Pilgrim Songs
Formed in Faithfulness by the Songs of Ascents
There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness. Religion in our time has been captured by the tourist mindset.
-Eugene Peterson
Our culture - both inside and outside the church - often treats spirituality like tourism. It seems many are always in pursuit of the next new thing, the next rich experience, the next innovative approach to spiritual growth.
In contrast, the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120–134) call us to something more durable. They remind us God’s people are not characterized by novelty, but faithfulness. Rather than spiritual tourists, we are formed as pilgrims.
Sung by the people of God on the journey to Jerusalem, the Songs of Ascents are pilgrim songs. Collectively, they form the soundtrack for a life of ordinary faithfulness shaped by worship, patience, community, dependence, and a sustained longing to dwell with God forever.
Partnered with Eugene Peterson’s classic work, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, this series will reorient us to the beauty of “ordinary” discipleship. Together we’ll see that the Christian life is not built on flashes of intensity but on rhythms of grace - gathering with God’s people, making disciples, walking in repentance, and trusting God through every circumstance.
Join us this fall at Liberti Church as these Pilgrim Songs call us to keep moving upward, together, toward the presence of God. Just as the pilgrims ascended to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, our series will “ascend” to Advent - the pinnacle moment where God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, came to dwell with us.