Last night I had the privilege of worshipping alongside Urban Rescue, Rend Collective and hundreds of other people in Sheffield. It was an experience not to be missed.
Rend Collective, a Northern Irish band with a dazzling array of talent, a plethora of musical instruments and a passion for God and His church, bring to music an irrepressible exuberance and infectious confidence in the goodness of God. Zany, quirky and refreshingly unique (where else would you find confetti showers, bubble bursts and musicians wearing panda heads and a unicorn head? – because ‘seriousness isn’t a fruit of the Spirit, but joy is’), they bring a message of hope wrapped in music that sets your feet dancing and your spirits rejoicing.
Their songs proclaim the freedom that God has purchased for us (‘the only difference between a sinner and a saint is that the sinner is running to God for forgiveness’) and urge us to take the message of radical love and dazzling hope byeond the four walls of church. ‘Worship is simply the soundtrack to our lives as we go into the world,’ we were reminded, with the obversation that we can be quite good at the ‘family’ part but not so good at the ‘going’. The gospel is meant to be lived out by ordinary people in a world that’s full of darkness and pain, for Jesus makes us more than conquerors: these songs provide the soundtrack for our everyday lives.
Their set list (click on the highlighted titles to listen):