Send us out

Send us out in the power of your Spirit,
to shine your light in the way we live.
Send us out in the power of your Spirit,
as we’ve received, may we freely give.

Send us out,
send us out,
send us out for your glory.
Let all we do
be praise to you;
send us out for your glory

Send us out in the power of your Spirit
to show your love everywhere we go.
Send us out in the power of your Spirit,
Lord, fill us up so we overflow.

We're laying down our lives,
a living sacrifice,
we're living for your glory and your praise.
We’re taking up our cross,
we’ve counted up the cost,
we're living for your glory and your praise.

Send Us Out is a song for the end of a Sunday service and is inspired by a favourite prayer of mine from the end of the Anglican Communion liturgy. My intention in writing it was to try and blur the boundaries that we sometimes construct within our lives between "worship" (what we do when we gather together for an hour or so on Sunday) and "not-worship" (what we do for the other 167 hours in our week). As Paul reminds us in Colossians 3:23, "whatever we do" should be as though it is for God, both within and without church buildings. Our "true and proper worship" is to offer our whole lives as living sacrifices to God, for his glory (Ro. 12:1).

The song also recognises that living for God is dependent on his Spirit filling us, hence the repeated line that runs through the verses. Although the musical style of the song is bold and declarative, the lyrics acknowledge that we only go because we are sent, as Jesus sent the first disciples (Matt. 28:16-20), and we can only live for God because his Spirit lives in us, hopefully to the point of overflowing into the lives of those around us (Ro. 15:13). If your church is up for some harmonising and clapping (on beats 2 and 4!) then an acapella or drums-only chorus or two can work really well. It is possible to do the whole song in a more reflective style, perhaps dropped a tone to G major, which may work better in some settings.