SONGWRITING
MAKING ROOM FOR LAMENT | Kevin MacDougall
The strangest thing about the subject of this online still aren’t the same as actually being in a
article is that it’s one I’ve wanted to tackle for room together.
a long time.
And God is okay with that.
We’re going to need some new songs.
What does all of this mean? It means that when
Well before the current COVID-19 pandemic people do finally gather together again, it will began to disrupt and re-shape so much of be different. Expectations will have shifted. The our lives, I thought this theme needed to be lengthy disruption of routine and institution will We’re going to need songs which fit this
explored. And it has only become more relevant have made room for change. moment - this particular space and time.
And songwriters will need to be there for I’ve often felt over the years that worship
that change. services and worship songs didn’t make
We’re going to need some different songs.
now, amidst the upheaval we’re surrounded by
daily. It’s a heavy, sobering time to be alive.
No one knows how long this quiet world of
enough room for lament. I vividly remember a
distancing will go on. Beyond that, no one We’ll need to give it a voice, providing it with service I was helping to lead, and how a co-
knows how much will change on the other side language - providing a soundtrack to this leader came out on stage more in the “pep
of it - when we return to “normal” again. Or unifying, worldwide experience of trauma. rally” style to launch us into a song. And as
what the new normal will even be… and thus, if
it will even feel like a “return.” It might not.
he spoke various phrases of… let’s call it
And for that to be possible: We need to make “feelgoodery”… I had this staggering moment
room for lament. where I was looking out across hundreds
This discussion is typically framed as it relates
of people, a majority of whom I knew. And it
to economics, business and commerce, but Make no mistake - we already needed to suddenly struck me how insensitive the other
we can all see the ripple effects within every before everything began to change. Earnest leader was being for some of these folks. In the
institution we know. We can see that how we lament was already missing from most of our pastorate, we were intimately aware of people’s
“do church” is changing. Congregations are gatherings, diminishing the fullness of life and suffering. And it was like all of that flew out the
going weeks and months without gathering, how we reflect it. Especially in our songs. But window the moment a service began. There
without singing together. Within that same on the other side of change, we won’t be able I was, hearing him cheerlead while scanning
span of time, many people are suffering great to so easily avoid lament anymore. We’ll have the congregation… That couple over there
loss: loved ones, jobs, homes, security. In a to give it space. We’ll have to allow it time to was probably getting a divorce, that woman’s
time when so many could especially use the do its thing in our midst. Not because we’re father just died, that couple recently lost their
refuge taken in sacred community, it’s not an hopeless, but because we’re whole people… daughter in a car wreck, that man in the front is
option. And our best efforts to do services and whole people experience more than hope. struggling with intense drug addiction…
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May 2020
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