A rt & Soul
Justin and Maggie Best
Anthems for the Kingdom of God “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” Creation reminds us, O God, of your love. By grace we are learning, as year leads to year, We’re called to be stewards, your caretakers here. - Carolyn Winfrey Gillette The fullness of the gospel can be compared to a Russian nesting doll. Aspects like personal salvation, redemption of creation, continuing discipleship, and spiritual disciplines fit closely together within the kingdom of God. When viewed as an ensemble, they represent the great renewal that the Old Testament prophets spoke of, the redemption of all things that the New Testament writers hoped for, and the restoration of the shalom that Jesus himself inaugurated. God’s kingdom comes, on earth as it is in heaven. This is the gospel that has wooed the heart of Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, a pastor from Delaware who masterfully weaves Jesus’ good news into hymns for this generation. Gillette champions the message of hope and redemption by writing about facets of the kingdom not foreseen by great hymn writers of centuries past. Though Martin Luther and John Newton did not, Gillette touches on such issues as women’s rights, school violence, and immigration. Her hymns speak to what the church is struggling with in this day and age. For Gillette, hymn writing is a ministry of discernment and proclamation of God’s kingdom come to us. She was raised by a mother who was an excellent writer and a father who was an English teacher. “They both taught me to choose words carefully—and that the longest writings aren’t necessarily the best,” she says. Her parents also taught her about faith through daily devotions, worship, and discipleship. In 1998, she wrote her first hymn at a church conference in response to a discussion on the psalms. The attendees
were talking about passages of Scripture used as the basis for writing hymns but couldn’t remember a particular piece about the Ten Commandments. So Gillette wrote one, setting the lyrics to a familiar hymn tune; she shared it with a friend, and it was sung in church that Sunday. This experience taught Gillette the value of helping others “find new words to pray—words that help them make connections between their faith and their everyday lives.” Many churchgoers today miss out on the beauty of hymns because their language can seem remote from 21st-century life. Gillette’s hymns give accessible expression to the issues that contemporary saints wrestle with on a daily basis—questions such as “What does it look like to love my neighbor?” and “How do I respond to issues of injustice in this world?” She wrote “God of Creation” about the relief response to Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf region. “God of Mercy, You Have Shown Us” concerns gun violence. “Another Son Is Killed” responds to issues in the Middle East and includes references to Psalm 137. Other hymns carefully blend current issues and biblical themes, such as “God, May Your Justice Roll Down,” which integrates the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the message of justice from the book of Amos: Christ, we give thanks for past saints who renewed education, freed the oppressed, brought your healing and fought segregation. Savior and Lord, great were the risks they endured, bearing your hope and salvation. Gillette emphasizes with her work and ongoing ministry that “our faith and life need to be very much connected, and
I seek to help people see these connections through my hymn writing.” With her husband, Bruce, she is co-pastor of Limestone Presbyterian Church in Limestone, Del. Hymn writing is a vital part of her ministry, both to her congregation and to the church at large. She has published two books of hymns and has been featured in other collections as well, including Voices Found: Women in the Church’s Song (Episcopal Church Publishing, 2003), Sing the Faith: New Hymns for Presbyterians (Westminster/ John Knox Press, 2003), and Worship and Song (Abingdon Press, 2011). Woven together out of a rich scriptural context and a deep empathy for the church today, Gillette’s hymns are not the lofty arias of an ancient cathedral— they are meat and potatoes for a hungry church. The Rev. Dr. Arlo D. Duba of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary says that Gillette’s poetry and imagery remind him of “both Tom Troeger and Wendell Berry, homey, yet profound, packed with inspirational material.” Gillette beckons us to take a step back and take in the fullness of the kingdom of God. For Christians who feel as if older hymns have no relevance to them and their journey of discipleship, Gillette’s hymns teach them to sing a different tune. Through her hymns she invites us to marinate in the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that it is not just what we’ve been saved from but also what we’ve been saved for. Her hymns lament the violence and evil of our world, cry out for justice, and rejoice in the coming yet already present King. Learn more about Gillette’s work at CarolynsHymns.com. Justin and Maggie Best studied missions and anthropology at Eastern University, where Justin just got his master’s in international development. They are on their way to Miami, Fla., to be part of a church plant called Rhythm Community Church.
9