Recently, I was asked to give my opinion on the question of whether or not modern Christian worship songs lack Theological depth. Here is my opinion:
The Question: I am arguing that Christian worship music has lost its theological depth along with the times and trends (the past century). Do you feel this has happened? Has commercialization crept up in the industry?
My Answer:
If you mean to argue that Christian worship music has lost its Theological depth as opposed to the Theological depth of Hymns then I believe that reasoning is flawed, as over the past decades we have seen hymns constantly undergo changes lyrically due to lack of biblical basis. If fact, around here we have conversations about this constantly. Recently, the Fanny Crosby Hymn, “Jesus, Keep me near the cross,” the last line of the refrain says, “till, my ransomed soul finds rest beyond the river,” and the discussion is that there is no mention in the bible that our souls will find rest across a river and that these images harken more to Greek mythology where souls find rest beyond the river styx. In actuality, I feel what has been lacking in contemporary music is the more poetic lyrical imagery that are more prevalent in the hymns. Even though I do believe this is a reflection of our culture, I believe this issue has more to do with poor songwriting than poor theology.
additionally, I would say that, of the great Hymns of the faith, I would consider that number to be about 300 all having great Theological depth. Considering that number, I believe you could find 300 songs written in this century that also have equal theological depth. Consider these: A Mighty Fortress is our God (a classic) and How Deep the Father’s Love for us (a new one)
What are your thoughts?
The simplest way to seek out a good worship song is to sing it alone with no instruments at all. (Hopefully no one I’ve ever debated worship style with from Church of Christ reads this line 🙂
A song with poetic and theological mastery will make itself known as it flows in its most simple form from your lips. If, then, the spirit moves with it, you’ll find that bringing the instruments and multiple vocals in only adds horsepower to it.
A farmer can till the soil with a good shovel but a plow on giant tractor sure helps him provide the crops for the masses in ways a shovel would not. Likewise, songs are a tool for worship, and the right tools are necessary for the job.
The key ingredient lacking, in my opinion, in modern day worship is the ability for the words to stand alone. The tendency is to rely on the heavy music, not lyrics, as the foundation. What happens when this is applied to worship is eventual dissapointment because of imperfection in the performance.
I agree with you on the 300 for 300, Rob. Nice point. And I imagine there are plenty of debatable images and poetic analogies that can be debated all day long with hymns.
I sure hope that modern worship can find inspiration and its sound theology, and that such music makes it to our churches. Let the church’s that perform with such horsepower not provide us with Monsanto-style ministry, but rather the nutrient-rich style of soul food that keeps us hungry.
J Moss interviewed by Carman (Domenic Licciardello), 05/23/20122, “Praise the Lord” (TBN) See time 1:00-1:30 +/-
My thought is that contemporary “Christian music” boils down to its (Biblical) foundation, Message, Purpose and target audience.
Personally, Jonny Lang w/Fisk Jubilee Singers (Oh Happy Day!, various artsists EMI Gospel/Vector Recordings, 2009; Brad Paisley’s inclusion of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” in the secular (Play: The Guitar Album); Hobart Smith,In Sacred Trust: The 1963 Fleming Brown Tapes; The and more subtle witness provided by players like Keb’ Mo’, Jorma Kaukonen, Guy Davis, Walter Trout, Otis Taylor and (guessing non-Christian) Harry Manx tend to move me more than most “Christian” artists who simply include the Lord’s name and cliche’ phrases with little real theological depth. I am more impressed with a song written from the perspective of a lost soul (There Stands the Glass, A Junkie’s Prayer, Bill Kirchen’s ‘Skid Row in my Mind’- reflecting the desparate need for Christ). Obviously those songs might not be the best witness or praise for all tribes.
An artfully performed- well crafted message originating from the heart of the writer as they seek/cry out for/rejoice in or struggle with their relationship with God will find its target. Start with prayer, and yes dig deep into that conversation-resulting communication. The rest will follow.
That’s an interesting point you’ve made, Jim. God’s truth will always speak whether the author or lyricist admits belief or not. I think this is in part to our human’s disposition to reflect God’s creativity.
Not only Modern Praise & Worship songs lack theological depth but it is musically-bad :
1. Indie music influences the whole PW culture and almost every P&W song sounds like Hillsong. The music is just lots of cymbals and power chords.
2. Most modern song writers/ musicians are untrained and self-taught.
3. Modern melodies are basically 3-chord simplistic, unadventurous, repetitious, and lacking in any rhythmic variations
4. The music is bland and without any frills or thrills – boringly same sounding crap.
5. The lyrics are lack of depth as it is more catered towards the young generation.
6. They are badly and unimaginatively arranged.
7. They are basically do not have catchy memorable tunes.
I think you’ve made some good points here, so I thought I would respond to them indiviually:
Not only Modern Praise & Worship songs lack theological depth but it is musically-bad:
This, I think is a pretty broad overstatement. To say all worship music is musically bad is misguided. One could assert that all rock, jazz, country, polka etc, is musically bad based on taste alone
1. Indie music influences the whole PW culture and almost every P&W song sounds like Hillsong. The music is just lots of cymbals and power chords.
I whole-heartily agree with your first part here. Worship music often follows the crowd and Hillsong have now overinflated worship sets across the board. The second half of your statement, probably is more accurate to the Psalmist: Psalm 150:5
New International Version (NIV)
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
So I disagree with you here that a lot of cymbals is a bad thing. 😉
2. Most modern song writers/ musicians are untrained and self-taught.
I agree with you here, I believe almost all songwriters are untrained and self-taught. Songwriting seems to be an innate talent that is to be refined. This is true in every style of music. In fact I would assert that most hymn writers are untrained and self-taught. Again, this is not a bad thing, but possibly more represented so in the worship realm because we have so few songwriters in total writing songs.
3. Modern melodies are basically 3-chord simplistic, unadventurous, repetitious, and lacking in any rhythmic variations
This could be said of any folk song, written at any point in any of the last millennium. So i disagree with you here.
4. The music is bland and without any frills or thrills – boringly same sounding crap.
I agree with you here. We have certainly lost all notion of musical innovation with modern worship music. no one is taking risks anymore.
5. The lyrics are lack of depth as it is more catered towards the young generation.
I actually believe most lyrics are catered towards a society no longer accustomed to interacting with literary depth
6. They are badly and unimaginatively arranged.
absolutely!
7. They are basically do not have catchy memorable tunes.
I agree with you in part here too, but I do believe some have very catchy melodies, though few are far betweeen Just like in any genre of music. This is actually my point. We are unnecessarily critical of worship music when in actuality, all music should be scrutinized as such.
We have been to David Jeremain’s Shadow Rock church in San Diego. They have had wonderful praise music as long as 20 minutes before the sermon begins. Much too long for me. I have had times here at NPBC that the music was so powerful that I felt that we should have an invitatin without anythng else beig said. Why not? When we can feel the music and it’s content is right should be believe that the Holy Spirit is not at work? I believe two things are very important. 1 We should be speaking to the unsaved in the service. 2. We are dealing with feelings. Blessings.
I find it interesting (not) how so many people and congregations think that the purpose of the church service is for the unbelievers. Let us just look at the word “church” which from the beginning has meant the body of believers and the meeting place of such believers. There is no Scripture which tells us to ignore the meaty teachings for the church in order that we can constantly focus on unbelievers and bringing them into knowledge of God, why? so they can also be unfed? What did Jesus tell Peter in John 21:15-17? He said over and over again “feed my sheep,” and all of Scripture is clear, the sheep are those who are followers of Christ! Peter was said by Christ to be the rock on which He would build the church, and his responsibility was to feed the sheep, not chase the wolves and get them into our church doors. The great commission is where Christ commands us to go out, literally “as you are going” meaning living life, but the church service is for the believers. It is necessary for the believers to be fed meat, not milk, and how much greater of a witness will it be to those who are unsaved in the church to see believers who are truly growing from the fellowship and teaching, not simply catering to the needs and entertainment of the nonbelievers?? Oh this is my greatest frustration. The same goes for worship music, I don’t care if it be hymns or modern praise music, let it truly glorify God and His Spirit will work in the unbelievers, so let us stop trying to entertain them to keep them in our doors!!
I have gone thru a change over the years, a deepening of my understanding -and more correctly- I believe an understanding on reality … according to its author and not the ‘wisdom of man’.
I was raised on believing in THE God of love, but it has dawned on me in the recent years, how irreverent I have been in the past (covered by His grace and mercy) and how blindly and presumptuously I have been at worshiping the creator of light, the creator of the atmosphere and the one whom all tongues will confess willingly or not of His absolute glory, honour, holiness, worthiness, authority and might. The one who’s anger rages every day against the wicked (a counter-reference to the non-theological saying “God loves the sinner, not the sin” – cos after all, ultimately God will toss the SINNER into eternal damnation, not the SIN … wont He?)
I am confronted with the absolute terrifying realisation that one day I will stand before an -AWE-some God, alone with nothing to cover who I am, what I have said, thought and done in my heart and body and in my time here (including every idle word)….
And while I am here, I am expected (and willing) to worship him and give him praise and honour to the best of my ability, with the example being Jesus Christ’s as He walked on the earth in our form… … HOW can I compare to that?
HOW can I even come close to the relationship between Christ the Son and His Father?
-God strengthen me. Because I can not, I can never, I can only hope for the future perfection when we will be like Him.
So when I approach worship in my local church building, I am confronted by the awe (and that is only the limited realisation I have so far) of knowing that God sees me for who I am, warts and all… …
I just can no longer force myself to sing a song that conflicts with the written word of God. I can not rely on feelings in a song to please my heavenly Father… I can not offer strange fire on his alter… It grieves me that so many people will sing a song blindly with never considering the words…
eg:
“open the windows of heaven, and let it rain… let it rain… let it rain… (supposed to be about God’s provision falling on us like rain)
-The last time God “opened the windows of heaven” was in judgement on a sinful world (which the ‘stench had reached his nostrils’)
I … cant … ask my God to repeat something (no matter how good the music or sound is) that was in an act of judgement on us all!
We need to worship Him in spirit and truth.
Bring to him a fresh song, every day.
So many times in the old and new testiment, when someone was confronted with the LIVING GOD, they fell flat on their face and were awe-struck in fear… …
How can I go back to singing happy-clappy songs that flirt with annihilation by a just and righteous God?
It is terrifying.
(The thought that I may one day think “I know who God is, I know I can sing this and it is OK, GOD will understand my intentions – no matter how the lyrics dont line up”)
I am not taking that chance – I am not going to say that I have the complete answer, but I will say that the very thought that I have attained the right song, the right lyrics and that it is sung perfectly… is a dangerous thing.
Our God is awesome. Thru Christ alone, I am included in His family… I am legally a son, a part of His kingdom – but that does not mean I can disrespect my GOD and LORD!
As C.S. Lewis wrote: “He is not a TAME lion”.
Thanks for discussing this online – sorry for the essay, I could keep going (please forgive me if I have said something that is out of order – I am trying to write something that has such depth for me, that I dont think there is space on this site to contain it all!) – but hopefully I am not alone in this; hopefully others will read this and consider the word of God concerning even the very beginning or approaching to worshiping the author of all that is. NO, the joy of salvation drives us to make a joyful noise unto him – lets do it! but lets mature and do it in spirit and truth!
We have been invited to a grand eternal and universal ball to celebrate the absolute pivot point for eternity … Lets try and dress proper and carry ourselves the right way, not roll in wearing whatever and saying(singing) whatever because we have a ‘free pass’ to the event.
I think that a lot of this is similar to the musical misnomer than older instruments are better instruments than what is being produced today. There were just as many duds being written and sung hundreds of years ago, but they have since faded into obscurity. The same way a magically great strat from ’57 was carefully protected and preserved (while its less amazing counterparts made their way to landfills and swap meets) creates the idea that ’57 was some fantastic year when all the good strats were made, we romanticize an era of theological depth that came from Luther writing new lyrics to drinking songs.
Take a look at some of the theological content coming out of Austin Stone Worship, from Dustin Kensrue, as well as a few others, and you will still find some theologically solid music being made today.
Steinway makes soundboards with a CNC machine now. Just saying.