Greetings, fellow songwriters, fellow worshippers, fellow leaders in worship, fellow musician\/artists, and fellow followers of Jesus:
\nFor the last few years, I have been privileged to be \u201con the road\u201d a lot, speaking mostly with young emerging leaders. I suppose I was asked to speak to them because of some over-forty quota system, and also because many emerging leaders are grappling with the issue of postmodernity, an issue I lost most of my hair\u00a0 rappling with myself\u2014and about which I have written some books. Back home, I am a pastor serving a church that has committed itself to enter the postmodern transition and deal with its issues boldly and confidently. I say \u201cboldly and confidently\u201d knowing that there are as yet no maps to guide a church in this adventure\u2014so we have no real idea where we\u2019re going except that we\u2019re trying to follow Jesus. I guess we feel very much like the children of Israel having left the Egypt of modernity and crossed the Sea into the unknown wilderness\u2026we\u2019re trusting that a God-sent cloud-pillar and fire-cloud will guide us by day and night.<\/p>\n
One of the side benefits of travel\u2014as a musician myself, I have truly enjoyed hearing dozens of worship bands and worship leaders, and spending literally hours at almost every event being led in worship.
\nThere are many observations and affirmations I could imagine sharing with you who are worship leaders.There are so many encouraging trends, along with a few persistent problems. But one observation stands out. It is actually a request more than an observation: a request for the songwriters among us to explore and then lead us into some new lyrical\/ spiritual territory.<\/p>\n
One hears a lot of complaints about lame music, trite lyrics, theological shallowness, etc., etc., in the world of contemporary Christian music. Some of these complaints come from people who secretly wish we would go back to singing hymns, like they did back in the -50s (18- or 19-, your pick). I am not interested in complaining, and I have little interest in the -50s (except maybe the 2050s).<\/p>\n
No, here\u2019s what I\u2019m after: Many of us believe that we are entering (or well into) a significant heological\/cultural\/spiritual transition period, very possibly as significant historically as the reformation period, when the medieval world gave way to the modern world. Now, as the modern gives way to the postmodern world, we should expect to see a revolution in theology (in the end, helping us be more Biblical, more spiritual, more effective in our mission\u2014and, please God, more clear about what our mission is). But here\u2019s the rub.<\/p>\n
In the modern world, theology was done by scholars, and was expressed in books and lectures. In the postmodern world, many of us believe that the theologians will have to leave the library more often
\nand mix with the rest of us. And the best of them will join hands and hearts with the poets, musicians, filmmakers, actors, architects, interior and landscape designers, dancers, sculptors, painters, novelists, photographers, web designers, and every other artistic brother and sister possible\u2026not only to communicate a postmodern, Christian theology\u2026but also to discern it, discover it. Because one major shift of this transition is the shift from left-brain to whole-brain, from reductionistic, analytic rationalism to a broader theological holism\u2014a theology that works in mind and heart, understanding and imagination, proposition and image, clarity and mystery, explanation and narrative, exposition and artistic
\nexpression.<\/p>\n
Our songwriters could play a key spiritual role in the rooting of this more holistic theology in our people.
\nBut sadly, as I have sat in scores of venues listening (and usually participating in) extended times of worship around the country, I have sensed that our song lyrics are too seldom leading us into this new territory.
\nThey are in some ways holding us back. Please, please, don\u2019t hear this as criticism, but as a suggestion\u2014a gentle but heartfelt request\u2014for change.<\/p>\n
Let me make this specific:Too many of our lyrics are embarrassingly personalistic, about Jesus and me. Personal intimacy with God is such a wonderful step above a cold, abstract, wooden recitation of dogma. But
\nit isn\u2019t the whole story. In fact\u2014this might shock you\u2014it isn\u2019t, in the emerging new postmodern world, necessarily the main point of the story. A popular worship song I\u2019ve heard in many venues in the last few
\nyears (and which we sing at Cedar Ridge, where I pastor) says that worship is \u201call about You, Jesus,\u201d but apart from that line, it really feels like worship, and Christianity in general, has become \u201call about me, me,
\nme.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you doubt what I\u2019m saying, listen next time you\u2019re singing in worship. It\u2019s about how Jesus forgives me, embraces me, makes me feel his presence, strengthens me, forgives me, holds me close, touches me,
\nrevives me, etc., etc. Now this is all fine. But if an extraterrestrial outsider rom Mars were to observe us, I think he would say either a) that these people are all mildly dysfunctional and need a lot of hug therapy
\n(which is ironic, because they are among the most affluent in the world, having been blessed in every way more than any group in history), or b) that they don\u2019t give a rip about the rest of the world, that their religion\/spirituality makes them as selfish as any nonChristian, but just in spiritual things rather than material ones.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think either of these indictments are as true as they would sound to a Martian observer; rather, I think that we songwriters keep writing songs like these because we think that\u2019s what people want and
\nneed.The scary thing is that even though I don\u2019t think these indictments are completely true\u2026they could become more true unless we take some corrective action and look for a better balance.
\nIt\u2019s embarrassing to admit, but some of us are thinking right now, \u201cIf spiritual songwriting is not about deep, personal intimacy with God, what else is there?\u201d<\/p>\n
Let me offer a list of Biblical themes I think we would do well to explore in our lyrics:
\n1. You\u2019ll be surprised to hear me say \u201ceschatology\u201d first\u2014and let me assure you that I don\u2019t mean putting the latest apocalyptic novel to music. (Please! No! Not that!) By eschatology (which means study of the end or goal towards which the universe moves), I mean the Biblical vision of God\u2019s future which is pulling us toward itself. For many of you, raised like me in late-modern eschatologies, you\u2019ll be surprised to hear that there is a whole new approach to eschatology emerging (led by some theologians like Walter Brueggeman, Jurgen Moltmann, and the \u201ctheologians of hope\u201d).This approach doesn\u2019t indulge in \u201cmodern\u201d charts or shaky predictions. Rather, it bathes itself in the Biblical poetry of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Revelation\u2026poetry which, when it enters us, plants in us a vision of a world very much different from and better than ours. And when this hope grows and takes root in us, we become agents of it.What joy I can imagine being expressed in songs that capture the spirit of Isaiah 9:2-7, 25:6-9, 35:1-10, 58:5-14! Who will write those songs?<\/p>\n
They need to be written, because people need hope.They need a vision of a good future.They need to have in their imaginations images of the celebration, peace, justice, and wholeness towards which our dismal, conflicted, polluted, and fragmented world must move.This is much, much bigger than songs about me being in heaven. It\u2019s not about clouds and ethereal, other-worldly imagery. Dig into those passages, songwriters\u2026and let your heart be inspired to write songs of hope, songs of vision, songs that lodge in our hearts a dream of the future that has been too long forgotten\u2026the dream of God\u2019s kingdom coming, and God\u2019s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.<\/p>\n
2.You may be equally surprised to hear me suggest that we need songs of mission. Many of us believe that a new, larger sense of mission (not just missions, and not just evangelism, but mission\u2014participating in the mission of God, the kingdom of God, which is so much bigger and grander than our little schemes of organizational self-aggrandizement) is the key element needed as we move into the postmodern world.
\nThis strikes at the heart of our consumeristic culture, which is \u201call about me, all about me, me, me.\u201d Jesus came not to be served, but to serve\u2026and as he was sent, so he sent us into the world.The very heart of our identity as the church in the new emerging theology is not that we are the people who have been chosen to be blessed, saved, rescued, and blessed some more.This is a half-truth heresy that our songs are in danger of spreading and rooting more and more in our people\u2014inadvertently, of course. No, the heart of our identity as the church in the new emerging theology is that we are the people who have been blessed (as was Abraham) to be a blessing, blessed so that we may convey blessing to the world.<\/p>\n
For many of us, the world exists for the church. It is like a strip mine, and people are mined out of it to build the church, which is what really matters. In the new emerging postmodern theology and spirituality, that image is terrible. It mirrors the raping and plundering of the environment by our modern industrial enterprises. In it, the church is another industry, taking and taking for its own profit. How different is the image of the church as the apostolic community, sent into the world as Christ\u2019s hands, feet, eyes, smile, heart.We need songs that celebrate this missional dimension\u2014good songs, and many!<\/p>\n
For inspiration, we have to again go back to Scripture, and read the prophets, and the gospels, and engage their heart for the poor, the needy, the broken. Shouldn\u2019t these themes be expressed in song? Don\u2019t they deserve that dignity? As I write, I am struck by this thought: perhaps we have so over-emphasized the role of songs in worship\u2014to the exclusion of many other liturgical options (poetry, historic prayers, silence, meditative reading, etc.)\u2014that we have forgotten the role of song in teaching. Remember Colossians 3,where Paul talks about singing the teachings of Christ to one another in songs of the spirit?<\/p>\n
3. You may be equally surprised to hear me recommend that we rediscover historic Christian spirituality and express it in our lyrics. As Robert Webber,Thomas Odin, Sally Morgenthaler, and others are teaching us, there is a wealth of historic spiritual writings, including many beautiful prayers, that are crying for translation into contemporary song. Every era in history has rich resources to offer, from the Patristic period to the Celtic period to the Puritan period. On every page of Thomas a\u2019 Kempis, in every prayer of the great medieval saints, there is inspiration waiting for us \u2026 and when we look at the repetitive end formulaic lyrics that millions of Christians are singing (because that\u2019s what we\u2019re writing, folks), the missed opportunity is heartbreaking.<\/p>\n
These \u201calien voices\u201d will stretch our hearts and enrich them immeasurably \u2026 and eventually, these voices will become the voices of friends, of brothers and sisters, because that is what they are\u2014if we invite them into our worship through songs.<\/p>\n
4. You will likely be less surprised to hear me say that we need songs that are simply about God\u2026songs giving God the spotlight, so to speak, for God as God, God\u2019s character, God\u2019s glory, not just for the great job God is doing at making me feel good. And similarly, we need songs that celebrate what God does for the world\u2014the whole world\u2014not just for me, or us. If you have no idea what I\u2019m talking about, read the Psalms, because they love to celebrate what the Lord does for the whole earth, not just the people of Israel. Many of the songs we need will also celebrate God as Creator\u2026an important theme in Scripture, but not for most of our churches.We have lacked a good creation theology in the modern era, and we need songwriters\/artists and theologians to join together in the emerging culture to celebrate God as God of creation, not only 15 billion years ago (or whenever) but today, now\u2026the God who knows the sparrows that fall, whose glory still
\nflashes in the lightning bolt, whose kindness still falls like the morning dew, whose mysteries are still imaged in the depths of the ocean and the vast expanse of the night sky.<\/p>\n
5. I should also mention songs of lament.The Bible is full of songs that wail, the blues but even bluer, songs that feel the agonizing distance between what we hope for and what we have, what we could be and what we are, what we believe and what we see and feel.The honesty is disturbing, and the songs of lament don\u2019t always end with a happy Hallmark-Card-Precious-Moments clich\u00e9 to try to fix the pain. Sometimes I think we\u2019re too happy: the only way to become happier is to become sadder, by feeling the pain of the chronically ill, the desperately poor, the mentally ill, the lonely, the aged and forgotten, the oppressed minority, the widow and orphan.This pain should find its way into song, and these songs should find their way into our churches. The bitter will make the sweet all the sweeter; without the bitter, the sweet can become cloying, and too many of our churches feel, I think, like Candyland. Is it too much to ask that we be more honest? Since doubt is part of our lives, since pain and waiting and as-yet unresolved disappointment are part of our lives, can\u2019t these things be reflected in the songs of our communities? Doesn\u2019t endless singing about celebration lose its vitality (and even its credibility) if we don\u2019t also sing about the struggle?<\/p>\n
While I\u2019m at it, may I offer a few stylistic observations and requests\u2014again, not trying to be critical, but trying to be helpful, and to offer ways which you, with your gifts, can better serve the church and our mission in these transitional times? I\u2019ll offer them in the form of some questions.<\/p>\n
First, may I suggest that we fully and finally get over King James English in our new lyrics, even if we choose to retain it in our old? Enough said.<\/p>\n
Second, may I suggest that we be careful about using gratuitous Biblical language\u2014Zion, Israel, go forth, on high, etc., etc.? If there is a good reason to use such language\u2014in other words, if we are using it intentionally, not just for a \u201cspiritual feel,\u201d then fine. Otherwise, if we can find contemporary language and imagery that would communicate more crisply, poignantly, immediately, and deeply to people who don\u2019t
\nalready have a lot of pew time\u2026then let\u2019s use it, in the spirit of I Corinthians 14, where intelligibility to the spiritual seeker is a gospel virtue.<\/p>\n
Third, may I suggest that in an era of Columbines and Islamic fundamentalism, we be careful about the language of jihad and holy war? I suppose there is a time and place for that, but I don\u2019t think this is it. We all need a strong dose of Anabaptist peace right about now, in my opinion.<\/p>\n
Fourth, musically, am I the only one wishing for more rhythmic variety? Why is it that I am being blessed so much by creative drummers and percussionists wherever I go?<\/p>\n
Fifth, can our worship leaders enrich the musical experience by reading Scripture, great prayers of the historic church, creeds, confessions, and poems over musical backgrounds? You may not like rap music, but it\u2019s trying to tell us something about the abiding power of the spoken word, the well-chosen spoken word that is. (We have far too many less-than-well-chosen spoken words already, I think you\u2019ll agree.)<\/p>\n
And finally, can our lyricists start reading more good poetry, good prose, so they can be sensitized to the powers of language, the grace of a well-turned phrase, the delight of a freshly discovered image, the prick or punch or caress or jolt that is possible if we wrestle a little harder and stretch a little farther for the word that really wants to be said from deep within us? Sadly, while many of our songs have better and better music, but the lyrics still feel like \u201cclich\u00e9 train\u201d\u2013one linked to another, with a sickening recycling of plastic language and paper triteness.<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t our God, our mission, our community worthy of more lyrical quality than we are offering so far?
\nThanks for considering these things. I hope this will be the beginning of an important and ongoing conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greetings, fellow songwriters, fellow worshippers, fellow leaders in worship, fellow musician\/artists, and fellow followers of Jesus: For the last few years, I have been privileged to be \u201con the road\u201d a lot, speaking mostly with young emerging leaders. I suppose I was asked to speak to them because of some over-forty quota system, and also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5303,"featured_media":1771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[701],"tags":[616,618,617],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n