New Music Emerging from Dandelion Ministries

“Two Hands,” Kate Norris

13 years ago, Revs Sean and Kate Norris had a vision to establish a community where those who experience deep pain and other barriers to an authentic life in Christ could experience the radical grace of the Gospel.

Only recently did this vision gain some traction this fall, when they planted Dandelion Ministries on Long Island to be a place of retreat, sabbatical, recovery, and incubator of new ministries. As artist missionaries they find that using their gifts in art and music allows them to go deep with people to where the real pain lies, and allows them to speak God’s word of radical grace and hope there.

“God’s good news in Jesus Christ breaks through our illusions of control and invades our lives. [Like dandelions] He sends down roots and grows profusely in places of pain… places of death… events or memories in our lives that seem undesirable, unwanted, that we didn’t choose, that hurt.  It is precisely there that God’s grace and forgiveness heal and create new life.  This is our experience of Jesus Christ, and this is our mission: to magnify the grace of God to the place of pain.  

These places of pain are transformed into seeds of new life for others. They now carry the word of hope in the face of loss, of sin, of death: there Christ lives.” – from Dandelion Ministries

Already songs are emerging from that ministry. Below we’ve included two of Rev. Sean’s songs, One for You and Stop All the Fighting, which he and Rev. Kate filmed at Horton Point Lighthouse.

One for You

I waited for you to come, but you never showed
I wish I could have seen you before you had to go

The tears have run dry but sorrow lives in my eyes
For all of the lost chances and all the missed dances

You were here for such a short while
But we’ll never be the same
We never got to see you smile and
We never got to know your name 

“Easter Door” Kate Norris.

We’ll see you on that great day
When everything is made new
My heart will let go of pain
When I hold onto you

Stay a little longer darling stay
You just got here a minute ago
Wait a little longer darling wait
There’s so much more I need to know

Oh oh oh oh oh oh, hey!
For all that might have been

Stop All the Fighting

A tired man stands before the confused little souls
And they wait for him to say why she went away
But he can’t explain

I’ve got to stand, be a man, they’re all counting on me
I can’t admit that she’s split and that I cannot see
Which way to go somebody save me

Stop, all the fighting, I can’t go on hiding
Behind the brave things I do when I’m dying for you
When will you speak to me again I need you
To be straight with me I’m so tried and weak

Pressure builds but his will can’t give up yet
Chance is thin, but if he could win and stop all this death
Then they’d be free so his heart was set

“Calvary” Kate Norris.

But the plan of a man is never set in stone
This broken place, her cheatin face wants all that you own
She’ll take it from you and leave you alone

Stop, all your fighting, You can’t go on hiding
Behind the brave things you do when I’m dying for you

I’ve come to save you,
to lift up and make you free,
Come rest in me

So lay down your burdens and rest my children
I promise you I’ll bring you through

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