Weird Worship

I’ve been tagged by David Ker of Lingamish (and seven or so other blogs) with the “Weird Worship Meme”. According to the MBTI, I’m an ISFJ, so usually I like to stick to the rules. But, with this one I followed Gentle Wisdom’s route and just let my mind go down its own path with the topic. Instead of five weird songs, I’ve come up with some categories of Praise and Worship music that strike me as odd, and given at least one song that is representative of that category.

And yes, I know. I should feel guilty for poking fun at music that sets out to praise God, however imperfectly it arrives at that goal. I do (feel guilty, that is. SJs are good at that ) . Even with the niggling guilt feelings, I stand by everything I write below. When I think about worship music from this perspective, this rant is what I come up with.

But, I want to add the disclaimers here at the beginning (1) this isn’t the only perspective I think about worship music from and (2) I know that being weird or falling short does NOT mean that God can’t redeem or ever use something. I’m not saying that. Okay? So, don’t start throwing tomatoes at me yet!

If I thought anything I said below meant that God could never use a particular song, well, that would just be too discouraging. Because I’m weird and I fall short, and I still hold out hope that He is at work in and through me. Still, it feels good to let loose a good rant once in a while, and this one will do for today.

1. The Holy Spirit Made Me Do It/I can’t Help Myself

“Almighty” I actually like this song a lot, but one line recently struck me as rather odd. “The earth has no voice, and I have no choice, but to magnify God unashamed.”

It’s not that I think the song or the line is unequivocally weird. It’s just that it pushes a button for something I’m wrestling with as I think about Calvinism and charismatic theology: Do I have any say in this? Am I free to praise God how I want? Or is it all preprogrammed, and I can just check my brain and personality in at the door?

I have no doubt I’m making a mountain out of a molehill with this category of lyrics. It’s probably a rant I’ll visit again in the future, not because I have answers, but because I still have a lot of questions about it.

2. I’m Been Moved (But was it the Holy Spirit or a cool chord progression?)

“Alle” (by Chris Tomlin and Ross King). I was just rereading the lyrics and there’s nothing really worth getting my knickers in a knot about. But this song annoys me on an emotional level. Whenever it was sung at the church I attended, I always felt stirred at one place in the incessant repetition of “Alle, Alleluia.” I felt moved. But, when I’d back up and think about it (is that allowed during worship ), I knew it wasn’t the lyrics. It was a specific chord progression that resonated with some deep feeling place in me.

The same thing with songs like “Just As I Am” which have been used so many times with one emotive purpose in mind so that eventually all you have to do is hear the first few notes of the song, to have the feeling, “Hmmm, is there something I should be feeling guilty about?” Not that conscience searching is a bad thing. But musically manipulated conscience probing?

3. See, Our Church Sings (or Our Radio Station Plays) Hymns

There’s only one contestant for this one. Top of the charts. All the time. If your church or radio station only plays one hymn, this is sure to be it. I used to like this hymn. I still do sometimes. It’s a fine enough hymn as far as hymns go. But not as the final, all that’s left representative of the whole “Hymnbook Our Church Used to Have”

I’m talking about “How Great Thou Art”. I’m weary of it as the Hymn Ambassador. If you’ve moved on from hymns, fine. But, if you really need to insert a token “old hymn” could you maybe try a different one once in a while?

4. I’m a Little Slow to Catch On. Do You Think You Could Say it Just One More Time (And Then A Few More Times, Just For Good Measure?)

“I am a Friend of God” and “Days of Elijah”

There’s nothing really wrong, I suppose, with having a truth like “I am a friend of God” or “There’s no God like Jehovah” drilled incessantly into ones mind. I mean, I’ll listen to the same song for days in a row. But still. The same line. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over…

5. If We Put “Praise the Lord” In There, We Can Sing the Most Ridiculous Words to the Glory of God.

Yes, I know we should do everything to the glory of God. But, that should mean we could just sing “The Hokey Pokey” to the glory of God. We don’t need to Christianize that type of action song (I’m thinking “Father Abraham”) and tack onto the end , “So….! let’s! just! praise! the! Lord!” so that we can feel like our our kids can be silly and spiritual at the same time.

6. Too Good to Be True Songs.

The one that pops to mind first is a chorus we sang when I was a teenager, called, “It’s Amazing What Praising Can Do.” Part of it went, “I don’t worry when things go wrong–Jesus fills my heart with a song.” I used to change the words and sing, “I don’t HAVE TO worry when things go wrong.” Because it’s going to be a long, long time until I DON’T worry when things go wrong.

7. That’s Preposterous.

“The Happy Song” I’m sorry, but no amount of happiness is ever going to make me feel like I could dance a thousand miles. (Unless, of course, the Holy Spirit makes me do it, but then I’m back to concern #1–when the Holy Spirit takes over, does He make me into somebody else’s personality? Do I have to praise Him like an extravert just because I get filled with the Holy Spirit?)

8. Let’s Keep Everybody Happy, So We’ll Sing a Classic Hymn with Old Words and We’ll Set It To New Music (and then nobody will like it, but we can make everybody feel guilty when they complain.)

David Ker has already written about all the riffs on Amazing Grace, and the possibility that such imitation is the highest form of flattery. But, there’s also the possibility that this kind of thing is just rather pointless.

Personally, I can’t figure out what’s wrong with the original chorus of “And Can it Be”. Sure, it has some high notes that are hard to sing. But it didn’t really get easier when Hillsong or Newsboys (or whoever) plopped it in the middle of their song, “Amazing Love” All it did was leave me more musically confused (I realize, of course, that that could say more about me than about the song itself).

9. Let the Cellphones (Or American Idols) Cry Out

When I was looking for the lyrics to “Amazing Love” (see # 8), I found them on a website offering me that song as a ringtone. Come on. I know we people can obviously fall short in HOW we praise. And I’m feeling a little guilty for making fun of how short we sometimes fall. But are we really being so silent that our cell phones need to start crying out?

Maybe I could have saved this point for its own post, “How Many Places and Ways Can We Annoy Our Neighbor with Praise and Worship Music and Get Away With It Because We’re Witnessing, and So We Should Expect People To Be Offended–it’s all part of suffering for Jesus”

As far as American Idol, I don’t watch it, and I’m not saying God can’t speak through anybody anywhere, but I get a little queasy thinking about all the excitement that was stirred up by the “Shout to the Lord” finale. Samunally (I’m not going to try to guess where to divide that name up) has an interesting post and particularly a comment, which gets pretty close to my own concerns about the whole matter. Here’s one part of the quote:

Actually, it has little to do with music - worship is a movement of the heart and music is often the “vehicle” for that deepening of intimacy. Therefore, it belongs solely to those who desire deep relationship with God, not for those who are weighing the “merits” of Christianity.

Again (before you start throwing tomatoes at me), I know God can speak through anyone anywhere (even a cell phone), so I’m not full fledged saying it was an unredeemably awful thing for “Shout to the Lord” to be sung and heard in that venue. I think something can “miss the point” and God still use it. But that doesn’t change, in my mind, that it misses the point. Cellphones and American Idols crying out praise seem to me to miss the point.

Okay. I’m done with the rant. Start throwing tomatoes if you must. It was fun, while it lasted, and now I think I’ll go back to my mode of listening and worshiping with music that I know falls short, before I even start. When I think about it that way, I can still strive and long for beauty and “quality” (however relative that can be) and theological perfection of lyrics, but be glad for every reminder in every imperfect song that God doesn’t demand that we “have it all together” or “get it all right” in order to praise Him.

Here are the rules of the meme as it arrived to me: “Please give us five examples of Weird Worship and tag five more people to do the same.” Regardless of what you think about evolution with regards to the origin of the species, memes are notorious at evolving as they go. I look forward to seeing how this one continues to take shape.

And so, I tag (a pressureless tag, with no obligation ):

1. JoyJourney. One of my very best friends has just started her own blog. She likes to tell me I think too much, in real life, on my blog, wherever. In any case, as a pastor’s daughter and a pastor’s wife and with one of her first posts being “The Confused Church”, I’m sure she can make me laugh at how weird worship songs can sometimes get.

2. Beyond Words. Because I know she thinks about what she sings. And I’ve appreciated how she’s made me think more about what I sing, too.

3. Codepoke. Because anybody who can help me sort out my thinking about Calvinism and Arminianism with an analogy to quantum physics is certain to have some interesting ideas about what constitutes weird worship.

4. J.K. Gayle. Because I’ve always wanted to know what Aristotle would say about Weird Worship (whether or not I’ll actually understand it).

5. Scott Gray. (a) Because he’s been quite quiet recently and (b) Because he said this almost a year ago, and I’d love to hear more from him on the topic:

if we should feel good, or comforted, or validated in our ’self-esteem,’ then the song is popular. i think this is one of the drives behind ‘praise and worship’ music.
litugical music (or anything else liturgical), is both affirming, and challenging. when the ‘challenge’ aspect has been removed or diluted, we are only given the ‘affirmation’ portion. i hear many people telling me they leave church ‘uplifted,’ but few tell me they leave challenged (to live as Christ asks of them). i try to program music that does both.