He Is Able – Rory Noland and Greg Ferguson

Bill Hybels remembers the time well. The way a fragrance, or a picture, the taste , or even the touch of something can bring back memories of a special time, the sound of a song makes this minister at a large Chicago-area church remember what it was like there in the 1980s. Hearing Hybels speak, one senses that the song’s composers, Rory Noland and Greg Ferguson, must have been aware of the struggles of the church’s leaders. “He Is Able” is a song that stirs their thoughts of overwhelming challenges and mutual purpose among the members of that growing church, an experience Hybels indicates would have been difficult or even impossible to bear except for the truth of the song’s message. Its message is compact, right in the title.



Willow Creek Community Church was growing in the 1980s, but Bill Hybels says it wasn’t all roses. Sure, there were lots of people arriving to populate the church, creating energy and momentum. It must’ve been exciting. But, there was also anxiety and exhaustion. How would Hybels and the other staff of the church accomplish tasks too large for them? They were overwhelmed by obstacles, and ‘outta steam’, he says. It was then that two of the church’s members, Rory Noland and Greg Ferguson, wrote the song that seems like a blueprint for relieving those worried, overworked ministers. Just unload whatever challenge you think you cannot handle, the song says. Noland and Ferguson must have struck a special chord with Hybels, who still talks about the song a generation after it was first written. The church’s members sang it ‘over’, ‘into’, and ‘for’ each other, he remembers. It was used to comfort people when loved ones died, as well as in church staff meetings, so it captured people in various walks. It sounds as though it became a theme song for those people, a catch-all vehicle to transport them out of trouble, in their present and expected in their future.


The words Noland and Ferguson wrote suggest that the Willow Creek people sought God’s reassurance in four ways. First, they had daily needs, perhaps stuff that was considered trivial in the grand scheme of things. And yet, they knew that He cares. Second, they trusted that He would guard their future, come what may. Third, they needed God to make dreams become reality; after all, who but the supernatural One could manage all of the crises, both personal and corporate, among thousands of people, and vault a group beyond its mortal limits? Finally, the fourth way sounds like the people wanted change in themselves, a transformation desire expressed with a resolve that He would answer. ‘Only sinners allowed here’ the church sign says to the discouraged. That’s because transformation is His specialty. Time is His, too. To the non-believer, transformation and time might sound like the Twilight Zone. But, that’s not Rod Serling you’re hearing in the background. God has no desire to make me eerie, though His capabilities are startling. No, the chilling part of life is living it without Him, without His ability.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xnkrQyJ3mI


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_Creek_Community_Church



http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/Authors/Author.htm?ContributorID=NolandR&QueryStringSite=Zondervan



http://www.heartoftheartist.org/about-rory/