Is Christian music bland?

"Today’s Christian music has a very distinct sound — a cheesy, pseudo-inspirational vibe that’s so recognizable by its lack of soul you can “sense” you’re listening to worship music even before the lyrics start." - Steven Zoeller, "Point: Is Christian Music Relatable?" The Oklahoma Daily.

This recently-published quote and the question posed in the title really got me thinking. The author argued that the Christian/worship music scene has become so homogenized that it seems phony and manufactured. Artists aren't free to express real human emotions, feeling they need to always be hope-filled and uplifting (sounds like a Christian radio station slogan, right?).

I happen to agree with a lot of the things the author said, but I think the title question misses the mark. It misses because many Christian artists and church worship teams have tried so hard to be relatable that they've become inauthentic. I mean this in two ways.

Let's first look at the artist side. Combine the dreams of someone trying to use his talents for God with the competitive nature of the music industry. Anyone trying to put food on the table is going to have to face the pressure of creating music that will please a sizable audience. Similarly, to get on a listener-supported radio station (which most Christian outlets are), your music must suit the donors to be played. That doesn't lend to freedom of expression and outside-the-box creativity.

Now take church worship teams. We all want our music to be "relatable" and appealing to the average (unchurched?) person coming in for the first time as well as the deep-pocketed congregant supporting the church building drive (come on, let's put all our insecurities on the table and be honest!). Don't get me wrong, we need music that allows us to be on one accord, but when the temperament and tastes of the audience get in the way of real, authentic worship expression, the cart is leading the horse.

We have to cast down the idols of audience and money in order to be real and authentic in worship. Look at the Psalms. They are full of expressions that would never make it on the radio. They have lyrics that cause us to question, "Is that even Christian?!" Those writers weren't writing to an audience or a paycheck; they were being brutally honest before God. And guess what? Those lyrics have lived for millennia. Talk about relatable!

If you're an artist or worship leader, stop worrying so much what's going to build your audience and focus on what will build yours and others' relationship with God - and be yourself! And if you're just a music fan and the local radio station doesn't play music that inspires you to be closer to God, get online and find some music that does.

Don't follow your crowd

Influence can be a tricky line to walk. As we attempt to do great things for God, we require influence with people. But once you have that influence, people following you, the temptation is toward actions based on maintaining that following.

For example, let's say you have a passion for worship, and you write a blog about it. You start out simply writing for an audience of One. Then, as you continue to write, you gain followers, that is to say, you have influence. Along the way, you start to drift toward writing to please your audience, so you can keep influence and gain more followers. (Now if you thought I was writing about myself, you're mistaken - unless I have way more influence than realize!) Influence can be a powerful thing, and God wants Believers to be influential, but when it come to that point, who is influencing whom?

Jesus provided a powerful example of how to seek the Father over influence. In John 6, Jesus fed a multitude. The Bible records 5,000 men - not people - 5,000 was just the number of men. We're talking about a very large following that had come out to hear Jesus speak. He had tremendous influence. But after they had been fed, the crowd tried to democratize things:

v. ¹⁵ ...Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king...

If Jesus had been weak in His leadership, He would have gone along with the crowd - "Sure, I'll be your King if that's what you want." But Jesus knew His calling, and it was not to please His followers; it was to please His Father. Read the rest of verse 15:

...He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone."

Jesus removed Himself along with any possibility that He would be led by His followers. He may have risked losing His followers, who I'm sure were displeased that Jesus didn't go along with their plan, but He didn't lose what mattered most: being about His Father's business.

Check out Luke 2:
⁴⁹ And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
⁵² And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

It is possible to have favor and influence with both God and men, but first, we must be about God's will in our lives.

Grace and peace!

If you knew who

The title of this entry may sound a little Dr. Seuss-ish, but I did watch the Grinch tonight!

The meditation of this blog comes from John 4, and the well-known Woman-at-the-Well narrative:

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

The part that caught my attention today was when Jesus said, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink...." I think we might, at times, fall into the same category as the Samarian woman. Sure, we might know who Jesus is, but do we know Him? I mean, really know Him. Do we understand the disposition of His heart to the extent that we can confidently ask for what He's yearning to give us?

Jesus came that we might have life abundantly. He went on to say in verse 14, "whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

As we draw near to Jesus in prayer and worship, we will not only receive the living water that He has for us, but we will also come to know Him and how much he longs to give it to us.

Praise greatly

Today, just a simple question based on a Psalm. Psalm 48:1 says, "Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised!" This is a well-known and often quoted scripture, but as I read it again this morning the question hit me: "Do we praise God greatly?"

Honest to God

Hello everyone, I want to talk about honesty in worship today. In many contemporary churches, we promote corporate worship as a time to "leave your troubles at the door," put on a happy face, and sing. How many of us actually feel like doing that, though? I believe that if there's any place where we can let our guard down and be completely honest, it's in worship. If we look at the Psalms, we certainly don't find that every one of them was "happy-clappy." Take Psalm 13 for an example:

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? 
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts 
and every day have sorrow in my heart? 
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. 
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; 
my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” 
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love; 
my heart rejoices in your salvation. 
I will sing to the LORD, 
for he has been good to me.

The first part reminds me a a little of "You Found Me," by The Fray. In that song, the main character expresses anger against God, saying in essence, "Did you forget about me? Where have you been?!" This may be closer to what many of us feel when called to worship. And it's in the presence of God where perfect love casts out fear, that we can be completely honest and vulnerable.

Though He's rich in mercy, I don't believe God wants us to be complacent and stay in that place of brokenness. It's in worship where everything that Jesus has awaits us through the Holy Spirit. We can see in Psalm 13, the change in David's demeanor as He looks to the Lord for answers. We can expect the same transformation when we come before God with complete honesty, laying down our burdens at His feet, and gazing upon Him.

Rely only on the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 2 (NLT)

¹ When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. ² For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. ⁴ And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. ⁵ I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.

I tend to fall into a couple of traps on a regular basis. One, I am what some would call a control freak - I like to be in the drivers seat. Two, I tend to focus pretty intensely on music when I'm around it. When I combine those two in worship leading, it's easy for me to place far too much focus on what I'm doing to try to lead people in worship. But...I think other worship leaders can relate!

Of course, good leadership techniques and wisdom are important. Musical skills are vital (in worship music context). The quality of these ingredients can really help or hinder someone from entering into worship. But what's the best result we can hope for with just good music and smart leadership? I don't think those two add up to life-changing, worship in Spirit and in truth.

We have to understand that it is not human wisdom, but the Power of God that causes anything worthwhile to happen. It's the same supernatural power of God that raised Jesus from the dead, the anointing that breaks the yoke of bondage - that's where our reliance should be.

The same apostle who wrote, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15), is the same one who said, "My message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit." Paul's example teaches us to do our best with what we have, but to rely ONLY on the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

For a little fun, check out the opening to Hillsong Conference 2011, which uses the text from 1 Corinthians and perfectly illustrates my point. Grace and peace!

Observable

Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.

3 For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

In the first six verses of Psalm 95, I find no fewer than six directives action: to sing, shout, come before him, extol him, bow down, kneel. It's an interesting exhortation in the context of our post-modern, individualistic society, a mindset which might cause us to question, "Shouldn't I just be free to worship God the way that I like, according to my personality? As long as it's right in my heart, does it matter what worship looks like?"

Before I proceed, it is true that "People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). No one is capable of (or authorized for) judging someone's heart condition but God alone. I'm not talking about how to judge people here. I am asking you to allow the Holy Spirit to show you what's in your heart about your worship expression.

Is your worship expression based on a response to God or a culturally conditioned action? Does your praise reflect a Biblical model or one that will blend in with what the people around you are doing?

Occasionally, I'll hear a worship leader say something like, "You can't gauge what's going on in a person's heart during corporate worship." I agree fully with that. But sometimes that statement can be used as a cop out when people aren't doing anything! Psalm 95 clearly calls us to observable praise and worship. If we're not singing, extolling, bowing, kneeling, even shouting, then we have to examine why our praise is looking different than the Biblical description. It's only when our worship actions are fully submitted to Him that our hearts can fully please Him.

Grace and peace!