I seem to be thinking a lot about current Christian music and the attitudes it contains. My wife gave me Indelible Grace III (For All The Saints) for my birthday, and it's my third IG album (of their five). Indelible Grace's goal is to "help the church recover the tradition of putting old hymns to new music for each generation, and to enrich our worship with a huge view of God and His indelible grace." In the liner notes of For All the Saints, writer and producer Kevin Twit notes this big-picture mentality that they try to accomplish through their music:This [album] has a mood of sober joy. I think reality is just sinking in a little more. The Christian life is not about closing our eyes and pretending Jesus turns all of our lemons into lemonade, and worship music should never be about helping us live out of touch with reality. Rather, worship music should deepen our gaze of Jesus and his beauty and at the same time, open our eyes to the brokenness in ourselves and our world. It should compel us to take up our cross and follow Him. We have been "ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven" - and that changes everything!
I think there seems to be a spectrum in the evangelical Protestant world related to sin and the gospel, especially as it manifests itself in "worship music." On one end, there are those who are so focused on and torn up about their own sin that they may seem to engage in self-inflicted punishment and also lose sight of the joy that bounds forth from the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ. The other end seems to have no concern for or realization of their own sin, and live as if their sin doesn't really matter ("happy-clappy" worship). When I'm "out of balance" on the spectrum, I typically fall toward the former, and focus on my own sin sometimes to a fault. I believe the right balance is the "sober joy" found somewhere in the middle, which Twit notes should be evident in our worship. Our worship (not only singing, but praying, studying, etc.) should make us more aware of our sin, more reliant on the Holy Spirit for sanctification, all the while focusing our eyes and our joy ever more on Christ. Yes, I am a great sinner, and a solemn realization of sin is of utmost importance in the Christian life (David's Psalm 51 for example), but without going to Christ for assurance of forgiveness, this mindset can be mundane or depressing.
But on the other hand, there are some songs that totally miss the picture - I'm thinking of the "I will" songs that Michael Horton often uses as examples of the watered-down, individual-focused worship songs so popular in the Christian sphere today. Songs that just proclaim the singer's intentions of "I will worship...I will bow...I will praise....I will sing...I will I will I will" without any context of why or without the focus on God totally miss the point by putting the attention on the singer ("look at me, here's what I'm doing"). We aren't doing God a favor by going to church once a week and worshiping on our own terms. On the contrary, we can only worship because through His infinite grace and mercy, God allows us to approach His holy throne in worship - worship isn't our right, it is our privilege. One popular worship song that is a prime example of this "I will" attitude doesn't even mention God by name - only by second person personal pronoun. I wonder what an unbelieving visitor would think if he heard that song being sung?. "Who are these people saying they will bow to? The pastor? The song leader?"
As a stark contrast, Indelible Grace's music has the sincere, deep texts of older hymns (often taken right from Scripture), but set to quality (and original) modern music. Examples on this album in particular include "Not What My Hands Have Done" and"Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven." The first track, "Jesus, I Come" might hint at the "I will" attitude through its title, but its lyrics are an example of coming to Christ out of our bondage and sin, recognizing that it's only through Christ that we have hope:
Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come; Jesus I come.
Into Thy freedom, gladness and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my sickness into Thy health,
Out of my wanting and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee. [verse 1]
I freely admit that there are many great modern worship songs that are Christ-centered. There are also some hymns that are of the "I will" variety. I also know that music often seems to be a polarizing, emotionally-charged topic. But my point is that there is a balance to be found in our worship between increasing our awareness of our own sin and the sin in the world (Twit uses the euphemism "brokenness"), while deepening our faith and love in Christ for His work for us. I still have much to learn about exactly what this means and looks like in a worship context, and I don't think I'll ever fully know until I worship perfectly in glory.
4 comments:
Good thoughts Joel. I love the work of Indelible Grace and what they are doing for the Church in providing good music to theologically rich hymns. I would also recommend, to you or others who are unfamiliar, the projects of Red Mountain Church (a PCA church in Birmingham, AL). One of the great things that they have done is to put good music to great hymns that never had any (from the Gadsby hymnal). The style of music is similar to IG and the musicianship is excellent.
Good thoughts Joel. Thanks for posting it. I'm planning on getting a hold of a some Psalters and learning what others have done with putting the Psalms to music. I've heard some really great a cappella stuff recently too. I definitely think we should be careful not to fall into the trap of modern feel good praise and worship songs. Not that all modern songs are bad or completely inappropriate, we just need to be careful and consider what we're singing carefully.
I appreciate your post and I think we have a lot to learn about "sober joy." I hope we will.
I'm not offended by the "I will" songs in and of themselves. The problem is when they are in too great abundance and too far outnumber more reflective, theological songs. In other words, I think it can be dangerous to try to expect each song to do everything; that cam sometimes sap the life out. I'm more concerned about how a variety of songs, sung together, move toward the "sober joy" you speak of.
My quick take on traditional vs contemporary songs: The traditional tend to focus more on the corporate aspect of worship; the contemporary on the individual aspect. And we need both.
I guess where it gets sketchy is when the "I will" songs focus almost exclusively on the worshiper (the singer) and not on the worshiped (God) - at least when it's in a "look at me, I'm doing this great thing" sense. When certain songs do this, they tend to elevate the individual instead of coming humbly before an awesome, holy God. When we're worshiping the singer (which can sometimes be the case in subtle ways in songs), that's where we run into problems.
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