The human brain’s capacity to recall melody is stronger than its ability to recall most anything else.
That’s why Jason Strain (pictured at right) decided to put it to use to memorize Bible verses. Jason is a songwriter and arranger with a passion for setting Scripture to music. He recently released a new CD and launched his ministry website, BibleSong.ca.
“Composers have been setting Scripture to music for centuries. However, in today’s fast-paced society, Christians more than ever before have begun to neglect the memorization of Scripture. It is our desire to encourage and equip believers to once again embrace the spiritual discipline of memorization,” he explains on his website.
“I have long felt called to write and record songs using the Scriptures word-for-word in order to help people memorize,” explains Strain, who is worship pastor at Community of Hope Church, a Grace Brethren congregation in Surrey, B.C. (Phil Bryant, pastor). “My first CD release under the banner of BibleSong is a collection of 20 songs designed to be both ‘praise and worship’ songs and memorization tools.”
Jason’s passion for writing songs to help people memorize the Bible began at a church leadership retreat in April of 1999, where he wrote his first word-for-word setting of Scripture using Psalm 23. He then put the words of Psalm 139:23-24 to music (Search Me O God) in order to help his home Bible study group commit it to memory.
The study group loved the song and urged Jason to share Search Me O God with the church family. It was well received. Soon, his pastor requested memory-verse songs as additions to sermons. Jason embraced the challenge and began writing more music.
Apart from setting Scripture to music, Jason also wrote lyrics to worship songs. He admits to being overly proud of his work. One day, he says the Lord convicted him that he was seeking the accolades of man rather than seeking to please God and challenged him to drop lyric writing in favor of only using Scripture. Jason has been passionately writing Scripture songs ever since with the specific aim of helping others to memorize Bible passages.
Jason teaches choir and Bible at Regent Christian Academy and vocals at Pacific Life Bible College’s Institute of Music Ministry. He is married to Dana, and they have two school-aged boys, Evan and Liam.
His album is available for download at www.biblesong.ca. Hard copies are also available for mail-order through the website.
This story first appeared in GraceConnect eNews. To subscribe to the weekly e-newsletter that includes news and information about ministries in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, click here.