Rend Collective is a band of young musicians from Northern Ireland that is touring with Christian singer/songwriter Chris Tomlin. Along with another band, Tenth Avenue North, Rend Collective opens the “Love Ran Red” concerts taking place across the United States as well as internationally. “Love Ran Red” refers to the key line of Tomlin’s song, “At the Cross” speaking of Christ’s blood “Your love ran red” atoning for our sins.
I attended the “Love Ran Red” concert in northern Virginia last weekend. Rend Collective only did four or five songs, but even if that had been the entirety of the evening, it would have been worth the price of admission to me. This was the third time I had heard Rend Collective in less than a year.
Last fall I opted for Rend Collective over an invitation-only Washington premiere of the wonderful film The Good Lie, and a chance to meet Reese Witherspoon and the rest of the cast. I had already been to another premiere of the film, which is about the Lost Boys of Sudan, and I needed to celebrate God’s goodness more than I needed to meet a Hollywood star. I had only heard one Rend Collective song before then, “Build Your Kingdom Here,” but that was enough to convince me that this band was not to be missed.
The band was back in January to lead in an evening of prayer before the March for Life. I wrote about this extraordinary event, sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, “Life is VERY Good,” at which the majority of the thousands of attendees were under the age of 25. As I said when I wrote about this event, “Maybe Rend Collective plays at majority Catholic events frequently, I don’t know, but what I do know is that their participation in the Catholic Diocese of Arlington’s Life is VERY Good is witness to Catholics and Protestants alike, both here and in Northern Ireland, that different part of the Body of Christ should rejoice in each other’s different expressions of faith and in our oneness in Him.”
Well, if that’s not enough to convince you, here are 5 reasons to go to a Rend Collective Concert, or, say, invite them to play at a church-wide gathering:
A Rend Collective concert is NOT a concert. It is a wild Irish worship party.
Rend Collective does not “perform.” There is barely such a thing as “listening” to Rend Collective. Lead singer Chris Llewellyn urged complete audience participation in all songs, both vocally and physically, with much jumping up and down. (In the limited amount of personal space — particularly in the higher and steeper levels of the auditorium — praise has to be more vertical than horizontal.) And even though it is quite fun to watch the band members dance, sometimes spinning in a fashion in which St. Patrick and the other Celtic saints would be proud, it is obvious that they are not displaying technique for the crowd. It is their act of praise and worship.
In addition, being quite wild, you never what you might see: a man in a kilt, playing the bagpipes, of course, or bubbles reflecting the buoyancy of the worship.
The loud, fast, and frequent clapping, and very possibly”whooping” that occurs in a Rend Collective concert wild Irish worship party is great exposure therapy for those whose anxiety is “triggered” by clapping or whooping. #nuswomen15
It’s not just the absolute mad clapping and jumping up and down, and the ends of songs met with whoops of delight and exclamations of praise that are therapeutic — it is the total focus outside of one’s self and onto the God, who, as Rend Collective sings in their song “Boldly I Approach“, invites me “by redeeming love” and “pulls me close with nail-scarred hands into His everlasting arms.”
The song goes on to declare:
When condemnation grips my heart
And Satan tempts me to despair
I hear the voice that scatters fear
The Great I Am the Lord is here
Oh praise the One who fights for me
And shields my soul eternally!
“My Lighthouse” assures that even in my wrestling and doubts God “won’t walk out” and that His “great love will lead me through” because He is “the peace on my troubled sea.” It continues “My Lighthouse, shining in the darkness, I will follow You. . .I will trust Your promise, You will carry me safe to shore.”
Rend Collective’s music demonstrates the falseness of the claim that the more spiritual you are, the.more.slowly.you.will.sing.
Maybe this doesn’t bother you as much as it bothers me. But woooorship can sometimes seem more like an act of self-gratification than praise of a wild, not safe, not tame, but Good, Lion of Judah. And the songs get so slow, we sound as if we are in a coma! Gareth Gilkeson. the leader of Rend Collective has famously said in explaining the concept behind the band’s album The Art of Celebration, that seriousness is not a fruit of the Spirit, but joy is! I would add, less famously, slowly-ness is not next to godliness.
A refreshing quality of Rend Collective’s songs, in addition to the poetic lyrics, beautiful melodies, and
theological depth, is their lack of self-consciousness. They are not about praising God. They praise God. “Your mercy rains from Heaven like confetti at a wedding, and I am celebrating in the downpour,” says “Finally Free.” It continues to God, “Your heart is wild with color like a never-ending summer. You burn away the winter of my cold and weary heart.”
You will be following in the footsteps of early Church Fathers and Celtic missionaries whose praises echoed over the very same waters of the northern Irish seacoast which produced Rend Collective.
Rend Collective and their community of believers back home in Northern Ireland come from Bangor, an area with a rich history of ancient Celtic Christianity. Bangor is also called “The Vale of Angels” because of legend that in the 5th century God gave St. Patrick and his comrades a vision of heaven as they rested there on the shores of Belfast Lough. Twelfth-century Anglo-Norman monk Jocelin wrote, “they held the valley filled with heavenly light, and with a multitude of heaven, they heard, as chanted forth from the voice of angels, the psalmody of the celestial choir.”
A History of Day and Night Prayer produced by the 24/7 Prayer Movement JHOP Boston chapter points out the spiritual significance of Bangor, Northern Ireland, revealing that “The ‘Mappa Mundi,’ the most celebrated of all medieval maps, contains reference to a place on the edge of the known world: Bangor, Ireland” and asks “Why was this small out of the way place, now a dormant coastal town fifteen miles from the Northern Irish capital of Belfast, so important in medieval times?” The History goes on to say that in addition to St. Patrick’s vision of the angelic worship, Bangor went on in the 6th century to become home to one of the world’s most famous monastic centers and “one of the three leading lights of Celtic Christianity” under the direction of St. Comgall.
Moreover, says the History:
Throughout the sixth century, Bangor became famous for its choral psalmody. “It was this music which was carried to the Continent by the Bangor Missionaries in the following century” (Hamilton, Rector of Bangor Abbey). Divine services of the seven hours of prayer were carried out throughout Bangor’s existence, however the monks went further and carried out the practice of laus perennis. In the twelfth century, Bernard of Clairvaux spoke of Comgall and Bangor, stating, “the solemnization of divine offices was kept up by companies, who relieved each other in succession, so that not for one moment day and night was there an intermission of their devotions.” This continuous singing was antiphonal in nature, based on the call and response reminiscent of Patrick’s vision. . .
Another ministry involved in 24/7 prayer, Holy Fire Bangor, states that Bangor “was the site of the longest known 24/7 prayer movement in church history that lasted for almost 300 years.” Bangor, it says, “released a wave of God’s power” and it was from Bangor “that the monks took the gospel to all of Europe.” They conclude that “Bangor is called to be a blessing for the nations.” It would seem to me that Rend Collective, and their larger community back in Bangor, are answering that call.
Members of the Body of Christ are responding with joy and affirmation not only to the idea of celebrating GOD, but praying for revival, for spiritual awakening in the Church.
It is extremely encouraging to go to a Rend Collective concert. People of all ages are, as Rend Collective says, “choosing celebration, breaking into freedom.” Even the comments of people who watch the music videos of Rend Collective’s songs show people hungry to know Jesus and follow Him more closely, and to know the joy of His forgiveness.
Maybe it is that holy fire from the spiritual roots of Bangor, maybe it is from the decades and decades that intercessors have been praying for God to revive His Church, but in addition to being hungry for joy, the Body of Christ seems to be more and more hungry for spiritual awakening, holiness, and making a difference in this world. Rend Collective provides the deep heart cries for authentic faith, for revival in their songs. Here are just two examples:
From “Burn Like a Star”:
. . . We are turning from our sin/We are praying once again/Come my Lord, awaken holy fire/We are aching for the real thing/Hearts are open wide./Burn like a star/Light a fire in our hearts/. . . Send revival start in us/Set Your holy spark in us/Send us out in resurrection power/History’s about to change/We are rising once again/Send us out in resurrection power/. . . For Your glory/For Your fame/In this darkness/Light a flame in us. . .
And from “Build Your Kingdom Here”:
Come set Your rule and reign/in our hearts again./Increase in us we pray./Unveil why we’re made./Come set our hearts ablaze with hope/like wildfire in our very souls./Holy Spirit, come invade us now./We are Your church./We need Your power in us.
We seek Your kingdom first./We hunger and we thirst./Refuse to waste our lives/for You’re our joy and prize./To see the captive hearts released./The hurt, the sick, the poor at peace./We lay down our lives for Heaven’s cause./We are Your church./We pray revive this earth./. . .
Unleash Your kingdom’s power/reaching the near and far./No force of Hell can stop/Your beauty changing hearts./You made us for much more than this!/Awake the kingdom seed in us!/Fill us with the strength and love of Christ.
Okay, not everybody will want to go to a Rend Collective concert. Not everyone has the same worship style. But whether you like loud, wild Irish worship parties or prefer Bach’s manner of Soli Deo Gloria (or like me, you love them both), you will want to pray this with Rend Collective, the spiritual descendants of the Bangor monks’ perpetual worship:
Build Your kingdom here.
Let the darkness fear.
Show Your mighty hand.
Heal our streets and land.
Set Your church on fire.
Win this nation back.
Change the atmosphere.
Build Your kingdom here.
We pray.
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