Build Your Kingdom Here -- Rend Collective Experiment

 

Northern Ireland…historically not really a place of peace, especially for those who’ve been around more than two or three decades (see one flag here, sometimes called the Ulster Banner, that is often used to publicly represent Northern Ireland). And could that have helped spur a group of young people at a church in the Bangor area (a part of the larger Belfast metropolitan area) to form and call themselves the Rend Collective Experiment (now known as the Rend Collective)? The band’s members tell of trying to ‘figure out life’ amid a palpable hostility from their surroundings toward the Christian hope they espoused when they formed in 2002-03, about ten years before “Build Your Kingdom Here” was written – something that you could interpret is rather like the band’s anthem response to their world. You might also guess that these ‘experimenters’ were reading of a powerful promise from one ancient writer, when you watch one of their music videos of the song. This underscores how they feel about their God, and what they yearn for Him to do where they live.

 

There is a story that the Rend Collective tells about what sparked ‘Build Your Kingdom”, and it apparently is available to those granted access to it (see the link below to a facebook page.) Without that, a researcher could alternately surmise what they were thinking via this 2012 song’s lyrics and by reading about their formation as a group. They quite candidly admit that they sought to counter their culture’s antipathy about Christianity with their music, hoping its message would act like a magnet for unbelievers. One of their videos contains the words of Isaiah (9:7), a prediction that one often hears around Christmastime – that He will bring a government committed to everlasting ‘peace’, implemented through ‘justice and righteousness’. So, what this group of over 15 people (it tours and records its songs with just six musicians) was aiming to do in 2002-03 was still on their minds ten years later. The poetry they crafted is rich in its passionate desire for his power to impact their world. And, it’s not just the words that demonstrate this appeal, but also the videos that reveal an energy among the group’s members that you can imagine is infectious. Words like ‘ablaze’ and ‘wildfire’ (v.1); and ‘hunger’, and ‘thirst’ (v.2); and ‘fire’ (chorus) inhabit their verses to attest to their fervent objective. This Isaiah message also must have helped stir the words about God’s character – that He has ‘power’ (vv.1,3), is ‘mighty’ (chorus), and has ‘strength’ (v.3). And yet, He is also One who defines ‘beauty’ and ‘love’ (v.3). The Rend people don’t call for God to intervene on His own, however, but with their active participation. They ask for ‘unveil(ing)’ and ‘invad(ing)’ by the Spirit, so that humanity will know its purpose (v.1); and they seem to expect that they will play the earthly role in helping the ‘hurt’, ‘sick’, and ‘poor’ (v.2). ‘We are your church’, they declare repeatedly. There’s more in their poetry, and when it’s fused with the vibrant energy they bring to the performance stage, you can imagine that onlookers would want more of a God they represent. This God is not here to spectate, and neither are the Rend Collective.

 

From where does the ‘Rend’ originate in the band’s name? Joel (2:13) and Isaiah (64:1) are two Old Testament prophets on whom they lean for their identity…they seek to be authentic, not showy, in ‘rending their hearts and not just their garments in worship’ (Joel); and they appeal to God to ‘rend the heavens’ and show His potency as the ultimate force in the universe (Isaiah). Thus, the Rend Collective wants to connect their own rending with His. They felt they were an experiment at first, as they tried to ‘figure out life’, which also seems to further bespeak of a genuine quality in the band’s nature – that they admit they haven’t got it all figured out. But, they seem to know where to look for the One who does. Do you?

 

See information about the source of the song here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Build_Your_Kingdom_Here

 

Read here about the band that wrote the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rend_Collective

 

Read some more about the band here: https://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Rend_Collective_Experiment_Bringing_a_fresh_approach_to_worship_music/38854/p1/

 

Facebook page that shares the story to those granted access: https://www.facebook.com/rendcollective/posts/the-story-behind-build-your-kingdom-here-httptcoscozl2i1g0/10151547692831832/

 

See this video for song’s performance and for scripture that band shared at end of song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcSWpVKKMcs

 

See a really spirited rendition of the song by the band here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbdJXKqVgtg

 

Information about the album on which the song appears: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homemade_Worship_by_Handmade_People

 

Read an interesting review of the song here: https://www.thebereantest.com/rend-collective-build-your-kingdom-here

Praise the Name of Jesus -- Roy Hicks Jr. and David

This pastor was going through a rough stretch, and so he resorted to a method that a spiritual ancestor had used many years before. Since he was a preacher, well-versed in the bible he held in his hands, Roy Hicks, Jr. must have understood the background to the verses and song “Praise the Name of Jesus” that he adapted to his own situation one day in 1976. Could he have known the spark it would cause, or was he really only expecting to find solace for the moment? It must have been the former, since he didn’t keep the thoughts and emotions of that time to himself. He shared them, perhaps in not too different a way than his ancient predecessor did.

Roy Hicks read his bible for inspiration and instruction as a 36-year old church pastor in Eugene, Oregon, and so he may have imagined himself in a very distant land nearly three millennia ago as he turned to the pages of scripture in 1976. He must have wanted to lean upon examples in biblical history, upon someone who had struggled and come through the other side of a challenge, even a spear-dodging episode (like the one shown here, by Jose Leonardo). Roy was watching as a church he was trying to lead shrank, and feeling discouraged, he sought out someone with whom he thought he identified. His example was David, the great king and psalm-writer, who endured many episodes that were not only discouraging, but in fact life-threatening. The metaphors for God that Hicks observed David using in Psalm 18’s opening verses spoke in a meaningful way to him. He needed strength for his church’s declining circumstances, so he called out to a God he needed to be his ‘rock’, ‘fortress’, and ‘deliverer’.  Roy must have felt this church in Eugene was in a life-threatening condition, a group of God’s people who were dodging the spear-throwing efforts of Satan and his demons. David’s song is probably the same one he sang as he reminisced about his rescue from Saul and the defeat of foreign adversaries (2 Samuel 22). Roy just took what David said and added one name – Jesus.  

Roy Hicks didn’t just repeat David’s praises. He updated them. It’s said that he taught “Praise the Name of Jesus” to the Eugene church a week after its words and tune made their way into his being. Perhaps Roy told them the source of his inspiration, stories of David’s hair-raising adventures and the protection he received. David knew not Jesus, but would probably have recognized Him, don’t you think? For the ‘man after God’s own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22), he would have had eyes to spot the God in Jesus. Roy must have concluded the same, and thus enhanced David’s original words without hesitation. The 1976-version of Psalm 18 is one that David, the original composer, can also enjoy. Maybe he’s already doing so.      

The source for the song story is the book “The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006.

Also see New International Version Study Bible, Editor Kenneth Barker, Zondervan Bible Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1985. 

See biographic information on composer here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Hicks,_Jr.