#641: All Are Welcome

Any cool rhyme scheme appearances?

Laughter/rafter at the end, nice. Parallels witness/Jesus, which, less impressive. (Jesus/frees us is a nice one syllable-two syllable blend.)

This Haugen guy again, is he Lutheran?

Catholic, actually. A lot of his songs are popular in kinda-contemporary-but-not-in-the-bad-way Catholic churches.

Is that a good thing?

Yes and no? I like this song, it's well-written. One of my close friends from high school was raised Catholic, however (I'm not sure what she considers herself now) and was like "this song is pretty hypocritical because I have felt unwelcome/excluded in my church. :("

#661: I Love to Tell the Story

Is there a relationship between "I know it's true" and "it satisfies my longings as nothing else would do"?

Historically, not that I know of. I think CS Lewis wrote an argument in that vein, but I also think that post-dates this song, so great minds think alike?

Who is the target audience of "the story"?

It varies. "Those who know it best seem" like they're still appreciative of the message. And "'twill be my theme in glory" to sing it...does that mean we're going to be in heaven announcing the good news? I feel like people won't need much evangelism at that point. Or does that just mean we'll be praising God and extolling Jesus, which is a common description?

Anyway, the emphasis on repeating the gospel to the usual suspects is an interesting change of pace from typical missionary stuff, which is probably why it's progressive enough to still include. IDK, I'm guessing a lot of this section was carefully crafted to appease the culture warriors. More later, someday, maybe.

Probably won't be around the next couple days, we'll see. Marathons, sprints, etc.