Worship is an Act of Protest: Steven Schallert on his album, "Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Protest"

I'll be honest, I haven't listened to the record yet. But his words have captivated me. When you hear what Steven Schallert says about it, maybe you'll know what I mean.

"To me, as I've witnessed to the struggling of the world and sat in the tension of it, I've come to the place of believing that worship...is protest. Because worship, at its core, stands in the tension of naming the reality of the world as it is, with all of its brokenness, all of its tension, all of its struggle, and simultaneously, holding fast to this hope that another world is coming, another world is possible...Like grass wiggling its way through a concrete slab, another world is coming. Worship, at its best, sits in the midst of that tension and helps provoke communities of faith to live fully in the tension of both realities. So for me, this record, Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Hope, is about that. It's about, first of all, naming suffering as we see it. Creating room for suffering, room for doubt, room for pain, room for anger and bitterness, room for all of the brokenness that we carry, to be real and present in our communities. So its a record of lamentation. At the same time, I desire it to be a prophetic record of hope that chooses to set in the midst of that tension and still say, 'Yeah, but there's another world coming.'"

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/steveschallert/songs-of-sorrow-songs-of-hope

Here's just a taste! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xOlDK1esG4&index=1&list=PLIc-Tz_S7Bb6Xi6xe7T7_lRzeR6F5ELcH]

Here's a link to his album... https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/songs-of-sorrow-songs-of-hope/id949971226

Here's the SoundCloud link... https://soundcloud.com/steve-schallert

See also this article in Sojourners by Jarrod McKenna, "Every Christmas Carol A Protest Song."  http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/12/29/every-christmas-carol-protest-song