Why
I’ve Stopped Singing in Your Church
I love music. Truly
I do. I love to sing. But you wouldn’t know it on Sunday morning when I’m
visiting your church.
I’m not talking to
all of you, of course. I’m sure many churches, maybe even yours, get it right.
I just haven’t been there that often, I guess. My experiences with modern
worship music in evangelical Christianity often leave me not just silent, but
wondering if I should be joining George Bailey in making a quick exit
from the agony.
To be candid, I
know how to behave in your church. I’ve been raised in it my entire life. So I
know how to fake it when necessary. Lately, it’s been very necessary when the
music is playing and we’re supposed to be singing, you know, to God. Frankly,
I’m tired of it. Maybe all the “seekers” are enjoying it, but I’m finding it
hard to sincerely engage in anything resembling worship.
Instead of feeling
the joy of joining with other believers in offering praises to the
Almighty, I often feel insulted, bored, and disconnected from 2,000 years of
worship history. And just when I think that maybe it’s just me having a selfish
and sinful attitude — a very real possibility — a flamboyant electrical guitar
solo breaks out. I’m left deciding whether to waive my iPhone and buy the
t-shirt or just shut up and go home.
As best I can sort
through my own muddled and messy thoughts, I think there are three things that
really bother me about the worship music in many Evangelical Christian churches
today:
1. They’re really,
really simplistic. There, I
tried to keep the words small. You certainly put a lot of work into doing that
for me each Sunday. It’s not just that most of the lyrics are simple — as in
easy to understand. It’s that so many of the songs remind me of the ditties we
sang at camp — when I was ten. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure the
theology in some of those camp songs was more advanced than the ones I’ve heard
in some of your services. But, hey, everybody else seems to be really, really
enjoying it so maybe it’s just me. Unless, of course, they’ve also learned how
to fake it.
2. They’re all
pulled from the latest Top 40 Worship channel. Or so it seems. Most songs I hear in evangelical
churches of late have been written in the last decade, if that. I know I’m
painting with a broad brush here because there have been some really, really
(is this helping?) awesome songs written in the last two decades that deserve a
place on the all-time worship songs list. We just usually don’t sing those.
Maybe because they’re so three years ago.
What ever happened
to the previous 2,000 years of church music history? Oh, I know, every so often
you toss a token “hymn” (meaning within just the last century or so) into
the mix. But even then, it’s a remix that requires melodic jujitsu to keep up
with the quicker pace and fancier chord progressions. One distinguishing
mark of the worship music of centuries past is that it generally focused more
on content than today’s simplisitc style. Songs like “Arise,
My Soul, Arise”; “Immortal, Invisible”; “Rejoice, the Lord is King”; or
even the simple “I Sing the Almighty Power of God” typified a depth of doctrine
that taught us as it revealed the glory of our Lord.
3. They repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And rep —
all right. See what I mean? Really, really annoying. Really. The first time we
sang the simplistic ditty, I could tolerate it though I thought the infinite
God of all creation deserved better. By the fifth time, I was hearing echoes of
Jesus warning about vain repetitions. But once you went softer and slowed it
down on the seventh time, it really began to resonate with my soul.
Not.
Please. Stop. Now.
Yes, there’s a
place for repetition in worship — if the words are really that good or pulled
directly from Scripture (“Agnus Dei” by Michael W. Smith comes to mind), but
even that can be overdone. Ironically, most of the same evangelical churches
that practice this repetition in modern worship music would resist using
more formal chants from church history designed for that very purpose. Or
reciting historical creeds of the Church.
So, enough
complaining you say. What am I proposing that would be better?
I confess I don’t
have a well-developed strategy for modern worship. I’m just a guy in the pews,
a husband, father, and former pastor, frustrated that I just don’t feel like
singing by the time the worship music ends. It seems that focusing on
three things would at least be helpful so take it for what it’s worth.
So here’s what I’d
like songs in church to be:
.
Truthful. Rather than trying to get dumber than a
fifth-grader in the worship service (no offense to my fifth-grade daughter),
offer truth that grows my understanding of God as we glorify him. He
is truth, after all, so it shouldn’t be that difficult.
.
Written for
adults. We’re not camp
attendees giddy about it being our first time away from home. Well, maybe some
of us are — but the rest of us don’t always want to have to choose between
clapping our hands in rhythm with the group or wrestling with the guilt
trip you put on us. Go ahead. Give us songs with deep doctrine that
excite our souls. We’re not seekers anymore. Come to think of it, I never was.
.
Timeless. Let’s sing songs that reach back into the
archives of songs proven to have been used by God to edify His people. Mix them
in with modern songs, by all means. That’s fine. But don’t feel as if you have
to make them sound like they just hit the airwaves last week. Imagine Mayberry
today on MTV. Modern? Yes. Watchable? No. Sometimes classic is really
cool. Really.
I could mention the
need to play the music well, of course, but, frankly, I can live with the best
you can give on that one. Make it as excellent as you can, please — just don’t
make us sing it ad nauseum or worship your musical talents instead of
our musical God.
I don’t like what I’ve
been feeling in your church. It’s like what the redeemed George Bailey
prayed, “I want to sing again. I want to sing again.”
I really, really
do.
Am I the only one
to have this problem or have some of you been faking it too? Who do you
think is leading the way in restoring a Biblical balance to evangelical church
worship today? Leave a comment to help point us all in the
right direction as we seek to worship God in Spirit and in truth.
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