That Song's Too Vapid.
This article is a good read if you have found yourself, as I often have been, uninspired and wanting in regards to truth, beauty, and depth in Christian music.
Thankfully, I have found artists like Derek Webb, Michael Card, John Mark McMillan, and Mark Mathis to be a breath of fresh air when it comes to Christian worship and genuine musicianship. Of course these are not the only players worth mentioning - but are a few that have helped move me towards God in ways I wasn't always aware existed.
If we limit our musical expression of worship to specific feelings, too often, we run the risk of relegating our beloved tunes to the graveyard of baseness. All things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial.
5 comments:
touche...i couldn't agree more.
It may be sad, but not sinful per-se, to put great lyrics with awful tunes. It is a shame when you have to treat a lyric as simple poetry instead of song.
On a tangent: Do you think there's a necessary part of growth that starts with simplistic (i.e. "cheesy") lyrical (or literary, or theological, or conversational) content and moves to deeper places along the way? Kind of like transitioning from slogan-oriented belief in the catchy phrases a preacher shares in a large gathering to a deep trust in the God we get to know in the quiet? I can recall a time when t-shirts, bunmper stickers, and in-hindsight-awful music drew me close. I am embarrassed when I think of it, but should I be? Do I dare ask if it actually took some of those things to bring me where I am now?
Will-
I won't go so far as to say it is sin, but I'm sure I could make a good argument for its possibility :)
I started off in the "simplistic" camp (don't get me wrong - even some of the silly, catchy stuff has good theology and practicality). However, like you - and I think like many others - there came a time where I needed more than that type of music was providing (in *both* lyrics and musicianship).
Music is a huge part of my life - whether it's being used as a form of worship, or just as a time of enjoyment, reflection, or release.
So - stuff like this really hits home. My greatest problem is not necessarily that the music is bad...sometimes the music/lyrics just *are* bad.
My problem is that I feel, and have heard reports from people working in the industry, that they really aren't trying that hard. They know what sells, they know what is easy to produce, so they do it.
I'm looking for artists and lead worshipers who are not afraid to go to the deep places with God themselves - and then come back and tell us a story or two - inviting us on that same journey.
If all we ever have available to us are the simplistic, "beginning" tunes - where do we go when it is time to grow up?
Are we all growing toward the ability to make this "music" (i.e. conversation and dialogue that leads us to depths of relationship with God) without the aid of any other human being?
Will-
I would say that we all are growing towards maturity (or, at least, should be).
That doesn't change the fact that those of us who are young and still maturing need people with more wisdom, experience, and talent in the art of probing the deep places of God and bringing others along.
If no one steps up to be a Paul, the Timothy-types are left wanting.
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