<\/p>\n
So, you\u2019ve been standing in the pews for about 20 minutes, and the band is showing no sign of letting up. You didn\u2019t know the last two songs, your mind starts wandering, and a dangerous question pops into your head: \u2018Could a blindfolded monkey write some of our worship songs?\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n It may sound like a surprising question, but it was the thought that hit Spring Harvest worship leader Vicky Beeching. On her blog last year, the PhD student bemoaned the \u2018lack of freshness, creativity and effort\u2019 in the lyrics in some contemporary worship music.<\/p>\n As well as the lyrics, the music itself is also under the spotlight. Worship leader Paul Oakley recently said he was \u2018tired and frustrated by the serious limitations of the praise and worship genre\u2019. He even questions the \u2018genre\u2019 bit \u2013 it was never intended to be that, he says. \u2018It\u2019s got a bit in a rut and sounds a bit samey to me now.\u2019<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t just these two well-known and respected worship leaders (who both made clear their love for the church and the joy that much Christian music has brought) who are expressing doubts. Others are beginning to question whether the \u2018scene\u2019 is in a good place. Critics are beginning to ask whether both the music itself and the lyrics have gone stale \u2013 and whether it can be blamed on the way we now \u2018consume\u2019 worship music.<\/p>\n Professional singer Loretta Fenton, who presents the Unsigned music programme on Premier Christian Radio, thinks part of the problem may lie in the way our music has become domesticated. \u2018If you say \u201cworship music\u201d to the average Christian today, they immediately think \u201cindie\/acoustic guitar-based sound, driven by a white male in his late twenties\/early thirties\u201d \u2013 or if it\u2019s \u201ccutting edge\u201d \u2013 a woman of the same description,\u2019 she says. \u2018There was a time when the \u201cworship style\u201d was genuinely cutting edge (think of Delirious?… in the 90s). However, it\u2019s now become predictable and to be honest, slightly boring.\u2019 Of course, there\u2019s more than one type of Christian music, and this discussion doesn\u2019t include Contemporary Christian Music (a style which has Christian lyrics but is not designed for congregational use), Gospel music or the \u2018modern hymns\u2019 pioneered by Stuart Townend and others.<\/p>\n From the mid-1960s onwards, a distinct genre was slowly developing which can best be described as \u2018Christian soft rock\u2019. It has now become the sound which defines the corporate worship in many evangelical churches. It may have begun in house churches, with choruses using an acoustic guitar in someone\u2019s front room, but the typical soft rock worship band now comprises a combination of electric, acoustic and bass guitars, keyboards and drums. They are usually (though not always) led by a white, male worship leader. And even though agnostic journalist John Harris described it in The Guardian as \u2018music that suggests a grim hybrid of Snow Patrol and LeAnn Rimes\u2019, there\u2019s nothing intrinsically wrong with the soft rock style.<\/p>\n In fact, its inoffensiveness is probably the reason for its ubiquity. Young and old, those of different backgrounds, people who are life-long Christians and those who are new to faith, can all catch onto a song quickly if the style is simple and repeated often enough. But granted that it has advantages, does it really benefit the Church? Theologian Rev Dr Derek Tidball, former head of the London School of Theology, says: \u2018There are two conflicting things happening. On the one hand, I think that after the seismic revolution in worship which occurred in the 70s, with organs giving way to bands and Isaac Watts to Graham Kendrick, many have become stuck.<\/p>\n \u2018Some churches have settled into the style which their increasingly older leaders were happy with when they were young and haven\u2019t moved on. I am amused \u2013 and impressed \u2013 to see men in their 50s and 60s on the drums or playing guitar in many worship bands. Why shouldn\u2019t they? Except what they\u2019re doing is what they\u2019ve been doing for decades.<\/p>\n \u2018On the other hand there is a younger element somewhat alienated from this style and many young people seem as bored in worship in the average church as they have ever been. So some try to counteract this by being creative and, as with any creativity, some of it is embarrassingly naive, novel merely for the sake of being novel, but not well-founded.\u2019<\/p>\n Despite this problem, the composition of the average church congregation may mean that to take on anything more complex than a simple \u2018soft rock\u2019 style may be difficult and divisive. As Jon Foreman, lead singer of Christian band Switchfoot says, \u2018The communal nature of what happens within the church means that what would be described as worship music needs to be repetitive and simple by nature…If you write a song in 7 that no one can clap to, or if you have 35 verses that use words people don\u2019t understand, it kind of defeats the purpose of communal worship.<\/p>\n \u2018So, I don\u2019t know if boring is the right word, but I definitely feel like a good song should be stirring and deep calling deep, but it should be simple.\u2019<\/p>\n Matt Redman, who\u2019s written some of the most memorable and popular songs used in churches over the last 20 years including \u2018Blessed Be Your Name\u2019 and \u2018The Heart of Worship\u2019, argues that pushing the creative boundaries can end up being counterproductive. \u2018If you try too hard to get outside the box you get it to a place where no one can play it on a Sunday morning.<\/p>\n \u2018What I love about [the title track of his latest album] \u201810,000 Reasons\u2019 is that an 80-year-old granny could play that on her own on an out-of-tune piano, or you could play it with a band and have some cool funky instruments in it.\u2019 And, he adds, there are built-in factors that limit what churches can do \u2013 and that\u2019s not wrong. \u2018Look, sometimes we\u2019re all going to sit in a similar ballpark sonically because we\u2019re all using similar instruments. Sometimes if you try too hard to get out of that it sounds a bit silly or a bit forced. The thing that I would be more interested in is the theology. If a song flies around churches and the world it\u2019s hard to take back. They\u2019re the things that keep me awake at night.\u2019<\/p>\n However, not everyone is so sanguine. Paul Oakley, who wrote and performed some of the most popular worship songs of the last 20 years (such as \u2018Be Lifted Up\u2019 and \u2018Because of You\u2019), is one of them. \u2018I think there\u2019s room for growth, there\u2019s room to stretch the genre left and right and every which way,\u2019 he says. \u2018Traditional gospel music has a lot of soul in it as well as theology, and I do wonder whether we\u2019ve not ever really got that right with contemporary worship music. It all does feel a little bit devoid of some kind of emotional response. You can get emotional when you sing it but the music itself doesn\u2019t contain the kind of soul that\u2019s there in black gospel music.\u2019<\/p>\n In addition to the music itself, the second major issue is the lyrical content. This was Vicky Beeching\u2019s main issue and led her to wonder aloud whether a monkey pulling fridge magnets out of a hat could create a generic worship song, provided it was given a few \u2018key phrases\u2019 to begin with. Her argument carries on, \u2018As the modern worship movement gets older…we are churning out a lot of the same words, when frankly they are so over-used, that their impact and meaning is diluted and tired.\u2019<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing wrong with using familiar words (would you criticise a group of Christians for reciting the Lord\u2019s prayer, for example?) and of course we have a need to express the glory of God and our desire to worship him. But a limited vocabulary of worship can lead to a limited spiritual experience. There are other areas of life and theology that our songs could be exploring. One Bible commentary suggests the book of Psalms alone contains 16 different types of \u2018song\u2019, with topics including praise, perseverance, confession, judgement, crisis, wrath and integrity. That\u2019s before we even get onto the likes of Lamentations and Song of Songs. For the writer who feels uninspired, there are vast resources in scripture to use as a basis for lyrics, as well as 2,000 years of Christian wisdom. As Derek Tidball says, \u2018I think our worship needs to be much more fully rounded and to make much greater use of the variety of scripture than it often does, and to included lament, silence, and petition as well as praise. Variety is important in biblical worship, but often absent in contemporary worship.\u2019<\/p>\n Another troubling factor in the current scene is the industrialisation of worship music. In the UK we now have access to more Christian music than ever. New worship albums and compilations are released every week. Once an infrastructure is in place to produce and promote Christian artists, they have to write, record and release albums at a certain rate to keep the publishing and record companies profitable. That\u2019s just how every industry has to work. But some of our worship leaders and musicians are now producing a lot of material each year. I\u2019m not suggesting that they will then write a song purely to fulfil a contractual obligation, but is every song that gets released into the Christian \u2018market\u2019 as inspired as the best of them?<\/p>\n Has the \u2018industry\u2019 created an \u2018imperative\u2019 to write songs rather than just allowing writers to say what they think and feel? If so, that puts the artists and us, as consumerworshippers, in a dangerous position.<\/p>\n If the scales tip too much and worship music becomes just another industry, we\u2019ll have lost the reason this style of music began to be developed 50 years ago \u2013 as a way of directly exploring our relationship with the living God. Michael Gungor, founder of the Christian band Gungor, started out as a worship leader. \u2018I find something very disingenuous about most Christian music,\u2019 he wrote in a recent blog. \u2018There\u2019s just something more believable about the whispery sexy voice that is singing about sex on the mainstream radio station than the voice that copies that style of singing while putting lyrics in about being in the arms of Jesus…I don\u2019t hate all Christian music. There are a few artists that I know in the Christian industry that are really trying to transcend the inherent limitations and zombifying effect of the industry. But the industry as a whole is broken… The industry that labels things as Christian and sells them to you has far more to do with marketing then Christianity.\u2019<\/p>\n Comparison to secular artists can leave Christian music falling short. \u2018I often wonder why Peter Gabriel has more passion in his voice about freeing lab monkeys (in the song \u2018Shock the Monkey\u2019) than most worship artists have about their creator and Father,\u2019 agrees Justin Johnson, a music producer who works with Christian artists. \u2018Worship in the Bible does not refer to a style of music, it refers to a condition of our hearts, what we are passionate about.\u2019 There are political explanations of the problem. \u2018Perhaps we\u2019ve started following what sells the most, rather than always listening to what God is saying,\u2019 says worship leader and head of the Christian Socialist Movement Andy Flannagan. \u2018We need to ask again \u2013 what is God\u2019s specific word for the Church at this specific time?\u2019<\/p>\n Another pundit who highlights the role played by the record companies is journalist Tony Cummings, who has written about the Christian music scene for more than 30 years. He says the way the industry is now set up means worship is \u2018stuck in a rut\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2018The key factors in popularising modern worship are the worship music multinationals which…are able to circulate music to the world church. But like other parts of the music industry, they have been hit by the decline in CD sales so that today there is a tendency for these companies to stick with their existing big sellers rather than invest in new worship leaders.<\/p>\n \u2018More than that, there is a conscious or unconscious desire amongst the multinationals to replicate the last big worship hit so that much worship music has become increasingly stylised, as it follows a limited musical template laid down years ago by pioneers like Delirious? and Hillsong.\u2019<\/p>\n However, he adds: \u2018I don\u2019t think we should be particularly worried because there is sufficient creativity demonstrated in the church\u2026There are numerous fellowships showing true originality in their approach to worship. I could point you to churches in the UK which are using heavy metal to worship God, club dance music, even hip-hop. And even in the more mainstream musical arena there are occasional worship ministries which are bucking the trend.\u2019<\/p>\n So what\u2019s the big deal? Evangelical churches are doing well in attendance figures compared to traditional churches, and many Christians buy worship CDs, go to worship concerts and enjoy the music in their own congregations.<\/p>\n But there may be trouble ahead. There\u2019s already a debate about whether the church is too feminine and unfriendly to men, and some of the song lyrics have been blamed for this \u2013 for creating a culture where men feel uncomfortable in a church context (\u2018Jesus is my boyfriend\u2019 music). Even more worrying is the extent to which young people are \u2018missing\u2019 from churches. As a recently published British Social Attitudes Survey showed \u2013 and as we all know \u2013 fewer and fewer young people are going to church.<\/p>\n More adventurous music in our churches is not in itself going to see church buildings bursting at the seams with more men and young people. But relevant and contemporary variety of worship styles could be part of the answer. Encouragingly, Beth Croft, who leads worship at the Soul Survivor youth festivals and the Soul Survivor Church in Watford, says she\u2019s open to change. \u2018We can\u2019t pretend we don\u2019t have a certain style of music that we write and play, but I\u2019m all for breaking those boundaries, and breaking the mould a bit, in order to keep our worship fresh.<\/p>\n \u2018We are in no way committed to that style of music. We\u2019re committed to connecting with the young people. I hope that if all of a sudden 90 per cent of them were into trance music, then we would adapt accordingly in order to relate to them and in order to help them engage in a way that they\u2019re familiar with.\u2019<\/p>\n Another encouraging area of growth in lyrics has been those which have a real social focus. The Compassionart album from 2009 is a great example, as was the final Delirious? album, Kingdom of Comfort.<\/p>\n Rend Collective Experiment\u2019s first album has been given all sorts of accolades, and rightly so. Their second, which is just as quirky, soulful and uplifting has recently been released. The aforementioned Gungor are creating some truly beautiful and life-affirming music too.<\/p>\n Another artist to look to for inspiration is Ian McIntosh (who\u2019s also the keyboard player for worship group Jesus Culture). Outside of the mainstream culture there has always been a lively Christian scene with punk bands such as MXPX and Relient K as well as numerous Christian hip-hop groups. Try something different: why not dive into some of the old hymns to find great theological truths, or listen to a collection of sacred motets? Why not experiment with Taiz\u00e9 or Iona?<\/p>\n This country has a rich history of Christian music. Could we now re-appraise the beauty of all that has gone before and re-interpret some of it for the present day, while forging ahead in new creative directions which aren\u2019t restricted to a soft rock style that sounds like a pale imitation of Coldplay?<\/p>\n As Paul Oakley says, \u2018When the UK is so multi-national, multi-ethnic and the church has got so many denominations…How come the worship scene doesn\u2019t reflect that? I would love to see churches expressing who they are, rather than following the latest CD that\u2019s out from such and such a worship leader.\u2019<\/p>\n Let\u2019s become a church for whom worship doesn\u2019t mean singing a few songs on a Sunday morning. Let\u2019s become worshippers in our whole lives who are known for their imaginative, dynamic and glorious music making.<\/p>\n This article by Andy Walton first appeared in Christianity Magazine – please click through to read the original<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, you\u2019ve been standing in the pews for about 20 minutes, and the band is showing no sign of letting up. You didn\u2019t know the last two songs, your mind starts wandering, and a dangerous question pops into your head: \u2018Could a blindfolded monkey write some of our worship songs?\u2019 It may sound like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5303,"featured_media":8419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n