Songs of Justice for the Church
A couple of months ago, Micah Singapore released their debut album Poets & Prophets on all major music platforms. Described as an organic community of Christ followers, this album project is compelling precisely because it brings together a medley of writers, producers, and artistes, to create a compilation of songs about the lesser-known issues - justice, mercy, integral missions, and so on.
We sit down with Ronald, Jonathan, and Zhiwen - some of the core team members of Micah Singapore and the ‘Poets & Prophets’ album project - to find out more.
First things first… Who are you and how are you involved in Micah Singapore?
Ronald Wong: I’m Ronald, National Coordinator of Micah Singapore… but usually all that I coordinate is makan meetings.
Jonathan Cho: I'm Jonathan (or "Cho" / "Chobro" as some know me) and I show up to eat at those makan meetings. I also help with the planning of some Micah events and lead worship at them from time to time.
Zhiwen: I'm Zhiwen ("Zee"). I collaborate with Ronald, Chobro, and the others in the Micah Singapore team to 'make things happen'. In practice, it's often the work of doing what germinates in the mind of Ronald.
Awesome, so good to know about you guys a little bit more. Congrats on the album release! Besides releasing music, what else does Micah SIngapore do?
JC: Micah is composed of people passionate about justice, so we have a lot of other projects revolving around these key things - we write books, host workshops and conferences, and engage in community service… and have makan meetings of course.
RW: Besides the makan meetings, we love to dream about what the Singapore Church could be. Sometimes, during one of our sessions, someone says, hey we should do that! Then we ask Zhiwen to gather people and get the ball rolling (haha). Hopefully, these things we do nudges the Singapore Church to be more justice, mercy, and integral mission-oriented.
ZW: Personally, the Micah community has helped me to better frame the work and ministry of the Church within and without. I think two of its strengths are that it is multi-generational and that the people involved often keep one foot firmly in the local church and one foot in the marketplace (or society at large).
You guys just released an amazing album called Poets & Prophets! Tell us a little bit more of where the idea for a 'social justice' collection of songs came from?
RW: Zhiwen kept nagging at some of us to do it. And nobody else did it. So at some point we just did it.
JC: Yes - Zhiwen has been 'dreaming' of this for some time and nudging us. Guilty as charged! To be honest, as a songwriter, these themes do feature in my own songwriting but it takes a whole village to come together and put it into an album, saying: "Yes, this is important for the Church in this season. We should really do it".
ZW: Who is this Zhiwen fella? Haha. Anyway… for myself, I was asked to preach once at my church on the aspect of singing as a significant feature of the Church's life. While preparing for it, it struck me that we are so short on songs - especially local songs - that help us work through the full range of human experience before God. I thought of the lament psalms at first, and then thought of themes of justice and mercy.
RW: I was also inspired by this lady who spoke at a Micah Global conference a few years back who said: look, you don’t remember sermons, but you remember the songs. She mentioned an anecdote about how the whole church broke down when the kids from a poor community visited and led the church to sing a well known children’s song. It’s moments like these that lead me to think that we need to cultivate and disciple not just with sermons or books or messages, but with song. Hence, Poets & Prophets.
Why did these song themes resonate with the team specifically? Rather, why do you think they are relevant for the times that we live in, especially in a localised context?
RW: We had a gathering of the whole project team before the nationwide-quarantine last year. We dug into Scripture and found certain themes that we all resonated with but felt were not often sung about in our churches. Each songwriter prayerfully reflected on a Bible passage or theme of their own choice and wrestled with it in the context of living in Singapore. Finally, we trusted the Holy Spirit to work in each of us to bear the fruit of the song.
JC: I agree with Ron. So often we sing of big Christian ideas within the four walls of the church, but what do these mean for the least, the last and the lost? How do we make sense of what it means to be citizens of Heaven and children of God? How is justice, mercy, peace, restoration, reconciliation, hope, and longing lived out in the ordinary, mundaneness of life?
RW: Song for the Sabbath is an example. Our songwriter Hilary pondered the biblical notion of the sabbath and saw how the COVID-19 situation (and the stagnancy of work and church life that came with it) surfaced the many struggles of the vulnerable communities. This juxtaposed with the biblical sabbath, where the people of God were supposed to stop work, rest, enjoy God, people and creation, and generously care for the vulnerable in the community.
JC: So many songs were birthed out of our time in quarantine. While not originally intended, I think the COVID-season has also shown the Church that there are many gaps in our Christian witness in this world; issues we may not be attuned to or intuitively care about, but which are undoubtedly important to the heart of God.
What place does justice have in the church?
RW: Justice is central to the gospel, and thus should be central to the Church. Justice is how we fall short, what we are saved from, and what we are saved for. Justice is love expressed in community. Justice is God’s desire to have every person freely and fully partaking in community in communion with Him. The church’s role then, is to embody justice to those beyond and to seek justice for those at the margins. At the end, justice leads to reconciliation and peace.
JC: I couldn't have said it any better. I would just add that if justice and righteousness are the "foundation" of God's throne (Ps 89:14) and are important to His heart, then the church cannot see it merely as a 'side-project' or something important only to those who 'have the burden'. The mandate in Micah 6:8 is a mandate for every believer, every child, every citizen of the Kingdom.
ZW: 'nuff said.
Besides the music itself, Micah Singapore has partnered with different enterprises and individuals, releasing companion visuals and devotionals. Tell us a little more about that.
RW: At the end of the day, this is not just a music project. It is a cultural project where we aim to change and create culture so as to give life, express beauty, and embody truth. Thus, we wanted it to be a complete artistic experience where different forms come together to confront our senses, then our hearts, then our minds.
That’s amazing - to see the larger body of Christian creatives come together.
RW: Yes, we’re so fortunate to have a network of people willing to contribute, culture makers that embodied our values and what we set out to do. We had poets and pastors write devotionals; social justice ministry leaders and professional photographers share their work.
Besides streaming the amazing music, are there ways that Christians passionate about social justice can get involved in Micah Singapore projects?
ZW: Our eyes and ears are always open to what others want to do with respect to pursuing justice. They can always contact.... Ronald. We especially favour initiatives that seek transformation within the Church first, as a witness to the world.
RW: What’s coming up next though on 2 April 2021 is the launch of Good News for Bruised Reeds, Volume 3: Colours of the Kingdom. It’s about celebrating diversity of ethnicity and nationalities in the Kingdom.
JC: We also just had Micah-thon, a justice conference during which this album was launched. Though it's over, you could check out some articles which captured what took place (and hopefully look forward to Micah-thon 2022?).
(From left to right) Ronald, Jonathan and Zhiwen
Can we look forward to any new music projects coming up?
RW: Actually, we aren’t sure what’s next on the music side! As mentioned, we makan and things happen. We haven’t even raised all the funds to cover the costs of this project yet (oops!), but hey, never say no. So, if anyone wants to give a love gift to this or the next album project, please feel free.
JC: What he (Ron) said!
ZW: Yep.
Listen to Poets & Prophets by Micah Singapore on Spotify and wherever music is heard.