Only a holy God: a call to honour and worship the Creator, Lord and Father.
And my personal favourite, Grace: a very simple but profound song about the work of Jesus bringing salvation to sinful hearts ‘by blood and not by merit’.
I wouldn’t recommend a whole meeting full of CityAlight songs as the tunes can sound a little samey, but the predictability and simplicity of those tunes have proven to be real strengths as many congregations have quickly warmed to their songs. Who knows – one day, will CityAlight be considered as part of the pantheon of Old Testament songwriters along with the Gettys?!
