AUGUST 2026

"God has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Holy require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

Dear UCCMA members,

Wasn’t that an amazing conference in Columbus? The fellowship, the learning opportunities, the worship, the music… Deep gratitude to everyone who contributed.

I attended Janelle Rogers’ session on contemporary worship music, and while I learned a lot from this session, I was particularly haunted by one question she asked: Are we singing a story as wide as the Gospel? A question that bears repeating:

Are we singing a story as wide as the Gospel?

Here are some additional questions that emerge from Janelle’s question:

• Is our worship music as inclusive as the good news of Jesus?

• Is that music helping God’s kin-dom come and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven?

• Is our music leading us from fear to love, from resentment to gratitude, and from a self-protective scarcity mindset to the abundance Jesus seems to have experienced (and certainly taught)?

• Is our music expanding our resilience and bandwidth as we deal with the chaos of a profoundly troubled country?

• Is our music inspiring us to make a difference to those around us?

• Is our music helping us recognize just how life-changing the gospel is?

• Is our music comforting us when we are afflicted and afflicting us when we are too comfortable?

• Is our music helping us locate ourselves in Jesus’ story and stories? If so, is it helping us build our imagination to see ourselves in a range of different roles in the story? (When and where are we Peter? Zacchaeus? Judas? The woman who washed Jesus’ feet? The religious leaders who walked past the man in the ditch? The good Samaritan? The prodigal son? The resentful elder brother? The compassionate father?)

• Is our music helping us repent (turn around, get a new perspective, reorient ourselves) and trust that God’s realm of love is breaking into our lives if we only welcome it and live into it?

• Is our music helping us reconcile with those we have harmed?

The word “justice” does not appear in those questions, but it underlies all of them.

If you participate in programming music at your church, I hope you will consider these questions moving forward; I know I will do so. And if you don’t program the music, perhaps you might share this column with those who do. These questions just might change what we sing as well as how and why we sing it.

All peace, Amanda

Dr. Amanda Udis-Kessler

amanda@amandaudiskessler.com