There’s a lot of talk going around about the dire situation of contemporary worship music.
I can understand the complaints and am grateful for the conversations.
We’re after something that is real, Christ-exalting, true to the Word of God. Nobody wants to go from emotional experience to emotional experience, feeling good but lacking depth and understanding.
We’ve already discussed some of the issue in a post a few months ago that went viral.
But many of these complaints are centered on why contemporary music is terrible. We need more hymns. We need more theological depth. It’s an age old argument and a war that may never be resolved on this side of heaven.
Here’s the bottom line for me:
Contemporary and traditional worship must be backed by an obedient heart. If you’re willing to sing and shout but unwilling to do the will of God everyday, it isn’t worship.
If worship songs are your only spiritual diet, therein lies the problem. They were never meant to replace the Word of God and learning how to feed yourself from the Scriptures.
If you’re willing to attend church but don’t prioritize the presence of God on a daily basis, something is off.
I don’t think the creativity needs to die. I don’t believe we should stop writing contemporary worship songs. I don’t think the simple declarations of praise are killing the church.
But I do believe we need to step away from music every now and then to check the honesty of our life in God. Theological hymns or simple choruses are meant to serve your daily journey.
- Do I have a prayer life?
- Am I regularly growing in faith by hearing the Word of God?
- Am I sharing my faith with others?
- Am I inviting others to church?
- Do I see and talk about what God is doing?
- Am I guarding my heart from finding its home in this world?
The songs we sing are important. I’m all for singing rock solid theology in our hymns. But the music is only a soundtrack to the lives we are living, never an end in itself. It merely brings a musical context to an obedient, God centered life.
Is Your Vocabulary Right But Your Heart Distant?
Think about it. We could sing the greatest theology yet have the most distant hearts. And it’s not that theology is bad. I’m after both. A heart of full on passion for Jesus and worship vocabulary that honors who God really is and stirs our hearts toward deeper affection for Him.
Worship isn’t only about saying the right things and believing the right things. It’s obeying the Word of God and loving Jesus with all your heart…and saying and believing truth.
So before we criticize sappy modern worship songs, let’s look at our own hearts again.
Channel your criticism and discontent towards the development of your own heart rather than being a spokesperson for what we’re doing wrong.
I don’t want to stand before God and say I tried to make sure everyone was doing and saying the right thing while Jesus looks at me and just says, ‘I was after your heart.’
But I want to hear from you. I know this debate is always happening.
How do you wrestle with the tension of strong theological songs and simple declarations?
What are people saying in your local church?
What have you found that works? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
Dave,
I agree with what you are saying. Our songs need to come out of a heart that practically serves God daily, and that spends time with Him daily.
At the same time, I will say that I think strong, solid theology in our songs are a major priority. You are right, you must get your foundation from the Word rather than songs. But consider what Paul says in Philippians 1:15-18:
“15 It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. 16 They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.”
My point for sharing this text is that Paul stressed the fact that “the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.”
His point is that when the Gospel is presented accurately then that’s what mattered. Why? Because it is the outward preaching of the Gospel, and solidly strong Theology for that matter, that the Holy Spirit uses to draw men unto Himself. Think about it, we are encouraged to invite people to church all the time. Some are Christians that have become stagnant in there faith. Others are people of other Religions like Hindu, Muslim, or Satanist, and some come from an Atheist background.
Sometimes a song is all that will stick with them through out the week. I am not saying that God will not cause what the pastor says to stick with them either. I just know that there are many times where I may not remember specifics about a sermon, but I will be driving and without thinking start to sing lines from the songs we did the past weekend.
All I am saying is that we need to make Theology a priority 100% of the time, especially in music due to the kind of power music and melody posses.
I agree Ron – I think theology is super important. I also don’t think simple songs are destroying the church. A good balance is best and making sure your theological diet moves beyond songs. Thanks for chiming in!
“Sappy” Songs vs. the Deep Theological Hymns Glenn W. Harrell 12-14
I am right on with David. Generations of Theo-rich and Doctrine-deep poems set to music in the forms of hymns and gospel songs have not magically transformed Christians into Mature Mega-Giants. And it has not always been the mega-giants who have penned the words, much less wrote the music of some of our more precious and entrenched hymns/songs.
I will say this. The odds of stability in our faith goes up when our songs and sermons are scripture rich and when the gooey-feely-touchy is subservient to scripture for verification and validity–not the other way around. This is never more true than in our corporate worship liturgical content. Statistics for those who open their bibles between Sundays is not very encouraging. This negligence is the source of much, if not most, of our wrangling’s and selfish in-fighting. Perhaps it explains why “sappy and insipid texts and music” become an unhealthy preference.
Time is still our best editor for all things music/theology/text.
What we must have is fuel for the generations. We do need pablum for the babies. (sappy songs)
Love those Little Debbie cakes for the teens and many adults— always a big seller. (trite songs)
Off to the Cafeteria now with the Seniors who want a balanced meal fit for a king or queen.
What can we do when the diet is stuck and the lazy susan won’t spin anymore? (someone sabotaged it?)
You get pies, cakes and truffles–over and over and over… Man, even the babies start complaining.
Another dilemma is when Cafeteria Joe (he can be any age) shows up and decides that everyone MUST like his roast beef, carrots and asparagus diet–over and over and over…
Here is where we find ourselves. We discovered segregation based upon tastes and preferences. Our childish solution is that we get rid of each other when our diet is offended by another’s. And rather than find a mature leader who will respect and honor all the generations, putting his/her personal preferences aside, we get our own building, start our own church and do what we like exclusively. Then we “hire” a preacher who looks and believes like us and a musician who will act as “disc-jockey” and spin OUR songs. All the while neglecting and even at times rejecting those who are not like us.
These complaints about Theological depth vs “sappy”/shallow will go away with leadership committed to balance and the family of generations. (usually 4 generations) Truth is, we need both simple and complex theology in our worship.
We will always have both mature and self-centered expressions in our worship services because we call on many different people to express their faith through music. They must reveal where they are or pretend otherwise.
What we must not have—What is deadening to us all—is leadership (pastoral and or music/worship) who lacks maturity and balance. Our churches perish today for our careless inattention to this matter. We turn our backs as our leaders lean to “their” bunch and ignore others as if they matter not to the family. These are not leaders–they are opportunists.
It is the leaders job to be well versed historically and consistently up-to-date with present offerings to the Christian community. Not to have this leader is to drift and be blown about with winds of doctrine. Godly, loving leaders, like songs of character and worthiness, will rise to the top and remain as a fruitful blessing. The others will drift into obscurity.
Paul preached this sermon to the immature Corinthians, “My friends, when you meet to worship, you must do everything for the good of everyone there.” I Cor. 14:26
So–nothing is new. We remain as selfish as ever when we segregate and demand our own way. This immaturity comes from those who grew up on Luther, the Wesley’s, and Fannie Crosby. This immaturity comes from the 30 year old rock for Jesus dude and the teen-idol praise me band as well. Let’s give our people sappy and sturdy songs—shallow and deep!
So, right on David. At some point we must bear the kind of fruit in our character that proves we have not only met Jesus, but that we commune with him. Regardless of the poetry/music we prefer.
Call me Sappy, but I say let this be our banner on the wall to guide us all,
“My friends, when you meet to worship, you must do everything for the good of everyone there.” I Cor. 14:26
worship is not just about the music… it is about the intent of our heart for GOD.. it is not about us or about the people or about the music.. it is about HIM and only HIM….. for We are all made to Worship GOD . GOD is looking in our hearts when we worship. not the voice , not the songs we play, and totally not on how we say the words.
this is what i learned. and it’s nice ..
Amen!
We learn from worship songs because the ideas are simple and we memorize them through repetition. It is important to have biblically sound teaching in the worship lyrics. If the other aspects of our lives are not lining up with scripture then bad lyrics may not be to blame. Worship writers however, should recognize their responsibility. The Holy Spirit will not contradict The Word. If I am inspired to write something misleading I am not lead by God’s Spirit.
Good word, Donald – worship writers should recognize their responsibility. I love that.
I use both. More strong theological songs, a few sappy songs, and many songs about consecration, surrender, and the cross…as long as they are scriptural. Almost every Sunday, I intertwine scripture in what I say as I introduce my songs. Sometimes I only read scripture. I love the New Living Translation. The songs lead to the Word of God. You can deepen a sappy song with incredible scriptural truth. But the main focus HAS to be Jesus, and Jesus alone. To my band…are we living out our faith? Are we living what we are singing? Are we living pure and holy lives for Jesus? As my band deepens their walk with God, the Holy Spirit uses us. I tell them every week…what we do changes no one. Only the Holy Spirit changes hearts. God will use us, but He is the life-changer. Thank you for a great article. One more thing…to the critics of contemporary music…if you go back and look at ALL genres of music, from way back, there were some good ones, and some not so good. That rings true in every generation. We must be smart enough, Biblically grounded enough, to tell the difference.
AMEN!!! Thank you, David, for this well-written article. I echo your desire for high standards of theology in worship. But folks should make sure they’re not confusing what’s “simple” in modern worship with what could be “inaccurate” or “shallow”. When confronted with dissension on the subject, I’m reminded of a few things in scripture: the language of the Psalms is very simple. And also, when Solomon dedicated the temple, fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. The glory of the Lord filled the temple. It’s interesting that the only statement the Israelites could utter was a short, simple, “You are good and Your love endures forever”.
Oohh…love the food for thought, Alice. I hear a lot of complaints about worship songs being overly repetitive. But as you mentioned there is a lot of simple, repetitive declarations over and over in Scripture.
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