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When pastor Jeff Brouwer put together a sermon series commemorating the of the , he approached Jonathan Posthuma to help by writing a song.

Posthuma rose to the challenge, and on a Sunday morning in September, the congregation of in Waupun, Wisc., sang ā€œOur Only Comfort.ā€

ā€œI wrote this song very quickly,ā€ Posthuma said, explaining that playing with the different chord progressions and melodies came quite naturally to him. ā€œThe trick,ā€ he said, was figuring out ā€œhow to write something thatā€™s both a question and an answer . . . you need to have both.ā€

Posthuma also faced the challenge of mixing new elements with the traditional, asking himself, How can I be faithful to the text, to the words that everyone knows and has memorized, but yet be faithful to the music?

Such questions are no stranger to Posthuma, who is currently studying composition in a masterā€™s degree program. He is constantly writing and thinking of new songs for many purposesā€”hymns, choral songs, band, and more.

Posthumaā€™s love for creating music and crafting liturgy has led him to value the intersection of the two. For that reason he believes that ā€œsomething like the Heidelberg Catechism needs to be brought to our culture.ā€

Posthuma says he would love to work with the CRC and develop music that reflects the rich history. ā€œThe CRC is my tradition. The Heidelberg Catechism is my tradition . . . the whole history is my tradition and it inspires my musicā€”the music that I write for anything.ā€

Posthuma is looking into options for publishing his work.

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