Every One of You

Track thirteen is the one song on Sweet Release that raises its voice, and it raises it for a reason. They built a stage, they built a throne, one man speaks, the rest sit alone. This is the song about what the church was supposed to be and what men turned it into. They took the word ekklesia and buried it in stone. They swapped the body for a building and called the building home.

The chorus is straight out of 1 Corinthians 14, and it is not my idea - it is Paul's. When the church gathered, every one of you has a psalm to bring, a song, a word, a prayer. Not an audience. Not a crowd. Not a hundred open mouths to feed and nothing they can do. The body was meant to function as a body, every member speaking, every gift in play. The institution gave themselves the titles that Christ said not to claim, called each other Reverend, and built careers on His name - while Peter, who had every right to lord it, called himself simply an elder among the other men.

And the bridge is the warm heart of it. The woman with the tender heart, the brother with the grief, the sister with the quiet word - not restricted, essential. No stage, no steeple, no degree required. Just two or three, and where they are is where He said He'd be. On an album about a man finally being known by God, this is the song about being known by each other - the church as His people and the wine, the way it was always designed.