The Wesley Project is an effort to reclaim the rich hymnody of our Wesleyan heritage.  All the songs in this project are combinations of texts written by Charles Wesley, one of our founders and one of the world's most prolific hymn writers, and new tunes by Carl Thomas Gladstone and other musicians connected with the Emerge Community and Birmingham First UMC.

Wesley wrote these texts dense with beautiful expressions of our Methodist understanding of the Gospel and set them to familiar tunes of his day.  So, here we've gathered some of his most striking texts and set them to new tunes that will allow Wesley's words to be experienced again so that we may all continue experiencing the Triune God in worship.

Below you'll find demo mp3's, lyrics, and charts for the new songs that CTG and others are working on.  If you like these songs and would like your church to use them, please do so!  We simply ask that you cite us and direct people to this site. Thanks!

The world could benefit from the depth of Charles' theological lyrics - perhaps these new formulations will help pull that sung theology back into our common worship language. Many thanks to Indellible Grace Music and Kevin Twit, the Reformed University Fellowship online hymnal, and the musicians of Redmountain Church in Birmingham, Alabama for helping inspire this new project. - ctg
Song Title
Abstract
Downloads
All Praise Building each other up and worshipping together allow us to give all our praise to God.
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And Are We Yet Alive This is a traditional text sung at yearly conferences of Methodists.  In the early days it literally celebrated the fact that these frontier circuit riders were still living on this planet!  Now the words, in light of the troubles our churches have seen as institutions, remind us that with a focusing on the mission of Jesus Christ for us - to make disciples for the transformation of the world - we may continue experience life in Christ together.
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Band of Love  
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Bend Beneath Abyss This song captures a sense of God's greatness and unimaginable depth.  It also reminds us of our baptisms during which we die to our selves and Jesus claims us for his own.  Even this power, though, that seems crushing is a power bound by the love of goodness of God.
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Charge to Keep As we hear the Gospel and God's call in our lives we have the responsibility to respond.  This song imagines that response as a charge placed upon us by God.  Keeping it is the way of life.  Ignoring or working against it is that which deadens us.
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Close By Your Steps  
Enter My Joy This song revels in lives lived as pleasing servants of God.  Even this life that seems so difficult or so short can be lived beautifully and the nearness of God's glory is offered.
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From Strength to Strength Many hymns use military imagery to talk about how we follow Christ or win over evil.  But, Jesus in no way would have us attempt to bring about his kingdom by force.  His armor (as described in Ephesians 6:10-18) is always conditioned - it is the breastplate of righteousness, shodding your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  This song reminds us that even if we use images of war in our hymns they should always be helping us to move from our own forms of strength (military violence) to Jesus' form of strength - which is love.
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Hasten to the Day The call in this song remembers God's redeeming hope for the whole world - ours is not a God who will forsake anyone. The love that Jesus announced was radical in it's breadth as well as its depth.
In This Hour  
Let There Be Light Some hymns use light imagery only in contrast to "darkness."  But, the light of Christ and the Holy Spirit also offer us vibrant lives lived amidst all the colors of the world.  They deliver us from blandness - not just darkness.
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The Love Feast Jesus constantly revealed God's love for the world to small groups around a meal.  But those dinners became so much more.  In their sharing disciples remember Jesus, pray to God and for one another, and give testimony to the coming heavenly banquet of God.  The Love Feast was also a practice of early Methodist communities (and some - like Emerge - still today) in which bread and water and witness are shared together
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Maker In Whom We Live Charles Wesley once wrote an entire hymnal filled with songs about the Holy Trinity.  Rarely do pastors, let alone songwriters attempt to discuss, explain, or interact with this mystery of the faith.  Here Wesley capture the Triune God in a text that cries our for that God to remember creation and humanity.
This Rebel Heart Not only do we turn away from God, sometimes we actively work counter to God's will for the world which is love, justice, mercy, goodness. This song uses the term "rebel heart" to describe that state of being so interested in one's own way as to miss or undermine God's.
Substance In the Shade  
Upon the Furious Waves  
Who Camest From Above The Gospel of John reminds us constantly of Jesus' divine otherness.  Sometimes the only way we know how to talk about that is by talking about Jesus as the one who "came from above."  This song uses that motif to usher Christians into a spirit of awe around this Jesus who was the incarnate God.
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