Over the past two days I have been exploring a dialogue on worship from Pat’s blog (here and here). It all started with this article by S.M. Hutchens which compares today’s worship with lying. If you have some time you might want to read it. The author draws some distinctions between ‘God-centered’ songs and songs that contain a lot of personal pronouns in them. He claims that we have sacrificed good theology in music for personally emotive lyrics. Consequently we compromise our theology and falsify our hearts when we sing—essentially, we lie.
While there are some good points that are made in this article, I agree with Pat that the problem isn’t about personal pronouns. I admit that I do not know much about worship. I do have former roommates and friends that are or have been worship leaders. I will have to ask them what their thoughts are some time.
Hutchens draws fairly extensive conclusions about the future of Evangelicalism that may or may not be warranted. However, I don’t know if I could have been as nice as he was when speaking of many Evangelical worship services. I haven’t gone for a long time, but when I do, I usually do not participate in the singing. It often feels like propaganda—an effort to construe hearts and minds to be in a certain place. If I am honest with myself (about my theology and about what I actually feel and what I am supposed to be singing) I usually cannot sing. That being said, I don’t mind not participating. It is a peaceful time for me if others don’t mind me sitting down and thinking instead of standing up and singing.
What bothers me is often how these worship songs are used. They are often sung in ways that are disconnected from their setting--from their stories. Consequently, I have to manufacture a story for the song to be true. I may have to pretend that I am distressed or that my heart is somehow untrue for example--it depends on the song. This might be easier on some days than it is on others.
The Psalms and other songs sung in Israel were tools of a community for remembering certain stories. This is often very different than how we use worship. Rather than being united and guided with a strong and true story we are often encouraged to manufacture our own context for which the song can take meaning.
In fact, it is sad, but I have been in some worship services where pastors depend upon worship being disconnected from a true story so that they can manipulate our own. For instance, if the sermon is on the importance of confession than all the worship will be about how miserable that I am. I am convinced that some pastors secretly hope that I will manufacture some story from my life that fits the tone of the music so that I will be ripe for the message. This effort of the pastors may or may not work--but I think that it is propaganda.
Pat (in his blog) rightly connects the Psalms with their stories and provides us with the storied context for one of his own songs that he wrote. I just wish that that was a more common practice in worship--that our communities could remember together rather than be contrived together.
This brings me to another issue…how songs are written. It is important to recognize that the Psalms were not written as merely a personal tool, but as a corporate tool. They were community reminders (of stories) for a specific community. Today’s music is too often not written for a specific community. They are detached from any known story. They tend to be written for individuals or for the general community of Mr. and Mrs. Christian.
While I don’t want to completely disregard this practice. I would like to see more communities writing songs that are attached to their story of relationships…about this church split or a death that affected their community or about the success of a building fund—these are the stories that will make worship special and a community more in touch with their God and with one another. I think that this is a primary purpose of singing worship.
I think that my own group of friends should write a song about how they all came to my aid when I fractured my skull—they visited me in the hospital, they mowed my lawn and made me food. If we sang about this we would be remembering our service to one another and reminding ourselves of its importance in our story together. Our new friends would then learn our stories.
Similarly, the hymn It Is Well With My Soul first gained meaning for me when I discovered its story. You can read a version of that story here.
10 comments:
Having lead music for Christian assemblies I can empathize with Hutchens article. Although I tended to pick songs with what I perceived as a greater narrative I admit to having tried to manipulate my audiences. Towards the end of my music leading career, however, I would choose almost exclusively from old hymns as they spoke of God rather than me falling on my knees, or lifting my hands or bowing down and laying my crown (I think that Third Day has a tremendous propensity for writing great modern hymns). They simply meant more to me.
Since I have planned music to stir emotions and manipulate the audience I can see both the good and the bad of it. Music is the emotional tour guide in any movie and perhaps should be in a religious experience as well. Therefore it is not bad. But when it is used as a means to tell the audience how wretched and worthless and insignificant they are it nauseates me.
I think that old hymns are filled with so much tradition and a better perspective. They have well thought out lyrics that leave the reader/singer the ability to interpret and imagine (I find that Creed, U2 and Evanessance do a great deal more for cultivating a religious imagination these days than do most modern religious musicians). Most newer songs are so focused on what I say and what I do and how I feel and how I feel and how I feel. Sorry, but sometimes I just don't feel like it at all. It's ironic though, that I can barely read the penned verse of It Is Well With My Soul without shedding a tear. It's because of the author's profound trust, faith and hope, becaues of the story behind the story and because it was one of my mother's favorite songs.
And, just for the record, life is worship. Worship should not be compartmentalized into the religious singing experience box. This eats me to no end. If Christianity would do so little as to change it's lexicon it might open the doors to a greater, potentially life altering understanding and experience of worship.
I think a really good worship service (for me at least) would be four or five close guy friends sitting around a dimly lit, Irish pub table, pints in hand, telling stories of their life -- the good and the bad -- and how they've experienced God therein. We would also imagine, wish, dream, hope and create together as well as reminisce. In my head it closely resembles the end of The Return of The King with the four hobbits around the bar room table as well as what I imagine C.S.Lewis, Tolkien and their group doing in England (I can't for the life of me remember what they called themselves).
Man, I'm getting nostalgic now...
Hobbits used music very much like what I ask for in this post--a story telling. An identity point for their communities.
Point the way to the pub.
i always get uncomfortable when planning a worship time with a group and people suggest "back to the heart of worship." it's almost always around second to last, as if we're anticipating ahead of time that people are going to not really mean any of the songs we sing before that one, and then they can say "i'm sorry, lord, for the thing i made" those first four songs. then the whammy at the end...
I don't know what i made worship into, I'm not really sorry for that.
I've always found it absurd that we should be singing some other songwriters heartfelt appology.
one thing is true: appologizing to god for something I'm not sure I've done is not a way to return to the 'heart of worship'
another thing that is true: if we could just worship the awesome tunes of Heart, especially 'Barracuda', we'd all be a lot better.
I wanted my post to go on Bretts Blog, but now it's here. I don't get this website.
Grubedoo doesn't even know who I am!
This is Brett's blog...isn't it?
I guess it is brett's blog.
I should stop eating mothballs...
iris bleu, I have reread your comment and wonder if we know eachother. Do we? How did you come across this site? In either case, it is good to have you.
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