Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace

Hello again,

I wanted to introduce you to (or at least remind you of) yet another worship leader that you would do well to listen to. His name is Matthew West and he sings with the group Indelible Grace. We actually went to one of their worship sessions at North Wake Church last spring. They started off leading worship on college campuses and with campus ministries, and their ministry has really had an underground effect on many churches and how they view worship music, especially in the midst of the "contemporary" vs. "traditional" debates.
This is what is so great Indelible Grace - they take the beautiful, deep, rich, poetic, gospel-centered, God-glorifying hymns from the past century or so, and they simply re-arrange the music and play them in a way that a modern generation might identify with them. These songs aren't good simply because they are old; they are good because they are theologically rich and right. These songs are good simply because they are played with guitars and drums; they are good because they are not only theologically rich but they are also played well, in a way that would not distract the average worshipper.
Just in case you were wondering what "Indelible Grace" means:
"Indelible" = something that is permanent, or impossible to remove, erase, or wash away.
"Grace" = Is God's freely giving us his love, forgiveness, favor, and salvation though we do not deserve it.
"Indelible Grace" = That free gift of salvation which cannot be taken away from us!

I don't know about you, but that is a pretty great name. It really tells how great of a band they are.

Listen to what Indelible Grace has said concerning their ministry:

"We want to be a voice calling our generation back to something rich and solid and beyond the fluff and the trendy. We want to remind God's people that thinking and worship are not mutually exclusive, and that not everything worth knowing happened in the last three years. We want to invite the Church to appreciate her heritage without idolizing it. We want to open up a world of passion and truth and make it more that just an archaic curiosity for the religiously sentimental. We believe worship is formative, and that it does matter what we think. So, we hope this site will prove helpful in encouraging and nurturing a growing movement. We want to provide resources such as chord charts, CDs, and useful links. But we also want to share with you the stories behind the authors of the hymns, and in many cases the stories behind the writing of the hymns themselves, as well as theological reflections upon the hymns. We believe that this theological poetry is supremely suited for expressing the seeming paradoxes of the faith that drive us to worship. Our prayer is that Jesus would be made more beautiful and believable, and we have found few things better suited for this than hymns. "O Love incomprehensible, That made Thee bleed for me The Judge of all hath suffered death, To set His prisoner free!"

Check them out at www.igracemusic.com

You might recognize some of these songs . . .

"And Can It Be" -- I still love the original version, but this one is so good!
Originally written by Charles Wesley (1707-1788)


"Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go"
Originally written by George Matheson (1842-1906)