A Way to Worship

        When Isaac Watts, the father of Christian hymn tradition, found a problem with the music sung in his church, his father challenged him with the suggestion "Why don't you give us something better to sing?" Young Watts took his father's advice and the very next day wrote a hymn to be sung in church that very next Sunday.

Today, I think we are yet stuck with a church music problem....that problem I see as increasing introspection in worship.
      Is there a way to properly worship God with introspective songs? At one point I thought not, but now, after thinking about it, it's quite possible. and quite biblical. How many times do Psalmists praise God by relating what He has done for oneself?
        However, there's definitely a right and wrong way to go about this. One has to be careful with introspective worship, because it can so easily become all about me, or, in a musical aspect the music can be too introspective, when it doesn't fit the words distracting from the message, making us think about people instead of God. This can either be exaggerated by the tune used, or the choice of words  allow me to give examples of either case.

   First, musically:
         A few weeks ago I walked into Seminary chapel and the young band, bless their hearts, were trying quite hard to be smashing. (Have you ever noticed how similar bands these days are, people? Something needs to change in the popular musical instrument selection for bands!) Anyhow, they played this rendition of "And Can it Be" You all know this hymn, right? If you don't I'm going to share an excellent rendition of it at the end of this post.....learn it, before someone tries to teach it to you the wrong way. The fact was, this band messed with the rhythms entirely and turned a song that was supposed to be rousing, triumphant and the kind that you just can't help singing along to, into almost a dirge. Seriously, I wasn't the only one yawning through that song....NOBODY should be yawning while singing "And Can it Be!"

    I walked out of the chapel service seething with anger, because of the way they messed with a hymn I loved so much.

     I don't know whether my anger was directed at the band in particular, the whole contemporary Christian music movement, or modern pop music in general. Whatever the case, my friends, an introspective song that is normally an excellent worship song was detracted from in a way that brought the focus much more about feelings and 'me' than simply God.

Allow me to sidetrack for a second:
    
        I'm seeing a trend in congregational singing in churches and Christian meetings. Christian bands are turning these meetings into performances rather than worship conducive to congregational singing. In Chapel meetings at the Seminary which I attend for the exceptionally good teachers and lecturers they bring in, people are clapping after the singing, the music is so loud that you can't even hear the person next to you singing, never mind yourself. The notes are so complex that during singing you're just trying to play catch up and anticipate the three bridges and "pre-bridges" they throw in between the verses and refrains. Modern songs have used repetition to compensate for the fact that a song has very little to say, and now, people are taking the old hymns and reworking them to try to fit them into this mold they think worship music ought to fit into. The simplicity of music is being detracted from to suite current trends. I'm sure the motive is good, but is sincerity all that matters here? Is the complexity of modern worship music leading to a more man-centered worship?

        "People like it," you may protest, "that's why they do it." I'm beginning to wonder if that's actually the case as I'm meeting more and more young people who, though they stand in there and mouth the words, have really come to see the emptiness and "unfollowability" of modern worship music. I'm beginning to feel this is a case of "The Emperor's New Clothes,"

how many Christian young people are afraid to come out and say that a worship song was terrible out of either the fear or honest misconception that it might be taken as, or actually is, legalistic nitpicking with honest worship? 

    The numbers might surprise all of us! And from what I've seen, certainly more than a negligent minority of young people are unhappy with modern trends in Christian music.

      Then there's another aspect to consider. How many people settle for the music played today because they've never heard anything different, particularly what Christian worship could be. One girl told me last semester how she hadn't had a problem with CCM until she went to a Christian summer music camp a year ago where not only did she get introduced to a lot of singing in a simple context where the congregational singing was the main focus of worship, but they were introduced to a lot of the older hymns sung with all there verses in the style they were written to be sung. When my friend returned home and stood in church under CCM once more, she said she realized just how insipid it was.

       I wonder, how many young people are there out there who fit this statistic; content with CCM only because they haven't been introduced to Christian Music's potential? Adding this number to the group that hates it but holds its peace, I wonder how many young people there are left who are really and truly die-hard CCM lovers....it would certainly be an interesting study to take on. 

       Anyhow, what's my point in all this? Firstly,  CCM isn't all it's hyped up to be. Secondly, it seems to be going downhill more and more in spite of recent good trends such as the Getty's hymns and several other independent musicians who understand what Christian worship is really about. Which leads me to the crux of this post, through the twisting of hymns and turning worship bands into performers, I've come to wonder how many people really understand what worship is supposed to be about!

What is Christian Worship About?

Is it Really All about the Experience? 

Is it Really about making it Relevant?

Is it Really all about drawing people into a particular Spirit?

Don't all these things make worship far more introspective than it should be?
 

     More and more I'm starting to realize the Church Father's concern regarding exalting the music above the words in a song. 

  Returning back to the beginning of this post allow me to share what happens in the case of what I believe was carelessly written introspective worship song:

      One Sunday recently, during service, we were singing a song and I was halfheartedly trying to follow along with an improvised harmony until suddenly I stopped dead in the middle of a word, realizing what I was actually singing, this song had a chorus that goes like this: For You are good, for You are good, for You are good to me. For You are good, for you are good, for You are good to me.

     That wasn't a typo, the single chorus repeated the same phrase once, and they sang the chorus itself about three times over, that's six times in a row singing about how God is good to me! True, perhaps, but needlessly simplistic and self focused, I think, as well.

       I ask you friends, is worship really about what God has done for us? It's a part of it, yes, but as that Sunday worship session progressed, I noticed that every single song's focus was in someway about what God had done for "me!" How did worship get so self-focused? Most hymns, though they are introspective, tend to take that as a means to focus on God and His attributes rather than taking it as an end in itself. What God has done for us is only a cog to fulfill a greater purpose. Take some time to read through all the verses of some of the best, most  enduring hymns, I submit to you that you won't find theology that deep in most CCM. For example: Amazing Grace, O Worship the King, Holy Holy Holy, Be Thou My Vision, And Can it Be, Love Divine All Love's Excelling, O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus, O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, When I Survey The Wond'rous Cross, I could go on for hours, all these hymns exalt God, are relatively simple in construct, but beautiful and in no way monotonous. 

   I'll submit to you, my friends that these songs demonstrate the proper way to worship with introspection while also pointing to the heart of worship! 

   The hymns put God first, their arrangement does not call for any pretensions of thrusting man forward into center stage, they allow for any congregation member, no matter how tone deaf, to comfortably belt out the song. Most modern worship songs, because of their complex bridges, refrains, and and one liners sung in several different ways, just don't make it easy for the non-musical person to follow along, it's hard enough for those more musically inclined, I often find myself, during modern worship songs finding it easier to just stand there and listen to the band because it is just too difficult to try and keep up with the constantly modulating and wandering melody. I find that to be a rather bad situation. congregational singing should encourage people to sing not make it easier to just listen. And most modern songs seem to struggle with this principle.

     Granted, there are several modern songs which fit this description of worship, a few I can think of off the top of my head, are In Christ Alone, Come Behold the Wond'rous Mystery, O Church Arise, Bless the Lord O My Soul, and I Cast My Mind to Calvary. We need more, my friends, we need more doctrinally rich songs written with the average Christian in mind. We need songs that can be sung just as well without instrumentation as with. We need songs that give God the glory above all else. 

      How are we going to get them? Only if we make it happen! Only if all of us timid ones rise up out our spheres of comfort and write, sing and promote this music. We need another Isaac Watts who not only sees a problem with what is sung but takes his father's advice and gives us something better to sing. 

 Alright, the sermon is over, you all are dismissed....allow me to very quickly share with you this very lovely rendition of  "And Can It Be" 


    Enjoy, be encouraged and then go out and write some hymns!

       ~ Christianna