Lying In Church
Last week there was quite a stir throughout the blog-0-sphere about an article by S.M Hutchens called Lying In Church. Pat reflects on how first-person worship songs (I take refuge in you) aren’t necessarily worse than the so called “God-centered” songs or “second person songs” (your name is holy), but argues that songs should be rooted in the word (like the Psalms). Brett, on the other had raises the interesting question as to whether or not modern worship is nothing more than propaganda that make us manufacture false stories about ourselves. And of course the iMonk has many interesting and provocative things to say.
At any rate, I liked the article. I don’t get too bent out of shape over worship songs or worship styles. I consider most of the rancor over them to be under the “foolish controversies” category that the NT tells us to avoid (1 Timothy 1:4, 1 Timothy 6:4, Titus 3:9). However, I do have a few issues with songs that have made me think “I am not singing that. That is 1) embarrassing and 2) not true of me.” There is this song “Treasure” we sometimes sing and I like it for the most part. But I have found myself not singing the chorus:
I would run for a thousand years
If I knew every step would be getting me closer
I’d swim to the ocean floor
For my Lord is the treasure
My Lord is the treasure
Although I know God is a treasure to be valued and enjoyed over all others my “intentions of finding him” are not so much there. No way would I run for a thousand years. I can only run 4 miles tops! Metaphorical hyperbole aside I have to say that if I sang these things after my week of duplicitousness, shallow love, and half-assed discipleship I think it would be insulting as it would be dishonest to raise holy hands up to heaven and sing these words with a sincere passion. Maybe the writer of this song can say these things, but more often than not worship songs bring about a time of repentance for me. And you know what? I think that is good. I should run a thousand miles for God. I should consider him such a coveted treasure that I would suffer to find him.
I don’t share Hutchens’s or iMonk’s implications for Evangelicalism as a whole, but I will say that at least if a heart is brought to a place of truth about itself it will be brought to a place of worship, even if it isn’t unbridled praise, magnanimous passion, or teary eyes.
July 25th, 2005 at 8:54 am
…but if you found a great treasure in a field, would you bury it, and then sell all that you had so that you could purchase the field?
July 25th, 2005 at 8:55 am
That is the question that we must ask ourselves every single day of our lives.
July 25th, 2005 at 8:58 am
i wonder if you’re the first person ever to pair the noun “discipleship” with the adjective “half-assed”
bravo
July 25th, 2005 at 9:10 am
LOL.
July 25th, 2005 at 9:28 am
Adam, that’s funny, I think similarily about that same song.
July 25th, 2005 at 9:52 am
That is the question that we must ask ourselves every single day of our lives.
well so much for assurance
July 25th, 2005 at 9:58 am
Not necessarily
July 25th, 2005 at 10:19 am
would we like each other so much if we weren’t so obstinate and gibingly so?
July 25th, 2005 at 10:30 am
Sometimes I want to kill you
July 25th, 2005 at 10:56 am
Remember “The Happy Song”? The first two rows would start hopping around and having a veritable seizure while the rest of crowd was half-heartedly clapping and waiting for the song to be over.
Later, I found out that song is actually an ode to meth.
July 25th, 2005 at 11:09 am
Later, I found out that song is actually an ode to meth
WHAT?
July 25th, 2005 at 12:03 pm
quote:I should run a thousand miles for God. I should consider him such a coveted treasure that I would suffer to find him.
But thank God we don’t have to strive to find Him and He condescends to find us.
July 25th, 2005 at 12:14 pm
I enjoyed your post, Ochuk. However, this statement, “at least if a heart is brought to a place of truth about itself it will be brought to a place of worship, even if it isn’t unbridled praise, magnanimous passion, or teary eyes” gives me wiggly feelings.
On my first read I thought, “and that is what it is all about.” However, it seems that the statement leaves out what might be the most significant part of worship–the community. I know that you are well aware of the importance of community and maybe that is part of one’s heart being brought to truth about itself. I don’t want to beat a dead horse especially after you have already read my post (which, btw, your link is misfiring). But where is the truth of the community’s heart or story located in worship?
So often worship services have nothing to do with my relationship to those that I am sitting next to. Maybe that is why some believe that a focus on God brings unity while a focus on individual hearts brings disunity in worship songs. I don’t agree with that assessment, but I understand it.
That being said, I am in harmony with you–pun, sadly, intended.
July 25th, 2005 at 12:53 pm
Brett, there is another song we sing sometimes that has that ignores the corporate aspect of worship. It says: It’s just you and me hear now…
I am like huh?
But hey, no song is perfect. I think people want their songs to be inerrant like their Bibles, though those talk to both indviduals and community.
July 25th, 2005 at 1:13 pm
On that note, I am glad we stopped singing
“I am Saved and no-one else is”.
Heard it’s catching on at certain churches, though…
July 25th, 2005 at 2:17 pm
I was at a Chrisitan conference once and heard a song being sung that I could hardly believe. Upon first glance it seemed harmless enough — and I wish I could remember the lyrics — but the chorus was about praising God because we were saved unliked those of the earth. It was a happy song based on other peoples damnation. I almost charged the stage and opened fire. I skipped as much of that conference as possible.