Resource Review: Doxecology

Songs are often a great way to remember key concepts about our faith: the words are hopefully carefully thought out, the tune is memorable and you’ll remember how you felt if you sang them during a sermon focussed on a particular theme, or when a particular idea about God finally sank deep into your heart. So it follows that we should sing about the stuff that is important to us.

How important is creation care? Pretty important, I hear you say. So when was the last time you sang something in a church context that was specifically about creation care? Ummmm. That’s why Resound Worship carried out a global search for new songs on this theme. They also wrote some of their own, with a little help from Peter Harris of the Christian conservation charity A Rocha. Out of 150 entries, they picked 13 that hit the spot and released the album earlier this year.

The songs are grouped around three themes: the beauty of creation, the cry of creation and the hope of creation. Doxecology has its own website where you can find an explanation of the  theology and the biblical themes in each song, lyrics, sheet music downloads, videos, backing tracks – the full works to help you use some of these songs in your own church. I say ‘some’ because there’s something for everyone here. You might not fancy them all, but I think that’s the point. Some of the tracks have a more contemporary feel, others are more hymn-like, some are bouncy and others are more mellow. There are several songs of lament, which is a genre that has often been missing from worship services in recent years.

There is also a study guide with 13 very short chapters (including one written by A Rocha theologian Dave Bookless) containing the lyrics of a song, a couple of pages of text and a few questions. This is intended to be used as a personal devotional, small group study series, or collection of sermon starters.

The study guide also contains three church service outlines, one on each of the three themes (beauty/cry/hope). There are oodles of resources on the website, including a section on outdoor worship, and a dedicated section for the study guide (links given in the study guide itself – i.e. please buy it!)

Overall, I’d say this is an excellent resource for churches. I hope that these songs will find their way along the grapevine into many of our church worship services – online or in person – before too long.