I recently commented on one of Kent Sander’s posts. He hit a subject that I’ve wrestled with for a while. I decided to share that comment, and I found the video that I references (unfortunately it’s a lot shorter than the one I watched):
I can relate and agree with your post. This is something I’ve really been struggling with for a couple months now. Not only in that”contemporary praise & worship” music is limited in what they say, but most churches/Christians aren’t being 100% honest in the worship [hear me out first].
There is a large pallet of emotions that humans experience… and our worship music often only expresses the “happy” emotion, and it pretends like everything is right with the world. Where are our songs that say, “God, this world is messed up, we need your help to go through it, and we need to see you come back soon… we need you to pour out your judgment and wrath.”?
I remember seeing an interview with Bono (from U2) and he said that he feels like he can’t worship in the churches because they’re not honest. He feels like he can relate to the blues more as worship music than what is being played in the churches. He says he likes the Psalms a lot, and the Psalms seems to be more like the Blues rather than “worship music.”
Although I don’t usually make it a point to look at Bono for theological insight… I think he hit it right on the nose.
One last note. A few weeks ago my pastor was talking about problems and why they happen. We closed the service with a song that’s called, “How Long.” The song is a desperate cry saying, “How long till there’s judgment on the earth? How long till we hear the victory roar? How long till we can gaze upon your face? Yes I know that You’ve already won, but come Lord Jesus!” This is a desperate cry, and our church as a whole took it to heart (some were even in tears). When our worship is honest–it is powerful–truth brings out our emotions. I strongly believe that when we’re honest, God blesses us.
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I think I saw this inverview at a leadership summit thing I went to last year, which was put on by Willow.
“There is a large pallet of emotions that humans experience… and our worship music often only expresses the “happy” emotion, and it pretends like everything is right with the world.”
That is a very good point, and it’s probably a lot of the reason why most of my songs tend to be on the more melancholy side of things.
I just relate to that more.
Comment by Arthur Pope — November 20, 2007 @ 12:27 am
I’m glad that there’s some songwriters out there that are honest in their writing. This is what makes being a worship leader so difficult. Most of the worship music out there expresses the “happy.” I even did a theme search in CCLI for “problems, struggles, strife, enemies, wrath, lament, etc.” and nothing came up in my search results. Interesting huh?
Comment by James — November 20, 2007 @ 1:12 am
Hey, I’m a little late to the game here. Thanks for the further thoughts on honesty in worship. I probably feel the same way a lot of worship leaders do - I sense that there is some dishonesty in worship, but I’m not sure how to achieve a balance between acknowledging that honesty and challenging people to change. One of the things that sets a leader apart is being honest about the situation. We have all seen leaders who won’t acknowledge a bad situation or be straightforward about something. But it’s not enough just to acknowledge where we’re at…we have to challenge people to move beyond where they’re at. But it begins with being honest.
In my view, that’s what makes Bono so prophetic in his words. He is just an honest person who says it like it is. That’s why the psalms are so powerful also - David sets the reality of the human condition right alongside the majestic praise of God, sometimes within a verse of each other!
This is why I really like songwriters like Matt Redman, who in a song like “Blessed Be Your Name” acknowledges that there is pain and suffering in life. You could say the same for “Trading My Sorrows” by Darrell Evans.
Thanks for the links on the previous post about Willow’s “reveal” - I’ll check those out. I have been to the Leadership Summit a few times but didn’t get to attend this year. Guess I missed out.
Comment by Kent Sanders — November 23, 2007 @ 3:09 pm