Setlist - 23 Jan 2011
Sunday morning at Kings

It was our annual vision and values Sunday, so I focussed on the greatness of God and his purposes in history.

I taught 'All to us' from Chris Tomlin's new album. It went very well.

There aren't a huge number of good songs that talk about the church, so I love the chorus, which starts "Let the glory of your name be the passion of the church". And the line "Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives" is just wonderful.

I do have a couple of frustrations with the song, though.

Firstly, the line "We believe you're all to us" is quite a weak payoff to the otherwise outstanding chorus. My issue there is that the phrase "You're all to us" is already a subjective declaration and adding "We believe" actually weakens it. Even just using "Jesus, you are all to us" from the second and third verses would be stronger.

Secondly, the first line of the third verse - "When this passing world is over" - is strangely uncomfortable. The break in the melody gives an odd emphasis to the word "passing", and there's a missing syllable. The rest of the verses are all in a regular metre but that line is one syllable shorter.

Neither of these faults override the fact that this is a really good song. We'll use it regularly, I think. But I do sometimes wish that songwriters would go the extra mile to make a really good song absolutely great.

The recorded version is in C. I ran it in Bb, which still means that the top note is an Eb in the bridge, but because you have a good supporting note right before and it's at the strongest point of emphasis in the song it's not a problem for a congregation. That said, I'd do it in A in a small group.

Here a Spotify link and a Youtube link for the song.