The tune was lovely, the text deeply moving—an honest expression of grief rooted in faith with a declaration of hope. It was a poignant text for a funeral. A week later, snippets of the words and tune were still in my mind: “Your name is ‘I am’ and ‘I will be there.’” I wanted to get a copy of the music, so I emailed the pastor, who told me a bit about how the song and others like it came to be part of his congregation’s repertoire. During the pandemic, some parishioners of Dutch descent in his southern Ontario church had begun listening to the radio program Nederland Zing (Netherland Sings). The song from the funeral—“Ik Zal er Zijn / I Will Be There” (tinyurl.com/IkZalerZijn), by the group Sela—was among the songs that had found their way into the sung repertoire of churches in the area. I did some further digging on Sela’s website and was so impressed that I asked if they would be willing to have a conversation with the goal of turning it into an article to share with our Reformed Worship audience. They responded graciously, and I was able to meet online with James MacMillan, the bassist for Sela.
I am the daughter of Dutch immigrants, so my cultural connection may be what initially piqued my interest, but the more time I spent with the music and texts, the more I appreciated their quality and message. Yet it wasn’t until MacMillan and I talked that it became clear that something bigger and deeper is going on. Sela’s overarching mission is to write new songs for the church—which encompasses all followers of Christ. While the theme of our unity in Christ wasn’t meant to be the focus of our conversation, it may have been the most important part.
Sela’s desire to build bridges is evident in how songs are written, the diverse audience they have in mind, and in the texts themselves. Below you will find parts of my conversation with MacMillan (adapted for this article), in which he shared more about Sela’s mission, illustrated by three songs he chose from their repertoire for Advent and Christmas. Consider introducing one or more of these songs to your congregation this year.
—Joyce Borger, senior editor
Sela’s Mission
The Netherlands has a long and complicated tradition of church schisms, including one that happened in the middle of World War II. Some churches in the Netherlands are working to undo that division, and denominations are joining back together. Part of the reason behind these reunifications is the reality of diminishing resources, but it’s also about healing. The church I (James) am a part of has recently merged with the denomination it split from sixty years ago. For some people, the wounds from that split are as fresh as the day it happened, but they have chosen to let them go, to forgive each other, to forgive themselves, and to let Jesus take over. The people have chosen to find the things that bind us together to be more important than the things that hold us apart. That’s the future of the church.
That is the context out of which Sela was born. Sela bridges the Protestant denominations in the Netherlands, from the most orthodox denominations—where people only sing psalms and the women all wear skirts—to the most charismatic. Our events attract a really wide spectrum of Christians. They don’t come to talk about what makes them different. They come to celebrate what keeps them together.
What’s beautiful is that these songs are used more and more in all kinds of churches. That’s one of the great blessings of playing in Sela. Jesus asked us to believe and to embrace the unity of the church, which would be a sign to the world of what the church is, of who Jesus is. In the past, churches have said that a lot of other things are more important than that unity in Christ. But what if we were wrong? So we write our songs for the whole church.
We deliberately choose language that isn’t particular to a certain denomination and try to encompass truths we hold in common. For example, we have a song called “Doop/Baptism” that articulates scriptural truths about baptism that are true whether you believe in infant or believer’s baptism. It can be used at any baptism. Expressing the unity of the whole church is important to us, so we work hard at it. I read once that we don’t have unity because we all think the same thing; we have unity because we have the same God. That is a powerful truth.
Bridging Languages
Magnificat
Piano and choral arrangements are available to purchase at www.sela.nl/liederen/33/magnificat.
“Magnificat” is a paraphrase of Luke 1:46–55, Mary’s celebration song. It was written by Anneke Van Dijk-Quist, our violinist, who also writes some of our lyrics. Written in 2009, it has become a popular song in our congregations during Advent.
You may notice that with the English version there is the option to sing the refrain in Dutch. Up to this point, Sela has been a Dutch-language band. (The English translations of these songs were prepared for this article.) In the church in the Netherlands, the younger people know so much English-language music that when they get to choose a song for worship it will often be in English. But English is not the people’s heart language, so Sela writes new songs in Dutch. When you go to our concerts, we all sing in Dutch. That’s been a part of our identity. At the same time, we welcome the growing international awareness of our songs and mission. For English-speaking churches, learning to sing the refrain in Dutch helps honor its roots and gives expression to the breadth of the church.
Bridging Generations
Kerstnacht Boven Bethlehem / Christmas Night over Bethlehem
Piano and choral arrangements are available for purchase at www.sela.nl/liederen/193/kerstnacht-boven-bethlehem.
“Kerstnacht Boven Bethlehem / Christmas Night over Bethlehem” is is both the name of our latest album and one of the songs on it. The song is the story of the angels coming and announcing Jesus’ birth. The text writer, Matthijn Buwalda, is not in the band but writes lyrics for us. For him, this was the ultimate assignment—to write a pure Christmas song, a song about angels and Jesus’ birth.
Writing a new song for Christmas is tough because the story is so familiar to almost everyone. But there is room for something new because the culture is always changing. This song is now among the songs churches in the Netherlands sing at Christmas; they want to sing something new.
I had a conversation with a couple of older pastors who were saying that it was a shame that kids aren’t learning the traditional hymns of our faith, like “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” And yes, on one hand it is a shame, but they also don’t understand it. It doesn’t speak to them. The mission of Sela is not to teach the old tradition, but to give younger people music that speaks to them now, in this culture, with the problems and challenges they have now. I love “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” but preserving the hymn is not as important as preserving the gospel story. Sela is working to find new ways to tell the story that speaks to people today.
Bridging the Whole Church
Gaudete
Arrangements for gospel and sacred choirs are available at www.sela.nl/liederen/220/gaudete-wij-verheugen-ons.
About our song “Gaudete,” a friend of mine said, “Now that’s good church Latin.” The word gaudete means “Rejoice!”—the traditional message of the third Sunday of Advent. The song was written by Lars Gerfen, our new lead singer, and Arnold Dekker, who plays organ and piano. Dekker is a member of a Protestant denomination with roots in the conservative wing of the Dutch church. Gerfen is our first Roman Catholic band member. This creative cooperation between Protestants and Catholics is not the norm. The Protestant Reformation in the Netherlands was marked by theological separation not simply between Catholics and Protestants, but between various factions within Protestantism. It was a violent and destructive time leading to the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648).
This is our church history. But now this Catholic and Protestant got together and wrote this song, using Philippians 4:4 in Latin—the language of the Western church from before the Reformation. It’s a song about hope, and it provokes our expectations as we look forward to Jesus’ coming.
“Gaudete” was recorded in a Catholic church in Haarlem, the Netherlands. with students from a Catholic choir school. Making the video with these students has inspired and reached many people because it’s so hopeful. It’s about the reality of Jesus coming for the whole church.