How Gray is our Ga

Modern Worship.
Aaaaaand I digress.

But not really, because I'm choosing to write a whole blog post on this.

Because, honestly? How hard is it to write a worship song these days? I mean, here's a tutorial on how to write one in less than 5 minutes:

Being Sunday, I thought it fitting to post about worship. Here in Mankato I attend a Baptist church that has multiple services. Two with contemporary songs, and one with traditional, which is the one I go to. Unfortunately, they stuck the Bible fellowship/Sunday school hour right over the traditional. Hmph.

The traditional service includes a lot of hymn singing, but the other two all use modern worship songs: the kind that can be heard on the radio.

Half the time I hear a modern worship song on the radio, I've got no idea if it's talking about God or a girlfriend. I mean for goodness sake, have you heard the Christian Mingle theme-song? "I want to fall in love with you" etc.? Well, guess what! It's actually about God. Not your future spouse. Call me crazy for thinking this, but a song about God should be completely different from one about significant other. It's a different kind of love, ya know?

Let's compare some lyrics...

"Hold Me" by Jamie Grace

I've had a long day, I just wanna relax

Don't have time for my friends, no time to chit-chat
Problems at my job, wonderin' what to do
I know I should be working but I'm thinking of you and
Just when I feel this crazy world is gonna bring me down
That's when your smile comes around

(Rest of the lyrics here)

Ok. I get it. So God is our friend...but this song mentions ONE God thing the entire song. There is ONE mention of "Lord". Take that out, replace it with a guy's name, and voila! Totally new song.  I mean, heck. Look at these lyrics:

How Deep Is Your Love 

I believe in you
You know the door to my very soul
You're the light in my deepest darkest hour
You're my saviour when I fall
And you may not think
I care for you
When you know down inside
That I really do
And it's me you need to show
How Deep Is Your Love

How deep is your love, How deep is your love
I really need to learn
'Cause we're living in a world of fools
Breaking us down

About God? Nope. This song by the Bee Gees was #1 for three weeks in 1971.

Why do we do this? Are we afraid that people are going to hear our worship music and judge us so we just keep it as un-God as possible? Do people write these songs because they're rebelling against anything that sounds remotely similar to the hymn generation of their parents? Who knows.

And then there's the songs that I can't even tell what the words are.  Listen to "How Great Is Our God" THERE ARE NO T'S. EVAR. (hence the title of this post) (although, great song, lyrics-wise).

Here's the thing though. Some songs are actually really scriptural and really convicting. I'm not at all against all of today's worship songs. I do occasionally enjoy singing a "modern worship" song (ya know, one of those hand-raising ones!) There's something really nice about singing "Hallelujah" or "I'm lost without you" over and over again. Hymns have a lot of great doctrine, but often times they're missing the worship portion--and shouldn't part of a church service be worshiping the one who created us?

"God of Wonders"

Early in the morning

I will celebrate the light

And as I stumble through the darkness

I will call Your name by night

God of wonders, beyond our galaxy

You are holy, holy

The universe declares Your majesty

You are holy, holy

Hallelujah to the Lord of Heaven and Earth! 

Yeah, it's not the same as a hymn....but the times change. It's possible to have just as much doctrine in a contemporary song as there is in a hymn. I've also had people condemn my newer (hymn) music because it's newer, so it obviously can't be as right as the hymns of old. I'm sorry. But I'm just going to leave this here.

My Jesus fair, was pierced by thorns,

By thorns grown from the fall.

thus He who gave the curse was torn

To end that curse for all.

Chorus: O love divine, O matchless grace -

That God should die for men!

With joyful grief I lift my praise,

Abhorring all my sin,

Adoring only Him.

My Jesus meek, was scorned by men,

By men in blasphemy,

"Father, forgive their senseless sin!" 

He prayed, for them, for me.

(Chorus)

My Jesus kind, was torn by nails, 

By nails of cruel men.

And to His cross, as grace prevailed, 

God pinned my wretched sin.

(Chorus)

My Jesus pure, was crushed by God,

By God, in judgment just.

The Father grieved, yet turned His rod

On Christ, made sin for us.

(Chorus)

My Jesus strong, shall come to reign,

To reign in majesty - 

The Lamb arose, and death is slain,

Lord, come in victory!

(Chorus)

So please. Don't condemn my music just because it's in the "praise and worship" category. Certainly don't condemn all praise and worship music. There's some undoctrinal stuff, but there's also some really great songs! Look at the lyrics first...

And I'm gonna go out on a limb here (and probably get shot by everyone at this school) and say that sometimes, it's okay to throw a contemporary song into a church service. GASP.